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Summer 2017: Beyond '67 - The City-Wide Citizen's Action Committee

Join us for a special summer edition of our Detroiters Speak series! 

Throughout the series, we will be exploring the following ideas:

The 1967 Rebellion is rightfully viewed as key turning point in the history of the city and the region. However, the long dominant narrative depicts “the riot,” crime, and the rise of Black political “misrule and corruption” as the root cause of Detroit’s subsequent woes. This Speakers Series challenges this declension narrative by interrogating the history, policies, and grassroots struggles that took place over policing, state violence and surveillance; white flight, capital flight, and deindustrialization; and poverty, and housing policy and financing policies and practices in the decades that immediately followed.

The series seeks to address the following questions: What contributed to Detroit’s decline? How did Detroiter’s respond and fight back? What are the similarities and differences between Detroit in 1967 and Detroit today? 4) Are recent “redevelopment” efforts, growing spatial, racial and class inequity, and the dismantling of local political control and democracy replicating the racial, social, economic, and political conditions that sparked the 1967 Rebellion?

This 4-part series of community conversations is organized by SID Visiting Professor and Historian, David Goldberg of the Wayne State University Department of Afro-American Studies.

These events are free and are held at the historic McCollister Hall inside the Cass Corridor Commons (4605 Cass Ave) on Thursdays from 6pm-8pm. 

 As always, all sessions feature a light dinner. For questions, email semesterindetroit@umich.edu

Featuring the following speakers: Jackson Bartlett, Gene Cunningham, and Jerry Pappendorf

Ph.D Candidate Jackson Bartlett will discuss the impact of HUD policy(ies) on Detroit in the 70s and late 80s/90s, Gene Cunningham will talk about his research and activism on housing nuisance abatement laws while working as an aide to City Council during the 70s and early 80s, and Pappendorf will speak on the tax foreclosure crisis, the policies that gave rise to it, and potential remedies to prevent displacement.