Lurana Sankovic, February 7th, 2017
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WW: Hello, today is February 7, 2017. My name is William Winkel.. This interview is for the Detroit Historical Society’s Detroit 67 Oral History Project and I am in Monroe, Michigan and I am sitting down with –
LS: Sister Lurana.
WW: Thank you for sitting down with me today.
LS: Pardon me?
WW: Thank you for sitting down with me today.
LS: Oh, that’s alright. Very good. Glad to come down for what I can share with you.
WW: Would you like to share your story?
LS: I was doing my masters work at Wayne State and we came to work this day and I had heard something about it on the radio and when we got to the property there, you saw these military around all over the place with guns drawn and everything. And you wondered what on earth really was going on because they didn’t tell us too much before we got there. And so then, of course, school was called off. We had to turn around and go home but you noticed so many things. The park that was not very – well, about a block or two away from the university itself, had become a home for the soldiers. They put up all tents and buildings for them. And it really was a scary feeling to see so many military around. And we turned around and went home but we found out that some of our sisters that were living in convents very close there, wanted to get them away from there. We didn’t know what was going to happen. So we picked up some from St. Boniface and some Holy Trinity and other places and gave them a place – they came to the convents. We gave them our beds, let them have some decent sleep, you know. So we didn’t have any classes for another day but when we went back after a day to see these huge trucks with military on each - four of them with guns at the ready, delivering big cans of milk to children in different places. It kind of dawned on you what it really meant. People couldn’t get out anymore. Couldn’t get to the stores or food couldn’t get to them and they were trying to supplement what they couldn’t get. Let’s see. Is there anything else?
WW: When you drove to Wayne State –
LS: Pardon?
WW: When you drove to Wayne State that first day, did you see anything going into the city? Any soldiers? Any smoke?
LS: Yes, you see, they were kind of spread out because that’s quite a busy area there. And along Woodward and along Lafayette and all those places, yes, they were really spread out and trying to quell anything that might start because there were terrific riots and it was a scary thing. I don’t know if I can remember any more. Pretty much, I don’t know too many details because we had to get out of there. But it took a while to settle down and of course they stayed there for quite a while and I know I, myself, had a pupil that was in that and, in fact, I said, “You’ve got two little children; you better get out of there if you could get into something else.” But, of course, that was their job.
WW: Did it change the way you looked at the city?
LS: Well, I always loved Detroit. I was raised there and this just seemed to be something that - well, we had problems once in a while. Let’s face it. Like any place does. But this kind of brought home to you that we had to start understanding who people were and what they needed and what the problems were so that they could be tackled. You can’t let things go like that. I think they were coming to a head there. But otherwise I don’t think I know much else about it. But it was just seeing – trying to get into buildings and all that, you had to almost show that you belonged there. It drove home a point about security and how it can be taken away from you very quickly.
WW: Well, thank you so much for sitting down with me.
LS: Pardon?
WW: Thank you so much for sitting down with me.
LS: Okay, but there wasn’t that much to share but -
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