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Walter and Wallace Crawford, October 20th, 2016
In this interview, Walter and Wallace Crawford discuss growing up in Detroit and their experiences during the 1967 disturbance.
Venita Thompkins, July 23rd, 2016
Venita Thompkins was 4 years old in July of 1967. She remembers seeing fires on her street and being nervous about the presence of troops and tanks and the energy of the 12th Street and Virginia Park neighborhood.
Tyrone Cunningham
Tyrone Cunningham and his brother went to see the destruction on 12th Street when they heard about the unrest.
Thomas Wilson, July 6th, 2016
In this interview, Wilson discusses moving to Detroit from West Virginia. He enjoyed growing up in a working neighborhood. He then moved to discussing the chaos of the civil disturbance on 1967. He provides examples of how the National Guard…
Sheila Sharp, August 20th, 2016
In this interview, Sharp discusses what it was like to grow up and attend various elementary schools in Detroit. She recounts in detail her memory of staying with her grandmother during the uprising of 1967 and what it was like to see the National…
Rosilyn Stearns Brown, August 8th, 2017
In this interview, Rosilyn Stearns Brown discusses growing up in a close-knit Detroit neighborhood. She also discusses her firsthand experiences observing fires and looting during July 1967.
***NOTE: This interview contains profanity and/or…
Richard Viecelli, August 12th, 2016
Viecelli discusses the 1967 disturbance from a police officer’s perspective, which he considers not a riot, but a “baby war.” He was stationed at Kiefer Command Center, where he tracked incoming and outgoing calls for the police. Notably, Vicelli…
Richard Rybinski, July 25th, 2015
In this interview, Rybinski discusses growing up in the Warrendale neighborhood in Detroit as it grew during the post–World War II housing boom as well as his parents’ employment histories in Detroit during the forties, fifties, and sixties. He also…
Renee Giles, August 3rd, 2015
In this interview, Giles discusses her experiences as an 11 year old living on Fourteenth Street near the origin of the unrest in July 1967. She and her family were evacuated by the National Guard and stayed with relatives. Her father saved a…
Regina Vaugn, October 10th, 2016
In this interview, Vaugn discusses her experiences during the events of July 1967 when her family lived just around the block from some of the violence.
Ralph Jones
Ralph Jones had just graduated from Cass Tech in the summer of 1967. The week of July 23, he was a camp councilor and spent several days away from the city.
Philip Elkus
Philip Elkus recalls fear for his livelihood as a store owner in July, 1967.
Pat Watts, November 14th, 2016
In this interview, Watts talks about growing up in Detroit and traveling downtown. She also describes racial tensions in the city and the chaos that ensued during the unrest of 1967.
Ophelia Northcross, August 19th, 1998
In this interview, Northcross talks about her memories of the Boston-Edison neighborhood of Detroit and the changes she witnessed over time. She talks about the tensions between the Jewish and black populations in the area, particularly in the…
Oliver Cole, April 21st, 2017
In this interview, Cole discusses growing up as a teenager in the city of Detroit. He remembers the city in the summer of 1967 but at the time was not aware of everything that happened. As he grew older, he realized the implications of that summer.
Norbert Kidd, June 29th, 2016
In this interview, Norbert Kidd discusses his experience with the unrest in 1967. Though he was not viewing the events up close, he watched the flames and destruction from the balcony of his apartment building. He also talks about how he went and…
Muriel Earl and Albert Colbard, June 29th, 2016
In this interview, Earl and Colbard tell of their upbringing on the west side of Detroit and their memories of what happened the night the blind pig was raided a few houses down from their house. They discuss what happened during the week, and how…
Maxine Jones, June 18th, 2016
In this interview, Jones remembers the feelings in the city during the events of the summer of 1967. Her sister gave birth a few days before the unrest began and they had to track down her brother-in-law who was missing. She discusses how that…
Mary Thompson, June 27th, 2016
In this interview, Thompson describes race relations in Detroit before, during, and after July 1967. She recalls the day she found out about the disturbance as she drove down Dexter toward Twelfth Street in her taxi. She then went home to care for…
Marc K. Shaye
Marc Shaye and his family lived in Sherwood Forest in July 1967. He and his father, Nathan, protected the Grosse Pointe quality Food warehouse near Twelfth Street and Trumbull during the unrest, as it was a main source of food for the city. In his…