Where were you during the 1967 Detroit Riot?

[English]

Well, we're at the 44th anniversary & I'm still wondering why no major film makers have made a big budget, historically correct movie about the '67 riots? Any thoughts?

You'd have to have a filmmaker born after 1965 to tackle the topic. I just don't think that the Boomers or the Greatest Gen can be objective enough. Neither could many young Detroiters -- I was born 10 years later and I don't even pretend to not have my own opinions on the topic.

What's needed is a young director who grew up out of state or even overseas without any ties to Detroit. We're getting people like that moving here.

[tlharrington]

I was a sparkle in my daddy's eye when this happened. I was born a year to the day after it ended. My parents lived in the Herman Gardens projects at the time with my then 2 1/2 month old sister. My mom told me of National Guard troops coming in and evacuating them out. She went to stay with my grandparents in Warren. My dad was in the Detroit Police Reserves and worked midnights at Saratoga Hospital on Gratiot. He could see the fires from the roof, but was ordered down by police under threat of being shot as a sniper on the first night. On the third day, he was called up to "ride shotgun" on a fire engine trying to put out the fires. Luckily none of them were hurt. My parents moved to the northeast side of Detroit afterwards. They felt it was a little too close for comfort.

[Maof]

Lakewood Avenue, between Kercheval and Jefferson [[far east side)...and that was my 16th birthday, when the riot began. the heat wave, the humidity, the rage. stories of snipers shooting into cars from the Ford Expressway overpasses. I was such a stupid teenager, all I could think of was that due to the friggin riot the state offices were shut down and I couldn't get my driver's license on my birthday, like I wanted to. neighbors listening to police radios, getting macho with their rifles, etc. smoke in the air, some fires on the east side not too far from our house, up near Mack as I recall. National Guard soldiers marching down our sidewalk, and when my dad lit a cigarette on our porch, they whipped around toward him with rifles ready. crazy time. scary. destructive. groups of people not allowed to assemble, so we could not practice cheerleading, LOL! then when we finally could, we would flirt with the good-looking military guys cruising around in their jeeps. oh, what a person can get used to, right?

yes, right on mack. i grew up on manistique and mack and remember the national guard in their "tanks".

[fratman]

I was in the Navy at my 1st duty station at Adak, Alaska[[small island in the Aleutians). My folks
sent me copies of the News & Fress Press coverage of the riots. We were still living in our
northwest Detroit house off of Fenkell btwn Schaeffer & Meyers. I was told we had no incedents in
our neighborhood other than someone had thrown paint on the back of our garage. After my year was up in Adak in April 68 Dr King was shot about 3 days before I got home. When dad picked me up at
the airport he told me not to make plans for that night because their was still a curfew in effect since the shooting. Fortunately the curfew was over the next day.

[lit joe]

Me I was on a exotic cruise in the persian gulf. And all expense paid vacation paid for by uncle sam. On the good ship USS Valcour AGF 1. Look it up and check out all the amenities. All the fun firing 40 millometers guns, playing lookout,steering it to all those exotic ports. Chasing russian trawlers with the boys from D>C. It was the best of times the worse of times 1967.

[Susan Messer]

My novel, Grand River and Joy, published by University of Michigan Press, focuses on this era in Detroit history--October 1966-October 1967. I've had so many amazing discussions--and heard so many stories--as I've traveled with the book. You can read more about it at my website: www.susanmesser,net

[Brian1979]

I was 12 years from being born

[jerrytimes]

I wasn't around yet [[born in 79) but my Dad was at the Tigers game. He said that it was the first game of a double header and he remembered seeing smoke rising by the stadium and announcements over the loud speaker of what was happening.

[EastsideAl]

We were over in Canada at my grandparents' place on Lake Erie when it started. We finally managed to talk our way across the border and make it to our house on the third day. One of my most vivid memories is my father busting out laughing as we pulled up in front of the house and he saw that our black next-door neighbor - an extremely mild-mannered cab driver and his family - had painted "soul brother" on his house in large letters.

When we went over to check on them, they were sitting in the basement with a rusty WWII era pistol, pretty much scared out of their wits. We invited them over for a spaghetti dinner and they just looked at us like we were nuts.

It took about 10 years for that paint to fade totally away.

[BuddyinStL]

I was 10 years old, and remember it well. We lived in the Herman Gardens, which were not even close to the riots, but we could smell the smoke from the fires. My mom was afraid to stay at home alone, while my father worked nights at Ford, so we up and moved to Trenton on the 3rd day of the riots. Stayed with our cousins until the following weekend. Couldn't believe how nice those suburban kids got it. They actually have their own bikes and driveways, with a basketball rim!
Then when we went back to school that Monday, our teacher at Herman School put us on a bus and we actually toured the rioted area! I remember at 12th & Linwood, every business was burned, and it stunk something fierce. Those images are burnt into my memory, as well as the troops riding down the street in personnel carriers and jeeps with rifles.

[mtburb]

I wasn't born yet, but my parents were worried that all those rioters would eventually make their way down to the Southgate Shopping Center and do the same looting they did to the stores on 12th Street!!!

What suburbs were part of the looting and firebombing?

Were Wyandotte and Trenton also involved? If they were, there might have been at least looting. And I also mentioned the probable situation about the Southgate Shopping Center above the quote.

[MidTownMs]

The day the riot broke out was 5 days before my 19th birthday. We were preparing to welcome my brother home from Viet Nam. My grandparents came to Detroit for the party. They lived in a little farming community in Michigan called Smiths Creek. Something really important had to be going on for them to make the trek to Detroit. The party never happened because when my brother and the other military people got off the plane they were inducted into the National Guard and we did not see my brother for a week. The first thing he said when he finally got home was.."Damn I thought I left the war." My Grandparents immediately left Detroit and never returned to Detroit again. After about the third day the riot started to spread on the Eastside where I lived. I grew up on a busy street that was a fire and bus route. During the riot my street was taken over by the National Guard. My best friend from across the street and I set up a lemonade and sandwich stand and shamelessly flirted with the guards. When the riot was over one of them returned and married my best friend.

[firstandten]

I had several memories but the one that affected me the most was walking up to Linwood and Tuxedo and watching all of the military personel stationed on Central's HS playground. It seemed like every sq ft of that field was covered by something military, vehicles, people, tents. I started calling that place Fort Central.

[black gold man]

I was 6 i remember the troops seen while driving to see me dads office
and my dad had guns. But i was thinking a while ago we spent a lot of time in kingsville Ont at the cottage . All the Lake Eire fish were dead on the beach

Then we moved to Bloomfield Hills

[Donovan]

I was 10 and lived on St Jean. I remember the caravan of jeeps, trucks, and tanks about an hour long came down St Jean, turned at Charlevoix and when to Southeastern's athletic field.
You had to be off the street by 6 pm, lights out by 8. We slept on the floor, as there were guns firing till midnight. Its odd reading so many people that lived like around Harper, and Cadiuex were so paranoid. Yet it was business as usual for us kids that were right there. We played baseball during the day in the school playgrounds with kids of all colors. Ran up and down the alleys as usual. You just had to be off the street by 6. There was nothing racial about it. Nobody bothered us, and I can't recall anyone in the neighborhood being victimized because of race. Other then the store owners. The white families stood out on the streets and watch stores burning like everyone else. Things changed after that year though.
And it wasn't safe anymore. We moved in 1970. By then I was going to Foch, and they used to let the whites kids leave 15 minutes early so we could run home LOL. Its true

[Scottathew]

My father was 13 and living in Royal Oak. :-)

[p69rrh51]

My father was 13 and living in Royal Oak. :-)

My parents were on Harsens Island that day. My sister and I were with my Grandparents on Courville and Outer Drive. My parents had to avoid the police to pick us up fortunately home was only at Harvard and E. Warren. For my parents the rest of the week turned into one big party. Joe Muer lived at Cormwall and Harvard and had a Alaskan King Crab and Champagne party every night the week of martial law. I still chat with east and west siders who drove every back route to go to the party, and all my parents had to do was hide in the shadows walking down the block.

[southofbloor]

You'd have to have a filmmaker born after 1965 to tackle the topic. I just don't think that the Boomers or the Greatest Gen can be objective enough. Neither could many young Detroiters -- I was born 10 years later and I don't even pretend to not have my own opinions on the topic.

What's needed is a young director who grew up out of state or even overseas without any ties to Detroit. We're getting people like that moving here.

I was being born in August 67 just as the flames were dying out. I agree some filmmakers need to run with this. That would be an amazing movie.

But its a complicated issue - I would respectfully put forward that in any movie it needs to be traced back a few generations. The race riot that really disturbs me to the core as a white guy is the one in 1863 during the civil war when Detroit whites burned black owned homes and businesses - Free Press reports gangs of whites hauling piles of musical instruments out into the street to feed bonfires, beating the people left inside, and setting blocks of buildings on fire with inhabitants trapped inside. Wow ouch, not a good precedent for those wanting to point fingers about 67 - those who are shocked about the damage done 40 years ago should look it up and wrap their heads around the distant history that set the tone in this city.

1967 was a mess - but thankfully there are now a lot of Detrroiters who can speak intelligently about it and to each other without acrimony.

[rajdet]

I was 10 years old and probably the only person of color in the Butzel recreations center's swimming pool that Sunday afternoon. I remember my mother coming up to the fence and yelling my name at the top of her lungs. She demanded I get out of the pool, grab my clothes and get in the car. Talk about being embarrassed! On the way home she explained to me what was going on, and that was the first I heard about the riots.

[Brian1979]

About 11 years and 7 months from being born. I was born in 1979.

[mtburb]

And by the way, on either the third? day of the riots, my parents [[who were only teens then) and my grandparents went to the A&P at the Fort-Grove Shopping Center in Wyandotte [[later Danny's IGA, now Save-A-Lot) but was told by Wyandotte police that the store was closed due to the riots. Therefore their grocery shopping never happened on that day. Also, Wyandotte and Southgate police were constantly heading up and down Fort Street in case the rioters got that far south [[see my other post above).

[douglasm]

Just an observation, nothing more, but sometimes I wish this thread, that's based on an incident almost 45 years ago, would just go away. I realise it's a part of history....and maybe caused at least in part by our not understanding the '43 riots.....but sometimes when this thread rises back like a phoenix, I wish I could forget the whole thing.

[Smirnoff]

[[First night) 11 years old & over my grandparents near Grand River & Schaefer, you could hear the multiple sirens [[police, fire, tornado) going off, vehicles were packed & people hanging out the window holding baseball bats driving east down Grand River & heading to the riots. Gun shots were heard, my grandfather thought fireworks were going off?

The TV stations were very very late to report what was going on & had no clue, looking down GR, billowing smoke engulfed the entire sky.

Not a good time or memory.....

[carlscomputers]

45 years ago today...

[Eastburn]

Time flies. I was working as a claims adjuster at the time & had spent the Friday before working in the 12th Street area. Lived near Denby High. No problems in that area.