Riots and Renaissance

This aerial view shows buildings burned in the 1967 riots, which began on the near northwest side.

The National Guard was brought in to control the riots.

When the Renaissance Center was built, it was completely separated from the neighborhood around it. There were no entrances on the street-level. It now has street-level entrances and is the headquarters for General Motors.

Coleman A. Young became the first African American mayor of Detroit in 1973 and was mayor until 1993. He is with Roman Gribbs, the outgoing mayor of Detroit. 

Using Census data, this map shows the African American population (as a percentage) in Detroit from 1950 to 2010. 

In 1967, racial and class tensions came to a head, and Detroit erupted in riots. While the riots are commonly thought of as racial in origin, some historians have argued that class inequality was more important. The riots lasted 5 days, 43 people died, and 2000 buildings were destroyed.

Although the riots were serious, the depopulation of Detroit began well before them, in the 1950s. That depopulation continued throughout the 1970s and 1980s. As whites and later middle class African Americans moved to the suburbs, the city of Detroit grew increasingly poorer.

The Renaissance Center was built in 1977, under the first African American mayor of Detroit, Coleman A. Young. It was built with the hope of spurring other development in downtown Detroit, but depopulation has continued into the present. A city inhabited by 1.5 million people in 1950 is now home to just under 700,000. Although there has recently been some population growth, as whites move into the Downtown/Midtown core of the city, most residents are poor and African American.