Nortown was not exempt from the troubles of the Detroit race riots in 1967. Detroit news staff photographer Shirkey was able to capture a photo in the area of exactly what was going on in the midst of the riots. In the photo, 4 guards armed and ready to fire stood in the light of the streetlamps on the corner of the black Detroit neighborhood. They stayed until the wee hours of the morning to...
In the early hours of July 23, 1967, one of the most violent race riots in American history broke out on the streets of Detroit as police raided an unlicensed, after-hours bar and arrested 82 black people who were celebrating the return of two local Vietnam veterans. The resulting conflict went on for three days, ending in 43 dead and 1,189 injured. This had a large impact on Detroit. James E. Cummings,...
Despite a long history of racial tensions and repeated race riots dating back more than a century, before the Great Rebellion of 1967 Detroit did not believe these sort of things would happen there. The city administration would often boast that "Detroit has a lot of things going for itself," which was probably true relative to other major cities in the North. African American people lived in some...
Detroit resident James E. Cummings remembers the Detroit race riots that started on the morning of July 23, 1967. The race riots were provoked by a raid of an after-hours bar, known as a "blind pig," on the corner of 12th and Clairmount streets. Cummings recollects not only the violence of the days that followed, in which arson and looting were commonplace and 2,000 buildings were destroyed, but...