Detroit Race Riot

The Detroit Race Riot of June-July 1943 always had the question mark as to what the cause was for the riots. It has also been known as the “biggest and bloodiest race riots in the history of the United States” of America. A review that was completed by Welfred Holmes reveals some information from the book with the title: The Detroit Race Riot: A Study in Violence by Robert Shogan, and Tom Craig. The information that came to the fore was that the book explained the build-up to the riots as it occurred at least one year before the event. It was revealed that the morale of the Black people (Negroes as the book calls them) was very low. It was so low that it came to the point of not being concerned for their lives when it came to rioting. It

Black on White, and White on Black violence was a regular occurrence. Many knew that a riot was impending due to the signs that were around, especially regarding the racial tension. What could be added to the tension was the growth of the city with regard to the mix of people as mentioned earlier – ex-confederates, “backwoods preachers, Southern white evangelists, and shouters” was part of the population. This meant that Detroit became a melting pot not only for religious and racial intolerance, but also for agitators such as the Black Legion, and the Ku Klux Klan. Brown’s view gives one an overview of Detroit that was perhaps built on the wrong foundations, and which led to what it became in the twenty-first century as well – the fourth city of the United States that died because of its race intolerance. One could almost stop the discussion right here, as he sums up the entire city in this one pamphlet. There were Union issues, race issues, political corruption, and above all else, the housing for “negroes” were neglected over time. The Black people were provided with housing yes, but were living in slums, hence, with the added disadvantage of continued segregation. The riots of 1943 were eventually caused by some of these elements. According to Brown, a large contingent of people gathering in the Belle Isle park became the

It was against the background of many opinions of why the riots occurred. Yet, the imprisonment was a sore point for people like Elmer R. Akers, and Vernon Fox. There concern was not the riot itself, but the fact that these people were sent to jail – in particular the fact that only three were sent to prison for actual charges of rioting. In their assessment, the conclusion was that “the majority of the men convicted of felonies as a result of the Detroit race riot were not rioters as such, but looters and carriers of concealed weapons.” The authors also created case studies with regard to the racial ratio in Detroit as well as the states they have migrated from. The intention was to observe the differences in the groups. As they discovered, “a significantly larger group of men in the riot group than would be expected were natives of the southern states.” This does seem to correlate with the information from the book, The Detroit Race Riot: A Study in Violence by Robert Shogan, and Tom Craig, analyzed by Welfred