Detroit’s Finest: Notable Black People Representing The D

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Depending on what metrics you use and whom you ask, Detroit is perennially one of, if not thee Blackest cities in the entire United States of America. As such, it’s no surprise the city affectionately referred to simply as “the D” has produced more than its fair share of notable Black people who have used the launching pad of the Motor City to cruise to a life of notable success.

Keep reading to find a list of Detroit’s finest: Notable Black people representing the D.

MORE: The Front Page: Jemele Hill Is Telling Her Truth

Detroit wasn’t always the oasis of Black American life that it has since become. Back in the middle of the 20th century — which really wasn’t all that long ago — the Great Migration took place where Black families moved en masse from the South to Detroit with the promise of steady job opportunities, particularly in the auto industry for which the city has become known. Before then, just a few small thousand Black people called Detroit home.

Once the Great Migration was completed, however, the city’s Black population swelled to closer to 150,000, thanks to the promise of livable wages. The mass influx sparked what is still known as White Flight, where the city’s white residents fled to Detroit’s suburbs, leaving Motor City with a disproportionately Black population.

Jemele Hill, one of Detroit’s most recognizable daughters, recently described the effect growing up in the city had on her.

“That breeds a much different mentality in the people there,” Hill recently told NewsOne about her Detroit upbringing. “That’s why certainly no one from Detroit is any stranger to having to work hard. Having to hustle, it’s just kind of built into our bones.”

She is far from alone. Each of the people named on the below list of notable Black people from Detroit exemplifies the attributes listed by Hill, and then some.