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Thompson’s work on post-riot Detroit cited in series marking 50th anniversary

August 02, 2017

In this, the third of a three-part series exploring the causes, participants, and aftermath of the 1967 Detroit riot, the author cites Heather Ann Thompson and her newly reissued book *Whose Detroit: Politics, Labor, and Race in a Modern American City.* In the immediate wake of the rebellion, Thompson says, Detroit was “really up for grabs.” She says everyone was wondering: “Is the city going to be a law-and-order city given that it has just erupted? Are the police going to get more power and the black community less? Is this going to be a city that can finally, finally, bring about more harmonious relationships between black and white Detroiters? Or is this, frankly, going to be a city of more black control, because whites will leave it?”

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