Detroit’s Black History: More Fascinating Than You Ever Knew!

Jack Lessenberry Politics & Prejudices

There’s so much more to black history than that black people were once slaves, that Martin Luther King made a famous speech called “I Have A Dream,” that there were riots in the 1960s, that segregation has ended, and the fact that Barack Obama got elected President. Black history and black history in Detroit and Michigan is richly textured, endlessly interesting, and completely interwoven with all our history in a way few people know about it. It’s relevant, absolutely fascinating and something everyone should know about. Joining me to talk about it are three of the best experts in Detroit. Ken Coleman - a well-known local historian and author who is something of a living encyclopedia of African-American history in Detroit; his books include On This Day: African-American Life in Detroit. Dr. Keith Dye - an assistant professor of African-American Studies and History at the University of Michigan Dearborn; he is an expert on the history of 1960s activism and freedom movements, and especially on the Detroit beginnings of the reparations controversy more than half a century ago. Howard Lindsay - a Michigan native and an emeritus professor of history at DePaul University in Chicago who now lives in Southfield. He is the expert on how the original Henry Ford influenced the community of Inkster and the author of a book called A History of Black America.