Capitol Park is the only city park in America where a state's first governor is buried. It's the birthplace of democracy in Michigan. Underground Railroad site. Streetcar and transit hub. Urban canyon. A block north of Detroit's iconic Coney Island restaurants. A symbol of the city's late twentieth-century decay, now a key part of its revitalization in a new millennium. Jack Dempsey, award-winning author of Michigan and the Civil War and president of the Michigan Historical Commission, uncovers tales of a uniquely inspirational public space that epitomizes the ups and downs of Detroit's three centuries.

Jack Dempsey is author of the 2012 Michigan Notable Book Michigan and the Civil War: A Great and Bloody Sacrifice and co-author of the 2013 Michigan Notable Book Ink Trails: Michigan's Famous and Forgotten Authors. He is a two-term president of the Michigan Historical Commission, former chair of its Civil War Sesquicentennial Committee and member of the Abraham Lincoln Civil War Round Table.