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HISTORY LOVES COMPANY
HISTORY · PLACES · STORIES
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STORIES WE KEEP
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SUNDAY EDITION
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THEY LIED TO US · EPISODE 1
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What Really
Destroyed Detroit?
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The story America remembers begins with fire.
The evidence begins decades earlier.
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PREMIERES SUNDAY
10:00 AM EST
History Loves Company on YouTube
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Detroit did not die in 1967.
And the numbers make that almost impossible to argue.
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DETROIT POPULATION
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1950
1,849,568
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→
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1960
1,670,144
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Nearly 180,000 residents were already gone
seven years before the uprising.
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+746,000
people were added to metropolitan Detroit during that same decade.
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The city wasn't disappearing.
It was being redistributed.
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The jobs moved.
The families moved.
The money moved.
The highways made that movement easier.
And because of discrimination, not everyone was equally free to follow.
Explore more Detroit stories →
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America remembers the explosion.
It forgot the fuse.
Long before July 1967, decisions were already reshaping Detroit
in ways most people were never taught to see.
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THE VERDICT
We put Detroit's collapse on trial.
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THE AUTO INDUSTRY
Jobs, factories and investment increasingly moved beyond Detroit's borders while automation reduced the number of workers required.
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THE SUBURBS
The region continued growing, but an increasing share of that growth was taking place beyond Detroit's city limits.
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THE HOUSING SYSTEM
Redlining, restrictive housing practices and unequal access to mortgage financing shaped who could follow regional prosperity.
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THE FREEWAYS
New roads helped movement outward while freeway construction and urban renewal displaced existing Detroit communities.
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1967
A devastating event that accelerated existing problems and permanently changed Detroit's national image — but did not begin the decline.
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THE DECISIONS AFTERWARD
Industrial decline, recessions, political failures, shrinking revenue and decades of difficult decisions turned decline into a cycle.
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Want more stories about Detroit, architecture, neighborhoods and the places that shaped Michigan?
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THEY LIED TO US · EPISODE 1
Don't take my word for it.
Follow the evidence.
PREMIERES SUNDAY · 10:00 AM EST
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There's one more problem with the question.
Detroit was never actually destroyed.
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Its people remained.
Its neighborhoods remained.
Its churches remained.
Its businesses remained.
Its artists remained.
Its families remained.
Detroit is still here.
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HISTORY YOU CAN LIVE IN
Some of Michigan's history is still for sale.
Historic homes deserve more than a square-footage conversation.
Architecture, craftsmanship, neighborhood history and preservation all matter.
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Have a historic home story of your own?
Buying, selling, preserving, or simply trying to understand a historic property?
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ONE QUESTION BEFORE YOU GO
What were you taught destroyed Detroit?
Watch Episode 1. Then tell me whether the evidence changed your answer.
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KEEP EXPLORING
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— Chris
History Loves Company
Every home has a story. Let's discover yours.
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