Windsor's American neighbour was brought to its knees 50 years ago this weekend.
A routine raid on an after-hours drinking establishment sparked about a week of arson, pillage and death in Detroit, in what would become at that point the deadliest civil disturbance in North American history.
The disturbance, classified by some as a riot, others as a rebellion, precipitated the exodus of residents from the city to the suburbs and began a period of rebirth and reinvention that continues to this day.
It was sparked by a raid from Detroit Police shortly after 3:30am on Sunday, July 23, 1967, at an unlicenced bar on 12th St (now Rosa Parks Blvd) and Clairmount on Detroit's west side. The raid on what was known in Detroit as a "blind pig" resulted in 82 arrests. Once police left, the crowd became upset and destructive, moving up and down the street looting stores. then setting fires.
The Michigan National Guard was called in when it became clear police were in over their heads. On Monday, with the violence getting worse and Guardsmen struggling to keep order, Detroit Mayor Jerry Cavanagh and Michigan Governor George Romney asked for, then received federal troops to help restore order.
By the time things settled down later in the week, 43 people had died, the most in a civil disturbance in the US until the Los Angeles riots in 1992. The dead included a Detroit police officer, a National Guardsman and two Detroit firefighters. About 1200 were injured. Over 7000 people were arrested. Some 2500 stores were looted or burned and about 400 families were left homeless.
Despite initial pleas by police to media organizations to hold back on their coverage of the situation for fear of making things worse, word of a city on fire spread throughout the world. While most media outlets agreed to control coverage, others such as the Detroit Free Press covered the event aggressively. The paper won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage.
The front page of the Detroit Free Press for Monday, July 24, 1967, reporting the worsening situation (Image courtesy of Newspapers.com)
Windsor played a role in helping with the disturbance. As plumes of smoke hung over the Detroit skyline, visible from Windsor's riverfront, Windsor sent fire trucks to help exhausted Detroit firefighters. Windsor police officers also went to help their Detroit colleagues process those who were arrested.
In the years that followed, residents moved out of the city to the suburbs and crime in Detroit skyrocketed. Today the city is home to just 700,000 residents, as opposed to about a million-and-a-half at the time of the riot. Today, however, the city is enjoying a resurgence as downtown development in Detroit is rivaling that of other North American cities.
Several events are being held to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the riot. The Detroit Historical Museum is debuting a three-year exhibit called Detroit 67: Perspectives, which puts visitors in the middle of the events. A special screening of the documentary film 12th and Clairmount, featuring footage from hundreds of home movie reels, will be held outdoors on Friday at Campus Martius Park in downtown Detroit. The film Detroit, from Academy-Award winning director Kathryn Bigelow, hits movie theaters on August 4.
For complete information on the Detroit Historical Museum's exhibition, click here.
--Did you live through the Detroit riot of 1967? Do you have family members who did? Tell us your story. Visit our story posting on the Blackburn News Facebook page and comment.--