23 July
‘Ya know, the Motor City is burning, babe
There ain’t a thing in the world they can do
Ya know, the Motor City is burning, people
There ain’t a thing that white society can do’
John Lee Hooker, ‘The Motor City is Burning’
In the early morning hours of this day in 1967, the vice squad raided the Blind Pig speakeasy on 12th Street, Detroit. It was to be the trigger for the Detroit riot that followed. The riot left left 43 individuals dead, 33 of whom were black, and 487 injured as well as 2,000 buildings destroyed.
‘What should we call what happened during those six chaotic days in July 1967 when 43 people died amid gunfire, looting, with whole sections of Detroit in flames?
Many call it a "riot," a term that conjures images of mobs acting spontaneously. Blacks who lived through it call it a "rebellion".’
‘Riot or rebellion? Detroiters don’t agree’
Cindy Rodríguez, The Detroit News, 19 July 2007
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