1967 Detroit Riots Begin (50th Anniversary Of Detroit Riots)

History.Com(This Day in History) ^ | 07/23/2017 | staff

[Kid Shelleen]

The 1967 Detroit Riots were among the most violent and destructive riots in U.S. history. By the time the bloodshed, burning and looting ended after five days, 43 people were dead, 342 injured, nearly 1,400 buildings had been burned and some 7,000 National Guard and U.S. Army troops had been called into service. --SNIP-- “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal. Reaction to last summer’s disorders has quickened the movement and deepened the division. Discrimination and segregation have long permeated much of American life; they now threaten the future of every American.”

[PGR88]

About 60,000 low-income residents were crammed into the neighborhood’s 460 acres

Congratulations! They've been able to reduce it to near zero population for the same area.

[Dilbert San Diego]

anyone familiar with the area? I had heard that some areas of Detroit lay in rubble for decades after the riots. Some areas simply were abandoned. Is that still true? I thought I heard that some areas of Detroit were “gentrifying”, but not sure if anything good was happening in the riot zone.

[OttawaFreeper]

Makes you think of the intro to the movie “Beverly Hills Cop” that features 1984 footage of Detroit. Looked like some areas certainly did not recover by that time, if ever.

[umgud]

I heard/read somewhere that because the US Army was sent in, most insurers were off the hook due to typical language in their policies. This was a big reason it wasn’t completely rebuilt.

[lee martell]

I recall that summer of ‘67 vividly.
I was still in the fifth grade, in summer school, when the principal came on the loudspeaker telling everyone to go home early, because there were reports of Snipers in the area.
I learned that summer what the word ‘Sniper’ meant.

I recall seeing the National Guard patrolling up and down the street in front of our house after the evening curfew began.
I also learned what ‘Curfew’ meant.
My father purchased some shotgun shells from our next door neighbor. “So I can be ready, in case they try to come in here!” he said.

[Cboldt]

Most of Detroit looks like a war zone, today. Huge stretches of abandoned, boarded-up buildings. The people left.

It's not the riots that killed the city though. It was the government. The city was fine in the mid 1970's. Not healthy, but not terminal.

[ifinnegan]

Dancing in the Streets

http://youtu.be/5QlCKNSBINA

[raybbr]

“What the rioters appeared to be seeking was fuller participation in the social order and the material benefits enjoyed by the majority of American citizens. Rather than rejecting the American system, they were anxious to obtain a place for themselves in it.”

And, for the last fifty years no matter how much they've "obtained" it's never been enough. That attitude, and the acquiescence to it, have given rise to the Clintons, Sanders, Obamas, Jacksons, et al and their unending drive to take what the creators of the "system" have and GIVE it to those mentioned.

[Leaning Right]

There is a movie coming out this August called “Detroit”. Its focus: The story of how a group of white policemen beat three black men to death.

The beatings occurred during the 1967 riots. And they were questionable. Having said that, this movie will do nothing but drive blacks and whites further apart.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_(film)

[PIF]

All phone calls, taxi calls, CB calls were recorded at NSA as well as all the other cities which were burned.

[Dilbert San Diego]

Army being sent in, meaning it was considered an act of war by insurers, which gave them an “out”???

[dfwgator]

Where was OCP when you needed them?

[a fool in paradise]

When is a movie being made about the knockout game? It could be like Rollerball

[Dilbert San Diego]

What planet do these people live on?

The rioters appeared to be seeking fuller participation in the social order?? Really?? They wanted the material benefits enjoyed by the majority of American citizens?? But they didn’t choose to earn said benefits did they??

So then, you can justify a riot based on seeking fuller participation in the social order, by violently violating major social norms of that social order???? Black rioters were seeking to participate by a riot, not by doing what most of us do, i.e. go to school, get an education, get job training, do a good job when you go to work, try to get promoted, seek better paying jobs so that you can earn more of the material benefits noted, etc. etc.

Rioting against the social order means you want to integrate into that social order. Who knew.............

[Dilbert San Diego]

And we will be racist if we choose not go to see this movie.

I recall how, the movie “Selma” was in theaters and didn’t do very well. Black activist spokesmen at the time decried that it was racist to go see “American Sniper”, which was in theaters at the same time as “Selma”, rather than go see “Selma” and learn our history.

I never saw “Selma” but have heard there were some historic inaccuracies in it.

But that did it for me, that it is racist if you choose not to see some black oriented movie.

[oh8eleven]

I had heard that some areas of Detroit lay in rubble for decades after the riots.
Rochester NY had a race-riot in 1964 and even though it was on a smaller scale than Detroit, you could see the scars for many years afterward.

[lee martell]

Could you have intended to reply to someone else?

[stayathomemom]

I was 11 years old and lived at Grand River and Evergreen. It was the first time in years that my dad did not teach summer school. otherwise he might have been in the thick of things. He taught at Murray-Wright High School, located on 12th Street but closer to downtown.
I remember being subject to a curfew even though we were miles from any trouble, also having to drive north of Eight Mile Rd in order to buy gas.

[basalt]

the area where the riot started was rebuilt with strictly low income townhouses..all of the once thriving businesses all left. Until about 6 years ago, the city was an absolute disgrace...block after block of burned out , destroyed buildings that just sat there. Entire major streets were in the dark after thieves stripped the wiring from the lights. No street lights also left neighborhoods in the dark. It was a truly scary place...After the bankruptcy, the residents shockingly elected a white mayor, and, give him credit..hes done a hell of a job since. Every single street light has been fixed and replaced, truly an amazing feat...thousands of blighted buildings have been tore down, and whole sections of the city are simply returning back to nature...its weird..block after block are now beautiful little stretches of green fields and forests...i live on the far west side and my entire block, the houses are gone and every day i feed the 3 most beautiful deer..2 bucks and 1 doe...its so quiet and peaceful around me now..very strange. There are tons of little farm/ gardens everywhere. The school system is almost completely destroyed and the main streets and inner city hoods are still very dangerous..but not nearly as bad as before. The city is huge..3 times the size of Boston, but with probably less residents, so policing is still a problem, with so many areas just fields and trees. But i gotta say, Mayor Duggan has done an outstanding job considering what he took over. All 4 sports teams will now play downtown again,, within 2 blocks of each other....an area called “District Detroit” is really expanding both business and housing ....but the middle part of the city is still a mess....