12th Street riot

The 12th Street Riot was a civil disturbance in Detroit that began in the early morning hours of Sunday, July 23, 1967. Vice squad officers executed a raid at a blind pig, or speakeasy, on the corner of 12th Street and Clairmount on the city's near westside. The confrontation with the patrons there evolved into one of the deadliest and most destructive riots in modern U.S. history, lasting five days and far surpassing the 1943 riot the city endured. Before the end, the state and federal governments, under order of then President Lyndon B. Johnson, sent in National Guard and United States Army troops. The result was forty-three dead, 467 injured, over 7,200 arrests and more than 2,000 buildings burned down. The scope of the riot was eclipsed in scale only by the 1992 Los Angeles riots. The riot was prominently featured in the news media, with live television coverage, extensive newspaper reporting, and an extensive cover story in "Time" magazine and "Life" on August 4, 1967. The "Detroit Free Press" won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage.

The seeds of the 12th Street riot were planted in the extraordinary growth of the auto industry that placed the city at the industrial center of the nation. The availability of high-paying and unskilled work in auto plants attracted many from the south, who brought their often conflicting cultures into the community. In 1943, racial tensions between blacks and whites broke out into open riot as each competed for wartime jobs in the 1943 Detroit riot.

Background

Housing

Even with Detroit's high home ownership rates, affordable housing became an issue, with unemployment, misguided urban renewal, and deed restrictions. [ [http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007707250320 Detnews.com | This article is no longer available online ] ] By 1967, the neighborhood around 12th Street had a population density that was twice the city average [ Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, Bantam Books, New York, pg. 68 (stating "Along 12th Street itself, crowded apartment houses created a density of more than 21,000 persons per square mile, almost double the city average." ] . Black schools in the city were overcrowded as well as underfunded [ National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, op cit., pg. 90. "51% of the elementary school classes were overcrowded. Simply to achieve the statewide average, the system needed 1,650 more teachers and 1,000 additional classrooms" ] . After the riot, respondents to a Detroit Free Press poll listed poor housing as the second most important issue leading up to the riot, right behind police brutality. [http://www.67riots.rutgers.edu/d_index.htm The Detroit Riots of 1967: Events ] ]

In order to construct Interstate 75, "Black Bottom" (Paradise Valley) was demolished, displacing most residents to the 12th Street area, changing its demographics dramatically [ National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, op. cit., pg. 86. ] . Black Bottom was the focus of the black community. Its loss resulted in racial tensions due to the loss of community as well as of housing.

Many homes which were privately owned were bought on land contracts at high interest rates and very short foreclosure schedules [ [http://www.detnews.com/specialreports/2001/elmhurst/ Broken Detroit: Death Of A City Block] ] .

Economic factors

A number of factors, including increased productivity and automation, consolidation of the auto industry, the end of World War II, taxation, and a need for manufacturing space, had caused the city to lose jobs to the suburbs, 134,000 from 1947 to 1963. [http://www.freep.com/legacy/jobspage/academy/sugrue.htm] Major companies like Packard, Hudson, and Studebaker, as well as hundreds of smaller companies, went out of business. In the 1950s, the unemployment rate hovered near 10 percent. [http://www.reuther.wayne.edu/exhibits/cavanagh.html Walter P. Reuther library/personal collections ] ] Between 1946 and 1956, GM spent $3.4 billion on new plants, Ford $2.5 billion, and Chrysler $700 million, opening a total of 25 auto plants, all in Detroit's suburbs.

As a result, many left Detroit for jobs in the suburbs, most of which were white-only at that time. The suburban lifestyle offered new jobs, better housing, less congestion, better city services and schools like Ferndale and Southfield. In the 1960s, the city lost about 10,000 residents per year to the suburbs. [ US Census data] Detroit's population fell by 140,000 between 1950 and 1960, and another 100,000 residents by 1970. [US Census figures]

Detroit mayor Jerome Cavanagh, a New Deal style Democrat, was elected less than two years prior to the riot with promises of progressive reforms and an end to the cronyism that had marked his predecessor's tenure. At Cavanagh's prodding, the Federal government pumped money into the city's urban renewal and Head Start programs. Despite Cavanagh's attempts at rehabilitation, designated areas of the city saw poverty rise between 1961 and 1967.

Unemployment among black men was more than double that of white men in Detroit by the time of the riot—15.9 percent of blacks were unemployed, but only 6 percent of whites were unemployed in the 1950s—largely due to the seniority system of the unionized factories. In addition, blacks were often less educated than whites. Even when they did have the same education, they were generally paid less than white counterparts.

Urban strife

In 1967, the Detroit Police Department was predominantly white, with 7% of the force being black. [ [http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070719/METRO/707190418&theme=Metro-1967riots Riot or rebellion? Detroiters don't agree ] ] Prior efforts by Mayor Cavanagh to improve these numbers, plus efforts to establish a civilian police review board, were met with hostility by the police force. In one such protest in the spring of 1967, police increased arrests for petty offenses, which was widely seen as harassment by the black residents of Detroit.

The Detroit police used "Big 4" or "Tac Squads," each made up of four police officers, to patrol Detroit neighborhoods. Those who could not produce proper identification were often arrested. Several questionable shootings and beatings of blacks by officers were reported by the local press in the years before 1967. [http://www.67riots.rutgers.edu/d_events.htm The Detroit Riots of 1967: Events ] ]

After the riot, a Detroit Free Press survey showed that residents reported police brutality as the number one problem they faced in the period leading up to the riot. In contemporary Detroit, issues of police brutality are still at large with the African American community even though the police force is over 63% African American. [ [http://www.fansoffieger.com/mayor.htm Fieger flirts with mayoral bid.] ] [ [http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/lemas00.pdf Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics, 2000: Data for Individual State and Local Agencies with 100 or More Officers] ]

In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. came to Detroit for a march to protest segregation and racism. In his speech, he said prophetically, "...We must come to see that de facto segregation in the North is just as injurious as the actual segregation in the South." [cite web
title= Speech at the Great March on Detroit
publisher=Stanford.edu
url=http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/publications/speeches/Speech_at_the_great_march_on_detroit.html
accessdate=2007-01-29]

Beginning in 1964, with the Rochester 1964 race riot, the nation witnessed numerous riots in major cities.

By 1967, the mainstream civil rights movement was in decline, making space for the emerging, high-profile Black Power Movement and its more militant approach to combating racism and increasing the life chances of black people.

Twelve days before the raid on the blind pig, Newark, New Jersey suffered through six days of rioting, ending less than five days before the beginning of the Detroit riot. Conditions in Newark were much worse for blacks than conditions were in Detroit. As noted above, Detroit's rate of black homeownership was the highest in the nation; Newark's was much lower.

Chronology

In the early hours of Sunday, July 23, 1967, Detroit police officers expected to find only two dozen individuals in the blind pig, but instead there were 82 people celebrating the return of two local veterans from the war in Vietnam. Despite the large number, police decided to arrest everyone present. A crowd soon gathered around the establishment, protesting as patrons were led away.

After the last police car left, a group of angry black males, who had observed the incident, began breaking the windows of the adjacent clothing store. Shortly thereafter, full-scale rioting began throughout the neighborhood, which continued into Monday, July 24, 1967, and for the next few days. Despite a conscious effort by the local news media to avoid reporting on it so as not to inspire copy-cat violence, the mayhem expanded to other parts of the city, with theft and destruction beyond the 12th Street/Clairmount Avenue vicinity.

Michigan Governor George Romney and President Lyndon Johnson initially disagreed about the legality of sending in Federal troops. Johnson said he could not send Federal troops in without Romney declaring a "state of insurrection". Romney was reluctant to make that declaration for fear that doing so would relieve insurance companies of their obligations to reimburse policyholders for the damage being done.

The violence escalated throughout Monday, July 24, resulting in some 483 fires, 231 incidents reported per hour, and 1800 arrests. Looting and arson were widespread. Rioters took shots at firefighters who were attempting to fight the fires, possibly with some of the 2,498 rifles and 38 handguns that were stolen from local stores. It was obvious that the Detroit and Michigan forces were unable to keep the peace.

On Monday, U.S. Representative John Conyers (D-Michigan), who was against Federal troop deployment, attempted to ease tensions but was unsuccessful, and left under a shower of bricks. [ [http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=8e0e802f-1db1-42a9-b915-3eee6a037c72 1967 riot chronology ] ]

Reportedly, Conyers stood on the hood of the car and shouted through a bullhorn, "We're with you! But, please! This is not the way to do things! Please go back to your homes!" But the crowd refused to listen. One civil rights activist (whom Conyers had once defended in a trial) allegedly responded, "Why are you defending the cops and the establishment? You're just as bad as they are!" Conyers' car was pelted with rocks and bottles, one of them hitting a nearby policeman. According to reports, as Conyers climbed down from the hood of the car, he remarked to a reporter in disgust, "You try to talk to those people and they'll knock you into the middle of next year." [cite web
title= The 1967 Detroit Rebellion
publisher=Revolutionary Worker
url=http://rwor.org/a/v19/910-19/915/det67.htm
accessdate=2007-01-29]

Likewise, Detroit Tigers left-fielder Willie Horton, a black Detroit resident who grew up not far from the blind pig, drove to the riot area after his game and stood on a car in the middle of the crowd while he was still wearing his uniform. However, despite his impassioned pleas, he could not calm the angry mob. [ [http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070722/SPORTS08/707220301/1004&template=printart Detroit News Online | Printer-friendly article page ] ]

Shortly before midnight on Monday, July 24, President Johnson authorized use of Federal troops by using a law from 1795, which stated that the President may call in armed forces whenever there is an insurrection in any state against the government. ["The New York Times", July 26, 1967. p. 18] The 82nd Airborne had earlier been positioned at nearby Selfridge Air Force Base in suburban Macomb County, along with National Guard troops who were federalized at that time. Starting at 1:30 AM Tuesday July 25, some 8,000 National Guardsmen were deployed to quell the disorder. Later their number would be augmented with 4,700 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne, and 360 Michigan State Police.

There is some discussion that the deployment of troops incited more violence, although the riot ended within 48 hours of their deployment. The discussion might hinge on the type of troop used in various locations. Most of the Michigan National Guard were white, while many of the Federal Army troops were black. National Guard troops were engaged in firefights with locals, resulting in deaths both to locals and the troops. Of the 12 people shot and killed by troops, only one was by a Federal soldier, possibly because the Federal troops were ordered not to load their guns except under the direct order of an officer. [http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007707200306] Indeed, the actions of the National Guard troops were called into question in the Cyrus Vance report. [ [http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/oralhistory.hom/Vance-C/DetroitReport.asp [Text of Final Report of Cyrus R. Vance Concerning the Detroit Riots ] ]

Tanks [cite web
accessdate=2007-11-14
url = http://www.unsolvedmysteries.com/usm425024.html
title= This Day In History>>1967 THE 12TH STREET RIOT
format=html] and machine guns [cite web
title=Who’s Gonna Clean Up This Mess?
url=http://www.annarborpaper.com/content/issuev2i12/plamondon_v2i12.html
format = html
accessdate = 2007-11-14
date=2005-07-01] were used in the effort to keep the peace. Film footage and photos shown internationally of a city on fire, with tanks and combat troops in firefights in the streets, sealed Detroit's reputation for decades to come.

By Thursday, July 27, order had returned to the city to the point where ammunition was taken from the National Guardsmen stationed in the riot area, and bayonets ordered sheathed. Troop withdrawal began on Friday, July 28, the day of the last major fire in the riot. The Army troops were completely withdrawn by Saturday, July 29.

The Detroit riot ignited similar problems elsewhere. National Guardsmen or state police were deployed in five other cities: Pontiac, Flint, Saginaw, Grand Rapids, and Toledo, Ohio. Disturbances were also reported in more than two dozen cities.

Death toll

Over the period of five days, forty-three people died, of whom 33 were black. The other damages were calculated as follows:

*467 injured: 182 civilians, 167 Detroit police officers, 83 Detroit firefighters, 17 National Guard troops, 16 State Police officers, 3 U.S. Army soldiers.
*7,231 arrested: 6,528 adults, 703 juveniles; 6,407 blacks, 824 whites. The youngest, 4; the oldest, 82. Half of those arrested had no criminal record.
*2,509 stores looted or burned, 388 families homeless or displaced and 412 buildings burned or damaged enough to be demolished. Dollar losses from arson and looting ranged from $40 million to $80 million. [http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6553/ Michigan State Insurance Commission estimate of December, 1967, quoted in the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders AKA "Kerner Report"] ]

The dead included: