Run Home If You Don't Want to Be Killed: The Detroit Uprising of 1943

Documentary Arts and Culture

by Rachel Marie-Crane Williams

In the heat of June in 1943, a wave of destructive and deadly civil unrest took place in the streets of Detroit. The city was under the pressures of both wartime industrial production and the nascent civil rights movement, setting the stage for massive turmoil and racial violence. Thirty-four people were killed, most of whom were Black, and over half of these were killed by police. Two thousand people were arrested, and over seven hundred sustained injuries requiring treatment at local hospitals. Property damage was estimated to be nearly $2 million.

With Run Home If You Don't Want to Be Killed , Rachel Marie-Crane Williams delivers a graphic retelling of the racism and tension leading up to the violence of those summer days. By incorporating firsthand accounts collected by the NAACP and telling them through a combination of hand-drawn images, historical dialogue, and narration, Williams makes the history and impact of these events immediate, and in showing us what happened, she reminds us that many issues of the time—police brutality, state-sponsored oppression, economic disparity, white supremacy—plague our country to this day.

Genres: Graphic Novels, History, Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published February 25, 2021

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really admired the author's Elegy for Mary Turner: An Illustrated Account of a Lynching, but this work falls too short of that for me: a little too dramatized to be a strict history, a lot too dull to be an engrossing narrative.

While the events and social factors leading up to the uprising are laid out fairly well, the days of violence themselves come across as muddled and ill-defined as the book drills in close to show the specific stories of a handful of victims of white supremacy and police brutality at the apparent cost of presenting the bigger picture of what was happening throughout the city.

The writing is flat and the art unpolished and static, with way too many talking heads even in moments of action.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents: [Editor's introduction by Alexa Dilworth, Wesley Hogan, Tom Rankin] -- Prologue -- 1. No Forgotten Men, No Forgotten Races -- 2. The Four Freedoms: Executive Order 8802 -- 3. Meanwhile, Back in Detroit -- 4. The Sojourner Truth Housing Conflict -- 5. Labor, Race, War: 1941-1943 -- 6. Île aux Cochons, Hog Island, Belle Isle -- 7. Trouble in Paradise: Rumor, Riots, and Rebellion -- 8. Topsy/Eva -- 9. Up and Down the Street -- 10. White Lies -- 11. Aftermath -- 12. Eden -- Coda ["Belle Isle, 1949" by Philip Levine, from They Feed They Lion and The Names of the Lost: Poems]

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was previously unfamiliar with Detroit’s tumultuous race riots during wartime in the 1940s, so this was very informative to me. This project, by a U of Iowa Gender studies/Art History professor, features some of the rawest art I’ve ever seen used for a published graph novel, but it works. Ten years in the making; Photoshop technology evolving along with the story.

[Justine Cucchi-Dietlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read. Most local and national history focuses on the Detroit 1967 riot, so it was nice to see some light shed on the 1943 one for a change. I also appreciated the bibliography and author notes at the beginning and end. It really helped me understand where this book was coming from and what went into its narrative. I'm also a sucker for bibliographies and love looking for more to read from them, so there's that as well.
Most of my criticisms stem from this book being a graphic novel. I wasn't a big fan of the art style, which is a personal thing. I'm sure there are others who disagree with me and love it, so don't let my issue with it deter you. Additionally, I felt there were many issues and perspectives that were glossed over for the sake of time but needed to be addressed. I feel like making the book longer or trying to narrow the focus of the content would have improved this issue.
Overall, this book has definitely encouraged me to read further into the 1943 riot since I'm now interested in educating myself further on the topic. WWII and the Arsenal of Democracy often overshadows racial issues of the time in local history, which is honestly upsetting. I feel tensions were so high in the city because of WWII and Detroit's role in the war effort.

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative! I hadn’t really known anything about this particular occurrence before (I’m more familiar with the “race riots” aka massacres of the Reconstruction era and just after in the South) and I appreciated the careful attention to providing historical context.

Generally I’m so happy that the graphic novel format is being used to tell historical narratives nowadays. This is maybe the 5th or 6th history book in this format that I’ve read this year and I think it’s such a great medium to use — the graphic novel format brings history to life in ways that regular mainly-word books often fail to do.

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Readers who know little of 1943 uprising in Detroit will find this informative. It spends more time on context to the events than the actual few days of turmoil. It was more like a chapter, or an academic article than a narrative. I enjoyed the use oral histories. I did not find the illustrations helpful understanding the text.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew about the riots in the 1960s in Detroit but did not know about this event in the 1940s. Overall, this book made me very sad, as I feel that systems of white supremacy in the United States have not changed very much. The graphic novel format made it much more visceral.

[Leilani Mroczkowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm giving this 4 stars because I found this to be an accessible format for sharing a part of history that I never learned about. The storytelling gets 2.5 stars from me. It's a dry and clunky retelling of the events that lead up to 1943 Detroit Uprising.

[Ellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't even say I liked this one. I wanted more and I wanted things to be a bit easier to follow. I don't feel I got enough from this book to really understand the context behind the events in Detroit. I was inspired to learn more, but this wasn't the best source in my opinion