Normal view

There are new articles available, click to refresh the page.
Yesterday — 31 October 2024Main stream

The Metro: The history (and end) of Devil’s Night in Detroit

31 October 2024 at 00:29

The day before Halloween is referred to as Mischief Night in many parts of the country, but in Detroit, it used to be called Devil’s Night.

For decades, that night filled many with fear, as neighborhoods with abandoned homes or businesses prepared themselves for possible arson. City of Detroit Historian Jamon Jordan joined The Metro on Wednesday — the day before Halloween — to share more about the history of Devil’s Night in Detroit and how community members came together with the city to put an end to it.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple PodcastsSpotifyNPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Throughout the U.S. there’s always been pranks connected to Halloween — draping toilet paper on trees, throwing eggs at cars, and other mischief that didn’t cause the most damage. 

In the 1980s there were about 800 fires around Halloween, Jordan said. Community groups and the city took steps to wipe out Devil’s Night, oftentimes doing patrols the day before Halloween and enforcing youth curfews. In the ’90s, the community and city started doing joint patrols and renamed it Angel’s Night. 

“So these things begin to work in concert with one another, and there’s thousands of people who begin to volunteer. By this point, with so many people out on the street with eyes on almost every neighborhood, especially the vacant houses in the neighborhood, it begins to make it have an effect on stopping the fires,” he said. “Within a few years, the fires really go way way down and then eventually we don’t even talk about Devil’s Night…”

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation with Jordan.

More headlines from The Metro on Oct. 30, 2024:

  • Yesterday, a poll by The Hill showed Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of Donald Trump by five points. But polling has generally been very tight, and most political scientists believe this election could easily go either way. To discuss why the election is so tight in Michigan and how voters are feeling right now, we were joined by Matt Grossman, head of the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research. 
  • In the latest spooky episode of CuriosiD, WDET’s Jeff Milo looked into chilling rumors that the Detroit Public Library’s Main Branch on Woodward might be haunted by ghosts. 
  • Early voting is underway in Michigan, and we’ve heard from some of you that with more than 20 Detroit Public Schools Community District Board candidates vying for three seats, people are feeling overwhelmed with all the choices. To help us break down the race we’re joined by Chalkbeat Detroit Bureau Chief Lori Higgins.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 11 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

Trusted, accurate, up-to-date.

WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today. Donate today »

The post The Metro: The history (and end) of Devil’s Night in Detroit appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.

❌
❌