Detroit July 1967 - Michigan Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

Everyone old enough will never forget and those that have lived here and heard the stories.
The upraise began when Police raided an after-hours club, some said it was a "Blind Pig". When they started arresting patrons neighbors gathered and and fighting and the looting and burning of the local businesses began. The sign fills in more...

Historical Date: 07/23/1967 Historical Name: 1967 Detroit Riots Description: Side one (looking to the north): In July 1967 the civil unrest that had been spreading across the United States reached Detroit. In the early morning hours of July 23, Detroit police officers raided a blind pig, an illegal after-hours bar, where patrons were celebrating the return of Vietnam War servicemen. Located at Clairmount Avenue and Twelfth Street (later Rosa Parks Boulevard), the bar was within a mostly African-American business district that had an active nightlife. While the police arrested all eighty-five people inside, a crowd formed outside. Reacting to the arrests, a few people threw rocks and bottles at the police. By eight a.m. the crowd had grown to an estimated 3,000 people, and arson and looting were underway. Mayor Jerome Cavanagh and Governor George Romney agreed to deploy the Michigan National Guard that afternoon. Federal Army troops joined the guard two days later. Side two (Looking to the south): Detroit’s civil unrest on twelfth Street continued for 4 days until July 27, 1967. More than 1,600 building were destroyed after fires spread from the business district to nearby residents. Property damage was estimated to be $132 million. Around 7,200 people were arrested, hundreds were injured and forty-three people died, including bystanders, looters, a fireman and a National Guardsmen. In response to the conflict in Detroit and throughout the country, President Lyndon B. Johnson created the Kerner Commission to investigate the causes of the violence. It concluded that although the specific episodes of violence were spontaneous, they were in response to poverty, segregation, racism, unemployment, “frustration and powerlessness” and Police actions that enforced a double standard for how people of different races were treated. Parking nearby?: yes Registered Site #: 746G D/T ratings: Not listed website: Not listed

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