Black Detroit - by Herb Boyd (Paperback)

About the Book

"With a new afterword by the author"--Cover.

Book Synopsis

NAACP 2017 Image Award Finalist

2018 Michigan Notable Books honoree

The author of Baldwin's Harlem looks at the evolving culture, politics, economics, and spiritual life of Detroit--a blend of memoir, love letter, history, and clear-eyed reportage that explores the city's past, present, and future and its significance to the African American legacy and the nation's fabric.

Herb Boyd moved to Detroit in 1943, as race riots were engulfing the city. Though he did not grasp their full significance at the time, this critical moment would be one of many he witnessed that would mold his political activism and exposed a city restless for change. In Black Detroit, he reflects on his life and this landmark place, in search of understanding why Detroit is a special place for black people.

Boyd reveals how Black Detroiters were prominent in the city's historic, groundbreaking union movement and--when given an opportunity--were among the tireless workers who made the automobile industry the center of American industry. Well paying jobs on assembly lines allowed working class Black Detroiters to ascend to the middle class and achieve financial stability, an accomplishment not often attainable in other industries.

Boyd makes clear that while many of these middle-class jobs have disappeared, decimating the population and hitting blacks hardest, Detroit survives thanks to the emergence of companies such as Shinola--which represent the strength of the Motor City and and its continued importance to the country. He also brings into focus the major figures who have defined and shaped Detroit, including William Lambert, the great abolitionist, Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown, Coleman Young, the city's first black mayor, diva songstress Aretha Franklin, Malcolm X, and Ralphe Bunche, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

With a stunning eye for detail and passion for Detroit, Boyd celebrates the music, manufacturing, politics, and culture that make it an American original.

From the Back Cover

Award-winning journalist Herb Boyd chronicles the fascinating history of Detroit through the lens of the African American experience. Offering an expansive discussion of this iconic city, Black Detroit ranges in subject from Antoine de Lamothe Cadillac's initial vision of what would become a thriving metropolis to the city's glory days as the center of American commerce; from the waves of fugitives traveling on the Underground Railroad to the advent of the People Mover circling downtown; from the creation of the unparalleled sound of Motown to the emergence of Wayne State University as a hotbed of political thought.

Boyd combines deep passion and a stunning eye for detail to seamlessly blend personal experience, exhaustive research, and eyewitness accounts collected from some of the city's wisest griots. Black Detroit looks at the influence African Americans have had on various aspects of the city's history, culture, and politics, including the auto industry, and it reframes the riots and rebellions sparked by police brutality and housing discrimination from the perspective of the people most impacted by the city's neglectful policies. In the process, the book presents a roll call of the illustrious men and women who have defined and shaped the Motor City, including Malcolm X, Aretha Franklin, Berry Gordy, Fannie Richards, abolitionist William Lambert, and Coleman Young, Detroit's first black mayor.

This important book documents how a committed work ethic, a well-developed spirit of resistance, and a deep sense of heritage continue to run strong through Detroit's black community--providing the true engine propelling the city's reemergence as a viable urban center for the twenty-first century.

Review Quotes

"In Black Detroit: A People's History of Self-Determination, Herb Boyd does a captivating job of writing, compression, and interpretation. The personal spine of his narrative makes it special. Readers will appreciate Boyd's comprehensive grasp of one of America's most important cities. It's a superb read with vital lessons on a people's struggle for self-determination." - Dr. David Levering Lewis, University Professor, Emeritus, NYU, and twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for biography
"Herb Boyd has done it again. Black Detroit is a powerful, timely, and important history of an iconic city whose hopes and dreams, triumphs and tragedies, continue to both challenge and shape the African American experience and American democracy. This brilliant history is a must read for students, scholars, and all those interested in the history of the civil rights movement and black freedom struggle." - Peniel E. Joseph, Author of Stokely: A Life
"Detroit has become a code for urban failure, which is to say, black failure. Herb Boyd's riveting new history gives us, Black Detroit, and turns an oft caricatured community into a world of actual, struggling human beings. This is not easy work. But Boyd, with his Detroit roots and lucid prose, performs the labor as though he were born to do so." - Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of Between the World and Me
"An inspiring, illuminating book that will interest students of urban history and the black experience." - Kirkus Reviews
"Boyd...breathes new life into the history of Detroit through stories of the city's black residents from its earliest days to its bittersweet present... He leaves no stone unturned, making his work an invaluable repository of all that is black Detroit." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"The extensive coverage demonstrates the full range and influence of black citizens in Detroit... Recommended for anyone interested in Detroit or in urban history." - Library Journal
"Comprehensive and compelling... We owe [Boyd] a debt of gratitude." - Washington Post
"Detroit has found its griot in Herb Boyd. Traditional West African storytellers, griots carry their people's traditions from generation to generation, and are renowned for their encyclopedic knowledge, their wit and their ability to bridge the past and present. In the tradition of the griot, Boyd's purpose is to celebrate the black men and women, the city's "fearless freedom fighters," who would otherwise remain on history's margins. The characters who walk across Boyd's pages are fascinating." - New York Times Book Review
"A blend of memoir, love letter, history, and clear-eyed reportage that explores the city's past, present, future and its significance to the African-American legacy and the nation's fabric." - Detroit Free Press