1966 Riot

[GPCharles]

There is a thread about the 1967 riots.

I seem to remember there were a couple of nights of riot/disturbance/civil unrest back in the summer of 1966. It seems to me it was centered around Kercheval and Pennsylvania on the east side.

This may be a fog-shrouded memory, but I think I remember it.

[Ray1936]

Started when the 7th Precinct cruiser crew [["Big Four") stopped a carload of youths. They started a disturbance in the neighborhood and things got out of hand for a while. Reinforcements were called for and were stationed there for a good week. However, about six hours into the donnybrook, a cold August rain started and it poured for several days. By the time the rain stopped, it was all over.

I've often felt that were it not for that rain, the situation would have evolved to the same level as the '67 riot. In 1967, of course, it was July and no such luck with the weather from eleven months prior.

[Bobl]

Ray's quote:

"...I've often felt that were it not for that rain, the situation would have evolved to the same level as the '67 riot. In 1967, of course, it was July and no such luck with the weather from eleven months prior."

I heard the same thing from a friend's father, who was a Detroit Policeman at the time. Something, somewhere was going to explode here, as it did in other cities. It was just a matter of when.

[Bearinabox]

Which is funny, because most accounts of the '67 riot treat it like it came out of the blue and took everyone by surprise. If the same thing was narrowly avoided a year earlier, you would think the city and DPD would have taken some measures to prevent or prepare for it.

[R8RBOB]

Which is funny, because most accounts of the '67 riot treat it like it came out of the blue and took everyone by surprise. If the same thing was narrowly avoided a year earlier, you would think the city and DPD would have taken some measures to prevent or prepare for it.

It took Whites by surprise but for Blacks living in neighborhoods like on 12th and Clairmount, it just needed a police raid to ignite the powder-keg.


http://r8rbob.wordpress.com

[Ray1936]

I wasn't surprised at the start of the '67 riot. The subsequent extent of it, however, along with the long term results, still baffle me.

Hey, I'm a WSU dropout. I'll let the PhD's do the explaining.

[cman710]

For anyone wanting an academic take on the riots that is extremely thorough, I'd recommend Violence in the Model City: Cavanagh Administration, Race Relations, and the Detroit Riot of 1967, by Sidney Fine. It gives a nice description of the causes of the riot and discusses the Kercheval disturbance.

[Meddle]

I don't remember when exactly [[maybe mid 70s) or what set it off, but it almost happened along Livernois around 6 or 7 mile. FD went on standby, PD units were called in from all over town. Only lasted a night or two, but things were tense for several days.

[daddeeo]

You know, I've felt since then, that almost every hot summer has had the potential for another riot.
Some folks have sarcastically said that there is nothing left to burn.
It is incredibly sad to see that many areas have never recovered and many others have followed suit in going down the drain.

[Ray1936]

I don't remember when exactly [[maybe mid 70s) or what set it off, but it almost happened along Livernois around 6 or 7 mile. FD went on standby, PD units were called in from all over town. Only lasted a night or two, but things were tense for several days.

Meddle, that was around 1976 or so, and it was at the Bob Bolton bar on Livernois near Fenkell. Seems the owner, who was white, shot and killed a black kid who was breaking in to a car alongside the bar. It triggered, as you note, tension for a couple of days but gradually resolved itself. I think the owner was prosecuted for the death, but I can't recall the results. I think there's a photo of the bar on the WSU web site; I'll try to find it later today and post it.

[English]

You know, I've felt since then, that almost every hot summer has had the potential for another riot.
Some folks have sarcastically said that there is nothing left to burn.
It is incredibly sad to see that many areas have never recovered and many others have followed suit in going down the drain.

As a Detroit kid born 10 years after the riots, I knew that it would never happen again. All the Detroiters I knew regretted that it happened. But to this day, I haven't met anyone who admitted to actually participating in it.

I do remember as a small child, people raging about the way the cops were in the Sixties. But by the time crack hit, no one talked much about that anymore.

Has there ever been a sadder urban story in American history than the elegy of Detroit?

[EMG]

Meddle, that was around 1976 or so, and it was at the Bob Bolton bar on Livernois near Fenkell. Seems the owner, who was white, shot and killed a black kid who was breaking in to a car alongside the bar. It triggered, as you note, tension for a couple of days but gradually resolved itself. I think the owner was prosecuted for the death, but I can't recall the results. I think there's a photo of the bar on the WSU web site; I'll try to find it later today and post it.

I remember the radio reports of the Fenkell riots. Not that I remember much of the details, but I do remember that they were in 1977, and also that 1977 was [[at that time) the hottest summer I had ever experienced, and the first time in my lifetime that I remember temperatures exceeding 100 degrees. That didn't happen again until 1988 which, as a sun-and-heat nut, I remember fondly as my favorite summer ever until I finally moved to Arizona in 2001 where I can enjoy those temperatures permanently!

Glad that those Fenkell riots ended quickly, as I began attending the University of Detroit only a couple of years later!

[FerndaleDamon]

I remember my dad talking about this incident. I was only 2yrs. old in '66. My dad said he rmembers seeing a stake truck carrying about 12 cops go down our street [[Hibbard) towards Kercheval. We were lucky it didn't escalate. I forgot to say "hello guys". I'm a newbie to this site. I think it's a great forum!

[EMG]

Welcome!!!

[Ray1936]

Found the pic. This was the first evening of the disturbance at the Bolton bar on Livernois. The bald headed guy in the foreground walking away from the officers is Phil Tannian, then the police commissioner. He was known among the rank and file as Elmer Fudd.

[Pontiac6000]

My immediate family lived in a beautiful apt bldg at St. Paul and Pennsylvania around '66; and I was 2 as well. I remember the Theatre Deluxe on Kercheval, and there was a black owned drugstore, a Bank & Trust, a hardware and grocery. Dr. Nancy Milio wrote a great book of her experiences as a visiting nurse and community organizer at the Mom and Tots nursery school. It was called '9226 Kercheval- the storefront that did not burn.' Presumably the Kercheval incident led to the vacant field, alley, street [[Parkview?) across the street. During the '67 riots, dad walked to work at Chrysler and mom kept me on the floor and away from windows after she saw the tanks.

When the Fenkell riots happened, we moved uptown near the Fenkell/Meyers area. The area had a Wrigley's, Brickley's, Bond Drugs [[later moved to 10 and Greenfield) as Efro's Drugs; Kendricks, National Heating, Strand, Bockstanz and the Variety Theater. Yet being 13 when the '77 incident occured, the area was seeing its first problems with street gangs and robberies, and new neighbors. We got our first bars on our windows and put the cars locked away in the garage, once the lady shot her husband next door.

We left both places 5 years later, and I stayed in Ann Arbor 9 years. Now I'm back near the riverfront where I started.

This forum [[and the Internet) keeps me from lugging pounds of books from the library like the old days.

[FerndaleDamon]

You musta' lived in that area a while to remember that many details. Either that or you got one hell of a memory. I don't remember much, I was only there from birth to '68.

[Bodybagging]

A older friend once shared a story with me regarding the 67 Riot, He lived on Plum street and one evening a 1965 Mercury came zooming down the street with the National Guard on their tail.
The Mercury had the roll down rear window and one of the three men open fired on the National Guard, The Guard in turn returned fire via the 50 caliber, killing all three men in the Mercury.
The memory of the sound of the 50 cal. and the sight of the Mercury swerving and crashing into a neighboring apartment building were burned into my friends brain forever.

[cman710]

I actually have my copy of Violence in the Model City here at work. In this book, Sidney Fine writes, "The Kercheval miniriot of August 1966 was the culminating event in a series of confrontations between the police and ACME and its Afro-American Unity Movemement [[AAUM) and Afro-American Youth Movement [[AAYM) successors."

According to the book, the miniriot began at about 8:25PM on August 9, 1966, when a Big Four cruiser observed seven males allegedly loitering and impeding traffic on Kercheval. The police instructed the men to move on, but three did not and became belligerent. Things developed from there. According to the book, the time of the incident meant the DPD could mobilize a lot of manpower, and apparently 150 to 175 officers quickly deployed in the area and outnumbered the rioters.

[Hermod]

I missed the 67 riots, I was in Vietnam at the time.

[Bobl]

I missed the 67 riots, I was in Vietnam at the time.

Ironic, that the insurrection was begun at a party welcoming home other Vietnam Vets. This country never did learn the proper way to welcome vets back to the world!

[697Macomb]

The Bob Bolton's incident was in July 1975.


quote=EMG;111753]I remember the radio reports of the Fenkell riots. Not that I remember much of the details, but I do remember that they were in 1977, and also that 1977 was [[at that time) the hottest summer I had ever experienced, and the first time in my lifetime that I remember temperatures exceeding 100 degrees. That didn't happen again until 1988 which, as a sun-and-heat nut, I remember fondly as my favorite summer ever until I finally moved to Arizona in 2001 where I can enjoy those temperatures permanently!

Glad that those Fenkell riots ended quickly, as I began attending the University of Detroit only a couple of years later![/quote]

[terryh]

Found the pic. This was the first evening of the disturbance at the Bolton bar on Livernois. The bald headed guy in the foreground walking away from the officers is Phil Tannian, then the police commissioner. He was known among the rank and file as Elmer Fudd.

I think I recognize the building; Tropical Hutt is now located int he adjacent structure-and lol at Elmer Fudd!

[reddog289]

While on the subject of riots,I am reminded of the Fenkell riots where my Uncles auto parts store was looted which basically put that store and his other one out of business.

[hhockey]

I was assigned to the Livernois disturbance as it was called. It lasted approximately 5 days. Some burning and windows broke out of businesses and some looting. Worked 16 hour days, very tense to start but by the fourth day much calmer.