Benj
Jr. Member
Posts: 979
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« on: November 22, 2012, 08:23:56 PM » |
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Flint was hit relatively late by the economic decline that began in Michigan in the 1950s and 60s. While Detroit's population peaked in 1950 and had declined dramatically by 1960, Flint's population peaked in 1960 (and at the time it was the second-largest city in Michigan). In 1960, Macomb County was already suffering from "peak employment" in the Detroit auto industry, but Flint's economy was booming.
Flint was also almost entirely white prior to the 1960s (when some middle class blacks fleeing Detroit's decline settled in Flint, triggering white flight).
Michigan was Republican when the economy was doing well, mainly because the workers used to believe that they had shared interests with their employers. The end of boom ended that perception.
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