Focus: HOPE, a civil and human rights organization founded in 1968 by Fr. William T. Cunningham (1930-1997) and Eleanor M. Josaitis, began as the decision of several people to face an acute social and moral crisis. The 1967 riot left metropolitan Detroit sharply divided along racial lines. By early 1968, shock had deepened into bitterness and hostility. New words described the new reality: polarization, white backlash, black militancy, flight.