There were riots in Detroit in 1967, as in many American cities in the late 60s (Detroit's was actually one of the first of that trend). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_Detroit_riot

A white exodus from Detroit immediately followed. You can see in the wikipedia decade-by-decade population statistics that Detroit's population loss began between 1960 and 1970, and continued -- and further, with the racial breakdown, that the population loss was almost exclusively white people, with the black population actually continuing to rise through 1990. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_history_of_Detroit

Although, in fact, you can see in the figures above that white (but not black) population of Detroit had actually already started to drop between 1950 and 1960, it accelerated significantly, and amazingly quickly, after 1967.

Here's a good popular article on the history of race relations -- and white disinvestment and abandonment -- in Detroit, blaming white abandonment for Detroit's current distress. http://www.epi.org/blog/detroits-bankruptcy-reflects-history... I strongly recommend this short readable article.

Coleman Young, the first African-American mayor of Detroit, served as mayor from 1974 to 1994. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coleman_Young

As that wikipedia article says, "Young's tenure as mayor has been blamed in part for the city's ills, especially the exodus of middle class taxpayers to the suburbs, the emergence of powerful drug-dealing gangs, and the rising crime rate." The accusations you see in this thread of 'government mismanagement' began with Young's long tenure. Whether they are right or wrong (I'm not a huge fan of Young myself), in fact white flight (which is the entire nature of Detroit's population decline, as the wikipedia demographic statistics show -- black population continued to rise for decades as Detroit's overall population plummeted) began long before Young's election, so can't be a response to any mismanagement from Young's administration.

Shivetya's claim that "They only left when the politicians forgot their job and instead served to stir up resentment and worse," is typical (and is typical in being about race while avoiding using racial words; 'abominable culture', oh? Sadly, I don't think he means an abominable culture of white supremacy. 'stir up resentment', eh? Gee, what could black people in Detroit have had to be resentful about, unless it was artificially 'stirred up'? I suspect people saying such things feel similarly about Ferguson) -- but gets the order of history of wrong. I suppose you could blame Young (or subsequent black mayors) for not managing to reverse the disinvestment trend (although, then, the U.S. auto industry started shrinking and what was left leaving municipal Detroit, which was going to be a problem no matter what; although the fact that the auto industry too increasingly moved to the suburbs is actually part of the 'white flight' story) -- but it's simply a historical fact that the disinvestment trend pre-dated black control.

If the people in this thread blaming bad municipal government really mean pre-1967 white municipal government they should say so and explain what they mean -- but generally the people making these arguments (with barely coded racial terms) mean the post-1974 Coleman Young administration -- but by the time Young took power, the white exodus was already massive, which is what led to his election in fact.

Nobody's gonna read this tldr post in deeply nested not highly rated part of this comment thread, but you asked, so I give you what you ask for, cause this shit pisses me off.