In 1943 and 1967 there were heavy race riots in Detroit. Mainly they were caused by financial differences between black and white, missing apartments and the brutality of the police. About 77 people were killed and more than 2000 houses were burned down. In the end the fights became so hard that the army had to intervene.
When Detroit got it’s first black major in 1970 nearly all white citizens left the district and moved behind the 8th mile. They left a broken city which looks like a ghost town in many areas. The mostly black people who still stayed in the departments round the inner city had no jobs and no perspectives. The drug scene became one of the biggest in the USA and the criminality is extremely high.
1977 the Ford Motor Company built the Renaissance Center and tried to revitalise the city. But not at least because of the actual crisis spring in Detroit seems far away.

Pictures in cooperation with Christian von Manteuffel.