New '67 riot footage found.

**Rochelle St.** · March-20-13, 07:36 PM

Much of it shot from a helicopter.

http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/artic...from_a_chopper

**Ray1936** · March-20-13, 09:54 PM

Hard to spot locations. Few shots of the Fisher Building in the distance on some, but overall, unremarkable.

Shollin · March-20-13, 10:12 PM

It looked like in the beginning the sign said Mack that they turned on. Other than that didn't get much. I think where the plan first started was around University of Detroit.

**illwill** · March-20-13, 10:33 PM

Absolutely amazing footage. I know some of you lived in Detroit during this period and possibly even witnessed the riots but it must have been one of the most sad times for Detroit and the state of Michigan. I could never imagine this happening to a place I called home.

Very sad on many fronts.

**WaCoTS** · March-20-13, 10:44 PM

oh well, you can't see downtown, big deal. but i do see a lot of streetscapes that you can still drive down today, drastically changed...

a lot of east Mack Ave; you can read the addresses on the storefronts
Crane & Sylvester @5:29
Southeastern HS encampment @ 10:00 [[Budd Wheel? in background)

it's also such a trip to see so many blgs and smokestacks with actual smoke coming out of them, and NO vacant lots. it's eerie to see just how far Detroit has sunk into decay in the past 40yrs. the city in this film is a vibrant city, a REAL city. not the ghost town that is here today.

**Django** · March-21-13, 02:10 AM

Great film. Anyone know where the intersection at 13:26 is? Wish I could have seen Detroit before the shit hit the fan. This was taken 13 months before I was born. Thanks Rochelle St.

**Maof** · March-21-13, 06:46 AM

i remember seeing the tanks driving down mack and manistique. i did see the old a&p that we shopped at on mack. i can't remember the side street but it was near the "big cow head". is that selfridge at the end?

**oladub** · March-21-13, 07:51 AM

Originally Posted by WaCoTS

oh well, you can't see downtown, big deal. but i do see a lot of streetscapes that you can still drive down today, drastically changed...

it's also such a trip to see so many blgs and smokestacks with actual smoke coming out of them, and NO vacant lots. it's eerie to see just how far Detroit has sunk into decay in the past 40yrs. the city in this film is a vibrant city, a REAL city. not the ghost town that is here today.

That caught my eye too. Those streets were lined with businesses with well kept signs in the video. That relative prosperity is difficult to even remember. It all went up in smoke. I wonder what kids in and around Detroit would think to see Detroit that vibrant such a short time ago.

**cla1945** · March-21-13, 08:25 AM

People burned where they lived, worshipped, and shopped, which boggles my mind. What a waste and what destruction. I remember the riots vividly as I worked for the DFD. Southeastern High School was where I graduated from. Nothing looks the same, the school, the surroundings, the City.

**313WX** · March-21-13, 08:41 AM

After experiencing THAT Detroit and seeing what has become of it [[including downtown), it's hard not to give up on the city.

No Delta City will replicate the Arsenal of Democracy or The Paris of the Midwest.

**illwill** · March-21-13, 09:29 AM

I saw Honest Johns in the video!

Detroit was such an amazing city back in the day. It was odd to see a structure on every lot and populated neighborhoods.

After watching the video in real time, I guess I understand why some people from that era [[black & white) would never want to set foot or put another dime into the city. It's gotta be extremely painful to this very day. Many invested their life savings, even their lives, time, blood, sweat and tears in a once great city... all to be flushed down the drain in a matter of days. Today, Detroit should be one of the capitols of the world. We should all be looking eye to eye with Manhattanites, knowing that what we have is just as great as what they've built. Our city should be a thriving metropolis with automotive barrons living in brick mansions throughout the city, top-tier educational facilities, trolley trains, Woodward Ave., Jefferson Ave., Michigan Ave., Grand River and Gratiot mirroring Lake Shore Drive and Michigan Ave. in Chicago. It's so sad!

If you think about it, Detroit has been through a lot! No other North American city has experienced the troubles that Detroit has. And we're still going through it to this very day.

It's just sad to see our great architectural fabric destroyed in less in a week. And the most creative minds reared in the region are now becoming successful in other states.

All due to man made problems and not deterioration of time.

**black gold man** · March-21-13, 09:41 AM

**iheartthed** · March-21-13, 09:45 AM

Originally Posted by illwill

After watching the video in real time, I guess I understand why some people from that era [[black & white) would never want to set foot or put another dime into the city. It's gotta be extremely painful to this very day. Many invested their life savings, even their lives, time, blood, sweat and tears in a once great city... all to be flushed down the drain in a matter of days.

Damage directly attributable to the riots affected a very small part of Detroit's 139 square miles. I can understand why a shop owner on Linwood or Mack, who was directly affected by riot damage, might be disenchanted but that doesn't explain what happened to the rest of the city...

**marshamusic** · March-21-13, 10:18 AM

Wow! OP, thanks for posting the first video. It IS amazing. I remember so much of the city, at that time.

Significantly, what this film belies is the narrative that Detroit was "burned down" in the riots. In fact, if this film was taken in the final days of the conflagration - most of the actual riot damage had been done, and what was filmed was what was left.

Even though over time, of course, many of the burned structures would be removed [[and of course, many would not be), it is evident here that there was a great deal of housing stock that remained after the Riots; in fact, most of the city was basically untouched.

Now, obviously there was significant destruction of commercial property [[my own family's business was destroyed during those days) but even so, quiet obviously, the majority of businesses in the city survived. That is not to say that the effect on many the surviving businesses was not such that many high-tailed it out soon afterwards.

But it appears here, that much of the current physical destruction in this town cannot be attributed to the Riots, and in fact most of it happened long afterwards.

For me, the video was riveting. I note the wariness and even fear on the faces of some of the young troops; I remember that; they were stationed across from my home.

Watching this, I could smell the smoke and hear the milling crowds for I witnessed all of this in the smoldering ruins of 12th Street, in the first days after the Riot's start, and in the weeks that followed.

I am currently writing on this period, and I am thankful to have seen this. It does say a lot, even in silence.

**Gannon** · March-21-13, 10:44 AM

Marsha,

I caught a record store at 3:51 but cannot tell the name. Is that your dad's store?

Cheers

**Gannon** · March-21-13, 10:50 AM

I'm only about five minutes into this, and have been freaking about the Guards all carrying their weapons with their fingers ON the triggers...until I noticed that none of them had the magazines inserted, these guns were not loaded. Still very bad practice, they'd not finish basic training with habits like that.

**jackie5275** · March-21-13, 11:01 AM

Originally Posted by WaCoTS

it's also such a trip to see so many blgs and smokestacks with actual smoke coming out of them, and NO vacant lots.

Plus so many trees before the Dutch Elm hit.

**marshamusic** · March-21-13, 11:03 AM

Originally Posted by Gannon

Marsha,

I caught a record store at 3:51 but cannot tell the name. Is that your dad's store?

Cheers

I saw it; I looked two or three times, but I don't think so; the storefront window doesn't look the same. Besides, I don't remember my father selling a record for just 35 cents. :-)

Of course I looked at this video and the other than was posted subsequently to see if I could see my father's store [[there's also a prominent "record shop" sign in the second video) but I could not identify it - and honestly, I am a little afraid to see it, too.

**gnome** · March-21-13, 11:03 AM

The elms, the elms.

In the strange confluence of events that led to Detroit's demise, Dutch Elm disease doesn't get enough credit for kicking the city in the junk when it was on its knees.

**jackie5275** · March-21-13, 11:06 AM

Originally Posted by Marsha Music

Significantly, what this film belies is the narrative that Detroit was "burned down" in the riots. In fact, if this film was taken in the final days of the conflagration - most of the actual riot damage had been done, and what was filmed was what was left.

This video seems to have been film of the eastside, but wasn't there more action/destruction on the westside?

**marshamusic** · March-21-13, 11:29 AM

Originally Posted by jackie5275

This video seems to have been film of the eastside, but wasn't there more action/destruction on the westside?

I would say so Jackie; in fact, the second video posted reflects this. There was destruction on the main arteries on the East and West side, but, I think, more on the West Side.

Not to mention the "mini-riot" of the previous summer on the East Side, known as the Kerceval Incident, a precursor to '67.

Shollin · March-21-13, 11:38 AM

I thought the part in the plane was along Grand River? When they were in the Jeep it looked like the east side.

**Lowell** · March-21-13, 12:08 PM

Observations... The arm patches in the opening street scenes are of the 82nd Airborne Division. So those scenes would have been on the eastside where they were stationed. I tagged along with a friend to visit with his friend in the 82nd at their bivouac on a public school grounds.

The 82nd never crossed Woodward to the westside, to my knowledge, which was patrolled by the inept Michigan National Guard.

When the 82nd arrived on the eastside, the hostilities subsided soon after. This was attributed to the fact that about a 3rd of them were African-American, unlike the Michigan National Guard the was nearly all Euro-American. The westside hostilities continued for two more days.

Another thing you can see is that the airborne were very spit and polish, lean and trim, all business and totally disciplined. Many had served in Vietnam.

The Michigan NG's by contrast were often slovenly, many overweight, looking as if they had been dragged out of a bar at closing time and thrown into battle and generally scared s***less.