The form of the graphic narrative would allow this text to re-populate the imaginations of readers with images and stories that are historical, political, and aesthetic. There have also been numerous articles that focus on various subjects tied to the riot including rumor, gender, police violence, and the typology of riots. Capeci Jr and Martha Wilkerson (1991) published by the University Press of Mississippi, Alfred McClung Lee and Norman Humphrey’s original account, Race Riot and later expanded version also named Race Riot published respectively in 1943 (The Dryden Press) and in 1968 (Octagon Books), also A Study in Violence: The Detroit Race Riot by Robert Shogan and Tom Craig, published in 1964 by Chilton Company. The most recent titles include, Layered Violence: The Detroit Rioters by Dominic J. There are many scholarly books, which mention the Detroit Riot of 1943, like The Origins of The Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Post War Detroit by Thomas Sugrue (Princeton University Press) but only a handful explore it as a subject worthy of lengthy scholarly analysis. Ossian Sweet’s struggle over discriminatory housing practices, the Sojourner Truth Housing Project debacle, and prior to another giant riot in 1967 known as the 12th street riot. The riots during World War II signaled the beginning of an organized racial sea change. The unguarded racism, economic competition between blacks and whites, and the ways that our country shifted as a result of urban opportunities and capitalism are invisible in most popular depictions of World War II. This was the most violent and largest riot that took place during World War II. The 1943 Detroit rebellion is a significant story. Even after the riot began, the municipal government would not declare martial law or call in the National Guard until nearly 30 hours of terror had passed. Everyone knew that sooner or later there would be a major racial disturbance, yet nothing was done. The entire country had been watching the powder keg of Detroit, the nation’s fourth largest city at the time, for over a year. In the wake of the riot the official report co-authored by the Detroit Police Commissioner blamed only African Americans for the disturbance (Langlois, 1983). The police force in Detroit was made up of 3400 officers only 43 were black.
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In Detroit, of the 185 wartime plants 55 of them would hire no African Americans. This was compounded by the double standard of governmental efforts during World War II to achieve freedom from oppression abroad while still maintaining a racist system of apartheid in the United States. The lack of decent housing, racist rhetoric, police brutality, chivalry, and lack of organization for newly arriving workers created a firestorm of violence. In the story of Detroit in 1943 the unfolding events of the uprising offer an image of the social, economic, and cultural pressures that gave way to violence at the end of World War II and the beginning of the American Civil Rights movement.
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The uprising that occurred in Detroit was the worst from that year. In 1943 there were approximately 242 disturbances that were racially motivated in 48 different cities throughout the country.
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This graphic history is a hybrid text composed of stories, history, and images it is designed to challenge people’s assumptions about, race, culture, and violence in the United States during World War II.
#Comics detroit free press series#
Run home if you don’t want to be killed: The Detroit Uprising of 1943 is a graphic history based on a series of events that led to the worst race riot in 1943 in the United States.
![comics detroit free press comics detroit free press](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ff/0a/05/ff0a05b8d0eb756e7d1f6f1aeece5ef5.png)
The final product will be published in 2021 as a graphic novel, Run Home If You Don't Want To Be Killed: The Detroit Uprising of 1943, by University North Carolina Press and the Duke Center for Documentary Studies. This year I am going to work on a multi year research project about the 1943 Detroit Rebellion.