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N0KFQ > TODAY 23.07.14 16:01l 86 Lines 4188 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 27085_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Jul 23
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<IR1UAW<IQ5KG<I0OJJ<N6RME<N0KFQ
Sent: 140723/1500Z 27085@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.60
Jul 23, 1967:
The 12th Street riot
In the early morning hours of July 23, 1967, one of the worst
riots in U.S. history breaks out on 12th Street in the heart of
Detroit's predominantly African-American inner city. By the time
it was quelled four days later by 7,000 National Guard and U.S.
Army troops, 43 people were dead, 342 injured, and nearly 1,400
buildings had been burned.
By the summer of 1967, the predominantly African-American
neighborhood of Virginia Park was ready to explode. Some 60,000
poor people were crammed into the neighborhood's 460 acres,
living in squalor in divided and sub-divided apartments. The
Detroit Police Department, which had only about 50 African
Americans at the time, was viewed as a white occupying army. The
only other whites seen in the neighborhood commuted from the
suburbs to run their stores on 12th Street.
At night, 12th Street was a center of Detroit inner-city
nightlife, both legal and illegal. At the corner of 12th and
Clairmount, William Scott operated an illegal after-hours club on
weekends out of the office of the United Community League for
Civic Action, a civil rights group. The police vice squad often
raided establishments like this on 12th Street, and at 3:35 a.m.
on Sunday morning, July 23, they moved against Scott's club.
That night, the establishment was hosting a party for several
veterans, including two servicemen recently returned from
Vietnam, and the bar's patrons were reluctant to leave. Out in
the street, a crowd began to gather as police waited for paddy
wagons to take the 85 patrons away. Tensions between area blacks
and police were high at the time, partly because of a rumor
(later proved to be untrue) that police had shot and killed a
black prostitute two days before. Then a rumor began to circulate
that the vice squad had beaten one of the women being arrested.
An hour passed before the last prisoner was taken away, and by
then about 200 onlookers lined the street. A bottle crashed into
the street. The remaining police ignored it, but then more
bottles were thrown, including one through the window of a patrol
car. The police fled as a riot erupted. Within an hour, thousands
of people had spilled out onto the street. Looting began on 12th
Street, and some whites arrived to join in. Around 6:30 a.m., the
first fire broke out, and soon much of the street was set ablaze.
By midmorning, every policeman and fireman in Detroit was called
to duty. On 12th Street, officers fought to control the mob.
Firemen were attacked as they tried to battle the flames.
Detroit Mayor Jerome P. Cavanaugh asked Michigan Governor George
Romney to send in the state police, but these 300 more officers
could not keep the riot from spreading to a 100-block area around
Virginia Park. The National Guard was called in shortly after but
didn't arrive until evening. By the end of the day, more than
1,000 were arrested, but still the riot kept growing. Five people
were dead.
On Monday, 16 people were killed, most by police or guardsmen.
Snipers fired at firemen, and fire hoses were cut. Governor
Romney asked President Lyndon Johnson to send in U.S. troops.
Nearly 2,000 army paratroopers arrived on Tuesday and began
patrolling the street in tanks and armored carriers. Ten more
people died that day, and 12 more on Wednesday. On Thursday, July
27, order was finally restored. More than 7,000 people were
arrested during the four days of rioting. A total of 43 were
killed. Some 1,700 stores were looted and nearly 1,400 buildings
burned, causing $50 million in property damage. Some 5,000 people
were left homeless.
The so-called 12th Street Riot was the worst U.S. riot in 100
years, occurring during a period of numerous riots in America. A
report by the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders,
appointed by President Johnson, identified more than 150 riots or
major disorders between 1965 and 1968. In 1967 alone, 83 people
were killed and 1,800 were injured--the majority of them African
Americans--and property valued at more than $100 million was
damaged, looted, or destroyed.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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