Run Home If You Don’t Want to Be Killed: The Detroit Uprising of 1943

Several years into World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 to desegregate the defense industry. The idea was an all-hands-on-deck approach to help Detroit build tanks instead of autos. But as Black and white people from the South and immigrants from abroad converged on Detroit to find work, competition for jobs and housing led to anger all around. Black workers resented unequal treatment from racist employers, city officials, and police, while whites fought to maintain privilege by any means necessary. Tensions exploded on a hot Sunday night that over several days left 34 people dead, most of whom were Black and were killed by police, with 750 injured and $2 million in property damage. Williams’s (Elegy for Mary Turner) smudgy, unpretty grayscale drawings give voice to all sides, much of the text quoted from archival sources.