Detroit's lower east side is where blues great John Lee Hooker performed at Henry's Swing Bar on Madison Street in Black Bottom strumming his guitar and voicing in his signature style spoken-word Mississippi drawl. Here, he recorded one of his popular hits, "Boogie Chillen." It is also where Black congregations like Tabernacle Baptist Church, which the Sheffield family helped to found, Plymouth Congregational Church and others launched their religious institutions. It is also where Coleman A. Young, Detroit's first Black mayor grew up.

The city's Black population skyrocketed from 5,700 in 1910...