1967 Detroit Riot

In the early morning hours of July 23rd, 1967 violence erupted in Detroit, Michigan after police raided an illegal bar in the middle of the night. “Blind pigs,” as they were called in local Detroit, were a feature in both Negro and White communities and served as the only form of afterhours entertainment for factory workers, who worked the swing shift. Police raids on similar establishments were common and police normally would find around two dozen patrons at an establishment per raid. However, on the night of July 22nd the fifth and final raid of the night was to be conducted at the United Community and Civic League on the corners of 12th Street and Clairmount. During the time of this police raid a party was being held, for two war heroes

Around five in the morning an empty bottled crashed into the window of a police car and trash cans started going thru store windows. The pre-dawn chaos rapidly escalated into a destructive rebellion that engulfed the city of Detroit, Michigan. Governor Romney deployed the Michigan National Guard and President Johnson sent in federal troops to aid in bringing peace back to Detroit. For five days, chaos and fire consumed the city leaving forty-three people dead, millions of dollars of damage, and the use of over seventeen thousand law enforcement, guardsmen, and troops to restore order to the streets. The 1967 Detroit Riot is known as one of the bloodiest civil unrests in the United States. Many of the deaths in these five days were of young African-Americans and many of them were killed by law

The Tribune is the fifth largest newspaper in circulation and tends to lean towards conservative values. The articles that were examined were all written between the dates July 26th, 1967 to August 23rd, 1967. In the days of the riot and directly after the Tribune articles that were examined never labeled the riot as a racial riot or as a Negro riot. In an article from July 29th, writer Aldo Beckman writes that Americans should be careful not to place blame on the Negro race when it was a small number of Negros who committed the criminal acts of looting, rioting, and arson which brought the city of Detroit to destruction during the unrest. Another article from July 29th quoted Police Supt. James B. Conlisk as saying that the Detroit riot was “criminal activity and I can’t see how it’s related to civil right.” In another article from July 31st, the writer discusses how congress was calling for “strict, sharp enforcement of the laws to curb racial violence,” but never says that the Detroit disturbance was part of that racial violence. After the riot was over most of the articles that came out of the Tribune centered around congress testimonies and trials of people who committed crimes during the riot. One thing that stood out about the coverage from the Tribune was that there was little to no mention of any white participation in the rioting