COMMUNITY VIEWS
African Americans in Detroit History
In 1833, and again in 1847, white
n commenting on the impor-
Detroit
abolitionists gave safe harbor
tance of history, legendary
to
black
families that had escaped slav-
Supreme Court Justice Oliver
ery
in
Kentucky.
This defiance of Ken-
Wendell Holmes remarked,
tucky's
extradition
efforts nearly led to
"Historic communication with the
war between Michigan and
past is not only a duty, it is
the Blue Grass State.
a necessity."
Detroit often produced
As we reach the onset of
sharply
differing views on
Black History Month in
the
institution
of slavery. In
February, we should
1863,
Detroit
Free
remember the great contri-
Press editor Wilbur
butions made by African
Storey wrote a ven-
Americans to the life of our
omous article sug-
city.
gesting that Abra-
While Native Americans
ham Lincoln was
had been here hundreds of
MELVIN
fighting the Civil
years earlier, French explor-
J.
"BUTCH"
War
to promote
er Antoine de la Mothe
HOLLOWELL
JR.
"nigger
domina-
Cadillac is widely credited
tion,
not
to save
Special
to
with the founding of "des
the Union. And yet,
The Jewish News
troit" (the straits) in 1701.
it was Michigan's
Detroit's first black settlers
U.S. Senator Jacob
arrived in this western
Howard
(from
Detroit) who
wilderness shortly thereafter, in the
introduced
the
13th Amend-
mid 1700s. Most were free, though
ment
to
the
Constitution,
many others were indentured servants.
which outlawed slavery in
At that time, the fledgling outpost
1865.
was a venue for the fur trade and an
Less than two decades
important military "choke point" that
later,
in 1882, Robert Pel-
seesawed back and forth from French
ham,
a prominent builder,
to British rule. But things were chang-
became
Detroit's first major
ing rapidly. The French Fleur de Lis
African
American
public offi-
and the British Union Jack gave way
cial
when
he
was
appointed
to the Stars and Stripes.
city auditor.
In 1805, Thomas Jefferson sent his
The greatest single influx of
friend Judge Augustus Woodward to
blacks to Detroit came during
help govern Detroit. The city's entire
the early 1900s with the rise of
population was approximately 4,000,
the auto industry, after Ford's
with blacks numbering in the hun-
pronouncement
in 1914, that
dreds. With the vast forests surround-
it
would
pay
$5
a
day for work
ing the city, the growing demand for
in
the
factories.
lumber throughout America, and its
By 1920, nearly half of
strategic location on the Great Lakes,
Detroit's black population
Detroit was quickly becoming a gate-
lived in white areas even
way for trade. Detroit needed workers
though they were typically
for the growing lumber business, and
charged
50 to 70 percent more
shamefully, Woodward proposed that
for
the
same
property. The other half
slave labor be used to this end.
were
concentrated
in the lower east-
Nevertheless, Woodward's effort to
side
enclave
known
as "Black Bot-
repeal Article VI of the Northwest
tom.
Ordinance, which outlawed slavery in
Segregated facilities throughout
the territory between the Ohio and
the
city prompted African Americans
Mississippi rivers, was rejected in the
to
develop
their own commercial and
U.S. Senate.
entertainment
district along the
As the slave trade intensified in the
north
end
of
Hastings
Street. Only
South, Detroit, by 1820, had become
Harlem
could
boast
more
black-
one of the most critical stops on the
owned
hotels,
restaurants,
theaters
"Underground Railroad," principally
and other businesses. For nearly 40
because of its proximity to the Cana-
years, Hastings thrived and stood as a
dian border. The acclaimed abolition-
national model for black economic
ist newspaper Voice of the Fugitive was
development.
published here.
And yet, it was decided that the
new 1-75 freeway would be built right
Melvin J. "Butch" Hollowell Jr., is a
down the middle of Hastings, corn-
partner at the Detroit law firm Butzel
pletely destroying the commercial and
Long.
I
))
social fabric of that area. A number of
the displaced businesses relocated to
12th street on the city's west side, but
in truth, the magic of Hastings was
never to be re-created, and the seeds of
unrest were sown.
Detroiters were squarely in the van-
guard of the civil rights movement. In
1963, 125,000 people turned out to
march with Dr. Martin Luther King
Guard and federal troops were
deployed and tanks rolled down the
city's streets.
In the '60s and '70s, black enter-
tainers from Detroit, such as Diana
Ross and Marvin Gaye, inspired mil-
lions and launched Berry Gordy's
Motown record label into the history
books.
During that same period, George
Crockett, Wade
McCree, Otis
Smith and
Damon Keith
-P. made waves as
T.: nationally recog-
nized lawyers and
judges.
tf,
Judge Keith,
along with Arthur
Johnson, Dr.
0
Lionel Swann,
Irene Graves and
0
others built the
Detroit NAACP's
annual Freedom
Fund Dinner into
the largest event
of its kind in the
world.
In 1973,
Detroit elected
Coleman Young
as its first black
mayor, and he
reigned for 20
years as one of
America's greatest
political figures.
His successor,
Dennis Archer, a
former Supreme
Court justice, is
making his own
mark, having
presided over
major new invest-
ment in the city.
Today, history marches on
through the contributions of citizens
like Roy Roberts, head of GMC North
America, the highest-ranking black
executive in the auto industry, who
appears to be on track for even higher
heights; and Dr. Benjamin Carson,
once a troubled teen from the city's
southwest side, who is now interna-
tionally recognized in his specialty as
chairman of neurosurgery at Johns
Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore.
These are but a very few examples
of how African Americans have perse-
vered and triumphed through adversi-
ty and helped to shape the history of
Detroit. The best chapters of this his-
tory are yet to be written.
o
The first blacks
arrived shortly
after Detroit
was founded.
down Woodward, in a demonstration
for justice organized by the Rev. C.L.
Franklin.
Just four years later, an unholy
brew of police brutality, discrimina-
tion and unemployment spilled over
into full-scale rioting. The National
c
2/5
1999
28 Detroit Jewish News
:\