Who / What was primarily responsible for the riots of the 1960s? : Who / What was mostly to blame for the riots of the 1960s?
A Holiday of Piracy
The police raid on Economy Printing had cleared by 5:00 a.m. Detroit police, knowing they had just ripped open a bee hive on 12th Street, decided to abandon the area believing it was there presence that was antagonizing the crowd and with their presence removed the crowd would eventually break up and go home.
The first sign of trouble came at 5:10 a.m. when the 10th Precinct began to get calls from 12th Street residents inquiring as to "why all the burglar alarms were going off on 12th Street."
The situation was out of control from the beginning. As police commissioner Girardin sardonically commented later, "The rioters reacted quicker than we did." Being the height of summer, many police were on vacation, leaving the department undermanned. Detroit police were ordered early on not to shoot looters. This set in motion the ugly machinery that was to come. Word of mouth passes quickly in densely populated areas and by the evening hours reports began filtering in that neighboring Linwood Avenue was now bearing the wrath of the rioters. This was followed in short order by fires and looting on Grand River, Warren, Livernois, Oakland and the Dexter area of Detroit.
In no other riot-sacked city has there been such wholesale cooperation between blacks and whites cueing up like happy locusts for a running grab at life’s luxuries.
Unlike the 43’ riot, the 67’ riot was aimed not so much at skin color as at color television sets.

During the first 19 hours of the riot the police department logged 900 calls and scout car runs. An estimated 10,000 people were ripping Detroit apart like a great piñata, looting stores from Livernois on the west to Conner on the east. While the first day was devastating, the worst was yet to come. The riot would rage for the next four days, finally blowing itself out on Thursday. Detroit had gone from being the Model city of race relations and opportunity to the poster child for anarchy physically resembling a bombed out Stalingrad of 1943.
As the afternoon progressed, Detroit police began to arrest looters actually caught in the act of stealing, in droves. As night approached and with it the cover of darkness, the looting progressed dramatically. Many who had never stolen in their life felt prompted by this unique opportunity, the fear of being left out of this huge grab bag of temptation that fate had placed before them.
Looters were bold and brazen when the no shoot order was discovered. This looter hailed a taxi to help him take his newly acquired chair home. The two struggled mightily to get it into the trunk of the cab. Finally admitting defeat, the cab driver drove away, leaving the frustrated rioter at his leisure.
At 2:00 p.m. Sunday, Mayor Cavanagh summoned the State Police. As the situation grew worse, at 4:00 p.m. he contacted Governor Romney and requested the National Guard be brought in. With the additional presence of these two entities, by late afternoon it appeared as if the situation on 12th Street was gaining control. This was an aberration. Rioters simply moved to other streets outside the cordoned off area. To make matters worse, the Guardsmen were on their two week annual training in Grayling several hours away. Only a few hundred were at the Detroit armory ready to be deployed.

Above: Arrestees run the guantlett of officers and into 1300 Beaubien to be processed.

Overwhelmed Detroit police were arresting rioters on a production line basis. From this yet another problem evolved. Police were out of places to put detainees. Unable to house the avalanche of prisoners, Detroit police had to improvise. Below: DSR buses parked on Macomb in front of the Recorder Court Building being used as temporary holding pens.
For more than 20 years Irving Goldstein worked 16 hours a day at his 12th Street jewelry store. He started there after WW II, working out of is apartment. Saving his money, a few years later he bought his own building, Bizen Sales Co. at 9005 12th Street.


"I wouldn't go back to 12th Street
                  if they paved it with diamonds."

"Now I know nobody in here has any
loot, Oh Lord No,

I know none of my people would do a
thing like that.

But just in case some of you wake up one
morning and find that a color TV just
happened up on your porch or a radio just
stopped by to say hello, I'll help you
get it back to where it belongs."

12th Street preacher to congregation


by Student Body on 03/15/16

      Riots of the 1960s were primarily rebellions against terrible circumstances. If you were fortunate enough to grow up middle class or better (i.e. Paris Hilton) then it would be very difficult for you to understand the anger, despair and frustration of growing up black amongst inner city poverty.

      Ghettos become prisons without walls, an inescapable vortex of grief. When entire communities are saturated with this frustration, then the time bomb begins to tick. The most dangerous person in any society if the one who believes they have nothing to lose.


Comments (11)

1. Julius Somers said on 4/2/16 - 02:26PM
I suppose LBJ gets a lot of the blame because all the riots happened on his watch. The cold irony is that Johnson passed more civil rights legislation than any president. Some presidents just come along at the wrong time. LBJ was one of those.
2. Sylvester James said on 4/13/16 - 04:58PM
We used to live in Black Bottom, on Catherine street. We came from Georgia. Henry Ford used to send agents to the Deep South to recruit blacks to work in the factories, also to use as muscle against the uaw. Blacks built Detroit as much as whites did but got no credit. Police were an extension of white society. Most all blacks in Detroit came from the south and thought they had left civil rights issues behind only to have them reappear. Blacks had no power in their own neighborhood despite being an all-black neighborhood. Sooner or later the lid was going to blow.
3. Antionne Askin said on 5/14/16 - 11:46AM
Every city has its share of nefarious characters. Blue collar crooks steal tv sets. White collar crooks steal legally and often times invisibly. It only takes a few characters to ignite a volatile, but dormant, community. This is what happened in Detroit.
4. Glen Lenhoff said on 12/26/16 - 12:33AM
I lived in the Detroit area back then, and I remember Bizon.I never knew his real name was Irving Goldstein.After the riots, he opened another pawn shop in the Detroit area in a different location.Actually, Bizon was not a bad guy.Although he worked intensely, he had a friendly genial side.
5. Aaron B. Lewis said on 2/28/17 - 09:50PM
I am creating a 12th St Community Develpment Corporation with a group of former and current residents of 12th street. This is one of the most informative and through sites regarding the rebellion I have come across. I would like to connect with the creator. Thank you
6. Robert John McLucas said on 6/12/17 - 09:22AM
People knew weeks before the riots and even those connected to Bizon. The location of 12th steet and Clairmount was picked primarily for its Masonic symbol significance. 12the letter="L" Carpenters square, Clairmount= "C" for "Compass or divider. The invisible "G". Check out what G.Gordon Liddy was doing Poughkipsee, New York at the same time.WXYZ Newscaster Jim Herrington did his Naval Intelligence "bones" at Gitmo in Cuba.You buch of stupid mamalukes.
7. cram said on 7/20/17 - 03:38PM
I was present at the start of the 1967 Detroit riots. I was with a "Big Brother" chaperone and he took me to Detroit so he could gamble. He loss miserably and I was held as collateral in the upstairs of Economy Printing. When the deadline lapsed I was taken down the street and sold to a place that accomodated people who payed to rape & murder young boys. I peeked through the door and witnessed one incident. there were policemen standing guard at the door. I escaped and ended up at the corner of 12th and Clairmont when that rock was thrown. That man; "greensleeves" was behind me. Iwas taken into police custody and escaped amid the confusion and was ultimately smuggled out of the city. Any movie that attempts to recreate this without the "white boy" is faux and is ultimately inaccurate.
8. !@#$% said on 8/5/17 - 06:39PM
I was 7 when it happened. I grew up on w grand blvd not far from the troops at clark park. It was total chaos as the white folks were very afraid ( I'm white ) It was amazing at how much hate there was back there. I'm glad to not endure that lifestyle anymore. I'm surprised that it hasn't happened again as it does not seem to be any better there. When will it get better ?
9. Mr B. said on 8/7/17 - 09:08PM
Rebellion or Riot? I pick riot as the accurate term. Rebellion changes the power structure. Rioting is looting and burning your own neighborhood.
10. dblsecretprob said on 8/22/17 - 07:17PM
What more can be said about the stupidity of people who would burn down their community? Shoot Firemen who were trying to prevent this inferno? Generations later, their horrific actions still haunt children and grandchildren as the lawless community they desired is still in place.
11. Ric said on 10/31/18 - 12:01AM
Irving bizon ( Goldstein) resurfaced in the early seventies and had a store at Nine Mile and Greenfield kind of Variety Store. He sold everything from dinnerware sets to clocks to radios.

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