Abstract In 1989, the Detroit Urban League initiated a project to create an oral history of Detroit’s African American community, underrepresented in traditional histories of the city, focusing on the period of 1918 through 1967, from near the time of the League’s founding to the civil unrest of 1967. Elaine Latzman Moon, then on staff at the Detroit Urban League, led the project and interviewed more than 200 participants from all walks of life, ages, and social and economic status, including many...