More on what has surprised/shocked me the most in researching Detroit. The previous post listed the following 2:
1) Detroit is and has been one of the most segregated cities in America, even more so than cities in the south.
2)In the Great Migration of blacks from the south most of them were uneducated and unskilled.
The 3rd shocker for me was: in the 20s during prohibition there were all white gangs operating in Detroit. The Purple Gang was one of the most notorious gang, they terrorized the city and were murderous, bootleggers and hijackers as vicious as the SMB (Seven Mile Bloods) gang in 48205 zip code. Thus criminality is not genetic but opportunistic. Here is a link to the history of The Purple Gang
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThePurpleGang?fbclid=IwAR3FwTGx9qmk1iWI6U6o7tZjqBXwOXl8qhNd9KnUblF78ANZZde45Ntgrl8
here is the beginning of my wrap up.
First, the big surprise (or shock) for me has been how segregated Detroit is and has always been.
Detroit was founded by a french military leader and trader Antoine Laument de mothe Cadillac Until about 1910 there were practically no blacks in Detroit. Unlike the south where the blacks were in plantations and the whites did interact with them (though as slaveholders), there were few blacks for whites to interact with. Blacks began to migrate to Detroit from the south in the 1920s. They were not welcome in Detroit, they were confined to a few city blocks. As more blacks started pouring in the more resistance they faced from the white population. KKK was very active in Detroit in the 20s and 30s. White mobs, city government and the police kept blacks out of white neighborhoods. Redlining, housing covenants, urban renewal projects were mostly about keeping blacks away from white neighborhoods. From 1910 to 1950s blacks were "ghettoized. By 1950s Detroit was busting at the seems there was an acute housing shortage, with xpways came the suburbs. A big draw of the suburbs in the 50s was to get away from Detroit which was becoming increasingly black, through covenants and tacit agreements not to sell to blacks the suburbs stayed lilly white. The white flight was largely out of fear of blacks taking over Detroit. According to Rosa Parks who moved from Alabama to Detroit there was more racism in Detroit than she had encountered in Alabama. This complete separation of blacks from whites in Detroit was an eye-opener for me. I had not expected to see this to this extent nor had I expected to see how determined whites were to keep their city white. This was a shocker.
The second big knowledge/learning/lesson for me has been that the majority of the blacks who moved to Detroit were uneducated and unskilled. This should not have been a surprise had I thought about it. But it has given me a perspective on how big a challenge it was (and is) for blacks to bootstrap themselves up. We all know that education is necessary for pulling oneself up.
There was no incentive to get an education as long as there were jobs. The automobile companies were hiring unskilled (uneducated) workers for the lowest factory work and paying $5/hr (big sum in those days). Thus, until the 1950s there was little incentive (and little opportunity) for blacks to get an education beyond HS. Despite these conditions, few blacks did become lawyers and doctors and some started their own business or became athletes and entertainers to pull themselves out of poverty.
We know of the famous black musicians from Detroit such as Berry Gordy, Aretha Franklin, Anita Baker, Stevie Wonder, Jackie Robinson, Diana Ross, and many more and the famous athletes such as Willie Hortan, Dennis Rodman, Isiah Thomas, Joe Louis. There were distinguished black professionals out of Detroit too here is a link to their story
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