In the spring of 1968, Detroit was reeling from the assassination of Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. and the uprisings that followed. Suzanne de Passe, a Harlem girl who’d eased out of Syracuse University to book acts at a New York City nightclub, was then staying at the Harlan House where a lot of Motown acts lived – Diana Ross had the penthouse. De Passe, already known for her “ear,” was friends with the Supremes’ Cindy Birdsong, who introduced her to Berry Gordy. After functioning for a short time as a Motown scout in New York, de Passe moved to the Motor City to become Gordy’s creative assistant. “All of the creative matters that came to his office, came to me,” de Passe recalled.