Also, thanks for the photo of the Underground Railway monument at the Detroit River, which, when viewed in combination with the subject of the present article - historical riots perpetrated by whites on blacks - brings to mind the 1943 Belle Isle riot. What might you know about the causes of that?
My only black neighbor fled Detroit with his family in 67. He was a child but says they burned his father’s bakery so they packed up and left within 24 hours.
I’ve heard about the Belle Isle riot but don’t know much about it.
The Ossian Sweet case is interesting because it was the beginning of gun control in Michigan. Dr Ossian Sweet was a black doctor who fired on a white mob trying to force him out of “their” neighborhood. Sweet was acquitted and the first calls for gun registration appeared in Lansing within weeks.