U-M undergraduate student Lily Johnston, a senior majoring in biopsychology, cognition, and neuroscience and minoring in history of law and policy, has written “Barbara Jackson, Detroit 1964,” a multimedia investigative report created as part of the Policing and Social Justice HistoryLab and the Documenting Criminalization and Confinement project.
“In August 1964, white police officers viciously beat Barbara Jackson after arresting her on prostitution charges. The 22-year-old Black woman immediately began a long quest for justice, demanding an internal investigation by the Detroit Police Department, which covered up the incident, and then appealing to the newly established Michigan Civil Rights Commission.
Her courage resulted in the commission’s first police brutality investigation, a long forgotten story that deserves to be remembered as a milestone for the civil rights movement in Detroit.”
Johnston presents the case of Barbara Jackson in a dynamic and compelling Storymaps feature, which—through narrative, archival documents, and photographs—allows readers to immerse themselves in Jackson’s historic struggle for civil rights.