i'm sorry that i took a year long AP class that described these events in detail. :^)
black population came in through white flight, then events became worse as riots happened in, likely, low income and industrial areas. just because they had the highest home-ownership doesn't mean that they were rich, and low unemployment rate didn't mean that they weren't poor working conditions. sure, you could debate that the riots drove "whites" out of the city, but that was much less of a problem.
moreover, what does this source proves? it only notes that there were some riots from within detroit, nothing more. it doesn't provide a reason for why whites left detroit, which is explained in my previous quote. white flight occurred mainly in the 1950's, as well, while this article states that the first riots occurred in 1967 of all years, at the point where most white flight had began to end. i would recommend that you read more about urban development vs black people destroying urban areas (which is apparrent in your quote, but not within what i had argued).
if you have a source for the passage that i most recently quoted, i'd love to read it. but it doesn't strengthen your argument.
Wow, I took an AP course too.... on U.S history.... what's your point.
The catalyst of white flight was the Detroit race riots which caused damages to property and caused the deaths of many citizens of Detroit. This was what caused "white flight" to the suburbs and resulted in a huge reduction of city funds that are needed for to maintain basic city infrastructure. The corruption of the Democratic city government and the decline of the automobile industry also led to the decline of Detroit. White flight was a primary factor in the decline of detroit as they contributed the most to the tax system and after they left to safer places to live (because they were pushed out by the race riots and
forced into suburbs) this led to the collapse of Detroit. Sure, other factors were important but white flight was definitely one of the larger issues as to why Detroit became impoverished.
This was the damage caused by the race riots Over the period of five days, forty-three people died, of whom 33 were black and 10 white. There were 467 injured: 182 civilians, 167 Detroit police officers, 83 Detroit firefighters, 17 National Guard troops, 16 State Police officers, and three U.S. Army soldiers. In the riots, 2,509 stores were looted or burned, 388 families were rendered homeless or displaced, and 412 buildings were burned or damaged enough to be demolished. Dollar losses from arson and looting ranged from $40 million to $80 million.[20]
Thousands of small businesses closed as a result of the race riots. If you're telling me that white flight isn't a major reason for the decline of detroit you'd be wrong.
What it really comes down to is three reasons: The decline of the automobile industry, White Flight, and the policies of the Detroit City Government.
The passage I cited earlier was written by an economist named Thomas Sowell.
