During the colonial period, it was nominally ruled by France and Great Britain before the border was set in the early 19th century and it became part of the United States.
In the late 20th century, the 1967 Detroit riot broke out, fueled by African-American frustration with continuing racial discrimination and injustice.
Because of its proximity to Canada, across the Detroit River, the city became a station on the Underground Railroad by which refugee slaves from the South sought freedom.
A crowd of black residents had gathered at the Wayne County Jail in protest over a court verdict upholding the claim by agents of the Kentucky master.
Thirty persons of color were subsequently arrested for conspiring to free the Blackburns, in violation of provisions of the Fugitive Slave Law.
[1] On December 13, 1849, more than 60 shop owners along Gratiot Avenue destroyed tracks of the Detroit and Pontiac Railroad, which had been laid along the road and interfered with their businesses.
During this period, there were 12 disturbances in which a total of at least 17 brothels were either seriously damaged or destroyed, all on the east side, around the present-day Lafayette Park area.
[1] An ongoing economic depression strained relations among the growing immigrant ethnic communities, Detroit's leaders, and wealthy citizens.
On April 18, 1894, mostly Polish immigrant workers on an excavation project for the Water Board, on East Jefferson Avenue near Conner Street, attacked a crowd that had gathered at the site.
An estimated 1,000-person crowd of mostly ethnic whites gathered on February 28, 1942, at the intersection of Ryan Road and East Nevada Street to protest a black family that was moving into the newly built Sojourner Truth Projects.
This federal project was intended for black war workers and had been located in a predominantly white neighborhood, at a time when residential segregation was strong.
[1] This was another riot related to the social strains produced by rapid demographic changes in the city, and competition for jobs and housing during World War II.
Rioting erupted again on 12th Street on April 4, 1968, hours after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the major civil rights leader, in Memphis, Tennessee.
At one point, about 50 officers in riot gear chased a large crowd of over 6,000 people up Woodward Avenue from Hart Plaza.
Its most famous image was an Associated Press photo of Lincoln Park resident Kenneth "Bubba" Helms posing in front of the police cruiser that was torched.
Initially peaceful, the protests eventually turned into rioting after police cruiser windows were smashed along Michigan Avenue in Corktown.