By
1967 residents were leaving Detroit city for its suburbs following the
new auto plants,new homes, they did all this with ease thanks to the
newly constructed interstate system which connected Detroit to all the
suburbs. White residents moved out centralizing the black population all
within one area in Detroit. This sudden sprawl of residents left
Detroit in an economic slump and it only got worse. On July 23, 1967
police attempted to break up an illegal after hours party at a local bar
which escalated to a riot lasting 5 days, killing 43 people, destroying
more than 2,000 commercial and residential buildings, and leaving over
5000 people homeless. Dollar losses from looting, vandalism and damages
to buildings ranged from $40million to $80million dollars.A lot of the
tension that led to the “race riot” erupted from unequal treatment to
the black population. It all began when African Americans first fled to
Detroit during the Great Migration. In that time period Detroit was
receiving more people than what it could house, the development of
housing units was not keeping up with the increasing population.Due to
the high population and not enough resources the black population was
discriminated in both the housing and job sector. The auto industry
presented an opportunity for the black population but it all vanished
when the auto industry decided to move to the suburbs to avoid city
taxation. Other commercial and industrial jobs followed the auto
industry all which favored the population participating in the white
flight. After the riot it was agreed upon that the biggest casualty was
not the people who were hurt or killed, but Detroit itself. Not only did
the riot cause social damage through injuries and deaths but the
economy took a great hit. Detroit quickly became isolated, everything
that boosted the economy from jobs, taxes, tourism, everything fled with
the business and the white flight that occurred when the riot posed a
threat.