<P> Historian David Maraniss cites milestones in 1962 - 64 that marked the city's sharp decline: the failure of a plan to host the Olympics; urban renewal uprooting black neighborhoods; urgently needed police reforms that stalled; and the failure to transform Detroit through the Model Cities and War on Poverty programs . Tensions started building that exploded in the 1967 riot, the most costly and violent in the country during a summer of numerous riots in cities . </P> <P> The 1970s brought a worldwide energy crisis with high gasoline prices . For the first time, the American industry faced serious competition from imported automobiles, which were smaller and more fuel - efficient . German Volkswagens and Japanese Toyotas posed a growing threat . </P> <P> In June 1963, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a major speech in Detroit that foreshadowed his "I Have a Dream" speech two months later . In Detroit, King was accompanied by Rev. C.L. Franklin, father of singer Aretha Franklin, who was also a musician and songwriter . Detroit played a major role in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s; the Model Cities Program was a key component of President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society and War on Poverty . Begun in 1966, it operated five - year - long experiments in 150 cities to develop new anti-poverty programs and alternative forms of municipal government . The ambitious federal urban aid program succeeded in fostering a new generation of mostly black urban leaders . </P> <P> Detroit had one of the largest Model Cities projects . Mayor Jerome Cavanagh (Mayor 1962--69) was the only elected official to serve on Johnson's task force . Detroit received widespread acclaim for its leadership in the program, which used $490 million to try to turn a nine - square - mile section of the city (with 134,000 inhabitants) into a model city . The city's political and business elite, and city planners, along with the black middle class, wanted the federal funding to assist the economic growth of the entire city . They sought to protect the central business district property values from nearby slums and to construct new revenue - generating structures . But, local community organizers and civil rights activists rallied poor residents in opposition to these plans . They said federal renewal funding should be used to replace deteriorating housing stock, whether with new public housing or low - cost housing built by private developers . The Model City program was terminated in Detroit and nationwide in 1974 after major race riots in the late 1960s most of its target cities . </P>

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