The Atlantic: Detroit in the 1940s (30 pics)

[LiberalElite]

http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2015/01/detroit-in-the-1940s/384523/?google_editors_picks=true


"The early part of the 20th century saw the city of Detroit, Michigan, rise to prominence on the huge growth of the auto industry and related manufacturers. The 1940s were boom years of development, but the decade was full of upheaval and change, as factories re-tooled to build war machines, and women started taking on men's roles in the workplace, as men shipped overseas to fight in World War II. The need for workers brought an influx of African-Americans to Detroit, who met stiff resistance from whites who refused to welcome them into their neighborhoods or work beside them on an assembly line. A race riot took place over three days in 1943, leaving 34 dead and hundreds injured. After World War II ended, the demand for workers dried up, and Detroit started plotting its postwar course, an era of big automobiles and bigger highways to accommodate them."

[navarth]

1. Very cool pix, thank you.

This is back in my parents' day. Remarkable photos. Amazing history.

[pathansen]

2. Things have really changed, haven't they?

[navarth]

3. yes and no. nt

[Enthusiast]

5. Exactly.

Now that we have a black president racism is over! Yay!

[navarth]

8. Yeah..

It just moved. To the suburbs. But for some time now the educated, intelligent white kids from those burbs have been gravitating back to the city while the black middle class has done some moving to the suburbs, sort of like stirring the melting pot. With each turn, with each stirring, a little more empathy towards the other side gets generated.

We've come so far, we've got so far to go.

[Scuba]

4. The art director is kinda creeepy, and if the women in the back row fire all those 30-30's ....

.... at once, the women in the front row are all going to go deaf.


Did not know about the race riots; the photos are an education.

[Blue_Tires]

6. #5 and #7 made me discover some new fetishes I never knew I had...

[Brigid]

7. #12:

Whites objecting to a housing project named after Sojourner Truth.

[oasis]

9. Big kick