Browse Items (175 total)

The Detroit Commission on Community Relations expresses optimism that the relationship between the African American Community and the police are improving. August 6, 1962. Detroit Commission on Community Relations/Human Rights Department Collection,…

Coleman Young’s campaign positions on housing and homeownership, Economic Club speech notes. October 29, 1973. Source: Coleman Young Papers. Box 2, folder 4.

Reverend Albert Cleage (later Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman), a prominent Detroit-based activist, exhibited dimensions of Black nationalism through a number of associations. Here, Cleage addresses the audience at Cobo Hall following the “Walk to Freedom”…

Thousands rally against racial discrimination in downtown Detroit during the “Walk to Freedom” civil rights demonstration. Demonstrators carry signs that read "I want to Live Where I Choose! White House for Rent...No Color Barrier," "Equal Housing"…

A Bureau of Labor Statistics chart details work stoppages in 1943 by white employees in Detroit factories over issues related to the job advancement of Black workers. July 1943. Walter P. Reuther Library Vertical Files Collection, Box 128.

City-Wide Citizens Action Committee flyer. 1967. The CCAC was led by the Reverend Albert B. Cleage, noted political and religious activist who launched the Black Christian National Movement in 1967. Source: NAACP Detroit Branch Records, Box 3, folder…

Governor George Romney and Detroit Mayor Jerome Cavanagh watch events unfold “in the field,” likely from the grounds of Southeastern High School.

Detroit’s Civil Unrest had captured the attention of the nation. Mayor Jerome Cavanagh appeared on Meet the Press on July 30 to defend his leadership during the previous week. At left is Edwin Newman, moderator of the panel discussion.

Violence took different forms across the city. Police raided the Algiers Motel on Woodward Avenue looking for rumored snipers. While questioning motel guests, police killed 3 Black men in the hotel, beat 9 others, and found no snipers. This became…

Protesters outside the Veterans Memorial Building where a conference addressing the needs of the nation’s poor, attended by President Jimmy Carter, was taking place. 1977.

“Elect Coleman Young Mayor” campaign poster. 1973. Source: Coleman A. Young Papers, Part II, Box 107, folder 2.

Envisioned and designed to build a "new type of inner city habitation," Mayor Jerome P. Cavanagh released the final report for the Gratiot Redevelopment Project in 1964, eighteen years after planning began. Detroit was the first city in the United…