Detroit riots in 1967

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The riots in Detroit 1967 (in the English-speaking area 1967 Detroit riot or 12th Street riot ) are considered one of the largest so-called race riots ("Race riots") in the United States . They claimed 43 lives, 1,189 injured and 7,000 arrested. They were triggered on July 23, 1967 by a police raid on a bar in Detroit without a license . They lasted about five days. The unrest was one of several in the US in the so-called "long, hot summer of 1967".

outbreak

The bar - a so-called “ Blind Pig ” - was operated without a license and was located near the intersection of Clairmount Avenue and 12th Street (now renamed Rosa Parks), where a plaza is now intended to be a memorial to the unrest. At that time there were special police units, each made up of four officers, called "Tac Squad" or "Big 4", which were specially put together for such operations. The officials expected about a dozen guests, but instead met a total of 82 African Americans who hosted a welcome ceremony for two Vietnam veterans. In order to be able to arrest everyone present, reinforcements were requested. Meanwhile, a protesting crowd formed on the street in front of the bar. Although the Detroit Free Press coverage of the riots won the Pulitzer Prize , there is disagreement about the exact course of the outbreak.

One version assumes that after the arrested were evacuated, the protesting people in their anger over the closure of the only bar they could have gone to that night began to break the shop windows of the surrounding shops, leading to further vandalism and Arson followed. So the riots developed out of undirected vandalism and general dissatisfaction. Such blind vandalism has meanwhile developed into an annual tradition in Detroit in the form of the Devil's Night Detroit on the night before Halloween , from October 30th to 31st.

The other version describes a violence-based outbreak. The rear window of the last police car is said to have been thrown in with a stone when leaving the intersection. Incited by this attack and the ensuing clashes, the protesters allegedly first moved to the northwest with vandalism and arson, and then the unrest spread to eastern Detroit. In this version, the riots are the result of a rebellion against the prevailing police violence.

The eyewitness Ronald Hewitt describes the unrest not as racially motivated, but as a revolt of the poor and oppressed against the authorities.

Course of the riots

The riots quickly progressed from initial vandalism to looting, attacks by snipers and people trying to defend their property. As the police could not put down the unrest, decided Governor George W. Romney , the National Guard of Michigan to mobilize. Only after five days did the National Guards and the police manage to calm the situation down. Since the police stations did not have sufficient capacity for so many prisoners, many people were often illegally detained in locked parking garages for days.

reasons

According to surveys, the main reason for the unrest is the prevailing, racially motivated police violence and the lack of affordable housing for African Americans as a result of urban renewal projects. In the 12th Street area in particular, the population went from mostly white to nearly all African American in just a decade . The density increased three to four times.

Discussion about the term

The English term "riots" (dt. Uprisings) is up for discussion in connection with the unrest in 1967, although it is mostly used here. Different population groups refer to them as “riot”, “war” (German war), “social unrest” (German civil disobedience ) or “rebellion” (German rebellion). This also shows how unexplained and how little understood this event is to this day.

The memorial

The square, which is right at the intersection of Rosa Parks and Clairmount Avenue, next to the former location of the illegal bar, is a non-profit project of the local residents who care for and entertain it. It serves as a meeting point for young people from the neighborhood and as an event location for an annual barbecue. There is seating under trees that obviously come from different eras. There are chairs and tables made of concrete and benches that seem to consist of old body parts. Since the square was redesigned last year by a group led by Antoine Butler (a young resident), there are also combined benches and wooden planters. A steel sculpture showing two three-dimensional diamonds has been colored from originally red-blue to purple. Board walls that delimit the square on the sides facing away from the intersection are painted in bright colors. You can see from the place that it is subject to constant change.

literature

  • Hubert G. Locke: The Detroit Riot of 1967. Wayne State University Press, Detroit 2017, ISBN 978-0-8143-4377-7 .
  • Max Arthur Herman: Summer of Rage: An Oral History of the 1967 Newark and Detroit Riots. Peter Lang Publishing, New York 2013, ISBN 978-1-4331-2274-3 .
  • Max Herman: Detroit (Michigan) Riot of 1967. In: Walter C. Rucker, James N. Upton: Encyclopedia of American Race Riots. Volume 1, A – M. Greenwood, Westport 2007, ISBN 978-0-313-33301-9 , pp. 165-170.
  • Thomas J. Sugrue: The origins of the urban crisis - race and inequality in postwar Detroit. Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1996.

Movie

Based on the events, the feature film Detroit by Kathryn Bigelow was made in 2017 .

Web links