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1/ Detroit has a long history of angry white mobs descending on the city with guns & violence to keep Black residents down and out. 1943: After years of tension heightened by the KKK, lack of affordable housing for Black defense workers,
2/ ...white resistance to adding new public housing, lack of minority rep in police force, and that old chestnut of police brutality, the city popped off into a race riot, and despite contemporary racist claims blaming black youth for the riots,
3/ the instigators of the riots were majority white unemployed/ underemployed youth traveling great distances to attack predominantly black neighborhoods whereas the plurality of Black participants were folks defending their homes and family. (See Wiki below)
4/ Photo source: @MichiganRadio
5/ 1967: For near identical reasons of systemic racism & police brutality, black protesters took to the streets of Detroit. The predominantly white national guard sent to quell the violence resulted in a guardman killing 4 yr old Tanya Balding (pic @MLive)
6/ An anecdotal story from '67 that I can't fully verify but I find plausible: in response to the unrest, according to my HS US history teacher, the residents of white, affluent Grosse Pointe (including said teacher's uncle) took lawn chairs and rifles to..
7/ to the border of Detroit and Grosse Pointe to watch the city burn.
