Once In A Great City Analysis

Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story, written by a Detroit native, David Maraniss. In his novel, set in Detroit around the 1960’s, he follows the numerous changes in society underway in detroit but also seen countrywide. Maraniss excels at bringing to light numerous issues regarding the economy, social life, political issues and other important themes we constantly see in history. I have chosen to expand on the social issues David Maraniss pointed out and explain how they have had long term effects.
David Maraniss focuses on Detroit and it’s auto industry, Once in a Great City, shows how the city was booming in the sixties. Motown was producing some of the most popular artist and songs. The leaders of detroit were known country wide. Maraniss
focuses on the powerful leaders of Detroit at the time. We see that the progressives were in charge of Detroit. Progressivism is crucial when looking at the history of the United States. Progressivism is defined as a political and social reform movement (Romero). This then lead to multiple reforms within the city. Newly appointed to mayor, Jerome Cavanagh made it his mission to reform the notoriously racist police force. Like numerous American cities at this time, tensions were present when talking about race relations in the city. Inequality was rampant between people of different color and class.
The issue of police racism is shown by Maraniss, and issue we still are fighting with today. He mentions the tension within the community of color and the police force mostly made up of white men. This reminded me of Gideon v. Wainwright, decided by Justice Earl Warren, which was decided close to the setting of the book. As I'll later mention Detroit downturn left numerous people out of a job and many impoverished. Arrest usually tend to increase when unemployment rises. Gideon v. Wainwright led to numerous reforms that would help those who needed legal guidance but could not afford it. Detroit would benefit from such a progressive idea. This would help people of the community, in which there was tension with the police force. These people now could defend themselves properly if need be.
The stress of inequality was also present when Reverend C.L. Franklin led people in the “March to Freedom”. 125,000 people followed Reverend Franklin to center of the city. Due to the success of motown, many people viewed Detroit as an example of how blacks could thrive and that Detroit was a good environment for backs (Smith 24). When blacks came to the city they faced the same discrimination they had in previous locations. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came to the city of Detroit to speak against discrimination and to promote racial harmony. Here, he performed his acclaimed “I Have a Dream” speech that would later become celebrated in the Washington march. Motown influenced the cultural and people's outlook on life. The music being produced was a symbol of resistance to oppression. Music instilled a sense of hope to many people in the community and the country. David Maraniss mentions the issue of “white flight” in his novel.
“White flight” is the phenomenon of white people leaving largely congested urban cities to less populated suburban areas. I think it is important to understand what set the up the environment that would have caused this in Detroit in the sixties and decades to follow. I believe that some factors that contribute to this phenomenon are race and economics. Suburbanization started in the fifties after World War II, and attracted whites to come leave the cities for a better quality of life (Frey 425). The G.I. bill helped numerous returning veterans from World War II, with benefits, such as low mortgages, low loans and helped them with attending higher education. Many African Americans did see an increase in college attendance as a result of the G.I. Bill, but they did not gain as many benefits as whites did (Herbold). This bill helped mostly white veterans find homes in the suburbs while almost completely ignoring black
applicants.
A common theme across the country, we see in the sixties and the decades afterwards, was deindustrialisation of urban cities. Industrial Jobs are disappearing from these urban settings. The reason that Detroit was hit hard by deindustrialisation was because the automobile industry keep the city alive. When you take these jobs away via technology improvements or take your company overseas, working class americans suffer. This leads a whole classes of people unemployed.
Jobs start moving to the suburbs, leading whites to follow and leave the city, resulting in “white flight”.
Race was a hot issue all over the south in the sixties, but with that said, it is important to note that racism was also present in the north. While Michigan did not part taken specifically in Jim Crow laws, segregation was common practice. At the time labor unions rarely included minorities. Since un-unionized minorities were working for these companies. They have no incentive to look out for the well being of their workers. Companies and state governments start to invest less in low socioeconomic cities and invest more the suburbs. David Maraniss mentions examples this when he talks about the old YMCA gym he used to attend when he was younger. The poverty he faced when he returned back to Detroit is a result of
deindustrialization.
Due to discriminatory practices mentioned in the G.I. Bill and less access to resources, African Americans and other minorities are put at a disadvantage and do not have the opportunity to leave the city and move to the suburbs. It was not economically practical for them to leave the cities. These minorities did not, and some would argue still do not, have the same access to affordable homes as their white counterparts did. Property discrimination continued to deny African Americans and people who classified on the lower socioeconomic class the opportunity to invest in property and better communities (Frey 426). Blacks had little access to mobility socially and economically.
The economic state that Detroit was in it has affected generations and continues to do so. Looking back on recent history, we have started to see a ginormous incline in incarceration rates. In recent decades, as a result of what I believe to be the war on drugs, we have seen incarceration rates skyrocket in the United States. Unfortunately we have seen a crackdown on cities like Detroit, low socioeconomic cities, high unemployment rates, and cities who mostly consist of African Americans and other minorities.