The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit

Chapter 7 focuses on Detroit’s shifting racial topography. Racial covenants confined Black people to specific neighborhoods in the first half of the 20th century. After World War II, Black people began challenging these covenants in court alongside civil-rights groups. In 1948, the US Supreme Court heard three covenant cases that stressed covenants’ negative impact on Black people and challenged the legality of state-sanctioned racial discrimination. Swayed by these sociological and constitutional arguments, the Court unanimously ruled that racial covenants could not be enforced. Black people—especially members of the middle class—began challenging Detroit’s racial boundaries after the ruling. Black enclaves expanded beyond the city’s East Side, and housing conditions improved as Black people moved to newer areas with better buildings. Despite these improvements, however, Detroit remained highly segregated. White flight opened new areas to some Black city dwellers, but not to those in poverty. Black people with high-paying jobs crossed traditional racial boundaries, while Black people with little or no income remained trapped in crumbling urban neighborhoods.

Pushing at the Boundaries: Black Pioneers

Middle-class Black people were the first to challenge Detroit’s racial boundaries. This segment of the population expanded in the 1940s and 1950s. As their wealth grew, Detroit’s Black elite sought housing outside the racially segregating urban enclaves.