Major Events in Detroit

1960-1970

1960

• Population- 1,620,144 (482,229 were Black)

• The median income in the “ghetto” was $2,640 for a household, compared to the the median family income in Michigan of over $6,000

1961

• Wade McCree Jr. is appointed to the federal district court by President John F. Kennedy.

1962• Jerome P. Cavanagh is elected Mayor of

Detroit. • The Group of Advanced Leaders (GOAL) is

established to pursue equal opportunity in jobs, housing, and education for Blacks.

1963• June 23- The “Walk to Freedom” led by

Rev. King takes place in Detroit.• Malcolm X speaks at Wayne State

University in State Hall, delivering the speech “A Message from the Grass Roots.”

1964

• Damon J. Keith becomes chair of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission.

• Two of the four African Americans teaching full-time at white law schools are at Wayne State University.

1965

• Cavanagh re-elected.• Dr. Charles Wright opens the International

Afro-American Museum in his office on West Grand Boulevard.

• Viola Luizzo is assassinated.

1966

• Detroit Northern High School students organize a demonstration and walk-out.

• Geraldine Bledsoe Ford is elected to Detroit Recorder’s Court.

1967

• Detroit police raid an after hours club, located on 12th

street and Clairmount. A riot breaks out.

• New Detroit Incorporated is formed.

• Michigan State Police swear in the first African American trooper in the state.

• The “Black Bottom”serves as the epicenter for the Detroit riots.

• Reverend Albert Cleage Jr. forms the Black Christian Nationalist Church.

• The Detroit “open-housing” ordinance is blocked.

1968

• Focus Hope is founded.• DRUM is formed to protest continuing

racism in the Dodge plants.• Tom Turner is elected the first African-

American of the local AFL-CIO.

1969

• School board adopts desegregation plan.

• “Black schools for black students”became the cry of many urban students of 1969-1970.•Population- 1,511,482

1970

• Population- 1,511,482