Tue. 07/22/08 04:57 PM

I think I heard about the "blind pig" arrest on 12th Street from TV news. Even though there had been riots in Newark, Los Angeles, and elsewhere, Detroit, we thought, probably would be spared. But it started. I lived in Ferndale and was 16. I wondered what might be going on, and I walked over to Woodward Avenue and went down towards 8 Mile Road. I remember seeing trucks carrying troops down Woodward and wondering what might happen. The fear in the neighborhood was that masses of blacks would come out of their neighborhoods and attack whites. The streets in Ferndale were dead quiet. From where we lived, you could see smoke in the sky, from a drugstore on 6 Mile Road at Livernois that burned to the ground. Even though there was a curfew on, I remember walking around the neighborhood after dark, as a sort of way to spite the curfew.

I was being radicalized by the War in Vietnam at the time, and after the riots, moreso. I went to the Socialist Workers Party forums at Debs Hall on Woodward, where they debated whether it was a "riot," an "uprising," or a "rebellion" (they thought it was the latter). Things settled down in time. The old Detroit remained for a few years into the 1970s, but the city really was on a decline.

-- Paul , Flint, MI

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Sat. 11/24/07 09:05 AM

i was loading and carrying groceries to an elderly woman's house down the street from fairway supermarket on 12th and philadelphia with a grocery cart, it's what we did to earn money sometimes. I remember turning to my left as i was pushing the cart toward Wooddrow Wilson and there were some men rocking a taxi cab from left to right yelling inside at the two white people who were inside. I was confused but not dumb, i was 10 years old then, but you felt the tension of oppression of a people even at ages younger then i. The street had erupted in flames and shouts from people right before my eyes, hell me and the old lady i was helping rushed on to her house and unloaded them groceries. I ran back up to the store and witness pure lawlessness, at that time people were taking what ever they wanted, stamp machines from the store and the streets, baskets of food were thrown everywhere, fires, broken water lines, glass were all over the place. I remember climming over the vegetable and cold meat cases to retreive a Johnnie 7 Gun (a toy that every kid wanted, but could not afford). That toy shot out small red missiles, made a machine gun sound as the trigger was pulled, and was just big and greeen and awesome looking. I took it and ran home, 1430 West Philadelphia, between Wooddrow Wilson and Bryon down from Henrey E. Wenger Boys Club. My older brothers a met along the way home they had been up and down 12th street looting along with everyone else, we had some much stuff we had to dig holes in exsisting walls in the basement to hid the goods for the word was out police were door to door a retaking stolen property, they never got ours, what a victory over our oppressors we knew. Curfew was 6 pm everyday, we slept on floors away from windows lights out, we heard shooting all througout the night, the 82nd Airborne Division were deployed to Detroit during the riot thats how bad it was, latter i joined the 82nd Airborne Division for 5 years and went on to retire from uncle sams army after 22 years of service. Some of the other writers to this site i grew up with, derrick mcdowell, i heard he went on to become a great high school basketball coach, derrick remember those games at the boys club they saved our lives...tyronne jones lived around the corner from me, we played baseball like pros. We are felt proud, we were black and proud, we fought back. We as a people begain to sing, and i heard somewhere someone say "when you sing, you announce yourself".

All that lawlessness and uncontrol anger...in the back of my mind i wanted nothing to do with it.

-- eddie bougard , detroit, mi

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Wed. 11/7/07 01:16 PM

we owned a hardware store on schoolcraft ,evergreen in brightmoor and we removed all hunting guns and ammo too 16th precent basement...

i think it tuaght us too take pride in our neighboor hood , and the color of people did not matter just get allong...

-- kurt wolf , tampabay, fl

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Sun. 10/14/07 11:07 PM

I remember my mother being very scared at the time. My family came to Detroit from Kralow Ireland in the 1888 and were all proud to be part of the Motor City. As a small kid I was confused with what had happened. But I still feel pity for the people who suffered the needless destruction.

My father said it was time to move from detroit and we ended up in Lafayette, Indiana where we have been since March 1968. I still miss Detroit, although rarily visit anymore. The greatest city in the world, the can-do city, turned on itself that summer and never recovered. The City that literally saved the free world in the 1940's forgot how to be great!

-- Danny L. McDaniel , Lafayette, IN

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Tue. 10/9/07 05:46 PM

I was with my family from a vacation to niagra falls that weekend and we returned Sunday around 6pm. I believe they closed the bridge shortly after. We had no idea what was going but everything seemed strange and there was smell of smoke. We lived on lower east side on Hurlbut between Charlevoix and Vernor. That night intruders tried to break in the lower level of our 4 family flat. But my aunts big dobermine scared them off. We watched rioters loot the corner stores from our porch in broad daylight for about 3 days. At night the national guard shot someone down our street. In the day they came up and down our street. My dad had to walk down to his cleaning business a block away with a gun to keep rioters from breaking in. They smashed in the windows anyway. I remember after the riot he drove me around to parts of the city and it looked like a war zone. Buildings burnt down and every business that was still there had at least the windows smashed out. We moved out of Det the next summer right after MLK was killed and it looked there would be another riot.

Yes I will always remember that. I didn't fully understand the problem at the time but I do now. I'm white and went to catholic school and had lots of black freinds. The city seemd to detererate fast after that. I always love Det but I don't think the city is the same after the 60's. I drove by my old neighborhood this past summer and it was the scariest place I've ever seen. I did have a great time at Belle Isle however.

-- Frank Prainito , Plano, Tx

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Wed. 10/3/07 04:28 PM

I was in the 101st Airborne, Ft. Campbell KY. I first heard from my wife Jeanette(Palazzolo). She worked in the office of Tocco Wholesale Foods on Warren Ave in Detroit. She said they were closing early that day because things were getting kind a bad. The next thing I knew, I was flying home with our Unit to help the National Guard troops. We flew into Selfridge during the day. Quite a view. Hard to believe this was happening. We seen a lot of smoke and fire all over the area near downtown. We mainly worked out of the State Fair grounds. But there were other posts set up in differant precincts. I was up alot doing patrols with the Army and Detroit police. We did patrols in the back seat of police cars, for back up. Live ammo in my hometown! Still can't get over it.

I did get to see my Wife while I was in town. We were locked up at Fairgrounds. Nobody out, nobody in, period. My Ma & Dad brought my Wife Jean down to the Fence on State Fair so we could all visit a bit. Got a kiss thru the fence.

-- Alan G Klinger , Shelby Twp, MI

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Sun. 09/30/07 08:37 PM

I was 12 and my couzins and aunties went for a walk on twelfh street a saw peoples that i went to schools with busting some windows and taking some clothes and color TV's from the stores so we ran and got us some. I remember I gots me some new gym shoes and my cousins and me carried 2 color TVs from the store and we didn't even pays for them.

Naw, it was all right.

-- Tyrone Jones , Detroit, MI

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Tue. 09/25/07 09:06 PM

I was at home on Sycamore and 12th St. I walk down to Trumbell and watch people lotting store, bit tank went down the street, people were selling things, then theere was marshel law

-- Marie Smith , Bimble, KY

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Sun. 09/23/07 06:56 PM

I was in the Army and just returned from a tour of duty in Europe and was stationed at Fort Stewart, Ga. Someone brought a newspaper with pictures of Detroit burning. I called my mother who was living on Manistique in Detroit and she told me she was ok.

I got out of the Army and joined the Detroit Police Department, which I am retired from now.

-- Gary L. Fuson , Smithville, Tn

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Sat. 09/22/07 03:23 PM

A friend who lived on 12th st. called the morning of the riot to tell me the street was on fire.Once there we got in the car and we stayed in front of the riot spreading. There were no businesses on 14th so we went to Linwood.The street was calm, then the sound of glass breaking and it was on. We traveled from there to Dexter and on to Gr.River.It was the same everywhere. Glass breaking then it's on. People were partying and looting (shopping) at the same time.People were in stores trying on clothes looking for their size.There was no indiscriminate voilence just anger at the racial overtones in the city.Stop and frisk, STRESS and White flight.People just wanted to be heard. I lived across the street from a city official who upon hearing the rumors of a proposed attack by snipers on the 10th pct notified the station but they couldn't talk they were under fire and couldn't get out to respond to the situation.That scared everyone.Nobody liked what was going on but understood why it was happening. Back any person or any animal in a corner and self preservation kicks in. Back a cat into a corner, you'll get your eyes scratched out. They're coming out, over anyone in front of them. Why is that so hard to understand???????????????

The riots deepened the divide among citizens without resolving or addressing the core issues.Like now "last one out of Detroit turn out the lights." Detroiters hear that crap. Funny huh, but somebody "left the water running." We don't need lights to live. I later had to file a racial harrassment lawsuit myself. My employer had me assaulted twice and then walked me up on a dead body in the dark as a joke or to scare me off my J.O.B. while they watched and laughed. Of course it never made the papers, or any other media,but it did set a precedent all the way to the U.S.Supreme Court. B v C&O R.R. 81-109-910-cv-36 Wayne County Circuit Court. Never heard of it? I wonder why............ Oh by the way I had an all WHITE jury,from the burbs, a unanomous verdict and the jury was polled.

-- RB , Detroit, Mi

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Wed. 09/19/07 10:01 PM

My grandmother, Sina Smith, along with my 11-yr.old brother, and myself (age 13), were returning from Montgomery Ward's in the heart of Detroit's shopping center. My aunt Mary came flying up to us in her 1957 T-bird, shouted that the city was rioting, and we needed to get gone, and fast! We were stunned, since our shopping trip had gone along without a hitch; it was quiet in that general area. We were rushed out to my cousin's home in Dearborn Heights, and stayed there until the situation was controlled. My grandmother had a house at 3999 16th; it was sold for 2500.00, and Grandma moved in with family in a local suburb. This saddened me to no end; this house was where I spent my formative years, and I loved living there. All of our family gatherings happened there, and my happiest days were when I went to stay with Grandma during summer vacations.

-- Pamela Patch , TAylor, MI

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Mon. 09/17/07 08:58 AM

asking god not to send me out 08.67

-- motorcity308 , painesville, oh

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Sun. 09/16/07 09:20 AM

I heard that something had happened on the west side of the city, that people were looting and rioting. It hadn't spread to where I lived. Interestingly enough I lived in that part of the city called "black Bottom." But I understood why there wasn't much going on in our neighborhood; we were in the middle of "Urban Renewal." This was actually a primary reason why we didn't loot and burn. So much of what had been "Black Bottom" had been removed. Everything west of Chene had been reduced to rubble. Below Chene you had a wonderfully tight knit collection of black owned homes. These were well kept brown stone single family and duplex homes. I believe there was only one apartment building and that was on the corner of Maple and McDougall. When you drove down McDougall you were in the tunnel of the overhanging elms. It was wonderful during the summer. Because we knew everyone even the Jewish grocer their wasn't any burning going on these were people we knew and knew us. There was a grocery store on Joseph Campbell & Waterloo near Gratiot by the name of the Big 10. I always found the owners to be curt with their customers so my parents only went there when they had to. Before the riots were over they had indeed been broken into and looted. I always felt that if they had treated the neighborhood people with a little more respect perhaps they would have escaped some of the violence. At that time I had met my first true love and she lived on LaSalle Blvd. I lived on Maple Street if you know anything about the city I was truly going across the railroad tracts. I remember my girl friend and I taking a walk in a small park maybe a block or so from her home. It was about 3:00pm, (remember there was a curfew). Suddenly without warning a armored personal carrier with a 50 caliber machine gun on top stopped in front of a home across the street from us. The soldier on top pull the lever on the gun to cock it and prepared to shot. The we could hear a radio shouting something to the leader of that group of National Guardsmen. It said "you've got the wrong house!, you've got the wrong house!" They then took what sounded like a collective sigh of relief and proceeded to their next target. My girlfriend and I were lying behind a tree watching and listening to the whole thing as though it was some surrealistic film where you're one of the actors, except this was real. People were being killed and the city was burning. After that I stayed on my side of the city until the violence had simmered down. Detroit used to be a city of ethnic neighborhoods and auto factories. After that we were the victims of the ravages of drug addiction and the economic down turn in the auto industry. Some people who didn't grow up in Detroit didn't realize we had factories everywhere, even on Woodward Ave. in Highland Park. No city has suffered as much as we have as a result of whatever you want to call it riot or rebellion. Now the city I knew 40 years ago is only a ghost remembered by those who knew the city when it was the seventh largest city in the nation. I still have my fingers crossed perhaps some day the light will return.

-- Bruce Evans , Newark, DE

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Thu. 09/13/07 12:49 PM

When I got to the house I asked my Grandmother what was going on and we sat down and watched My Grandmother lived at Greenfield and Southfield. Every summer I left the "burbs" (Westland) and went to her house for a few days. Over the years I met some of the locals and we would hang out on her block. The first night there all of a sudden at dusk the cops were driving up and down the streets with lights flashing. The local kids told me to run straight home before the cops got me. I knew we hadn't done anything wrong but I ran just the same.When I got to the house I asked what was going on and my Grandmother and I sat down and watched the news. When mty Dad came to pick me up we drove down Greenfield until the National Guard presents was thick(3-4 on every corner). I could see the smoke from the distant fires. It left quite an impression.

The following summer I was back at Grandmaa's and she took the gang to the Rouge pool, I believe. It was a pool some where in Detroit. I had just gotten in the pool when an African American girl jumped on my back and said she was going to drown me. I freaked!! I got her off and started to swim away and she was yelling that she was just kidding but I was done for the day. If I hadn't seen what happened in '67' I'm sure my reaction would have been different. It wasn't until my 1st year in college that I really had any regular contact w/ an African American. I was on the Adrian College football team and so was Bobby Woods. He lived next door in the dorms for awhile and we all became pretty good friends.

-- Steve Newnham , Lakeport, Ca

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Sun. 09/9/07 09:47 PM

When the Detroit riot began on July 23, 1967, I was a 23-year-old black National Guardsman which in and of itself was unique. Subsequent official reports after the many misadventures of the state Guard during the disturbances noted that less than one percent of Michigans Guardsmen were African American. I was a member of HQ and HQ Troop, 1st Squadron 146 Cav. Medical Section and we were about to start our second week of training at Camp Grayling, Michigan. On Sunday a few of the medics in the section and me appropriated a jeep and went to Grayling to see a movie. As we were watching the film the lights came up and someone made an announcement over the public address system. Attention, all military personnel report back to Camp Grayling immediately, all passes and leaves are cancelled or something very similar. It was almost like a Hollywood script. We left and headed for the camp. While we were riding back we noticed all of the military traffic going in the other direction, towards Detroit. We especially took note of the tank carriers that were heading in that direction. Ours was a cavalry unit and we had the only tanks that we knew of in the state. We generally carried them with us when we went for training so if the tanks were going back we figured the training was over and it had hit the fan in Detroit. Our suspicions were confirmed once we returned to our troop area. It was chaos, with everyone running around trying to get their gear together and find a unit to report to so they could get a ride back. The 1967 Michigan National Guard wasnt close to being as militarily proficient as todays Guard that seriously trains to backup our all-volunteer army. No, the Guard of that era was really a giant social club for older guys who had been in the peacetime army, after Korea, and liked it so much they decided to become Michigans Minutemen or 20-somethings like me who wanted to avoid the draft and Vietnam. But we never figured a riot would happen in Detroit although racial unrest had occurred in Newark, New Jersey earlier in the month. Our city, however, was a model for race relations during the 1960s or so everyone thought. Jerome P. Cavanagh, a liberal, beat a conservative incumbent, Louis C. Mariani, in 1961 in a seemingly unattainable victory made possible by an outpouring of African American support. Detroit had been featured in Fortune magazine in June 1965 as being a city on the mend with all of the various groups coming together as one for the good of the city. Of course, that wasnt even close to the truth. Detroit was simmering with racial discord. The truth was Detroit was about cars, apathy in city government and awful tensions between blacks and whites. But even our Guard training, what there was of it (when we werent sneaking out of the old Detroit Artillery Armory on West Eight Mile to have a few drinks at one of the many bars across the street) reinforced a belief that a riot couldnt happen in Detroit. We trained to fight a major conflict, not for urban disturbances and we demonstrated how ill-prepared we were to quell municipal turmoil when we hit the streets of the city. Elements of my outfit arrived in Detroit early Monday evening and were encamped at a public park next to the Light Guard Armory on E. Eight Mile. Confusion reigned, as officers and non-commissioned officers alike didnt have the foggiest notion of what role the Guard was to play. So all sorts of conflicting orders were given and bedlam became the norm. Finally, my childhood buddy, Harry, who had joined the Guard with me and I decidedmore or less on our ownto stay together and we were directed to go to the first of the many fire stations in the city we were eventually assigned to. We hadnt the slightest idea of what we were supposed to do when we got there, but go we did. And the fire stations turned out to be good duty. I also learned that Detroits smoke-eaters are a special breed and I gained a deep and lasting respect for their heroism and bravery that I have to this day. Harry and I also found out that firefighters eat very well. A firefighter was designated as cook for each of their rotations and it was generally the same person. We found these guys knew their way around the kitchen and quickly threw out our government issued C-rations. Harry and I also invaded Canada. One of the places where we were assigned was the fireboat station near the foot of W. Grand Blvd. The mail boat, J. W. Westcott, tied up near the slip where the fireboat was and one day the captain asked us if we wanted to ride as they delivered the mail to one of the passing steamers. Of course we jumped at the chance. The shipping channel on the Detroit River is on the Canadian side so when the mail boat delivers the mail they were in Canadas territory. Harry and I were armed, of course and federalized at the time, so when we crossed the international border it probably constituted a two-manned U.S. armed invasion of about 10 minutes. I hope the statute of limitations has expired on illegal invasions because Harry and I didnt know we were in Canada until we got back to the fireboat station. But it wasnt all fun and games, there were times things got scary. On one occasion we were stationed at Alger School (my Aunt Mildred Lee was the principal) on Kenilworth in Detroit. Two incidents stand out in my mind from the Alger posting. The first was when Harry and I were ordered to stand guard in a vacant house near the school. We protested and tried to tell the sergeant who ordered us to stand guard that we were medics and as such were noncombatants, thus Army Regulations precluded us from sentry duty. He wasnt hearing any of it and off we went armed to the teeth. The place had no electricity and looked as if the folks living there left because of the riot. The house looked to have been vandalized after they left, but there were a few sticks furniture and kitchen goods still there. Things went south very quickly as we began our all-night vigil. It got dark and because the house had no lights we got scared. We were surprised by all of the strange sounds we heard in the black of night. The floors creaked, rodents scampered around us and we heard weird sounds coming from outside. Around two in the morning we decided what we were doing was ridiculous and left the abandoned house and returned to the school for the remainder of the night. When we woke-up later that morning we were told that we were sent to the wrong house and the place we were supposed to guard had been burned down during the night. That is how inept our command structure was in 1967. The next event occurred when I was on roving patrol. There was a curfew and I was sent out by myself to insure the area around the school was secure. Because Guardsmen had been responsible for indiscriminately discharging their weapons, shooting out streetlights and other gun violations we received an order that went something like this: Guardsman will carry their weapons unloaded and await the orders of an officer to load and fire. I dont know of anyone in my outfit that paid the slightest bit of attention to that. I didnt and carried my 45 automatic on jam. While I was patrolling I noticed a group of guys walking up the alley as I passed by. I stopped and told them it was close to curfew and they should start for home before the police came by and arrested them or worse. They didnt seem to be so inclined and called me a few choice names. Uncle Tom, white mans n***** and so forth. By this time I was out of the jeep, but they were still coming towards me. Drawing my pistol I told them to stop and disperse. They told me I didnt have any bullets in my gun and they were going to take it away from me. I wasnt that concerned about the 45 I carried, I was more interested in getting out of the alley in one piece. I didnt say a word, but drew an invisible line on the pavement. If they crossed I intended to shoot in their direction. Thankfully, there was no need to escalate the situation to that point. As I racked the 45 a bullet flew out as I already had one in the chamber and they ran in four different directions. To this day I dont know if I would have shot to kill or just to scare them. From my vantage point and I was all over the city, the riot wasnt racial on the part of the participants. I saw white and blacks folks looting together. Race came into the picture only when the police and many Guardsmen arrived. The best example was the Algiers Motel police sanctioned murders.

-- Mark R. Colden , Detroit, MI

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