Dr. Arthur Johnson: "You do not find blacks running to Farrakhan."

That despair stemmed from years [the white community] could indeed "You do not find blacks running of job discrimination, housing seg- afford to throw it away." to Farrakhan," said Johnson. "He is Holding regation and underemployment, As the first African-Americans to not the chosen leader and is not go- said Johnson, who added that in the move into the Green Acres neigh- ing to be the chosen leader because years preceding the riots, blacks of- borhood in northwest Detroit, John- the majority of the black population A Torch ten found themselves training son's family witnessed white flight is not Muslim, not moving to the whites who then were promoted over firsthand. Muslim faith and not likely to move JULIE WIENER STAFF WRITER them. "As days and months passed, my to the Muslim faith. [There is also] It is the sound of sirens and glass A charter member of New Detroit, children would come in and say, a regimentation in Farrakhan's or- breaking that will always haunt Dr. a coalition of business and commu- `One more white family has moved."' ganization that is not attractive to Arthur Johnson, the former presi- nity leaders founded in response to Today, Johnson — who now lives most blacks." dent of the Detroit NAACP and a re- the riots, Johnson was initially with his wife in an apartment down- Johnson is critical of the nation- tired vice-president for university heartened to see "ordinary black town — estimates that the old al Anti-Defamation League's inves- relations at Wayne State Universi- men and women" at the table with neighborhood is 85 percent black. tigation several years ago of black ty. corporate powerhouses. Johnson says he was disappoint- anti-Semitism. Thirty years later, sitting in his However, despite spurring initial ed to see Jews join other whites in "Had the NAACP done a similar apartment overlooking the Detroit pledges to rebuild the city, Johnson leaving the city. study of racism among Jews, the River, Johnson is still saddened by points out that ultimately the riots "The most costly insult to black- Jewish community would have felt the memory of driving down Twelfth simply led to further urban neglect Jewish relations has come with the that in a different way," he said. "We Street with U.S. Rep. John Conyers and racial polarization. It is only movement of Jewish populations en are historically neighbors and in an unsuccessful attempt to stop now, under the leadership of May- masse away from the city," he said. friends, and you don't investigate the rioters. or Dennis Archer, that Detroit is ac- "It is difficult to see how black-Jew- your neighbors." However, in assessing the long- tually being rebuilt, said Johnson, ish relations can be significantly im- Despite the tensions between term impact of what he describes as although he added that Mayor Cole- proved from a distance. But we can't the communities, Johnson is a "tragedy," Johnson is able to point man Young — despite his lack of afford to give up." not ready to give up on the rela- out a few positives. "[The riots] popularity in the white communi- He recognizes that other obsta- tionship. brought [the white community] to a ty — made some contributions as cles —like anti-Semitic leader Louis "Blacks and Jews have a history great awakening to the depth of de- well. Farrakhan and disputes over affir- that cannot be denied," he said. "It spair and anger and alienation that "What was already taking place mative action — have divided Jews is a history in which each group has many African- Americans felt in the in the way of white flight from De- and blacks in recent years. But he suffered terribly tragic conse- community," he said. "Many in the troit was exacerbated [after 1967]," feels that black anti-Semitism — quences. I don't know how blacks business community began to real- he said. "The pace of flight was and Farrakhan — have been great- and Jews are going to become clos- ize for the first time how little at- quickened, and a peculiar kind of ly exaggerated by the media and, er, but I know we must. And I be- tention they had given to the racial thinking began to develop perhaps, by Jewish organizations as lieve that we will find a way to do oppressed black community here." here: that Detroit didn't matter and well. it." ID