Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The race riots didn't help, but they were largely secondary to the factories leaving. That's not what I mean. What I understand was that, in many cities (not just Detroit), racism led to the factories leaving.
How does that work? Did GM suddenly decide there were too many black people in Michigan so they moved to Georgia?
One is that the auto manufacturers wouldn't hire black people into serious jobs - for a long time, all they could be was janitors, etc. I read one account that they went to local black leaders for recommendations and one person had a graduate degree - CPA or MBA, iirc. They got a dead-end clerical job or something like that.
Union workers were often actively hostile, even when union leadership welcomed them. Multiple times they walked out when one black person was hired.
Also, local racism crushed the black community, which would be the workforce. Redlining effectively prevented black people from living outside certain neighborhoods and prevented them from getting loans. They ended up packed into these neighborhoods, subject to white slumlords who charged exhorbident rents. Schools were awful. With little education, no money, no access to credit, and even if you overcame all that, no opportunity for career. Don't forget police brutality, race riots against blacks everywhere, lynchings in the South, etc.
There is more I'm not remembering atm.