This month marks the 70th anniversary of the Detroit Race Riot of 1943, during which white and black residents of the city clashed and rioted for three straight days after a fight that had taken place between two groups on Belle Isle on June 20, 1943. The riots claimed the lives of 34 Detroiters, wounded 433 and caused $2 million in property damages; the equivalence of $25 million today. At the time, federal troops were forced to intervene to restore calm and order to the City. 

Racial tensions were not new to Detroit, and Life Magazine had written “Detroit is a dynamite” in 1942. However, the 1943 Riot were the first time these tensions translated into large- scale racial violence.

The events of 1943 were the precedent for yet another race riot that devastated the city 24 years later, in 1967.

Carl Karoub, 82, former Detroit resident and Arab American teacher and musician, remembers the 43 riot vividly. He says that the Arab American community felt sympathetic towards the African American residents of Detroit, but did not take part in the violence at the time.

The clashes erupted after a fight had broken out between black and white visitors to Belle Isle. Allegedly, a black man had insulted a white sailor’s girlfriend. Enraged by rumors about what actually happened on the island, mobs started attacking one another in the streets of Detroit.

Buildings were burned down, businesses were looted and innocent bystanders were attacked, as Detroit slipped into a state of total chaos during the three-day riot.

Unfortunately, the Bell Isle incident was not the only catalyst for the riots. Racial tension had been evident throughout Detroit in the years leading up to the riot.  

During World War II, Detroit was referred to as the “Arsenal of Democracy” by President Franklin D. Roosevelt for its industrial contributions to the U.S. Army after the U.S. had entered the war in December 1941.

The defense and auto industries, along with the jobs that they promised, drew people from around the country, particularly from the rural south, to Detroit. The City’s population, from the onset of the war, had grown by 350,000 people; 50,000 of whom were black.

The ethnically diverse population influx resulted in obvious racial tension. African Americans, who had escaped the bigotry and segregation in the south, found themselves among unwelcoming residents of Detroit. Black Detroiters had to work on separate assembly lines, were mistreated by the police and restricted from taking up residence outside of a few poor neighborhoods in the City.

Karoub added that, to his knowledge, no Arab businesses were attacked during the riot. In the first half of the last century, the local Arab American population was concentrated on Detroit’s east side and Dearborn’s South-end.

“Arab merchants were not blamed by anybody,” he said.

Karoub, whose father, Hassan, was one of the first imams in North America, said that many black Muslims frequented his home, where his father taught them the Quran.

“Even Christian blacks respected Muslims and Arabs,” he said. “They understood that our community is color blind.”

The 82-year-old said that the inherent racism in society, some of which remains today, is what caused the riot 70 years ago, explaining that interracial marriages and time will help us to overcome racism, which has plagued our country since its creation.

The city of Detroit and its surrounding areas remain largely racially segregated today, 70 years after the city’s first race riot, while community leaders attempt ease tensions among Motor City’s different ethnic groups.