Michigan schools skimp on teaching about riot

Michigan schools don't spend a substantial amount of time on the riot. Some may not cover it at all.

"There isn't anything that mandates it," said David Hales, a social studies consultant with the Wayne Regional Educational Service Agency.

State standards for social studies allow plenty of opportunities for coverage of the civil rights movement, but they don't specifically mention either civil rights or the Detroit riot. Proposed new standards do, suggesting in part that discussion of riots in Detroit and other cities be part of lessons on tensions and responses to poverty and civil rights.