The Mini-Riot of 1966
In the summer of 1966 there was a mini-riot on the east side of Detroit on one of the main thoroughfares, Kercheval Avenue at Pennsylvania (Elkins qtd. in Stone 113-114; Fine 135-143; Horner qtd. in Stone 92). Intervention by the police in a violent arrest led to masses of people coming into the street to protest against police brutality, Businesses were vandalized and additional police were called in and eventually the disturbance was quelled (Elkins qtd. in Stone 113-114; Farley, Danziger and Holzer 43; Fine 135-143). City administration felt proud that the incident did not escalate into a rebellion reminiscent of the 1965 Watts rebellion, at the time the worst in regards to causalities and property damage (Elkins qtd.
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Black groups such as GOAL, The RNA, and others were reflecting the move from non-violent resistance and advocacy for black people with a philosophy and doctrine of self-defense with arms as proposed by the great black nationalist Malcolm X (Davenport 111-131, 132-146; DeRamus qtd. in Stone 250-254; Hamlin qtd. in Stone 255-259; Stone 235-249). With a shift in some political faction within Detroit would create an alternative paradigm for many blacks in the city that were growing impatience with the tenets of non-violent protest proposed by the more mainstream Civil Rights leaders such as Martin Luther King (Boyd 190-200).
Moreover, the political and social climate in the United States in the 1960’s was one of continued violence played out daily in the nation’s newspapers, and the becoming more popular and important the medium of television. Political assassinations, urban disturbances, retribution and violent attacks against civil rights workers, and the scenario of the Vietnam War, made this decade one of the most turbulent in the country’s history. City officials were aware of the growing discontent within the black community, and had implemented plans to control major disturbances (Fine
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The black community was not immune to these vices as 12th street was a business and residential district, but also an avenue of all types of illicit activity, predominately known for prostitution, and the after-hours joints were places where you could gamble, purchase alcohol after the legal deadline of 2:00 am and get a date with one of the ladies of the evening (Fine 155; Warren 469-470). Prostitution with the employer, employee paradigm of pimp and prostitute, especially rampant in the black community provided one of the high profile alternative for those not employed in the economic system of employment in traditional business such as the automobile plant so dominant in Detroit (Fine 155). Also, 12th street was an avenue known for prostitution, and on the morning of July 23, in an after-hours joint “blind pig,” as law enforcement fashioned them, there was a raid by police officers, after infiltration of undercover police purchasing illegal drinks (Burns 9; Fine 156; Widick 168; Young 170-171). Raids on these establishments were a regular occurrence giving the appearance of enforcement against crime. Everyone in the black