Detroit Population
1940-01-01
Detroit, Michigan
1,623,452people
Source: U.S. Census 1940
← Confidence Has No Budget
Detroit: 1941–1967
The rise and fall of the home of America's auto industry
A chronological timeline of Detroit's transformation from wartime industrial capital to a city in crisis. Beginning with the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the federal mobilization that made Detroit the heart of American manufacturing, the sequence traces the auto boom, the seeds of its own undoing in suburbanization and racial exclusion, and the 1967 riots that marked the city's break with its postwar identity.
10 events·7 data points·1940–1970
War Time
1941–1945Attack on Pearl Harbor
1941-12-07Honolulu, HawaiiUS government bans civilian auto production
1942-02-10Detroit, MichiganUS automakers fearing loss of profits were initially reluctant to convert to military production. In February 1942, the US government banned civilian auto production. Later in that same year, Roosevelt created a system of tax breaks and incentives which guaranteed production costs and paid a percentage of profits for wartime goods.
1943 Detroit race riot
1943-06-20Detroit, MichiganThe lack of housing, competition for jobs and racist white attitudes unchanged from the Jim Crow era culminated in the bloodiest racial episode of the 1940s. In June 1943, the Detroit Race Riot ended with 34 dead, 433 people injured and two million dollars worth of property destruction.
End of World War II
1945-09-02Tokyo, Japan
The Auto Boom
1945–1950River Rouge employment
1946-12-01Detroit, Michigan75,000peopleHenry Ford dies
1947-04-07Dearborn, MichiganDetroit Population
1950-01-01Detroit, Michigan1,849,568peopleSource: US Census 1950
Peak Detroit population
The Peak and Seeds of Demise
1950–1956Bank of Japan bails out Toyota
1949-12-01Tokyo, JapanUS auto sales
1950-12-316,700,000vehiclesCrosley Motors ceases automobile production
1952-07-01Cincinnati, Ohio
Exodus
1956–1966Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956
1956-06-29Washington, D.C. · Dwight EisenhowerDetroit Population
1960-01-01Detroit, Michigan1,670,144peopleSource: U.S. Census 1960
11% decline from the previous decade
River Rouge employment
1960-12-01Detroit, Michigan30,000people
A city struggles to cope
1966–1970Detroit enacted its first city income tax
1962-07-01Detroit, Michigan1967 Detroit riot
1967-07-23Detroit, MichiganDetroit Population
1970-01-01Detroit, Michigan1,511,482peopleSource: U.S. Census 1970