Freedom Now!: Detroit and the Revolutionary of 1963

• In Event: Messages From The Grassroots: Revolutionary Grassroots Leadership and Cultural Politics

Abstract

In August 1963, Motown Records' founder Berry Gordy released the speech that Martin Luther King Jr. delivered at the Detroit Walk to Freedom. It serves as an archival record for one most eventful and transformational years in Detroit’s Black freedom struggle. This paper discusses the explosion of grassroots political activism that occurred in the city that year. It attempts to shift the focus of Black radical activism in the city beyond the narrative of the 1967 Detroit rebellion, and instead explores the circumstances, leaders, organizations, and strategies used by Black Detroiters in the years that preceded the unrest. In particular, the paper will discuss local people, such as Cynthia Scott, Albert Cleage, and John Conyers, to more national figures like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. This paper adds to the growing literature on the northern Black freedom struggle, and centers the efforts made by Black Detroiters to radically transform the racial climate in the city.

Author

• Darius J. Young, Florida A&M University