Following the death of Cardinal Edward Mooney, Dearden was appointed the second Archbishop of Detroit, Michigan, on December 18, 1958. He was active in community causes such as supporting equal employment opportunities and encouraging his diocese to work for better racial relations in Detroit. His commitment to racial justice frequently put him at odds with priests and lay Catholics at the parish level who organized to fight neighborhood integration. Dearden in 1967 concluded that "the Negro-white confrontation in American cities is in great part a Negro-Catholic confrontation."