NPR

'Going There': 3 Prominent Detroit Natives Reflect On The 1967 Riot

In 1967, more than 150 riots erupted across the country. But one in particular seemed to consume the national conversation: Detroit. Three prominent Detroit figures share their stories from that time.
Former Detroit police chief Ike McKinnon (L), Motown musician David Coffey (center), and former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer (R).

Detroit has faced a tumultuous past, but the most painful week in Detroit's modern history arguably happened exactly 50 years ago. On July 23, 1967, after decades of discrimination, poverty, and mistreatment by police, many black citizens of Detroit erupted in violence. Some call that five-day period of burning and looting the "riots;" others call it the "uprising" or the "rebellion."

Detroiters have had 50 years to contemplate the reasons for the civil unrest, and at our Going There event at WDET in Detroit, NPR's Michel Martin spoke with three guests who remember where they were when the five-day rebellion started. They spoke

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