The Dominic Capeci Detroit Oral History Project collection (27.64 GB) features oral history interviews Capeci conducted about the Detroit race riot of 1943, the Detroit race riot of 1967, and Detroit during World War II. It also includes autobiographical information about Capeci's life and his career as professor of African American History.
Dominic J. Capeci Jr. was born in Port Chester, New York in 1940. His mother, Mary Rita Cashin, was a teacher and his father, Dominic J. Capeci Sr., was a lawyer. In 1958, he enrolled in the University of New Mexico where he developed a passion for history. After earning a BA in History with a minor in Biology in 1962, Capeci enrolled in the MA in History program at the University of New Mexico to pursue his goal of becoming a history professor. After graduating in 1964, Capeci accepted a position in the History doctoral program at the University of California, Riverside.
In 1968, he completed his dissertation, "The Harlem Riot of 1943", drawing on his studies of race relations in New York during World War II. From 1969-1972, Capeci taught African American History at Youngstown State University in Ohio where he helped to introduce Black History Week on campus and established a multi-disciplinary Black Studies Program. In 1972, he accepted a position at Missouri State University, known as Southwest Missouri State University until 2005. Capeci helped establish Black History Week at Missouri State University, which eventually evolved into African American Heritage Month. In 1991, he helped create an African American Studies minor after students requested opportunities for additional coursework on race relations.
In his scholarship, Capeci studied race relations, racial violence, and Detroit during World War II. He is an expert on the 1943 Detroit race riot and his work on the subject utilized police records, oral histories, and other archival records to provide a new perspective on the event. As of July 2019, Capeci authored five books and twenty articles including "Harlem Riot of 1943" (1977) and "Race Relations in Wartime Detroit: The Sojourner Truth Housing Controversy 1942" (1984). He also collaborated with Michigan State University professor Martha Wilkerson on the book "Layered Violence: The Detroit Rioters of 1943" (1991).
Missouri State University named Capeci a University Distinguished Professor in 1999 and he currently serves as Faculty Emeritus in the History Department.
