Herb Boyd On Black Detroit In The Years Before The 67 Rebellion

Mar 14, 2021

This is part 1 of a 2 part conversation with journalist, educator, author, and activist Herb Boyd. Our conversation with Boyd centers around his book Black Detroit, with particular attention paid to the middle of the 20th Century, leading up to the development of The League of Revolutionary Black Workers. 

In this part of the conversation Boyd talks about moving to Detroit, the strains of Black progressive and radical politics going on at the time. We ask about the importance of figures like Malcolm X and MLK to Black organizers in Detroit. Boyd shares some of the issues facing Black workers in the working class city of Detroit at the height of its relationship to automobile manufacturing, and the contradictions that arose in the union movements for Black workers specifically. Boyd also shares some personal history of key Black organizers, activists and politicians in this era, leading up to the Rebellion of 1967.