The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit

How did patterns and practices in Detroit’s housing market reinforce racial and class inequities? Cite both explicit, now-outlawed forms of racial discrimination and implicit, facially race-neutral forms.

Discuss Detroit’s housing crisis alongside public-housing policies and debates. How did politicians and industry leaders shape these debates to the detriment of Black residents?

What interrelated factors spurred Detroit’s decline in the postwar years? Point to racial, social, and economic dynamics from the 1940s to the 1960s.