Marilyn Katz, writing in the progressive magazine In These Times, runs through the history of Detroit's decline to shoot down the belief that the problems started when Detroiters started electing black mayors.
"If there are fingers to be pointed, they need to arc back farther to the reigns of Mayors Cavanagh and Miriani, Gov. Romney and big oil... While it is true that many of Detroit’s mayors had serious flaws and made countless mistakes, they did not cause the city’s decline. In fact by the time the keys to Detroit were handed to the Black leadership, Detroit was beyond rescue and they were left to deal with up the mess created by a perfect storm of federal transportation policy (driven by the auto industry and its allies in Congress) and federal housing initiatives, both of which combined to seal the city’s fate. Detroit's first black mayor, Coleman Young, and those that followed may not have known it, but Detroit was already on life support and they were the hospice team.
By the time the returning black Vietnam Vets got into a scuffle with the police that set off a week of riots in late July of 1967 the seeds of destruction already had deep roots. Detroit was already a ghost of its former self—done in by both the product the city was known for and by the companies whose wealth it had created.
