Pamphlet explaining the new Fair Housing Ordinance that had been passed by Detroit’s Common Council in late 1967. Before this law, nothing in Detroit legally prevented sellers, landlords, and real estate agents from denying housing to someone due to race or ethnicity. Source: Detroit Commission on Community Relations/Human Rights Department Records, Box 27, folder 27.
Members of the Detroit Fire Department brace themselves as they fight fires at two buildings on Michigan Avenue at Trumbull. Though much of the arson that took place during the Unrest was targeted at businesses, the tight layout of many neighborhoods caused fires to jump from the business districts to the homes directly behind them.
Neighbors help each other move possessions out of an apartment building near Linwood and Pingree on Detroit's West Side as fires lit by arsonists inch closer.
A flyer announces a demonstration against instances of police brutality and killings of Black Detroiters. May 15, 1965. Detroit Commission on Community Relations (DCCR)/Human Rights Department Records, Part 1, Series VI, Box 14.
Flyer published by the Sojourner Truth Citizens Committee to rally support for integrated housing at the Sojourner Truth Housing Project. 1942. Civil Rights Congress of Michigan Records, Box 67.
A flyer created in 1942 by white residents asks for assistance from people outside their neighborhood at Nevada and Fenelon to keep Black residents from moving into the Sojourner Truth Housing Project in Detroit, Michigan.
A flyer announces a March 13, 1942 rally to support integration at the Sojourner Truth Housing Project as a way to combat Hitler and win World War II. 1942. Box 67.
HOPE Food Prescription Programs poster. Undated. The HOPE 68 report demonstrated Focus: HOPE’s work to highlight issues of race and poverty. In 1971, the State of Michigan named them the host agency for the Commodity Supplemental Food Program in Wayne County. This program provided food for pregnant women, mothers, and young children. Focus: HOPE continues to operate the program to this day. Source: Focus: HOPE Records, Audiovisual folder.
The Cotillion Club, an organization of successful Black men in Detroit striving to gain equal rights and opportunities, uses its June 1955 newsletter to denounce a beer company for backing out of a promise to hire Black truck drivers. June 15, 1955. UAW Fair Practices and Anti-Discrimination Department Records, Box 26, Folder 28.
George Schermer, director of Detroit’s Mayor’s Interracial Committee, provides testimony before Robert Montgomery, Chairman, State Affairs Committee, Michigan House of Representatives in support of state fair employment practices to help alleviate economic discrimination, which is the basis of many of the problems afflicting Detroit's Black community. The Mayor’s Interracial Committee was established to improve race relations following the 1943 Detroit Race Riot. April 18, 1951. Detroit Commission on Community Relations (DCCR)/Human Rights Department Records, Part 3, Box 74, Folder 8.
George Schermer, director of Detroit’s Mayor’s Interracial Committee, provides testimony before Robert Montgomery, Chairman, State Affairs Committee, Michigan House of Representatives in support of state fair employment practices to help alleviate economic discrimination, which is the basis of many of the problems afflicting Detroit's Black community. The Mayor’s Interracial Committee was established to improve race relations following the 1943 Detroit Race Riot. April 18, 1951. Detroit Commission on Community Relations (DCCR)/Human Rights Department Records, Part 3, Box 74, Folder 8. Click the image to read the first two pages of Schermer's testimony.
Focus: HOPE investigated the high cost of food and medicine’s role in building urban frustration. With Wayne State University, they conducted a study of the costs lower-income neighborhoods paid for groceries and prescription drugs. The comprehensive findings illuminated the high cost of being poor, lack of choice in products, and underlying causes for these inequities. The breadth of both qualitative and quantitative data revealed that the difference in services often fell along racial lines. The survey was highly influential and brought national attention to a central cause of the 1967 Civil Unrest. Source: Focus: HOPE Records, Box 4, folder 15.
Graphs from HOPE 68 on grocery store conditions in “very poor and low income black” versus “white over $8,000” areas. How has access to groceries improved or worsened in Detroit since the ‘HOPE 68’ report? Along what lines (geographic, racial, class, etc.) is access to groceries and medicine drawn today? Source: Focus: HOPE Records, Box 4, folder 15.
Sponsored by the Citizens Committee for Equal Opportunity and the Virginia Park Citizens Committee, a jobs fair, called the “Jobs Now! Conference,” is held at Hutchins Junior High School, near the place where Detroit’s Civil Unrest will erupt exactly two months later. The jobs fair organizers described the neighborhood as being one of Detroit’s “areas of most critical unemployment.” May 23, 1967. Source: Wayne State University Office of Religious Affairs, Box 18.
Letter delivered to members of the Wayne State University community advocating Coleman Young for mayor, sent by faculty and staff at the school. September 7, 1973. Coleman A. Young Papers. Box 107, folder 2.
The Palmyra Home Owners’ Protective Association Board of Directors announces a meeting to discuss ways to prevent minorities from purchasing homes in their neighborhood. Civil Rights Congress of Michigan Records, Box 66.
The first page of a letter from a Detroit resident expressing disgust with the changing racial composition of Detroit neighborhoods. May 26, 1945. Civil Rights Congress of Michigan Records, Box 66. Click the image to read the full document.
