Kerner Commission

Others saw them as a rebellion, an expression of anger over unequal treatment and longstanding injustice.

The federal Kerner Commission, created by President Johnson, concluded that racial inequality, economic hardship, and systematic discrimination were major contributing factors, not only in Detroit, but in cities across the nation that saw unrest.

The impact on Detroit lasted for decades.

Businesses, residents moved away from some neighborhoods.

And That dynamic allowed for organized black people to take power in cities like Detroit and Philadelphia and Atlanta.

And yet, at the same time, the very conditions that were propelling the black urban political movement forward, as described famously by the Kerner Commission, were the suburbs being a white noose around the black city, and it was that white noose around the black city created by the suburbanization of white people, but like, more importantly, capital.

[chuckles] Um, you know, it's like, oh, guess what? This tax base that was in Detroit is now in the suburbs.

This tax base that was in Philly is now in the suburbs.

And yet at the same time, the very conditions that were propelling the black urban political movement were.

Ford, as described famously by the Kerner Commission, were the suburbs being a white noose around the black city.

And it was that white noose around the black city created by the suburbanization of white people, but more importantly, capital.

It's like, oh, guess what? This tax base that was in Detroit is now in the suburbs.