In 1942 the United States Government hoped to solve some of the residential shortages by erecting housing projects. Construction workers built these Sojourner Truth Projects in Detroit, Michigan. Image: Photo by Arthur S. Siegel, “Detroit, Michigan. Sojourner Truth homes, a new U.S. federal housing project,” 1942. Credit: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection, [reproduction number, e.g., LC-USF35-1326].
Black families like this one took advantage of the opportunity to live in the Sojourner Truth homes. They sought to avoid the dilapidated, cramped conditions in older residences. Image: Photo by Arthur S. Siegel, “Detroit, Michigan. Typical Negro family at the Sojourner Truth homes,” 1942. Credit: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection, [reproduction number, e.g., LC-USF35-1326].
White occupants of the Sojourner Truth Projects resisted and picketed against living side by side with blacks. This conflict eventually erupted into a riot. Image: Photo by Arthur S. Siegel, “Detroit, Michigan. Rioting at the Sojourner Truth housing project,” 1942. Credit: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection, [reproduction number, e.g., LC-USF35-1326].
Police arrested many participants in the riot. The white real estate operator who incited the turmoil found himself in police custody. Many blacks, like the one pictured above, also ended up escorted to jail. Image: Photo by Arthur S. Siegel, “Detroit, Michigan. Riot at the Sojourner Truth homes, a new U.S. federal housing project, caused by white neighbors' attempt to prevent Negro tenants from moving in. Police arresting a Negro,” 1942. Credit: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection, [reproduction number, e.g., LC-USF35-1326].
Overall, the white’s efforts were organized and deliberate. They stated their demands very clearly. White protesters erected this sign directly facing the Sojourner Truth Projects. The American flags implicitly express that protesters thought they had the right as American citizens to benefit from segregation. Image: Photo by Arthur S. Siegel, “Detroit, Michigan. Riot at the Sojourner Truth homes, a new U.Sn federal housing project, caused by white neighbors' attempt to prevent Negro tenants from moving in. Sign with American flag ‘We want white tenants in our white community,’ directly opposite the housing project,” 1942. Credit: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection, [reproduction number, e.g., LC-USF35-1326].
Commentary
Finding these photos was relatively easy. I knew that I wanted to complete a photo essay on a race riot so I found the Library of Congress website and typed in my search terms: race and riot. I utilized the American Memory: America from the Great Depression to World War II website. For this reason, I thought that my inability to find more desirable photos depicting the race riots of 1919 or response to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. would be to my detriment. Fortunately, however, I found a wealth of digitized photos. After I decided on the race riots at the Sojourner Truth Projects I also used the search words: Sojourner and Truth. I was pleased that the search engine separated the results that contained all of my terms from the results that contained only some of my terms.
Next, I read the legal notice web page within the Library of Congress website. I learned that researchers do not have to pay fees to utilize or reproduce any of the library’s archives. Surprisingly, however, the web page also expressed that researchers are still responsible for making sure that they are not violating any copyright laws when they reproduce the library’s resources. I thought this page would relieve me from any further responsibility. For this reason, I read the rights and reproduction web page for every photo that I chose to include in my photo essay. As it turns out, since Arthur Siegel worked for the United States government as a photographer none of his pictures of the Sojourner Truth Riot can be bound by copyright laws. Unfortunately, this page also includes a disclaimer cautioning all researchers to make sure that copyright laws do not bar the photos from unauthorized reproduction. It seems that through some complicated legal process that I do not understand there is a slim chance that even Siegel's work may be protected under some copyright laws.
After I decided to take my chances and assume that researchers could reproduce Siegel's photos without seeking permission, I moved on. I started by physically writing an outline and typing my text into a Word document before I began to think about my photos. At first, I thought that I could use the “new post” function of my blog to construct my photo essay. I was saddened to find that the “add image” function does not work the way I thought it would. Photos do not appear at the insertion point like they would in a Word document. Instead they are formatted according to the layout I chose which does not place pictures correctly. Also, each new photo appears at the top of the post as opposed to the bottom of the post. I tried to compensate for this by adding each photo in reverse order and enlarging the photo as much as possible. I also found it easier to cut and paste my text from a Word document.
In the end I became wary of the blurriness in each picture, and wondered why some of the pictures were cut off after I published them. I uploaded all of my pictures again and used a laborious click, drag, and space (with the delete, backspace, and enter keys) process to make sure the post looked good. The post always looked different than the “view post” window so I had to publish it several times. Ultimately, I found that limited spacing and layout formatting works the best. I wonder if there is an easier way to do this.
6 comments:
Amazing. Thanks for this.
The seeds of discomfort and decay were planted may years ago in Detroit. We simply cannot go forward without looking back at events which shaped our emotional DNA.
Save our children from riots and economic bigotry and we save ourselves.
Interesting story but the sojourner Truth incidents did not constitute a riot by an definition, each incident in 1942 was individual If you want Detroit riots of that ere a major 7 day long race riot occurred in June of 1943;
34 killed of which all them killed by the police were Black.
1800 wounded.
Federal Troops just like '67 were called out to stop the whites and blacks who were killing each other when ever they were encountered.
Reading a Doris Kearns book and it makes reference to the Detroit race riots over housing. Just following up on writer's references. Was deliberate attempt at preventing blacks from housing after Fed Gov't had already designated the housing for minorities and not whites.
Many institutions limit access to their online information. Making this information available will be an asset to all.
Essay Writing Help
Do you have a source for the statement, "The white real estate operator who incited the turmoil found himself in police custody" please? I found a letter to the editor of a Harvard university paper, and the author indicates that it was was the Gran Dragon of Michigan who incited the riot.
Thank you!
-Pink
The Harvard Crimson
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1942/3/16/the-mail-pto-the-editor-of/
THE MAIL
NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED
Published: Monday, March 16, 1942
To the Editor of the Crimson:
The recent Crimson editorial on the Detroit race riots clearly stated the abstract principles involved. Four points, necessary to make real sense out of the whole dirty business, were, however, omitted.
Firstly, your writer ignored completely the role which the KKK had played in organizing the attack on the Negro families. The riot was by no means a spontaneous uprising, but upon instruction of the Michigan Grand Dragon of the Klan.
Secondly, no mention was made of the mass reaction of wideawake citizens of Detroit, led by the city's powerful trade union movement. The county organizations of the CIO and AFL joined with Negro and white church, youth, fraternal and civic groups to form and support the Sojourner Truth Citizen's Committe. This Committee held a mass meeting last week which enthusiastically approved a four-point program demanding the punishment of the Klan, the city, and the government officials who directly and indirectly instigated the riot.
Thirdly, Attorney General Biddle has ordered the Federal Grand Jury to investigate the conspiracy to foment the riots and will prosecute to the limit of the law. Mayor Jeffries of Detroit has condemned the Hitler facties used on the Negroes.
Lastly, by pointing out merely the paradox of such anti-democratic action, the editors did not go far enough in their analysis. The students must be made to realize that the Detroit incident is only one fact of the huge attempt to divide the American people and provide propaganda for fascist agents among our present and prospective allies. Klansmen and Christian Fronters are not only had Americans, but more importantly, very good Nazis. Their crime is not so much against the constitutional rights of a minority but against the national effort to smash Hitlerism.
Harvard Inter Race Council
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