Detroit Race Riots Research Paper

The Detroit Race Riot of 1943

Race has been an issue that America has fought and struggled with since the Founding Fathers laid down its foundation. While American soldiers were fighting in World War II, there was also fighting on American soil between different races. African Americans and whites were having confrontations all over, but Detroit happened to be one of the worst confrontations between the two races. Many African Americans began to flock to Detroit for jobs in the Motor City and this began to cause problems for the city. The Detroit Race Riots can be linked to many different causes, but three main causes are: the discrimination against African Americans in the work place, the housing opportunities for each race especially the African Americans, and the discrimination against African Americans by the police force. We are still faced with discrimination in the work
In John Hollitz book, he uses evidence from the cases of the Detroit Race Riot and found the the police handled they chaos by, “Beating and arresting Negroes while using more persuasion on whites,” (196). African Americans had a higher arrest rate than that of the white people. African Americans complained to the police department for the police brutality to stop, but nothing was ever done about it. During the riots, African Americans were beat and stopped, while most white people were let go with a talk and a slap on their wrist. The African Americans kept rioting and looting because they felt the way they were treated by the police was unfair. They did not stop rioting just because the police were arresting them. There were 17 African Americans killed by police and 216 arrested in all. These numbers are not comparable to the number of white people killed or arrested by police during the