Where were you during the 1967 Detroit Riot?

[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.

[Don K]

I was 13 and living in South Jersey. I recall seeing segments on the evening news about the riots and my dad having plenty of racially offensive comments [[as he did about the Newark and Plainfield riots in NJ). It was after I moved here in '78 I found out that the event was seared into the memory of anyone who lived in the area at the time. One of my first friends here grew up in East Dearborn and remembered the Dearborn Police patrolling the border with Detroit.

[oladub]

Earlier today, Sunday, I was reading this thread and was reminded of comments made by the Prince at the end of Romeo and Juliet. He criticized the foolishness that cost the two antagonistic houses so much and himself for not interceding. The thought was a bit too esoteric so I didn't post it after looking up the quote.

We have had flooding problems in the last couple of days, where I am, so I agreed to take my wife to an art fair to put problems behind for a few hours. Walking around an art fair is, after all, more fun than rescuing stranded cattle twice, picking up debris, and digging trenches to drain fetid water. We went our own ways at the art fair. I had a strange conversation with a photographer who gave me two postcards he had for sale but who asked me to leave when we started talking about Vietnam because he was getting too emotional remembering the costs. I then ran into my wife who wanted to show me a drawing of Shakespeare - of all people. I hadn't mentioned anything to her about Shakespeare so this was coincidence. The artist had already packed up his Shakespeare drawing but he brought it out and I told him about the coincidence of having looked up that particular quote and being taken to see a Shakespeare drawing in the same day. To my surprise, he knew the passage and recited it. So I thought that perhaps this was worth sharing. Think of the Montagues and Capulets as being two races who antagonize and destroy each other and the Prince as being the Mayor and others who had the power to stamp this thing out but instead allowed it to go on.

The Prince:
“Where be these enemies? Capulet! Montague!
See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate,
That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love.
And I for winking at your discords too
Have lost a brace of kinsmen: all are punish'd.”

Detroit has been punished for it's hate. We've all been punished.

[carlscomputers]

Thank You Oladub for sharing! I have gotten so much passion, knowledge, etc. from this thread & your post is so fitting...

[krapug1]

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