What the Eyes Don't See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City (One World Essentials)

by Mona Hanna-Attisha

Y FIRST VISIT TO FLINT WAS on a childhood trip to AutoWorld, an amusement park that was one of the city’s many revitalization schemes. Flint had once been a shining example of America’s industrial prowess, a city known for the highest average income and lowest unemployment. But by the 1980s, Flint had fallen on hard times. Deindustrialization had hit, along with the oil crisis. The joblessness rate was the highest in the country, prompting the media to give Flint one of its awful but catchy monikers—the “unemployment capital of America.” So when AutoWorld opened in 1984, the promoters said it would draw one million visitors a year—and most important, employ 650 Flint residents.