Where were you during the 1967 Detroit Riot?

**krapug1** · January-02-13, 03:41 PM

Originally Posted by lalynch

We were living in Summit, New Jersey. I was 7 years old. The focus there was the riots in Newark, NJ. I remember seeing the news reports on TV and being worried about my Dad who worked in Newark. After about that period, his office was moved to NYC.

As many know the Detroit and Newark riots were about 1 week apart from each other. In both cities the downtown areas were spared from major damage. However both downtown areas suffered a mortal blow from the riots in the form of all the offices and retail stores that started to flee either just after the riots, or when their leases came up.

By the mid-70's both downtown's saw a huge drop in their daytime "worker" population as companies moved their workforces to the suburbs.
Newark held onto it's last downtown department store [[Bamberger's/Macy's) longer than Detroit did, BUT in the last 10 years that Macys' was open [[1981 to 1991) it sold mostly clearance and cast off merchandise in a building that looked like a bank vault with all it's display windows closed up, and only 3 of it's 9 public entrance ways still in use.

I was 6 years old that summer and I still remember it well, too well.

Ken

**jefferson78** · July-26-10, 09:34 AM

I was 7 years old at the time of the riots. My family had just moved from the east side, living with my grandmother, to the west side. I remember my Mom talking on the phone with her Mom and mentioning a "race riot". I knew something bad was happening but could not put my finger on it. Hearing the word "race" and running my imagination, I envisioned revelers tearing up a city to conduct some kind of race.
Later on, the event became apparent when we visited my Grandma and stood on the porch with my brother and sister watching the National guard pass by in their vehicles and waving to them, thinking "this was different".
My Dad worked downtown at the Greyhound bus terminal and shortly after the violence subsided he drove our family down 12th street to see the damage. It was a surreal scene I won't ever forget and it really left an impression on me as a kid.
To this day, I am fascinated at the history of this unfortunate event and even ended up working with a former National guradsman when I was 35 who was sent into the middle of the most dangerous areas.
For all of Detroit's troubles and history, I will always be proud to call it my hometown and I pray that it will rise again to it's former glory.

**carolcb** · July-26-10, 10:19 AM

I was 12 and we lived in Wayne. My dad hauled cars out of the Ford plants and he was away - I am not sure what state he was in but far enough that he couldn't get home in a hurry. He called home and told us to go stay with family out of state. Of course, nothing was going on in Wayne. But it did scare my dad. I do remember we could not buy gas. We stayed at the house and that was that.

**jcole** · July-26-10, 10:31 AM

I don't know how many of you are aware that there were previous race riots in Detroit, but here is an article from the Detroit News about the 1943 riots. In many ways, this was a worse incident than the 1967 ones.
Here's a direct quote from the below linked article:

Five black men received 80-day jail terms for disturbing the peace. Two were acquitted. Twenty-eight were charged and convicted on various charges including concealed weapons, destruction of property, assault, larceny. There was little arson, due to gasoline rationing, but more than a few cars were overturned and torched.
Tipton and Little, the two blacks linked to the original rumor, were sentenced to two-to-five years for inciting a riot.
The city's white police force was criticized for its "restraint" in dealing with the black rioters, despite the fact that only blacks -- 17 of them -- were killed by police.

From The Detroit News: http://apps.detnews.com/apps/history...#ixzz0unpuizmu

http://apps.detnews.com/apps/history/index.php?id=185

littlebuddy · July-26-10, 11:57 AM

Lived Downriver and was 12 when the riots started. My mom kept us home from school, not sure if school was shut down or just her fears, as she was in the riots in 1943 when she was a kid. We drove over to my Grandma's house where my Aunt and Uncle also lived in Dearborn just a block or so from the Detroit border and the first thing I seen when I walked in the house was a shotguy right by the door. My uncle said with a smile that he was waiting for a carload of them to come down the street. That has always stuck out in my mind, what he said and the smile he had on his face.

**Detroit Stylin** · July-26-10, 03:24 PM

My uncle said with a smile that he was waiting for a carload of them to come down the street. That has always stuck out in my mind, what he said and the smile he had on his face.

I hate to inform you of this but that statement in and of itslef lets you know where your Uncles mind was at and how they thought on a regualr basis before and AFTER the riot...

**xphillipjrx** · July-26-10, 02:04 PM

I was born in 1969. My grandparents always had a pantry in the basement with like 10 cans of every kind of food. We were cleaning up the house a couple of years ago after my grandma died and my mom said something about "all that riot food". Turns out my grandparents got caught high and dry with no reserves during the riot and ever since then they stocked up on food like crazy.

**Searay215** · July-26-10, 02:26 PM

I was a SP4 in the US Army at Ft. Rucker AL, Lock down mode, all leaves canceled, given riot training and was perpared to be shipped to a city of the army's choosing on a moments notice.

**5thSFGP** · July-26-10, 02:37 PM

I was half way through a government sponsored trip to SEA. Never have understood the riots. Angry that a blind pig was busted? Well . . . just step outside your home `and throw a match into it - what a deal. I don't think that anyone will argue that the riot was the beginning in the rapid decline of Detroit and Coleman finished it off. I visited a few weeks ago enroute to Traverse City for vacation, drove around my old neighborhood - Haverhill & Harper,and I wanted to cry - what a bloody mess! I've been to a lot of places during my 20 years in the army, but I've never felt as vulnerable than the couple of hours in Detroit I spent in Motown.

**jcole** · July-26-10, 02:49 PM

The excuse for the riot starting was the raid of the blind pig. It started long before that. There were groups in town in advance of July that were here to specifically incite trouble, as well as years of discrimination against minorities. If the blind pig hadn't been raided, something else would have tipped it.
The entire U.S. was a tinderbox waiting for a flint at that time.

**Zacha341** · July-26-10, 05:12 PM

Indeed these events are always bigger than the expressed 'trigger' point...

Originally Posted by jcole

The excuse for the riot starting was the raid of the blind pig. It started long before that. There were groups in town in advance of July that were here to specifically incite trouble, as well as years of discrimination against minorities. If the blind pig hadn't been raided, something else would have tipped it.
The entire U.S. was a tinderbox waiting for a flint at that time.

**SMRJim** · July-26-10, 04:41 PM

That was the summer between 1st and 2nd grade for me so memories are fairly vague. We lived near Grand River and Grenfield. I do remember seeing the trucks and tanks going by, seeing the national guard over at St Marys of Redford church one afternoon, and being in the backyard at night and not being able to go out front like we usually did to play with the neighborhood kids. I've heard that there was some looting and/or vandalism that went on over by the Grand River/Greenfield shopping center, though nothing beyond that [[no fires or shooting). I think that the guard was placed on top of some of the stores there.

**Honeyman** · July-26-10, 05:07 PM

My father had a shoe store on Gratiot at Van Dyke. Days after the riots when he finally came back to see the damage, the display windows had been shattered. On one of those displays where an expensive pair of Florsheims had sat, somebody took those and replaced them with their old bloody footwear. He couldn't help but laugh that they had taken the time to mount them correctly on the display as if those shoes were for sale.

**English** · July-26-10, 05:30 PM

I was born more than a decade after the riots. I've heard the stories. I've read the literature. But I don't have the lived experiences that seem to have shaped the fate of the city and the region. I'm not alone. No one under 45 remembers any of this.

I appreciated the reminiscing during the 40 year anniversary, but was hoping for grander gestures of reconciliation from the SE Michigan community at large, from both Detroiters and suburbanites, and people of all races. Yet 43 years after the riots, we are more racially divided than ever in this region. 43 years later and there's still so much finger-pointing and anger on all sides. This isn't natural. 43 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the United States and Japan were trading partners and kids my age were sent there on exchange trips. 43 years after the Berlin Wall was constructed, Germany had been reunified for years.

Do you mean to tell me that what happened in July 1967 was comparable to nuclear warfare or genocide??? How come others can get over inhuman atrocities and build prosperous cities and societies fit for the 21st century, and we can't? What has gone so terribly wrong in Detroit?

43 years after the 12th Street Riot, so many people have yet to move on from 1967. What's so different here? Why the blanket demands for apologies from one group or the other? Why? This racialized acrimony in Detroit almost reminds me of how fresh the Civil War still is in parts of the South, but even the South hasn't let their anger kill their economic prospects. There were riots all over this country in the 1960s. There have been riots in other cities during my lifetime. Yet other cities haven't suffered the fate of Detroit, and there isn't this persistent bitterness. What will it take to let this feud go?

**Wintersmommy** · July-26-10, 05:36 PM

Originally Posted by English

I was born more than a decade after the riots. I've heard the stories. I've read the literature. But I don't have the lived experiences that seem to have shaped the fate of the city and the region. I'm not alone. No one under 45 remembers any of this.

I appreciated the reminiscing during the 40 year anniversary, but was hoping for grander gestures of reconciliation. 43 years later and there's still so much finger-pointing and anger on all sides. 43 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the United States and Japan were trading partners and kids my age were sent there on exchange trips. 43 years after the Berlin Wall was constructed, Germany had been reunified for years.

But 43 years after the 12th Street Riot, so many people have yet to move on from 1967. What's so different here? Why the blanket demands for apologies from one group or the other? Why? This racialized acrimony in Detroit almost reminds me of how fresh the Civil War still is in parts of the South. There were riots all over this country in the 1960s. There have been riots in other cities during my lifetime. Yet other cities haven't suffered the fate of Detroit, and there isn't this persistent bitterness. What will it take to let this feud go?

Very well said...

**Detroit Stylin** · July-26-10, 09:35 PM

Originally Posted by English

I was born more than a decade after the riots. I've heard the stories. I've read the literature. But I don't have the lived experiences that seem to have shaped the fate of the city and the region. I'm not alone. No one under 45 remembers any of this.

I appreciated the reminiscing during the 40 year anniversary, but was hoping for grander gestures of reconciliation from the SE Michigan community at large, from both Detroiters and suburbanites, and people of all races. Yet 43 years after the riots, we are more racially divided than ever in this region. 43 years later and there's still so much finger-pointing and anger on all sides. This isn't natural. 43 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the United States and Japan were trading partners and kids my age were sent there on exchange trips. 43 years after the Berlin Wall was constructed, Germany had been reunified for years.

Do you mean to tell me that what happened in July 1967 was comparable to nuclear warfare or genocide??? How come others can get over inhuman atrocities and build prosperous cities and societies fit for the 21st century, and we can't? What has gone so terribly wrong in Detroit?

43 years after the 12th Street Riot, so many people have yet to move on from 1967. What's so different here? Why the blanket demands for apologies from one group or the other? Why? This racialized acrimony in Detroit almost reminds me of how fresh the Civil War still is in parts of the South, but even the South hasn't let their anger kill their economic prospects. There were riots all over this country in the 1960s. There have been riots in other cities during my lifetime. Yet other cities haven't suffered the fate of Detroit, and there isn't this persistent bitterness. What will it take to let this feud go?

Beautifully stated and totally agreed with....

**English** · July-26-10, 11:01 PM

Thanks, wintersmommy, DetroitStylin, canuck & EastsideAl. I appreciate hearing the stories about the long hot summer of '67 and love Detroit's history, and have been really enjoying the memories from people here who are just sharing what happened during one of our most tragic moments. I just wish we could find a way to honor our past, AND move forward without hating each other so much.

I've always thought that someone should make the '67 riots into a serious feature-length film or [[better yet) a cable television series. Have a strong ensemble cast, explore that time period from all points of view and all walks of life, perhaps add a prologue or epilogue set in today's Detroit. They could interview many of you who are posting here, use all the books and documentaries that have been produced about '67, and I'm sure we all have friends and folks who'd love to help with the oral history. I mean, my grandma still has the LIFE magazine with the picture of the tank in front of their house. With all the filming being done here lately, it'd be great to see that happen. Besides, it would have one of the best soundtracks ever.

It might be cathartic for us as a city and region, and it might help explain why Detroit is the way that it is to outsiders. It would provide some nuance to a discussion that's usually only told from one or two points of view. It might do for the city of Detroit what something like "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" did for the Funk Brothers. I don't know... maybe I'm just dreaming here.

**carlscomputers** · July-26-10, 11:47 PM

Originally Posted by English

Thanks, wintersmommy, DetroitStylin, canuck & EastsideAl. I appreciate hearing the stories about the long hot summer of '67 and love Detroit's history, and have been really enjoying the memories from people here who are just sharing what happened during one of our most tragic moments. I just wish we could find a way to honor our past, AND move forward without hating each other so much.

I've always thought that someone should make the '67 riots into a serious feature-length film or [[better yet) a cable television series. Have a strong ensemble cast, explore that time period from all points of view and all walks of life, perhaps add a prologue or epilogue set in today's Detroit. They could interview many of you who are posting here, use all the books and documentaries that have been produced about '67, and I'm sure we all have friends and folks who'd love to help with the oral history. I mean, my grandma still has the LIFE magazine with the picture of the tank in front of their house. With all the filming being done here lately, it'd be great to see that happen. Besides, it would have one of the best soundtracks ever.

It might be cathartic for us as a city and region, and it might help explain why Detroit is the way that it is to outsiders. It would provide some nuance to a discussion that's usually only told from one or two points of view. It might do for the city of Detroit what something like "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" did for the Funk Brothers. I don't know... maybe I'm just dreaming here.

Bravo! It's enough script material in this thread alone! I hope there's some screenwriters out there. I would like to see it real & gritty, not sugar coated, include some of those indirect stories as well...

**Susan Messer** · July-27-10, 10:14 AM

English, etc., In this context I'd like to speak up for my novel--Grand River and Joy. It looks mainly at the black-Jewish piece of the story, and the northwest side of the city. But in a larger sense, it's concerned with the lack of understandings that are so difficult to resolve and that have such explosive potential.

**Downriver Gal** · July-26-10, 07:03 PM

This is an interesting Metro Times article that is mostly about the 1943 riot, but it discusses the differences between 1943 and 1967:

http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=5041

“The one in ’43 was a real riot, and that’s frightening,” says writer Marvin Arnett. “Let me take you to the ’67 riot, OK — which always kind of irks me when they say ‘riot,’ because it wasn’t a riot, it was economic upheaval. And I’ll tell you what happened [in ’67]. I stood on my porch, I was an adult, and watched people looting Robinson’s Furniture Store down on Grand River, and they were taking out sofas and chairs, and there would be a black man on one end of that sofa and a white man on the other end. That doesn’t seem like a race riot to me. It was more economic, it was more the ‘have-nots’ giving the ‘haves’ some trouble.”

**EastsideAl** · July-26-10, 07:41 PM

I was going to say something short and nasty in response to Cass '66's vile little stinkbomb of a comment, until I read the much more sensible and very well put response from English above. Time to move on...

**canuck** · July-26-10, 07:53 PM

Evidently Detroit needs a lot more people like you English, but you are one of a kind!

**evergreen** · July-26-10, 08:11 PM

We were living just off 12th street, less than a mile north of where the riot started. All Sunday morning we knew there was a riot going on, but the media was refusing to report it. Mayor Cavanagh believed that news of the riot would fan the flames. As morning headed into afternoon, they were forced to broadcast it because people were coming back from their weekends in Canada and driving north on 12th and running into a situation, Plus, I am sure that by that point the smoke was pretty visible.

The rest of the week is pretty much like everyone else's, fire, the terrible smell of smoke [[fires are scary - especially when the fire department is overwhelmed, those were mostly wood frame houses in that area), gunfire and nights sleeping on the floor because of concerns about stray bullets. We moved about a month later, but the papers were signed on the new house before the riot. The National Guardsmen were pleasant once the shooting stopped, they even played ball with some of the boys on our street. We were disappointed to learn that they had left racist graffiti on the walls at Central High where they were headquartered.

My favorite story is about my older brother, then in his late teens. That Saturday night, he had gotten dressed up to go to the very blind pig that got raided by the police, thereby triggering the riot. He was headed out the door when my mom asked him where he was going. He always said that for some reason, he just didn't feel like arguing with or lying to her. He marched back upstairs, changed clothes and stayed home that evening.

12th street never recovered. People just don't know how vibrant 12th was back in the late 50's and 60's. Walking to and from school on that street was an adventure. To drive down there now, and I do so several times a year, is to go through a desert.

Empires come and go. Detroit never really recovered. Just drive down 12th. Nobody and nothing benefitted and the loot has long since gone to landfills.

**carlscomputers** · July-26-10, 09:11 PM

http://www.blinkx.com/watch-video/ru...1j8EZlkItATdNQ

http://www.blinkx.com/watch-video/pr...g6czz3LOOGUvAA

**RickBeall** · July-27-10, 12:07 PM

English wrote:
>>This racialized acrimony in Detroit almost reminds me of how fresh the Civil War still is in parts of the South, .... persistent bitterness. What will it take to let this feud go?

That is an interesting analogy English. Traveling through the South as a kid, I noticed you could buy a Civil War hats and swords everywhere. But in the North there was nothing. I always thought this was because the losing side has a hard time forgetting about a war because they lost. The winning side is vindicated and can move on. Maybe, in Detroit, no one can forget the riot because no one won.