“When our police department moved in, the crowd just overwhelmed them and we were attempting to protect firemen when they were fighting fires.”
-Mayor Jerome Cavanagh (Steckroth)
The riots in Detroit of 1967 were the most homicidal and destructive riots in American history. Three actions that occurred to address the issue were the riots, integration, and the arrests of police officers from Detroit for three murders. Changes that occurred after the actions that were taken were the hiring of minorities, the election of an African American mayor in Detroit, Coleman Young, and charges towards the police officers. The conflict and compromise of the 1967 Detroit Riots was racism and integration, respectively. On July 23, 1967 an early Sunday morning, Caucasian members of the Detroit Police Department attacked an after hours bar on 12th Street, a large African American part of Detroit (1967 Detroit Riots).
“Two African Americans who recently came back from the Vietnam War were arrested by the Detroit policemen without just reason. A crowd assembled on 12th Street as they watched the African American men who came back from Vietnam get arrested. William Walter III, an African American teenager, threw an empty bottle at the Detroit policemen that eventually started the 1967 Detroit Riots. Hours later, pressure around the neighborhood intensified as locals from Detroit robbed the area. Detroit policemen attempted to restrain the conflict, when two hundred of Detroit's four thousand, seven hundred officers were working at the time. Approximately over twenty community leaders of Detroit, ministers and union leaders, were also involved but were unsuccessful in separating the rioters” (Boissoneault).
The 1967 Detroit Riots frustration built up in African Americans for many years and their anger was taken out on the authorities of Michigan due to the 12th street bar incident. Racism and Segregation were the starting point that sparked a rebellious force that motivated the African Americans to fight against the Caucasians.