DETROIT RIOT 1967,THE WORST RACE WAR IN AMERICAN HISTORY 1967 JULY 23- JULY 27

DETROIT RIOT 1967,THE WORST RACE WAR 

IN AMERICAN HISTORY 1967 JULY 23- JULY 27

The 1967 Detroit riot, also known as the 12th Street riot was the bloodiest race riot in the "Long, hot summer of 1967".[2] Composed mainly of confrontations between black people and police, it began in the early morning hours of Sunday July 23, 1967 in Detroit, Michigan. The precipitating event was a police raid of an unlicensed, after-hours bar then known as a blind pig, on the city's Near West Side. It exploded into one of the deadliest and most destructive riots in American history, lasting five days and surpassing the violence and property destruction of Detroit's 1943 race riot 24 years earlier.

To help end the disturbance, Governor George W. Romney ordered the Michigan Army National Guard into Detroit, and President Lyndon B. Johnson sent in the United States Army's 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. The result was 43 dead, 1,189 injured, over 7,200 arrests, and more than 2,000 buildings destroyed. The scale of the riot was the worst in the United States since the 1863 New York City draft riots during the American Civil War,[3] and was not surpassed until the 1992 Los Angeles riots 25 years later. The riot was prominently featured in the news media, with live television coverage, extensive newspaper reporting, and extensive stories in Time and Life magazines. The staff of the Detroit Free Press won the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for general local reporting for its coverage

Sunday, July 23

In the early hours of Sunday (3:45 a.m.), July 23, 1967, Detroit Police Department (DPD) officers raided an unlicensed weekend drinking club (known locally as a blind pig) in the office of the United Community League for Civic Action, above the Economy Printing Company, at 9125 12th Street.[4][5] They expected a few revelers inside, but instead found a party of 82 people celebrating the return of two local GIs from the Vietnam War. The police decided to arrest everyone present. While they were arranging for transportation, a sizable crowd of onlookers gathered on the street, having witnessed the raid.[6] Later, in a memoir, William Walter Scott III, a doorman whose father was running the raided blind pig, took responsibility for starting the riot by inciting the crowd and throwing a bottle at a police officer.[7][8]

After the DPD left, the crowd began looting an adjacent clothing store. Shortly thereafter, full-scale looting began throughout the neighborhood. The Michigan State Police, Wayne County sheriffs, and the Michigan Army National Guard were alerted, but because it was Sunday, it took hours for Police Commissioner Ray Girardin to assemble sufficient manpower. Meanwhile, witnesses described seeing a "carnival atmosphere" on 12th Street. The DPD, inadequate in number and wrongly believing that the rioting would soon expire, just stood there and watched. Police did not make their first arrest until 7 a.m., three hours after the raid on the blind pig. To the east, on Chene Street, reports said the crowd was of mixed composition.[9] The pastor of Grace Episcopal Church along 12th Street reported that he saw a "gleefulness in throwing stuff and getting stuff out of buildings"[10]

The police conducted several sweeps along 12th Street, which proved ineffective because of the unexpectedly large numbers of people outside. The first major fire broke mid-afternoon in a grocery store at the corner of 12th Street and Atkinson.[11] The crowd prevented firefighters from extinguishing it, and soon more smoke filled the skyline.

The local news media initially avoided reporting on the disturbance so as not to inspire copy-cat violence, but the rioting started to expand to other parts of the city, including looting of retail and grocery stores elsewhere. By Sunday afternoon, news had spread, and people attending events such as a Fox Theater Motown revue and Detroit Tigers baseball game were warned to avoid certain areas of the city. Motown's Martha Reeves was on stage at the Fox, singing "Jimmy Mack," and was asked to ask people to leave quietly, as there was trouble outside. After the game, Tigers left fielder Willie Horton, a Detroit resident who had grown up not far from 12th Street, drove to the riot area and stood on a car in the middle of the crowd while still in his baseball uniform. Despite Horton's impassioned pleas, he could not calm the crowd.[12][13]

Mayor Jerome Cavanagh stated that the situation was "critical" but not yet "out of control." [14] At 7:45 p.m. that first (Sunday) night, Cavanagh enacted a citywide 9:00 p.m. – 5:30 a.m. curfew,[15] prohibited sales of alcohol[16] and firearms, and business activity was informally curtailed in recognition of the serious civil unrest engulfing sections of the city.[16] A number of adjoining communities also enacted curfews. There was significant white participation in the rioting and looting, raising questions as to whether the event fits into the classical race riot category.[17]

List of deaths[edit]

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List of deceased

Name	Race	Age	Date	Description of Death
Jason Jones	Black	15	July 23, 1967	Was sitting under a tree when a gang of white males were running from the police and exchanging fire; he was hit in the chest.
Willie Hunter	Black	26	July 23, 1967	Found in the basement of Brown's Drug Store; believed to have died when the store burned down.[102]
Prince Williams	Black	32	July 23, 1967	Also found asphyxiated in the basement of Brown's Drug Store.[102]
Sheren George	White	23	July 24, 1967	Shot while in the car driven by her husband (Ross) as they tried to flee from a group of black men beating a white man.
Clifton Pryor	White	23	July 24, 1967	Mistaken for a sniper while trying to keep sparks from a neighboring fire off the roof of his apartment building; shot by a National Guardsman.
Herman Ector	Black	30	July 24, 1967	Shot by a security guard while attempting to intervene between the guard and a group of rioters.
Fred Williams	Black	49	July 24, 1967	Electrocuted when he stepped on a downed power line.
Daniel Jennings	Black	36	July 24, 1967	Broke into Stanley's Patent Medicine and Package Store; shot by the owner Stanley Meszezenski.
Robert Beal	Black	49	July 24, 1967	Shot by a Detroit police officer at a burned-out auto parts store.
Joseph Chandler	Black	34	July 24, 1967	Shot in the back by Detroit police while engaged in looting at the Food Time Market.
Herman Canty	Black	46	July 24, 1967	Observed loading merchandise from the rear door of the Bi-Lo Supermarket. Police fired several rounds at the truck until it stopped, and they found Canty dead inside.
Alfred Peachlum	Black	35	July 24, 1967	As A&P supermarket was being looted, Peachlum was inside with a shiny object in his hand. Police opened fire. The object turned out to be a piece of meat wrapped in shiny paper.
Alphonso Smith	Black	35	July 24, 1967	The police version was that Smith and four other men were cornered while looting the Standard Food Market. Other sources[who?] state that an officer fired through a window.
Nathaniel Edmonds	Black	23	July 24, 1967	Richard Shugar, a 24-year-old white male, accused Edmonds of breaking into a store, and shot him in the chest with a shotgun. Shugar was convicted of second-degree murder.
Charles Kemp	Black	35	July 24, 1967	Took five packs of cigars and was observed removing a cash register from Borgi's Market. He ran, police officers gave chase, and fired at him.
Richard Sims	Black	35	July 24, 1967	Shot after he attempted to break into the Hobby Bar.
John Leroy	Black	30	July 24, 1967	A passenger in a vehicle upon which National Guard and police opened fire. Police stated that the vehicle was trying to break through a roadblock.
Julius Dorsey	Black	55	July 25, 1967	Worked as a security guard; shot by a National Guardsman who was pursuing suspected looters.
Carl Smith	White	30	July 25, 1967	A firefighter; shot by a black male while attempting to organize firefighter units to fight several fires at Mack and St. Jean.
Emanuel Cosby	Black	26	July 25, 1967	Broke into N&T Market; police arrived just as he was making his escape. Cosby ran and was shot while running away with his loot.
Henry Denson	Black	27	July 25, 1967	Passenger in a car with two other black males; they encountered a roadblock erected by National Guardsmen; guardsmen shot at vehicle for trying to break the roadblock.
Jerome Olshove	White	27	July 25, 1967	The only policeman killed in the riot. Olshove was shot in a scuffle with looters outside an A&P supermarket.
William Jones	Black	28	July 25, 1967	Broke into a liquor store, was caught and attempted escape. Police ordered him to halt, but he continued to run and they shot him.
Ronald Evans	Black	24	July 25, 1967	Shot with William Jones in liquor store looting.
Frank Tanner	Black	19	July 25, 1967	Broke into a store with his friends and was shot while trying to escape a National Guardsman.
Arthur Johnson	Black	36	July 25, 1967	Shot inside looted pawn shop.
Perry Williams	Black	36	July 25, 1967	Shot with Johnson inside pawn shop.
Jack Sydnor	Black	38	July 25, 1967	Fired shots out of the window of his third-floor apartment. Shot police officer Roger Poike when the police arrived to investigate. Was killed by police.
Tanya Blanding	Black	4	July 26, 1967	Died as a result of gunfire from a National Guard tank stationed in front of her house. Guardsmen stated that they were responding to sniper fire from the second floor.
William N Dalton	Black	19	July 26, 1967	Police report stated that he was an arsonist and was attempting to flee from the police.
Helen Hall	White	51	July 26, 1967	Hall, a native of Illinois, was visiting Detroit on business and stayed at the Harlan House Motel. Hearing tanks rolling by, she peeked through the drape window to see what was going on. She was shot by National Guardsmen who mistook her as a sniper.
Larry Post	White	26	July 26, 1967	Post was a Corporal[103] in the National Guard. After an exchange of gunfire between National Guardsmen and a car containing three men, Post was found with a gunshot wound to the stomach.
Aubrey Pollard	Black	19	July 26, 1967	Killed by Detroit Police Officer Ronald August after a group of policemen and National Guardsmen stormed the Algiers Motel in search of snipers.
Carl Cooper	Black	17	July 26, 1967	Killed by unknown person at the Algiers Motel.
Fred Temple	Black	18	July 26, 1967	Killed by Detroit Police Officer Robert Paille in the Algiers Motel.
George Tolbert	Black	20	July 26, 1967	Killed as he ran past a National Guard checkpoint at Dunedin and LaSalle Streets, when a bullet fired by a Guardsman hit him.
Albert Robinson	Black	38	July 26, 1967	The police report stated the guardsmen came under fire from snipers and returned fire. At the end of the exchange, Robinson was dead.
Krikor "George" Messerlian	White	68	July 27, 1967	A 68-year-old Armenian immigrant business owner; beaten to death by Darryl McCurtis, a 20-year-old black male, after Messerlian confronted black looters.
Roy Banks	Black	46	July 27, 1967	Banks was a deaf-mute walking to a bus stop to go to work; he was shot by Guardsmen who mistook him for an escaping looter.
Ernest Roquemore	Black	19	July 28, 1967	Shot by an Army paratrooper and declared dead on arrival at Detroit General Hospital. The soldier had been aiming at another youth who was unharmed.[104]
John Ashby	White	26	August 4, 1967	A Detroit firefighter; electrocuted by a high-tension wire that had fallen while he was trying to put out a fire started by rioters.