Abstract
Herb Boyd’s ‘Black Detroit: A People’s History of Self-Determination’ presents a history of Detroit through the Black perspective. Boyd argues that Blackness is rooted in the perception of Detroit, recounting historical events that highlight Black labor, organization, and artistry. Black Detroit stands as a spirit upheld by inhabitants, asserted through the physical organizations of the community.
Boyd boasts Detroit’s unique opportunity for Black individuals to hold civic and economic power, from a stop on the Underground Railroad to hotspot for Black journalists. Concurrent to these opportunities are experiences of violence, discrimination, and economic struggle within the community. Where Sugrue’s, The Origins of the Urban Crisis, 1 paints Detroit as shifting from a Black economic hotspot to a space of injustice, Boyd gives insight that segregationist attitudes have always been present. This dichotomy of freedom and injustice culminates during the summer of 1941, when protestors barred Black inhabitants from moving into the Sojourner Truth housing project provided to Black migrants.
The real ‘spaces’ of Detroit are found through Boyd’s portrayal of the human dimension and subsequent organization. Key figures throughout the book create spaces based on their own values, resulting in a variety of overlapping organizations. Where Segrue falls short in his homogeneous portrayal of the Black community, Boyd reveals depth through organizations – particularly in churches. Reverend Monroe pushes forward the Abolitionist movement with the Second Baptist Church, then creates his own space of Saint Matthew’s Protestant Episcopal Mission after facing conflict with other church leaders. Similar splinters form during the Civil Rights era, churches and their congregations choosing how to support the movement at the intersection of labor and music.
Boyd portrays families, unions, religious and civic organizations’ as the community’s infrastructure, at odds with racism and white physical ownership. Black geography is predominantly confined to Black Bottom and Paradise Valley, a reminder of the lack of agency the Black community has over Detroit. Though, we see Black individuals rise to positions of civic power; Boyd alludes to continued lack of black ownership. Coleman Young becomes Detroit’s first black mayor, though white flight and police brutality exacerbate the city’s decay.
The adversity faced by Black Detroiters brings Boyd to glorify their self-determination, as without their labor, organization, and artistry the city would lose its rich culture. This assertion overlooks the externalities of intense self-reliance. From early on, mistrust and distrust, absence of vulnerability, and mental health crises can be read in Black Detroit. Readers experience multiple accounts of Black leaders dying by suicide, with Boyd glorifying their self-determination, as in the case of William Lampart. This extends to communally experienced trauma induced by police brutality, mentioned without analysis on the emotional toll on residents. The narrative is insightful in recognizing the strength Black Detroit needed to overcome deindustrialization and urban ‘renewal’. However, without recognizing intergenerational trauma, we neglect some of Detroit’s history.
Black Detroit’s spirit meets its spatial qualities through the quiet issues of ownership of within its community. While Boyd praises Black strength, neighborhoods are paved for the Chrysler highway and the city continues maintenance of walls once segregating neighborhoods. What goes unsaid are the consequences of destroying culturally significant spaces and maintaining hostile infrastructure. Boyd’s silence concerning these externalities raises questions about how the cultural ownership of Detroit can be strong without physical ownership. His answer? The spirit; the embodiment of Black self-reliance. Black culture runs through Detroit’s veins, but the community retains nothing tangible. This must change.
