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Detroit through the Great Recession

A once shining example of wealth in a majorU.S. city, Detroit was the birthplace of the automotiveindustry in the country, the home ofMotown Records, and had millions of otherfactory jobs. With its hold on the automotivemarket, Detroit’s factories and productionlines cranked out cars and car parts thatwere shipped all over the world.

After World War I, the growing demand for auto assembly workers was increasingly limited by the restrictive U.S. Immigration Act of 1924, which set quotas on the number of new immigrants allowed access to the U.S. from certain countries. In response, the automotive industry turned to hiring African Americans, many of whom were leaving the Jim Crow South in the post-war agricultural slump affecting the nation.

By the 1950s, Detroit had the highest median income and rate of homeownership of any city in the country. Fifty years later, the city was in a major struggle for survival. Decades of white flight, the migration of white city-dwellers to the suburbs to escape the influx of minorities, along with the after-effects of the race riots of 1967, paired with the collapse of the city’s manufacturing foundation— especially the automobile industry—caused the economic slump that

decimated the financials of both the city and its people.

Metro and low-income areas where the population suffers from lack of education endure more severe recessions because those inhabitants have a tougher time finding or keeping jobs during periods of economic decline. Additionally, inner city economies dependent on a fluctuating

housing industry are more vulnerable to recessions. Dropping from a population of about two million during the 1950s to the almost 700 thousand today, Detroit is now the skeletal remains of a once bustling city.

Empty apartment buildings, houses, and factories encompassing a third of the city’s real estate sit stripped of their former glory—abandoned and overrun by nature. Across the U.S., the collapse of manufacturing was exacerbated by the recession and led to alarming unemployment rates and financial ruin coupled with severe urban decay.

The hopes of many to achieve the American Dream—a stable income and a home in the suburbs—has deteriorated with the richest 1% of Americans holding onto more financial wealth than the rest of the population. Since the 1970s, wages have stagnated regardless of the rising cost of living. An entire generation of aspiring working middle-class homeowners was wiped out by the recession, as shown by the character Faye in Skeleton Crew. The Great Recession simply served to aggravate the long-term trend towards the deepening racial and financial inequality in the country. After the rising economic upset the only hope Faye has left is the promise of her retirement package. As the play unfolds the evidence of just how far the decline of the once booming automobile industry becomes clear. This

was the reality of hundreds of workers who were left in the dark about their own futures. With the feeling of nothing left to lose and personifying the city of Detroit, the workers in Skeleton Crew hold out for their city’s motto: Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus (We hope for better days; it shall rise from the ashes).