Detroit Historical Society Seeking Personal Stories from 1967 Riots

The Detroit Historical Society is asking metro residents to remember a tumultuous chapter in the city’s history that many would rather forget.

The group wants to hear the stories of anyone who experienced the 1967 Detroit Riot for an exhibition that will open in September 2016.

The riots began on July 23, 1967, near 12th Street and Clairmount, in the heart of Detroit’s inner city when police raided an illegal after-hours club known as a “blind pig.” Tensions escalated,

Over five days, 43 people died and hundreds injured, thousands of National Guard and U.S. Army troops were deployed, about 7,000 people were arrested and more than 2,000 buildings were burned. The total damage tab for arson and looting was estimated at upwards of $80 million.

Though the raid on the blind pig was a catalyst for the riots, “it was merely the final straw of racially motivated turmoil that had long been festering in Detroit,” the Detroit Historical Society notes on its website. “The riots were a response to decades of marginalization rooted in numerous economic, political and social factors.”

Interviews for the project will be conducted at 10 a.m. Saturday, July 25, at the Detroit Historical Museum, and at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 15, at the Dossin Great lakes Museum on Belle Isle. Both events are free.

The Detroit 1967 Project team will conduct interviews for the oral histories. If you’re interested, please register in advance on the Detroit1967.org website.

The society also is looking for people to conduct interviews and collect oral histories. Three 90-minute workshops will be held, two of them on the same day that oral histories are being taken.

The workshops are:

• Saturday, July 25 at 10 a.m. at the Detroit Historical Museum
• Thursday, August 6 at 6 p.m. at the Detroit Historical Museum
• Saturday, August 15 at 10 a.m. at the Dossin Great Lakes Museum

Pparticipants will learn the basics of conducting oral history interviews, from how to prepare, what questions to ask (and to not ask), how to work with recording equipment, the process of transcribing your interview and how to submit your interview to the Detroit 1967 Project.

To schedule an interview or to sign up for any of the workshops, register online at detroit1967.org/events.

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Photo via Creative Commons