1967 Remembered

[Lowell]

1967 is an indelible number in the mindscape of Detroit. As we head toward the July 50th anniversary of the that seminal event, reflections over it are emerging.

Of course it has been extensively discussed over the years on this forum. To that end, using tagging, a "tag forum" showing the 1967 Detroit Riot threads can be seen here.

The build up to the anniversary began with the Detroit Free Press film festival and the showing of 12th and Clairmount. Last night a major exhibition opened at the Walther Reuther Library on the Wayne State campus. "12th Street, Detroit, 1967: Employment, Housing, Policing, and Race Relations in Evidence." runs through Jan. 2018

Sure to fuel interest is the upcoming summer release of Kathryn Bigelow's [of Hurt Locker fame] treatment simply called Detroit which is currently being discussed here.

Question for forum members and our audience... Is this attention good, bad or indifferent? Cathartic or Disturbing.

[Ray1936]

Probably good; we learn from history.

There's a couple of guys who post their video travels through Detroit on Youtube. Looking at those clips is really sad, and they don't really go out of their way to focus on bad neighborhoods.

[401don]

I agree with Ray. You can't ignore history. The problem, especially these days, is finding an intelligent, fair and balanced approach to telling a story. These Detroit YouTube videos are equally divided between the wonderful new downtown ones and the "ghetto" ones.

[Dan Wesson]

Question for forum members and our audience... Is this attention good, bad or indifferent? Cathartic or Disturbing.

Where does 'making one feel old' fit in?

[douglasm]

Good question that I wrestle with every time the subject is mentioned, and I thought of it this morning when NPR's "Morning Edition" was talking about the 25th anniversary of the Rodney King verdict riots in L.A.

It's probably good to bring them up, if only to learn from the past in the [[futile?) hope that it won't happen again. On the other hand as a white, suburban kid [[then) working Downtown, I saw the original, and have absolutely no desire so see the remake.

[douglasm]

Dan......
......I know what you mean. I was 19 at the time.

[Former_Detroiter]

Sunday, July 23, 1967, one week before my 19th birthday. Our lower eastside house was packed with relatives anxiously awaiting the arrival of my brother who was returning home from Vietnam. I remember my father turning on the TV and my mother asking him what war movie he was watching. I remember my father saying that's no war movie that's Detroit. I remember not seeing my brother for almost a week after he arrived in the U.S. as he was inducted into the National Guard. I don't need to watch a movie or documentary to remind me of that day or the days that followed. I'm just thankful that my brother survived two wars.

[carlscomputers]

Question for forum members and our audience... Is this attention good, bad or indifferent? Cathartic or Disturbing.

I've been fascinated with the '67 Riots since I was a 5 yr old on Blaine St. watching "The Army" ride down our street. That being said, to answer your question, I feel that attention must be given to this event since in my opinion, the Riots set Detroit on a path from which it has yet to recover from? It appears that the majority of the businesses affected never rebuilt in the City, which lead to the decline of the urban landscape here. Not saying that it may not have happened anyway, with the closing of landmark stores such as Sears, Hudson's, Wards, etc., which were located in the inner city, resulting in people having to travel farther & farther away to shop, and in some cases, giving them the incentive to move closer to those farther away areas as well? For me, the answer would be "Cathartic" since the more I hear/learn about the events of 1967 in Detroit, the more I feel an emotional satisfaction of trying to understand how this tragedy "really" affected the City I love!

[Wesley Mouch]

50 years. I remember the riots too. Frightening to a child. Society coming unhinged. I lived in Detroit. And our family travelled near the riot areas often.

The race riots of that era were the result of inattention by the ruling whites to the cumulative effects of racism, zoning, housing covenants, employment practices, and police non-diversity. Enough blacks lost respect for their overlords to believe the only radical action would get results.

Too bad that the radical action resulted in radical disinvestment in Detroit.

Today's conservatives need to pay attention to this broader view of the 60's race riots. The pandering of the left hasn't solved social issues. New ideas are needed. Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump both show us that unless we engage the broader population in effective democracy, we never will solve some problems -- and populism will continue to win support, and may erode the amazing economic successes.

We have to stop efforts that kill urban jobs like the minimum wage does, and let people have ways to succeed.

[401don]

It's also the 25th anniversary of the 1992 LA riots, following the Rodney King beating. I saw a segment on PBS a couple of days ago in which most people from the neighborhood agreed that things in the area have definitely improved both in economic development and opportunity. Murders have decreased about 80% from that year. Detroit is a much larger city than one area of LA but it's sad that 50 years later a turnaround still hasn't happened for the remaining residents.

[Lowell]

Another 1967 Upcoming Event

Through The Fire: History Before, During & After '67 Rebellion
Public · Hosted by Detroit Public Library

Duffield Branch Library- Detroit Public Library
2507 Grand Blvd W, Detroit, MI 48208-1236, United States

Jamon Jordan, Historian and Lecturer will examine what happened on 12th Street and Clairmount in the Virginia Park community early Sunday morning on July 23, 1967. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Rebellion.

[Lowell]

1967 on the Art Front

Now and Then: Artists Contemplate the Summer of 1967
Detroit Artists Market [DAM]
4719 Woodward Avenue in Detroit [[three blocks south of the Detroit Institute of Arts, and one block north of MOCAD)
Open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. Exhibitions are free of charge

An art exhibition that brings together a wide range of voices and perspectives on the fifty years since the tumultuous events of the summer of 1967. These events changed Detroit and surrounding communities forever, in ways both clear and subtle. As the 50th anniversary draws near, many are reflecting on that summer in Detroit and its impact.

Now and Then: Artists Contemplate the Summer of 1967 opens on Friday, April 28, 2017, 6-9 p.m. Curator Jeff Cancelosi will host a special gallery talk with the artists on May 6, 2017 at 1 p.m. as well as a panel discussion How Did the Detroit Art Community React to the Summer of 1967? on May 20, 2017.

Some Images from Friday's Opening

Tylonn Sawyer
Every Now and Then
Charcoal and acrylic on Paper 4' x 6'


Carole Morisseau
On the Edge
oil on canvas 3' x 5'


Rashaun Rucker
My Soul is Still on Fire [[Smoke Signal)
graphite on paper 2' x 1'


SLEEP [Antoine Sleep McDowell]
Unlimited Data
10 layered hand cut stencils and Montana 94 4' x 5'


Show Curator Jeff Cancelosi [right] with Antoine Sleep McDowell [center left]

[warsaw7]

Hmmmm.... forgetting the fact that the DIA has been showcasing home movies around 1967 for the last few months now? Or the "Art of Rebellion: Black Art of the Civil Rights Movement" as part of the Detroit '67 Project?

[Onthe405]

It's also the 25th anniversary of the 1992 LA riots, following the Rodney King beating. I saw a segment on PBS a couple of days ago in which most people from the neighborhood agreed that things in the area have definitely improved both in economic development and opportunity. Murders have decreased about 80% from that year. Detroit is a much larger city than one area of LA but it's sad that 50 years later a turnaround still hasn't happened for the remaining residents.

In addition to changes like community policing and aggressive anti-gang programs implemented by LAPD, another mitigating factor has to do with the dramatic and ever-accelerating demographic changes in South Central LA [['92), Watts [['65), and neighboring Compton over the past 4 decades.

Even by the time of the '92 Rodney King violence, South Central had become 40% Latino and dropped to 60% African American. 25 years later, the estimated census hovers around 70% Latino and 30% African American.

Several variables [[too numerous to outline here) contributed to the shift including some African Americans climbing into the middle class and moving on to higher income neighbourhoods within LA. However, the largest percentage was an AA out-migration to the "Inland Empire" [[San Bernardino, Riverside, Moreno Valley, etc) and the "High Desert" [[Lancaster, Palmdale, etc).

This a very different situation than Detroit. In South Los Angeles, one demographic population was replaced with another--mostly recent immigrants. The neighbourhoods themselves are even more dense [[and getting denser) than they were 50 years ago. As 401don mentions, Detroit lost overall population, which creates a separate set of challenges.

[Pam]

From the Detroit Historical Society website:

http://www.detroit1967.org/

[Balduck]

I was 14 in July of 1967 - we lived near Hubbell and Grand River. Being we were close to a Michigan Bell switching station, our streets were patrolled by National Guard tanks. It was pretty frightening - espeically the sniper fire in the evenings from the block behind us. My aunt and uncle lived in the Livernois/Puritan area and watched some looting of businesses on Puritan from their upstairs window. I've never forgotten how we first heard about what was going on. I had walked up to the local store and changed my transistor radio station to CKLW because I didn't like the song playing on Keener 13. Byron McGregor started telling everyone about "wide spread looting and arson on Detroit's west side". I turned around and ran home to let my parents know. That was how we found out.

[Lowell]

A Review of the "Detroit '67: Perspectives" at the Detroit Historical Museum.

At Detroit Historical Museum's new Detroit '67 exhibit, perspectives matter

The concept of perspectives comes up almost immediately as you enter the exhibit, when you're faced with an interactive screen asking what you call the events of 1967.

Before I began reporting on the events happening to recognize the 50th anniversary this year, it had never occurred to me there might be a difference of opinion in the language or that certain words bring connotations with them. Do you call it a riot? Uprising? Rebellion? Something else? Does one word speak to the behavior and another put rationale behind it?

You're asked to answer that question again near the end of the exhibit, to see if your perspective has changed.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...t-perspectives

[Meddle]

Being we were close to a Michigan Bell switching station, our streets were patrolled by National Guard tanks.

As far as I know, the only heavily armored armed vehicles were Federal:

"Shortly before midnight on Monday, July 24, President Johnson authorized the use of federal troops in compliance with the Insurrection Act of 1807, which authorizes the President to call in armed forces to fight an insurrection in any state against the government.[20] This gave Detroit the distinction of being the only domestic American city to have been occupied by federal troops three times. The U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division and 101st Airborne Division had earlier been positioned at nearby Selfridge Air Force Base in suburban Macomb County. Starting at 1:30 on Tuesday, July 25, some 8,000 Michigan Army National Guardsmen were deployed to quell the disorder. Later, their number would be augmented with 4,700 paratroopers from both the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions,"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_Detroit_riot



Sometime Sunday afternoon, the phone rang. Dad got called in to work and left. We didn't hear from him at all for several days.

After it was over, we all drove the area around Livernois and Grand River to see it first hand. I have some black and white pictures somewhere, but I haven't been able to locate them recently.

[Ray1936]

I was 14 in July of 1967 - we lived near Hubbell and Grand River. Being we were close to a Michigan Bell switching station, our streets were patrolled by National Guard tanks.

In most such observations, they were not tanks. They were armored personnel carriers, supplied by the manufacturer, Cadillac Tool & Guage, to the DPD. I don't think the National Guard had any heavy vehicles other than transport trucks.

[mikefmich]

As far as I know, the only heavily armored armed vehicles were Federal:

They weren't tanks, they were self propelled 155mm howitzers from the 182nd Arty of the MI National Guard, W. 8 Mi Rd Armory. That was my unit for 6 yrs.

[Meddle]

http://www.joelsolkoff.com/blog/wp-c...967_3-Copy.jpg

https://cbsdetroit.files.wordpress.c...ts-1967-10.jpg

http://reuther.wayne.edu/node/7940

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/...26_964x641.jpg



I can't tell one 'tank' from another, so I have no idea what they really are.

[GMan]

Posted on today's MLive page:
http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/in...art_river_home

Pictures of D.H.S.'s exhibit and a short home video from the WSU Library.

[Cincinnati_Kid]

The Algiers Motel incident and 67 riots are coming to the big screen in the film, "Detroit" directed by "Hurt Locker" director, Kathryn Bigelow. Debuts nationally, Aug 4th.

[clubboss]

The Algiers Motel incident and 67 riots are coming to the big screen in the film, "Detroit" directed by "Hurt Locker" director, Kathryn Bigelow. Debuts nationally, Aug 4th.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv74LqiumXE

[401don]

The Algiers Motel incident and 67 riots are coming to the big screen in the film, "Detroit" directed by "Hurt Locker" director, Kathryn Bigelow. Debuts nationally, Aug 4th.

Reading many of the comments attached to youtube previews, the common theme is that this is the last thing we need right now for race relations in this country. I understand what they're saying, on the other hand it's the old argument about choosing to ignore past history. While the movie may provide a better understanding of Detroit's racial problems, I can't think that it will help its image.