Where were you during the 1967 Detroit Riot?

[Cass1966]

I’m still waiting for an apology from the black community for the damage they did to the city

[stasu1213]

I’m still waiting for an apology from the black community for the damage they did to the city

The black community wasn't the only one burning and looting.

[Buy American]

The black community wasn't the only one burning and looting.

Really? What other group rioted?

[Hermod]

Really? What other group rioted?

Must have been all of them Lithuanian and Ukranian DPs who came to Detroit in late forties.

[SCS_Scooter]

I was about 10 years old at the time. We lived on Faust and I remember my Dad, Mom and little brother driving over to my Grandma's house on Ferguson to stay with her. My Grandpa was a DPD Reserve Officer that went out to "Protect and Serve" and that would have left Grandma all alone. Papa was all dressed in his uniform with his gun and I remember my Grandma begging him not to go. Not something a kid should have to witness. I do remember it like it was yesterday. My other Grandma was living in Alden Park at the time. 7th floor, city side. She could have worked for CNN with that view! The stories she told...geeze.

[Bobl]

Really? What other group rioted?

There were many "white" people looting stores. Nobody stopped them to find where their parents and grandparents were from...

[Ravine]

The following spring, the nuns warned us to be alert during summer vacation, because the word was that "they" might come out to the 'burbs, this time.
I'm not sure who they meant. The nuns, themselves, were the ones what scared me.

[Buy American]

There were many "white" people looting stores. Nobody stopped them to find where their parents and grandparents were from...

Did you witness this? I remember the riots very well since I worked for the Detroit Fire Department at that time. I don't remember seeing or hearing of whites looting and burning.

[oladub]

Really? What other group rioted?

I ran into a despicable white guy who claimed to have participated in the looting with other whites. His rationalization was that the stores were already in the process of being looted and "we weren't going to let the ------s get it all".

In some situations, the theme was anarchy and looting rather than race although the stores marked 'soul' weren't usually looted until after the white owned stores.

[river rat]

Most of us who were there would rather forget that time period. I lived at Mack and Beaubien and had an E.ticket for the entire fiasco. I worked in health care at the time and remain amazed at the continung claim that "only" 40 some individuals lost their lives due to the riot/uprising/rebellion. The 'riot deaths' were those due to trauma caused by obvious murder or arson. Those who were killed when hit by cars, had heart attacks, didn't get to the hospital for logistical reasons, etc. were not classified as such. Eugene Methvin has written on the riots and it is worth a read. old.nationalreview.com/flashback/flashback200509011316.asp

There were two weeks of tanks on the streets with soldiers everywhere. Those of us who considered ourselves Detroiters forever abandoned that dream that month of July, 1967. I have heard many say that it was only a minor reason for the decline of the city; do not believe that. When you were there and saw what transpired, you knew Detroit was doomed to a gloomy future. I left three years later and although my memories of growing up in Detroit remain happy, I have never regretted what some may say was abandoning the city. I disagree, the city I grew up in abandoned all of us.

River rat

[Detroit Stylin]

Really? What other group rioted?

Ummmmm....on some real....I have always wonder where you stood at on relations here. Now I am beginning to see....

[Buy American]

Ummmmm....on some real....I have always wonder where you stood at on relations here. Now I am beginning to see....

Yeah, this gives you a lot of information on where I stand doesn't it?

[mauser]

Really? What other group rioted?

First person killed in the riot was a caucasian, who was suspected of stealing shoe laces from a merchant. [Detroit Almanac 2nd Edition ]

[Magnatomicflux]

I’m still waiting for an apology from the black community for the damage they did to the city

....and then..........what? Then you'll pick up a hammer and start swinging it at some nails in the core? Houses, block after block spring up? Who is to do the appologizing? ONE black guy? The whole community? Who's appology is good enough? Appologize to you personally or at some media event?
The black community of Detroit today, have nothing to appologize for. Just like us white folk of today, have nothing to appologize for the things our race has done to countless others in the past. You remember those things right? Me neither, it was generations ago. What I'm getting at is your city, will NEVER be the place this forum strives for with half assed, 40 year old grudges. You can't seriously say that white people wern't looting too. Just because there are no "eye witness'" on this board right now, then that's it? Nah......people arn't built like that. A riot is a riot is a riot. Everyone gets in on the mix.
oladub said it perfectly:
"His rationalization was that the stores were already in the process of being looted and "we weren't going to let the ------s get it all". "

you can't see white people doing that??? No, white people arn't capable of participating is something so primal. Get real. I can't even beleive people still choose to think that way. Those comments arn't going to get you any "i'm sorry" s from anyone anyways. It just antaganises black people. What do you want them to say?
"sorry, but when all you white folks abandonned the city after the riot there wern't enough of us to maintain it, or ourselves and things went to shit" ????
I never want to jump into these race threads because they get nasty here on DYS, anywhere for that matter, and all it does is piss people off. Maybe I'm nieve, I don't come from a city with these kinds of tensions. But I do come from a city that watched another city burn to the effing ground as a result of this crap. And maybe, juuuuust maybe, that's why those tensions arn't so thick here.

I can only hope that you havn't spread that poisonous garbage to your children.

sorry...that's probably the first and last time I talk race here. That was just a stupid comment. I honestly hope I didn't offend anyone, you too Cass1966. I don't think your dumb or stupid, but that way of thinking certainly has to go. I only mean to say that this race garbage belongs in the history books. Keep this crap up and you're doomed to repeat it.

[MickeyMac]

I’m still waiting for an apology from the black community for the damage they did to the city

Maybe the racist white community should apologize. The 1967 riots was years in the making.

[Retroit]

I’m still waiting for an apology from the black community for the damage they did to the city

Who suffered more from the riot: blacks or whites?

It seems to me that the riot did more long-term harm to the black community than it did to the whites who moved off to better lives in the suburbs. The black community may have succeeded in driving the white "oppressors" from "their" city, but what did that leave them with? Arguably a more poverty-stricken and crime-infested city than they inherited in '67.