This five-part map series synthesizes the research findings and documented incidents of police violence and misconduct contained in the website exhibit Detroit Under Fire: Police Violence, Crime Politics, and the Struggle for Racial Justice in the Civil Rights Era, published March 2021 by the Policing and Social Justice HistoryLab. The map series is designed for use in high school and college classrooms and provides an alternative, streamlined way to explore the main themes and key events covered in the Detroit Under Fire exhibit. The five chronologically organized StoryMaps document 188 fatal shootings and other law enforcement homicides, and more than 400 additional brutality and misconduct incidents, through dozens of interactive maps and other visual and documentary features.
View all five of the map series here.
Individual links:
Detroit Under Fire Pt. I: Mapping Police Violence and Misconduct (1957-1963)
“Detroit Under Fire Pt. I” is the supplemental StoryMap based on the “Civil Rights and Police Brutality, 1957-1963” section of the Detroit Under Fire exhibit. The 11-part interactive map series introduces the NAACP’s campaign against police brutality during the civil rights era and documents 27 police homicides, including 8 fatal shootings of teenagers, and 64 other brutality and misconduct incidents during this time period.
Detroit Under Fire Pt. II: Mapping Police Violence and Misconduct (1964-1966)
“Detroit Under Fire Pt. II” is the supplemental StoryMap based on the “Liberal War on Crime, 1964-1966” section of the Detroit Under Fire exhibit. The 11-part interactive map series explores the civil rights protests against escalating police brutality under a liberal city government and the Detroit Police Department’s repression of black power organizations that launched direct-action protests. The maps further document 33 fatal and non-fatal shootings by police officers and 147 additional incidents of brutality and misconduct.
Detroit Under Fire Pt. III: Mapping Police Violence and Misconduct (1967)
“Detroit Under Fire Pt. III” is the supplemental StoryMap based on the “Uprising and Occupation, 1967” section of the Detroit Under Fire exhibit. The six-part map series documents 47 fatalities, including 35 by law enforcement, during the 1967 Uprising and features several controversial killings that the prosecutor nevertheless declared to be ‘justified.’
Detroit Under Fire Pt. IV: Mapping Police Violence and Misconduct (1968-1970)
“Detroit Under Fire Pt. IV” is the supplemental StoryMap based on the “Radicalization: Police Violence and Black Power, 1968-1970” section of the Detroit Under Fire exhibit. The 13-part map series examines the escalation of politically motivated police violence against civil rights, black power, and New Left activists during this era and further documents 18 fatal shootings by law enforcement officers, an additional 78 brutality and misconduct incidents, and the pervasive pattern of official coverups.
Detroit Under Fire Pt. V: Mapping Police Violence and Misconduct (1971-1973)
“Detroit Under Fire Pt. V” is the supplemental StoryMap based on the “STRESS and Radical Response, 1971-1973” section of the Detroit Under Fire exhibit. The 11-part map series explores the extreme violence of the notorious STRESS unit, which shot and killed 22 mostly unarmed people, and the massive Black community protests in response. The maps further document 84 police homicides during this three-year period, when the DPD was the deadliest police department per capita in the nation, and an additional 59 incidents of brutality and misconduct.
