From that time forward Detroit became the symbol of the great melting pot and the American dream. African Americans from the South, immigrants from across the world made Detroit home. The UAW was born in Detroit, free-working people fighting for the right to organize. They fought all the powers of heaven and Earth, the government, and the police. They put their lives on the line and in some cases forfeited them for the dream of a middle class life.
During the 1960's, racial injustice combined with police brutality in the form of the "Tac Squad" and the "Big Four" police units, boiled over into a riot in Detroit the likes of which hadn't been seen on American streets since the Civil War. Forty-three people dead, almost twelve hundred injured and seven thousand arrests. It was not a noble cause, but it was necessary as the poor and the oppressed rebelled against their perceived oppressors.
We, the people of the United States and the world, owe a debt of gratitude to the ghosts of Detroit. For if America has a heart, Detroit is where we check our pulse. Detroit was a city built on autos that built a nation built on autos. Autos built by blue collar, working-class folks who believed in the American dream as the dream of prosperity through hard work.
I could go on and on with page after page of all that has been done wrong, but I'll stop here with all that Detroit has done right. For all that she has given to the world, she's a city that deserves better from a country that has forgotten its heroes and its roots, and sees them only as ghosts of the dead. It is policies that have put us where we are. The brains the hands and the spirit which changed the world are still there waiting to be tapped again.
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