Dead of Night (39 page)

Actual car production in Detroit finished in the 1980s. Only offices remain in the city and poverty and urban decline have
replaced the largesse of the past. Now characterised by empty auto magnates’ mansions and hectares of urban prairie, Detroit
is nevertheless starting to come back to life, albeit in a very different fashion. Individuals and groups have set up city
farms, art collectives, slow food restaurants, independent theatres and bookstores. Famous buildings like the Fox Theatre
and the Fisher Building have been beautifully restored and even some of the fabulous old auto bosses’ mansions in Brush
Park have been saved. Detroiters themselves remain a tough, no-nonsense group of people who love their city and will proudly
show it to visitors with eyes to see beyond the ‘murder capital of America’ label. It’s the best US city I have ever visited.

The people known as the Melungeons originate from the Appalachian states of Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee.
They are characteristically dark-skinned, sometimes with startling blue eyes, and are thought to be of mixed-race origin.
However, just what this mixed-race heritage might contain is open to question. Some believe that they are gypsies, others
that they have Native American or Spanish blood. The most famous group of Melungeons believe that they are descended from
a group of Ottoman sailors who were shipwrecked on the US coast in the sixteenth century. Some genetic data exists to support
this claim and deputations of Melungeons have visited Turkey and been most warmly welcomed in recent years.

However, what has generally characterised Melungeon life is prejudice. Neither white nor black, they fitted nowhere. Hidden
for years in the Appalachian Mountains, they appeared to outsiders a strange and ignorant southern people. How many Melungeons
went north to Detroit to work in the car plants is unknown. But like both whites and blacks from the south, many of them moved
north for higher wages and a better, more equal life. Most got more money, but, albeit not officially, prejudice and segregation
remained.

This book would have been poorer, if not impossible, but for the kind assistance of the following people and organisations.
Firstly I’d like to thank Urban Adventures for their fine introduction to downtown Detroit. I’d also like to acknowledge my
cousin Brian Mills. Invaluable support was also provided by members of the DetroitYes forum. I’d particularly like to mention
Lowell Boileau, Sumas and Ron, Sumas’s mum, Gannon, Stromberg, Bluidone and granddaughter Jessica. Long live Mark Covington
and his mum Lorraine and all the wonderful people at the Georgia Street Community Collective. Keep growing, guys!

Kathleen and Dave Marcaccio and the fabulous Django took me to parts of the city that tourists do not reach and I thank them
all so much for that. I thank them for being patient, kind, enthusiastic, and totally understanding what I wanted to do and
why. Thanks too to Greg at Leopold’s Bookstore.

My final thanks go to all the folk I just met on the streets of Detroit. Whatever your situation, you made this foreigner
feel at home in your city.

¹
Dolmuş: Turkish shared taxi. In the fifties, sixties and seventies, dolmuşes were usually large American cars. These days
they are generally minibuses.

²
Meyhane: traditional Turkish drinking establishment.