1967 Remembered

[Lowell]

Day 5 The following is my account of the 1967 Detroit Riot, as excerpted from a diary I kept and I am now posting, in advance of each day, 50 years later.

Thursday July 27, 1967

Thursday was the last day of the 1967 riot. There seemed to be no reason why but my speculation is that the rioting side, if that can be defined as such, simply wore out while the law enforcement side had steadily established its grip.

“At last the riot seems to be getting under control. The rain today seemed to help cool things. My crosstown bus to work that cuts to the westside is dramatically changed. In many places several establishments have been burnt or looted.

“Again tonight, I only managed four hours of work. The curfew which at first was lifted was, wisely I think, resumed. Again I barely made the bus connections in time.

“Gunfire and the sirens were quite infrequent tonight although there was some sniper fire activity.

“Peace seems to have come to Detroit.”

The eastside had quieted down by Wednesday. Due to the efficiency of the Federal airborne troops, the rioting and damage never became as widespread as the westside rebellion. I remember many of us wondering why the Airborne weren’t deployed to the hotter westside. But since the westside had been the flash point, it was where the first arriving troops, the Michigan National Guard, had been deployed and removing them for the Airborne would have been logistically complicated, not to mention embarrassing.

Read: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

[Jimaz]

From July 20:

Attachment 33829
How Our Current Political Crisis Began in Detroit

On tonight’s Big Picture, Thom discusses our current political climate and its relation to rebellion in Detroit 50 years ago with historian, professor and author Scott Kurashige....

The Fifty-Year Rebellion: How the U.S. Political Crisis Began in Detroit

[Lowell]

Day 6 The following is my account of the 1967 Detroit Riot, as excerpted from a diary I kept and I am now posting, in advance of each day, 50 years later.

Friday July 28, 1967
“It was another [curfew-shortened] four hour work night tonight. This time I had great difficulty getting home [from the Dearborn Engine Plant in the Rouge]. After catching a bus to Wyoming and Warren in Dearborn I was stranded with about 20 others on the corner as the buses stop coming.

“Finally [and luckily for me] a DSR [bus system] coordinator [[who was going my way) came by and gave me a lift to Woodward and Edsel Ford! Oddly enough I wasn’t really worried about being stranded for somehow, in the back of my mind, was the notion that somehow I would get home and I did.

“The peace continued tonight.”

Friday was the first quiet day. In retrospect it could be seen that Thursday was the last day of the riot. For those of us living amid it, the calm was anything but certain. Was it really over? Or was this just a lull?

All we knew was that it had quieted and we were under military occupation, like some German city that had been captured by the American Army. Soldiers in green uniforms and helmets with rifles were seen in all directions and rumbling by in transport trucks and armored vehicles.

Read: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5

[Lowell]

Day 7 The following is my account of the 1967 Detroit Riot, as excerpted from a diary I kept and I am now posting, in advance of each day, 50 years later.

Saturday July 29 1967
"I got up about 10 AM and spent the day with Greg Pillon. We went over to Eastern High School, on the Eastside, and arranged to have friend of Greg’s, who was in the 101st Airborne, and bivouacked there, get a pass by telling his commanding officer that Greg's father was his uncle [even though he wasn’t].

"We then took him on a tour of the city including the riot-torn 12th St. area that was badly demolished."

The riot experience gave me an early lesson in media coverage—that the viewpoint provided is like looking though a straw. 12th Street, from East Grand Blvd. to Clairmont, was severely damaged and burned out. In a few cases the fires spread to nearby residential houses. 12th Street became the poster child for the riot and that was were the media straw was aimed.

Still photographers could get the long shots down the street of destruction fading into the distance. Movie film crews in helicopters could get the dramatic rolling block-after-block destruction shot.

But pull off into a side street and life was normal, as if nothing was changed.

The physical damage to Detroit could be likened to a series of tornados that plowed down four or five store-lined avenues, then bounced about and hit a other random spots. Otherwise the 139 square mile city of over 1.5 million with its hundreds of thousands of buildings was untouched.

The psychological damage, however, was immense.

"Tonight the curfew was extended until 11 PM. I only heard one gunshot all night. The peace seems to be here. Rumors say the curfew will end tomorrowalong with [the alcohol sales] prohibition. [Other] rumors also say that there are over 200 unidentified bodies in the city morgue."

"I hope peace is here to stay."

The peace stayed. On Tuesday August 1, ten days after the riot began, the last curfew was lifted and I finally got in a full day's work. Other than a quickly-contained small riot in 1975, sometimes called the Bolton's Bar Riot, sometimes the Livernois–Fenkell riot, and a fan riot following the 1984 Detroit Tigers World Series victory, the peace has remained for 50 years.

Sadly economic devastation, with its companions of poverty, abandonment, crime and gun violence would take thousands of lives and lead to the destruction of tens of thousands of houses and businesses in the fifty years that have followed. Detroit's decline was well in motion by 1967 but still invisible. 1967 would be the ton of bricks, not the straw, that broke the camel's back.

Read: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6

[Bigb23]

I was 12 and camping up north [[UP) with a detective sergeant of the DPD and his wife.
Needless to say, when he heard the first radio reports he pulled up stakes and left.

[joie]

Lowell,

Thank you for all of your personal accounts. They've been very informative reading.

[takascar]

I was 3 or 4 at the time and we lived on the east side [[EEV). We stayed Monday night at my Aunt and Uncle's house in Roseville. Still remember romping around in the large 2nd floor bedroom which used to hold my 5 cousins [[they had 5 boys - wore my Aunt out keeping them in line!)

[archfan]

Thank you for your diary excerpt, Lowell!

My only family story is brief, and told from my parents' point of view - at 5, I wasn't a great observer. We visited my dad's aunt in Windsor on Sunday, July 23rd. We came back over the bridge after dark, and noticed quite a few police cars, but didn't think much of it. My dad decided to take the newly-opened section of I-75 south to Monroe, rather than taking his normal surface streets [[Fort or Jefferson, I guess). It was only after getting home that they realized what was going on. My dad always felt that it was some sort of divine guidance that had us taking the freeway instead of surface streets. In reality, it sounds like things were generally quiet south of the bridge, and we'd have been fine.

[FEO]

Here is what I have in my files.

Fire Companies Responding to Riot

Birmingham, Clinton
Commerce Twp., Dearborn Heights
Dearborn Twp., Detroit
East Detroit, Ecorse
Eloise, Ferndale
Flint, Grosse Ile
Garden City, Garden City Mutual Aid
Gibralter, Grosse Pte Park
Grosse Pte Woods, Harper Woods
Highland Park, Hazel Park
Harrison Twp., Lansing
Livonia , Milford Twp.
Madison, Heights Newport
Plymouth, Plymouth Twp.
Pontiac, Redford Twp.
River Rouge, Roseville
Royal Oak, Royal Oak Twp.
South Rockwood, Sterling Twp.
St. Clair Shores, Southfield
Southfield Twp., Taylor Twp.
Warren, Wayne
Westland, Wyandotte
Windsor, Canada

[Ray1936]

I vaguely recall a rig from Windsor being detained at the bridge by a zealous Immigration Officer on the Detroit side.

[Smirnoff]

Anthony Fiermonti at that time was just a police officer part of a crew led by Sergeant Arthur Howison that made the raid. His claims that he "led" the raid are a somewhat exaggeration.

Hey Ray,

Any truth regarding all efforts by DPD, MI St police, & Nat Guard were not effective to stop the rioting......until the Army & specifically the tanks showed which extinguished the violence within 3-days?

[Meddle]

^^ My feeling is that I would not put any specific action on the cause of how it slowed. Things like that just wind down on their own after a while. Even the worst actors run out of steam after a few days. Look at most cities across the country that had similar events during the same period without troop intervention. Most of them only lasted a few days, generally less than a week.

[Smirnoff]

Hey Ray,

Any truth regarding all efforts by DPD, MI St police, & Nat Guard were not effective to stop the rioting......until the Army & specifically the tanks showed which extinguished the violence within 3-days?

Or this?

"And I go into the police station with the prisoners and Lt. Ray Good, I’ll never forget this guy loved him, older gentleman, and I says ‘Boss, you better get out there. There is a big problem brewing’ and he said to me ‘Fierimonte, you’re always exaggerating, every time you do something you exaggerate’. I said ‘Boss, I’m telling you go’, he says ‘You know what I’m going to 5 o’clock mass, I’ll stop out there and take a look, but you know Tony, I’m wasting my time’. Half hour later he comes in he’s bleeding from his forehead, [laughter] somebody threw a stone at him, ‘Fierimonte, I’ll never talk to you again! What did you do, you dumbass? What the hell is going on?’ Anyways, he then started the ball rolling for MO4, which means calling all police officers in, a huge crowd had gathered and they started to break in to these stores".

[Ray1936]

Hey Ray,

Any truth regarding all efforts by DPD, MI St police, & Nat Guard were not effective to stop the rioting......until the Army & specifically the tanks showed which extinguished the violence within 3-days?

Darned if I know. I never saw any of the regular army. I believe they were sent to the east side of Detroit, and all my 'riot' time was on the west side, mostly on 12th street. If the tanks were of any psychological value, I know not. They were used primarily as armored personnel carriers. Anyway, after about the 3rd day, the disturbances and fires just sort of died a natural death. I think when the regular army showed up, it was just about over anyway. Just sayin'.

[Ray1936]

Or this?

"And I go into the police station with the prisoners and Lt. Ray Good, I’ll never forget this guy loved him, older gentleman, and I says ‘Boss, you better get out there. There is a big problem brewing’ and he said to me ‘Fierimonte, you’re always exaggerating, every time you do something you exaggerate’. I said ‘Boss, I’m telling you go’, he says ‘You know what I’m going to 5 o’clock mass, I’ll stop out there and take a look, but you know Tony, I’m wasting my time’. Half hour later he comes in he’s bleeding from his forehead, [laughter] somebody threw a stone at him, ‘Fierimonte, I’ll never talk to you again! What did you do, you dumbass? What the hell is going on?’ Anyways, he then started the ball rolling for MO4, which means calling all police officers in, a huge crowd had gathered and they started to break in to these stores".

I've seen that story somewhere else back in time. Probably accurate.