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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.
Hubert Locke, August 17th, 2016
In this interview, Locke discusses working his work at the Detroit Police Department during 1967. He also describes the tension between government and the department, along with frustration between citizens and the Detroit Police Department. Locke…
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…
Helen McQueery, August 4th, 2016
In this interview, McQueery discusses living with racism in Detroit and how it affected her employment. She talks about being the first black, and first woman, working in the field of photography in the Detroit area. Helen also offers her…
Jay Butler, August 26th, 2016
In this interview, Jay Butler discusses moving to Detroit from the south in the late sixties and the impression that southerners had of Motown. He explains how he heard about the unrest, what he saw, and how it affected his time working at the radio…
Anita Gibbs
Anita Gibbs was a child in 1967 and remembers the atmosphere and confusion of the city while the police searched her house.
Bob Hynes, September 21st, 2016
In this interview, Hynes recalls his experience covering the unrest as a reporter for Channel 7 the day after the outbreak of the disturbance. He also discusses his interviews with local and state leaders in response to the unrest. Despite being…
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.
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…
Evelyn Sims, August 15th, 2016
In this interview, Sims discusses what it was like to grow up and go to school on the east side and her memory of the ’43 race riots. She recounts how she traveled various places going to school and teaching for nursing as well as various aspects of…
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.
Collette Cullen, August 20th, 2016
In this interview, Cullen discusses how she felt with cultural norms in her all girls, Catholic school, and also when her family moved to Grosse Isle. She could see a lot of the unrest from outside her window because her house was close to…
John McCandless
John McCandless worked on Twelfth Street in the summer of 1966. In the summer of 1967 he was in Rhode Island and came back to find everything had changed.
Frank Watts, November 14th, 2016
In this interview, Watts discusses growing up in the north end and moving to the west side as a teenager. He talks about living near Twelfth Street during the unrest, and describes what the area was like during and after the disturbance.
Buddy Atchoo and Michael Dickow, August 17th, 2016
In this interview, Atchoo and Dickow discuss their recollections of the 1967 unrest as recent immigrants and as grocery store owners. Dickow owned Consumers’ Fruit Market which was on Blaine and Twelfth; his store was a mere block away from where the…
Jesse Davis, November 29th, 2016
In this interview, Mr. Davis discusses growing up in Detroit's close-knit Davison neighborhood and the effect the Chrysler Freeway had on the area. He was drafted into the military and was home on a two-day pass on July 23, 1967.
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.
Darryle Buchanan, December 13th, 2016
In this interview, Buchanan discusses his experiences growing up primarily in Virginia Park during the 1960s. He notes the escalated police presence in the community, and details several anecdotes of police brutality he experienced as a child. During…
Jerry Janosky
Jerry Janosky was a firefighter in Detroit in 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…