Michigan: Racial Tensions and Recession

Racial Tensions and Recession

Detroit was shaken by severe race riots in 1967 that left 43 persons dead and many injured, in addition to causing $200 million in damage. In the wake of the rioting, programs were undertaken to improve housing facilities and job opportunities in the city, but these failed as the city suffered massive outmigration. While Detroit deteriorated, the suburbs experienced dramatic growth, spreading throughout SE Michigan. Resistance to busing was a major political issue in the state in the early 1970s.

The state's dependence on the auto industry was exhibited during the recession of the early 1980s, when car sales slumped, many factories were closed and Michigan's unemployment rate at over 15% was the nation's highest. The federal government helped bail out the Chrysler Corporation in 1979, authorizing $1.5 billion in loan guarantees. After a brief period of recovery through limited diversification of the state economy, Michigan was again especially hard-hit by national recession and continuing foreign competition in the early 1990s, and it continued to suffer large, mainly auto-related manufacturing job losses over the next two decades. The financial difficulties arising in large part from the effects of those job losses led Detroit to file for municipal bankruptcy in 2013, although it susbequently exited bakruptcy in Dec. 2014. The Detroit suburb of Flint was also hit by a fiscal emergency, leading then-governor Rick Snyder to appoint an emergency manager who cut costs by switching the city's water supply to a cheaper alternative. This resulted in lead contamination of the city's water, creating a crisis that resulted in Snyder apologizing for his mishandling of the situation in early 2016. In Nov. 2020, a $641 million settlement was awarded to the victims.

Following Snyder's second term, Democrat Gretchen Whitmer was elected governor in 2018. She became a favorite target of then-President Donald Trump, which inspired several protests at the state capitol. In Oct. 2020, the FBI arrested several members of a rightwing paramilitary group who planned to kidnap Whitmer and possibly kill her.

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