Major Events in Detroit: 1960's

Major Events in Detroit
1960-1970

1960
• Population- 1,620,144 (482,229 were
Black)
• The median income in the “ghetto” was
$2,640 for a household, compared to the the
median family income in Michigan of over
$6,000

1961
• Wade McCree Jr. is appointed to the federal
district court by President John F. Kennedy.

1962
• Jerome P. Cavanagh is elected Mayor of
Detroit.
• The Group of Advanced Leaders (GOAL) is
established to pursue equal opportunity in
jobs, housing, and education for Blacks.

1963
• June 23- The “Walk to Freedom” led by
Rev. King takes place in Detroit.
• Malcolm X speaks at Wayne State
University in State Hall, delivering the
speech “A Message from the Grass Roots.”

1964
• Damon J. Keith becomes chair of the
Michigan Civil Rights Commission.
• Two of the four African Americans
teaching full-time at white law schools are
at Wayne State University.

1965
• Cavanagh re-elected.
• Dr. Charles Wright opens the International
Afro-American Museum in his office on
West Grand Boulevard.
• Viola Luizzo is assassinated.

1966
• Detroit Northern High School students
organize a demonstration and walk-out.
• Geraldine Bledsoe Ford is elected to Detroit
Recorder’s Court.

1967
• Detroit police raid an after
hours club, located on 12 th
street and Clairmount. A
riot breaks out.
• New Detroit Incorporated
is formed.
• Michigan State Police
swear in the first African
American trooper in the
state.
• The “Black Bottom”
serves as the epicenter for
the Detroit riots.
• Reverend Albert Cleage
Jr. forms the Black
Christian Nationalist
Church.
• The Detroit “openhousing”
ordinance is
blocked.

1968
• Focus Hope is founded.
• DRUM is formed to protest continuing
racism in the Dodge plants.
• Tom Turner is elected the first African-
American of the local AFL-CIO.

1969
• School board adopts desegregation plan.
• “Black schools for black students”
became the cry of many urban students of
1969-1970.
•Population- 1,511,482

1970
• Population- 1,511,482