Sojourner Truth Project

Sojourner Truth Homes
Map
General information
TypeResidential
Address4801 E. Nevada, 48234
Town or cityDetroit, Michigan
CountryUnited States
Coordinates42°25′34″N 83°03′19″W / 42.42611°N 83.05528°W / 42.42611; -83.05528
Groundbreaking1941
References
[1]
Sojourner Truth Homes
MPSThe Civil Rights Movement and the African American Experience in 20th Century Detroit MPS
NRHP reference No.100008140[2]
Added to NRHPSeptember 15, 2022

As a strikingly controversial project in 1941, Sojourner Truth Project set precedents for Detroit housing project policy through the next decade. Created by the Detroit Housing Commission (DHC) and United States Housing Authority (USHA), the proposed 200 units would alleviate housing shortages caused by the wartime climate of World War II. However, the project was met with extreme backlash from white residents and middle-class black homeowners in Conant Gardens.[3] Violence erupted in 1942 when black families moved into the project housing. More than a thousand black supporters and white opponents crowded streets culminating in violent displays later characterized as the Sojourner Truth riot.

  1. ^ Sugrue, Thomas J. (1996). The origins of the urban crisis: race and inequality in postwar Detroit. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 069101101X. OCLC 34472849.
  2. ^ "Weekly List 2022 09 16". National Park Service. September 16, 2022. Retrieved September 21, 2022.
  3. ^ Capeci. Race Relations in Wartime Detroit. pp. 75–99.