New
Neighbors
Seeking a Better
Life
By 1920 Michigan
was one of the nation's most ethnically diverse states. Thousands of
Italians, Austrians, Germans, Canadians, Hungarians, Poles and Russians
immigrated to Michigan after 1880. The newcomers found homes in cities
and created close-knit ethnic neighborhoods. They brought traditional
celebrations, music, customs, clothing, religions and stories to their
new country.
 Book stores, such as Detroit's Italian Book Store and the Finnish
Lutheran Book Concern in Hancock, sold not only books, but
foreign-language newspapers. Reading these publications helped the
newcomers learn about their new state, while maintaining their ethnic
ties.
The flow of
European immigrants slowed with World War I and post-war immigration
quotas. Migrants from the rural south quickly filled the job openings in
Michigan's factories.
I'm
goin' to Detroit, get myself a good job
Tried to stay around here with the starvation mob.
I'm goin' to get me a job, up there in Mr. Ford's place
Stop these eatless days from starin' me in the face.
When I start makin' money, she don't need to come around
'Cause I don't want her now, Lord, I'm Detroit bound.
1928
recording of "Detroit Bound Blues"
by Blind Blake
Detroit's African
American population jumped dramatically from 5,741 in 1910 to 120,066 in
1930. Trainloads of African Americans came to Michigan to escape
sharecropping, discriminatory Jim Crow laws and a society that condoned
lynchings.
I
came [to Detroit] as a youngster, fourteen years old. I came alone. My
parents were still in Alabama. . . . Police did everything they could
to keep you from going, because companies in the South were losing
their employees. . . . There were three of us leaving, but the three of
us wouldn't go to the window at once because if three of you went up
to buy a ticket, they would charge one as being a labor agent, and
you'd end up in jail. . . . When we got on the train, it sat quite
awhile before it left and finally the whistle blew and at the same
time we said; "Wheeee. . . free at last!''
M.
Kelly Fritz
The
Detroit Urban League
One
of the very, first things we needed to do, I decided, was to establish
some kind of community center. At that time the only place where Negroes
could gather for a meeting was in a church.
John
Dancy,
director of the Detroit Urban League
from 1918 to 1960
Begun
in 1916 to help African Americans find jobs, housing, health care and
recreation, the Detroit Urban League was particularly effective in
obtaining jobs in the auto industry. The league became a model for others
across the nation. Detroit hosted the annual conference of the National
Urban League in 1919, the first such conference held outside of New York
City.
 Under
the leadership of John Dancy, the Detroit Urban League started the
Columbia Street community center in 1919. With a reading room, a baby
clinic and a music school, the center provided help and companionship for
African Americans adjusting to a growing city. Other Detroit Urban League
activities included sports activities and a midwinter picnic.
I
moved to Detroit in the latter part of 1918. . . . There were nine of
us, seven children and mother and father . . . . [My father] couldn't
find employment in the South. . . . The Urban League helped find a home
for us on East Congress Street after the whole family was together.
James
Gumming
The
Ossian Sweet Case
Black
physician Ossian Sweet purchased a home in a white working-class
neighborhood in Detroit in 1925.
The
second evening after he moved in, a crowd gathered outside his house
and threw a barrage of rocks. As the people moved towards the house,
gunfire sounded. One person outside was killed; another wounded. Sweet and
the other people who were in the house at that time were charged with
first-degree murder.
Nationally
famed trial lawyer Clarence Darrow represented Sweet and the others,
arguing that a man had a right to defend his home. After two long,
emotional trials, the jury agreed, and a verdict of not guilty was
reached. The Ossian Sweet case was a landmark decision for African
Americans seeking equal opportunity.
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