I was born July 1959 and raised on the east side of Detroit, Michigan. I lived on Goethe St. off McClellan between Pennsylvania St. I went to Pingree Element School during the middle of the 1960s. I wasn’t old enough to understand the political pressures of those times.
I remember the 1960s as an exciting time. Me, my brother and sisters enjoyed watching cartoons on Saturday mornings, and we ran to the corner store and bought our penny candy. At 1 p.m., we turned the TV to channel 2 to watch Sir Grave Ghastly. He showed all the classic monster movies of the 40s and 50s.
Motown Sounds was hot in Detroit in those days. Smoky Robinson, the Supremes, Jackie Wilson, the Temptations, the Jackson 5 took Detroit by storm. The party scene was on overdrive.
In those days, the Black Panther Party made their presence felt. Sometimes, we would see them marching down the streets in their blue jean jackets and pants with a black beret cocked to the side.
Detroit was in the middle of a revival. Churches were full. You had large denominational churches on just about every corner and throughout the community. Sam’s Cut Rate Drug Store sponsored Sunday night church services on an AM radio station. My father was not a religious person, but he loved listening to church services on Sunday nights on the radio.
I remember one day in particular, my father was taking us to Belle Isle, and we were on Jefferson Ave near downtown Detroit, and the traffic was heavy. I remember seeing a police officers directing traffic, and seeing the joy and excitement was overwhelming; everywhere you looked, people were celebrating. Smoky Robinson, the Supremes, Jackie Wilson, the Temptations, they took Detroit by storm.
After the roits had ended and the schools opened back up, I remember walking to school and seeing all the boarded up buildings and broken glass all over the sidewalks. The smell of smoke was thick in the air. I was struggling to understand what had happened to cause all of this destruction.
In my opinion, a mixture of forces exploded into the 1967 Rebellion that eventually opened a door to the murderous 1970s. By the mid 1970s, Detroit experienced several years of 600 or murders a year; topping out at 714 murders! Detroit earned the name, “Murder Capital of the U.S.”
The murderous 1970s opened up into drug fuel and gang warfare of the 1980s. I saw the outcome of the 1967 rebellion. It still influences many facets of life in the city and suburbs.
I am going to be sharing a series of articles from a spiritual standpoint about the 1967 riots. It wasn’t a race riot but a rebellion against authority. Although many people felt it a justifiable response to oppression of those times, it opened the door of unimaginable suffering that would plague the city for many years to come! Join me as we look back and hopefully find answers that would enable us to move to a better place!
Grace & peace!
Secrets from the Garden of Eden 