Detroit made weapons and all kinds of equipment for the war. It was the No. 1 producer of army goods in the United States, and because of that was nicknamed "the arsenal of democracy." What do you need to make all those weapons? You need workers, and Detroit had plenty of them. In the years leading up to the war, recruiting agents from Detroit's steel plants had gone down South in search of hardworking people eager for jobs. The agents promised good pay and a comfortable life in the growing city of Detroit.

Both blacks and whites were recruited to come to Detroit: word of the "promised land" spread throughout the South and great numbers of people moved northward. Between 1933 and 1943, the number of African Americans in Detroit doubled to 200,000. With almost everyone working, the city's unemployment problems were long gone.

But Detroit was incredibly overcrowded. The plants provided jobs but not housing, and there was no place for all of the newcomers to live. Houses were few and far between, and apartments that became available weren't available for very long.Many people lived in little shacks, some with other families. The "arsenal of democracy" was now the overcrowded arsenal of democracy.

As the population and the housing problem grew, so did racial tensions. The Ku Klux Klan had monitored the migration northward, and in the steel plants it was obvious that tensions between whites and blacks were growing. Any job given to a black was considered a stolen job by whites. On one occasion, 25,000 workers in a Packard plant, which produced engines for bombers and PT boats, stopped work to protest the promotion of three blacks. On the streets, fights between whites and blacks were simply a part of life. Racial tensions were so high that they were simply impossible to get away from. It was like waiting for a bomb to go off, the fuse growing shorter and shorter.

In an effort to solve the housing problem, Detroit decided to build a development called the Sojourner Truth Project. In December 1942, the housing commission decided that the site would be for whites only, but when another site for blacks couldn't be found, it agreed to allow blacks into the development. One night three months later, burning a cross in a field near the new homes, 150 angry whites picketed the development, vowing to keep out black homeowners. By the next morning, the crowd had swelled to about 1,200 people, many of whom were armed.

The situation grew closer and closer to becoming violent. Fighting broke out when two blacks tried to drive through the picket line, and skirmishes between whites and blacks lasted into the evening. Mounted police eventually stopped the fighting that night, but didn't and couldn't come close to ending the huge tensions between the white and black communities.

But there were tens of thousands of blacks living in unsanitary conditions. They lobbied - along with union leaders and some whites - for the right to live in the Sojourner Truth homes. Eventually, blacks were allowed to move in - with state troopers and Detroit police on hand to make sure the transition was safe. This second move took place without violence.

In June 1943, two black men went to Belle Island to meet two whites. They had differences to settle and they were going to settle them there. Little did they know, the whites had brought a few friends. Cars entered the island by the dozens. Knowing there was something going on, blacks also flocked to the island. The police began to search cars entering the island, but only those driven by blacks. Eventually, an all-out brawl broke out, involving 200 people.

The fighting was broken up two hours later, but the angry energy - and rumors - were flowing. After the fight, a large group of blacks gathered near the Forest Social Club. Two young men told the crowd that whites had thrown a black women and her baby off the Belle Island Bridge. Five hundred angry blacks took to the streets, breaking windows and looting stores.

On the other side of town, another rumor was started, virtually at the same time. Supposedly, blacks has raped and murdered a white woman on Belle Isle. Whites also gathered in a huge mob, and headed toward the black part of town. Woodward Street divided Detroit, and would be the point where the two mobs clashed.

On Woodward Street, whites overturned several cars owned by blacks. Cars and vehicles of public transportation were set on fire, and innocent bystanders - both black and white - were beaten and shot while running away. Detroit was in the midst of all-out war.

The Mayor called for military assistance, and federal troops moved in to defuse the situation. Armored cars and Jeeps with automatic weapons rolled down Woodward Street, and by morning the mobs dissipated and the riots came to an end.

The 1943 Detroit riot was a tragedy for everyone involved, but it seemed that once again African Americans got the short end of the stick. The result was 36 hours of rioting and 34 deaths, 25 of them black and nine of them white. More than 1,800 people were arrested for looting and participating in the riots, most of them black. Thirteen murders remain unsolved. The race riot in Detroit was one of the many struggles that the African American community has had to endure. It has come a long way from slavery, but the struggle continues.

Nick

Please email me at: nick@ustrek.org