RIOT OR UPRISING?
“THE LANGUAGE OF THE UNHEARD”
Context for the Events of 1967 in Grand Rapids, MI
Riot or Uprising?
Grand Rapids, MI: July 25-28, 1967
Today,we will contextualize and analyze civil unrest that occurred in America in the summer of 1967, focusing specifically on Grand Rapids, Michigan.
We will evaluate whether the incident should be more accurately described as a riot or an uprising.
After a long and bloody struggle which culminated in the protest march from Selma to Montgomery, the Voting Rights Act (VRA) was signed into law on August 6, 1965.
Introduction
Civil Unrest in Watts, Los Angeles
Just 5 days after the VRA was signed, a traffic stop turned into one of the largest incidents of civil unrest in the nation’s history in the neighborhood of Watts,in Los Angeles, California. 34 people were killed and 700 buildings burned.
Watts, LA
Summer of 1967
Unrest spilled out into the streets in Newark, Detroit, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Buffalo and a dozen other cities.
The unrest in Detroit was the largest the country had seen in 100 years (since the New York Draft Riots during the Civil War). 43 people died. 1,189 people were injured. There was $50 million in damages to the city of Detroit.
Many Americans, including President Lyndon B. Johnson, were confused.
Why all the racial tension now?
Didn’t the passage of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act mean that things were getting better?
Things were getting better. Right…?
How do we explain this?
Was this a RIOT or an UPRISING?
Riot | Uprising |
| |
What’s the difference? Does it matter? Positive/Negative words?
Riot | Uprising/Rebellion |
A violent disturbance of peace A form of civil disorder characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people. Riots typically involve destruction of property | An act of resistance or rebellion; a revolt. Resisting authority. For an event to be called an uprising, the legitimacy of the ruling authority is in question. In evaluation, one must ask: IS THE AUTHORITY JUST? |
What’s the difference? Does it matter? Positive/Negative words?
Riot | Uprising/Rebellion |
A violent disturbance of peace A form of civil disorder characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people. Riots typically involve destruction of property | An act of resistance or rebellion; a revolt. Resisting authority. For an events to called an uprising, the legitimacy of the ruling authority is in question. In evaluation, one must ask: IS THE AUTHORITY JUST? |
Dr. Karen Sternheimer, USC: Riots are characterized by unruly mobs, often engaging in violence and mayhem. Dr. Michael Bronski, Harvard: The word riot deprives the event of political consciousness. Riot = Violence, destructive, no purpose | Dr. Jonathan Dent, a lexicographer: uprising/rebellion is generally associated with more upbeat outcomes…it tends to “inspire” a “reshaping” of the status quo… … it suggests organization and more purposeful resistance to systemic oppression…it can describe a popular groundswell that is advancing and forcing the world to recognize it exists. Uprising/Rebellion: resistance to oppression…fault is shared with authority |
What’s the difference? Does it matter? Positive/Negative words?
Riot | Uprising/Rebellion |
A violent disturbance of peace A form of civil disorder characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people. Riots typically involve destruction of property. | An act of resistance or rebellion; a revolt. Resisting authority. For an events to called an uprising, the legitimacy of the ruling authority is in question. In evaluation, one must ask: IS THE AUTHORITY JUST? |
Dr. Karen Sternheimer, USC: Riots are characterized by unruly mobs, often engaging in violence and mayhem. Dr. Michael Bronski, Harvard: The word riot deprives the event of political consciousness. Riot = Violence, destructive, no purpose | Dr. Jonathan Dent, a lexicographer: uprising/rebellion is generally associated with more upbeat outcomes…it tends to “inspire” overthrows and “reshape” status quos… … it suggests organization and more purposeful resistance to systemic oppression…it can describe a popular groundswell that is advancing and forcing the world to recognize it exists. Uprising/Rebellion: resistance to oppression…fault is shared with authority |
What’s the difference? Does it matter? Positive/Negative words?
Day after day, the press kept asking Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. the same questions.
What did he think about riots?
What do you think Dr. King said? What do you think the press expected him to say?
Dr. Martin Luther King, “The Other America” 1967
Read the speech and be prepared to discuss:
You can find the speech on your worksheet!
Has anyone ever heard this speech during an MLK Day celebration at school? Why do you think the “I Have a Dream” speech is so much more famous than this speech?
Dr. Martin Luther King, “The Other America” 1967
“…In the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear?...in a real sense our nation’s summers of riots are caused by our nation’s winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention…”
Grand Rapids, MI:
July 25-28, 1967
Today, we will look at a lesser known example of unrest in the summer of 1967.
We will analyze the situation and evaluate whether the incident should more accurately described as a riot or an uprising.
Grand Rapids Context
In a previous lesson, we learned about the first Black community in Grand Rapids during the “Great Migration” and the initial fight against Jim Crow in the 1920s.
What do we recall?
In the previous lesson, we learned of the bravery of Emmett Bolden and attorney Oliver Green in their fight to push the Michigan Supreme Court to outlaw Jim Crow in Michigan.
But what happened in the 40 years between Bolden’s Court Case and the unrest in 1967?
“Despite the Emmett Bolden victory in the Keith Theatre decision of 1927, discrimination in restaurants and other public accommodations did not cease; rather, it just became more subtle.”
Historian, Dr. Todd Robinson, City Within a City: The Black Freedom Struggle in Grand Rapids, Michigan (2013).
Grand Rapids Black Residents
1945-1960: 14,000 persons
= Link to a Tour stop
= START HERE
Franklin St.
Wealthy St.
Fulton St.
Michigan St.
Hall St.
Eastern Ave.
Fuller Ave.
Division Ave.
Leonard St.
Click on a red dot to get your tour started!
Click here to move on when you have finished your tour
“Red Lining” and the “Black Belt” of Grand Rapids
The Federal Housing Administration directly led to creation of a more racist and segregated Grand Rapids.
The New Deal program helped to subsidize (pay for) the creation of white middle class wealth by providing cheap and easy home loans, however, the same program denied these same benefits to Black citizens.
Why does this matter?
Click here to continue:
“The American Dream” and the White Middle Class
The average American is richer than the average citizen of any empire in the history of the world.
The MOST IMPORTANT factor in American middle class wealth is homeownership.
Check out what happens to home values over time!
New homes built and sold in the 1930s for $4,000 are now selling for $400,000!
Click here to continue
Average Net Worth of Households, 2021
White
Black
$24,000
Forbes and The McKinsey Global Institute
$188,000
(Total amount of money and assets a person owns)
WHY?
#1 reason is because of wealth of homeownership.
This wealth started with FHA loans that the government gave to White families during the Depression and denied to Black families.
Households
Households
Click to continue: What was “redlining” and how did it work?
New Deal / FHA:
“Redlining”
The FHA policy that gave home loans to white families but prevented Black families from the same opportunity:
FHA drew maps for banks of where people lived according to race.
Banks were FORBIDDEN to grant loans for houses in red areas:
Red “D” rating - Black neighborhood (no loans given)
Yellow “C” rating - Possibility of Black people moving to neighborhood (high interest loans
Blue “B” rating - Great neighborhoods: good parks and schools and “all White” neighborhoods (cheap loans)
Green “A” rating: “Perfect neighborhoods”: Parks and greatschools. White neighborhoods inaccessible to Black Americans (almost free loans)
Click here to continue for a closer look
FHA Map: Grand Rapids, MI
East Grand Rapids
From Jefferson to the Baxter neighborhood between Franklin and Wealthy Streets
Can you still see the impact of redlining in our community today?
Click here to continue and see an FHA contract
This map ensured Black citizens would be continued to be stuck in the “Black Belt”
What do you notice about the FHA’s evaluation system?
This is how banks decided who would get loans.
(and therefore, which families would build generational wealth)
Now that you have learned more about housing discrimination, click here to return to the map of Grand Rapids and continue your tour.
YWCA of Grand Rapids
In 1928, a National Urban League conducted a survey and noted that of all the injustices, segregation at the city’s YMCA and YWCA were the most frequently mentioned by Black residents who took the survey.
In the 1940s, Helen Claytor, a national representative from the YWCA arrived and was alarmed to find that over 15 years after the Michigan Supreme Court outlawing Jim Crow, the YWCA was still not allowing young Black girls to eat in the cafeteria or swim in the pool.
Helen Claytor eventually moved to Grand Rapids and dedicated her life’s work to liberation of Black citizens of Grand Rapids.
URBAN LEAGUE
=
Chamber of Commerce
After the war, the business community claimed this committee violated their rights to hire whoever they wanted. Anti-racist employment protection ended.
The Grand Rapids Press Reported in 1953 (Dec 19th) “Many employers still refuse to hire non-white workers,” some of these companies were owned by Chamber of Commerce Members.
That year, 28 companies hired their first Black worker (each hired only one Black employee). The businesses used this to “prove” there was no racism in Grand Rapids. Congressmen from Grand Rapids voted against any attempts at federal anti-racist employment laws.
During World War II, President FDR created the Fair Employment Practice Committee to be the first ever federal government program to fight against racist job discrimination.
A Chamber of Commerce is composed of business leaders who work with the government to promote business growth in the area. The all white group worked to kill anti-racist employment laws.
Furniture City and Employment
Despite the name of “The Furniture City,” no Black employees were hired in any factories during the industry’s most prosperous years. It wasn’t until the 1940s that this changed. Still, as it was all over town, Black employees were relegated to the lowest pay jobs with no chance of advancement.
“You can count on one hand the number of minority-race people with skilled or white collar jobs in this city.”
- Paul Phillips of the Urban League, 1947. Phillips fought tirelessly to end job and housing discrimination for Black residents
Paul Phillips
Living Conditions in the“Black Belt”
were not allowed to leave because of racial discrimination.
As developers and city management prioritized growth in suburbs, no new homes were built in the “Black Belt.” Residents were stuck in dangerous and dilapidated conditions.
A 1952 report found:
A 1940s report found that Black families paid higher rent for the same style housing as white families (Avg. $41 for Black, $36 White) as properties owners tried to dissuade Black renters from moving in. Cheaper housing could befoun outside of the “Black Belt” but of course Black residents
This is a title from a home built on the west side of Grand Rapids. Read the enlarged portion of the title below.
Black city residents were specially barred from moving to newly built homes throughout the Grand Rapids area.
The title is now on display at the Grand Rapids Public Museum.
Grand Rapids Public Schools:
As the number of Black students dramatically increased in the 1940s and 1950s, Grand Rapids Public Schools quickly segregated. Almost all Black students were put in only 4 of the city’s dozens of schools. Meanwhile 83% of white students from diverse neighborhoods like Henry School just south of Wealthy St., transferred out of their neighborhood schools.
Schools with Black students quickly became overcrowded with the highest student to teacher ratio in the city. Some classes had 50 students to 1 teacher. There were not enough books or desks at schools that predominantly Black.
- NAACP report,1950s
“One of the most tightly segregated school systems in the North”
Inaction of the School Board
The Grand Rapids Public School Board saw no issue in hyper segregation in Grand Rapids schools. In fact, the School Board facilitated segregation.
The School Board allowed White students to leave to diverse schools like Sheldon and Henry and allowed them to select where they wanted to go to school. This created “single race schools.” While some schools had
over 90% Black students, schools like Congress and Hillcrest had zero black students.
The School Board also “manipulated school boundaries in order to maintain racial isolation” and completely “abandoned prior promises with obvious neglect for the needs of the Black community.”
Meanwhile despite NAACP protest, the G.R. School Board approved building of new schools in white areas while denying esources in Black neighborhoods.
Members of the Grand Rapids NAACP whose protests to the School Board were ignored
Click here to read more about conditions at schools with majority Black students
“A Different World” Racism and an Isolated Black Community on the NE Side
“There was one group of Black residents on the Northeast side on ...Coldbrook NE...My brother and I would have a great time visiting our grandfather there...I had to ask my dad why people called the place “Coons Hollow,” my dad had to explain that because the whole street was Black and the name came because white people referred to Black people as coons. For me growing up on the SE Side of Grand Rapids, this was the first type of experience of that sort of thing for us. The northeast side was like a different world.
One particular day in about 1960...my brother and I rode our bikes to the a store on Lafayette and when we entered a little white boy stopped us and said “what are you doing in here n*****?” My brother and I had never experienced anything like this. We couldn't figure out why he called us that and why we couldn’t go to that store. My brother he wanted to fight, but I said no... when we got back to grandpa’s and my cousins found out were so upset when we told them, but they explained to us that this happened to them many times in this area, in “Coon’s Hollow.”
Click here for more of this interview
Ms. Deborah Jones making a speech about her uncle, Malcolm X at the unveiling of a historic plaque on the former family land in Lansing, Michigan - 2022
Life and Wages After Graduating South High School…
During the 1950s South High School was quickly becoming known as Grand Rapids “Black High School” and at the same time, dropout rates of Black students increased through the 1950s.
Why? Job discrimination. Black HS grads made $43 dollars a week, which was just barely above the poverty line and was the same average as Black H.S. dropouts.
White high school grads made $63 dollars a week. It paid to stay in high school for white citizens of Grand Rapids.
South High’s Basketball Team, 1949
Rather than acknowledge racism in the local economy, the white administration blamed Black culture. The school board hired ex-marine Charles Davidson as principal and told him directly that they wanted him to be a “n****** knocker.”
City Hall and the HRC
Black citizens of Grand Rapids continually made city officials aware of the rampant housing and job discrimination in the city but officials responded that Grand Rapids was a tolerant and welcoming city. After years of protest, Mayor Goebel finally allowed a committee (HRC) to form to look into possible discrimination.
The group, which included leaders like Paul Phillips and Helen Claytor provided plenty of evidence that the city had major problems. However, the committee was largely ignored, and vacancies went unfilled for months at a time, meaning that the committee, the city’s best chance to reform, went un-utilized.
Mayor Paul Goebel and Grand Rapids City Officials
Protesting Job Discrimination
What are these protests about?
What is the FEPC and how would that help Civil Rights?
Why did the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce fight against the FEPC?
Click here to learn more about the Chamber of Commerce’s fight against civil rights.
Riot or Uprising?: July 25-26, 1967
Now that we are familiar with long term context in Grand Rapids, let’s look at the events in July 1967.
Grand Rapids Black Residents
1945-1960: 14,000 persons
Franklin St.
Wealthy St.
Fulton St.
Michigan St.
Hall St.
Eastern Ave.
Fuller Ave.
Division Ave.
Leonard St.
Almost all of the events in July of 1967 happened on the city’s SE side between Jefferson and Division.
The following slides will provide a narrative, facts, and photos of the events. All photos are from this area.
Recall: On the other side of the state, Detroit’s civil unrest, the largest in the nation in over 100 years, started just a day earlier.
Narrative: Blackpast.org, Will Mack, Stony Brook University
“Weeks before the uprising, police had begun to aggressively crack down on drugs and prostitution in the area escalating tensions between the community and police (Recall from the 1920s lesson: Black entrepreneurs were excluded from the city's legitimate economy and, like in many places across the country, those with entrepreneurial ambition often found their only opportunities in the underground or 'vice' economy. Rumors circulated that even the Horseshoe Bar housed a speakeasy and a brothel operating as a secret upstairs business). The night the uprising began, Grand Rapids police raided and shut down an illegal bar, forcing many of the bar’s patrons onto the street where they witnessed other police attempting to arrest a black youth who had stolen a car. The youth had a broken arm and wore a cast. As police tackled him to the ground, people began to accuse them of brutality against a “crippled Negro.” Crowds formed and people began throwing rocks and bottles at the police while singing “We Shall Overcome.”
By the second night, rioters had begun using Molotov cocktails to burn down many businesses and houses. A curfew was imposed, liquor sales were banned and gasoline sales restricted. Looters stole tires, furniture, appliances, liquor, and groceries.
A “white backlash” emerged on the second day of the uprising as some white residents of Grand Rapids acted as vigilantes to help contain the uprising to the black neighborhood. Local police were overwhelmed by groups of rioters prompting Michigan Governor George Romney to send in the Michigan State Police, who had just been involved in suppressing the Detroit Uprising. By noon on Thursday July 27 the uprising had ended.”
Facts and Figures: Grand Rapids Press
Before we move on, we are going to have a discussion about these events and the language used to describe them. Recall this slide:
Before you move on, we are going to have a group discussion.
- Did these events have a purpose? What was it?
- Who is most responsible for the destruction?
- Evaluate the extent of the legitimacy of the authority that was being rebelled against.
- Would you call these events a riot or an uprising?
As you wait for the discussion to begin, think about these questions:
Primary Sources: How did the local Press describe the Event?
Click through the next few slides of press clippings from the Grand Rapids Press. Read the headlines and the short enlarged excerpts.
Make a tally list of how many times you see the word riot or the word uprising.
Based on the headlines, how did the Press answer our discussion questions?
Riot or Uprising?
“Consensus among people in the in the inner city, scene of Monday night’s disturbance, is that the trouble was more a spillover from the Detroit riots rather than a concentrated, organized uprising.
…the city has made good progress in the area of equal opportunities… There has been overall progress.”
“It may never be possible to determine why a riot broke out…or why it did. But like almost every other riot that has occurred in this country, this one has made it clear that it never is wise to temporize with rioters.The best way to handle a riot is with a massive display of force…”
How does this excerpt from the editorial compare with Dr. King’s words on the event?
Did Dr. King think it would be impossible to determine the riot’s cause?
What solution to the riot does this editorial give? What did Dr. King say about possible solutions?
�What do you think?
Final Discussion
Did the press describe these events as a riot or an uprising?
How did the Press description of the events compare with our discussion?
How did the Press description compare with Dr. King’s thoughts on the events?
What do you think accounts for the differences?
- Did these events have a purpose? What was it?
- Who is most responsible for the destruction?
- Evaluate the extent of the legitimacy of the authority that was being rebelled against.
- Would you call these events a riot or an uprising?
“Today’s residential segregation is not the unintended consequence of individual choices and of otherwise well-meaning law or regulation but of unhidden public policy that explicitly segregated every metropolitan area in the United States.”
― Historian, Dr. Richard Rothstein, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
In the 1960s, Black students in Grand Rapids Public Schools faced …
“the highest student to teacher ratio in city (some class sizes were up to 50)…These numbers resulted in acute shortage in student resources, excessive student-teacher ratios, ineffective work conditions for educators, and prohibitive losses in education time for black school children.”
- Historian Dr. Todd Robinson
1960
Grand Rapids Wins
the“All American City Award”
“The award recognizes communities that prioritized civic engagement, inclusiveness and innovation to successfully address local issues.”
“A riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear?...in a real sense our nation’s summers of riots are caused by our nation’s winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Lesson Appendix
EXTENSION ACTIVITIES
Reflection
1. How do the themes of the story of Grand Rapids reflect the themes of our U.S. history curriculum in the years between 1940-1970? Overall, do you think our city’s history in this period provides more similarities or more differences to the overall theme of U.S. history at this time? Was our city an exception?
2. Respond to one of the two prompts below.
Response
In our class discussion, many of you shared that your analysis of the primary source evidence differed from the local press analysis of the events in 1967.
Write a newspaper article that reflects your interpretation of events. You may choose to write a response to a specific article (ie: “It Doesn’t Make Sense,” or “Disturbance was No Uprising”) in the form of a “letter to the editor.” Or you may choose to write your own front-page story.
“A Different World” an Isolated Black Community on the NE Side
“There was one group of Black residents on the Northeast side on the 400 block of Coldbrook NE, a group had moved from Ohio. My grandfather built one of the first houses there on the dead end street. My brother and I would have a great time visiting our grandfather there, we loved to play kickball in the street with the other kids. I had to ask my dad why people called the place “Coons Hollow,” my dad had to explain that because the whole street was Black and the name came because white people referred to Black people as coons. For me growing up on the SE Side of Grand Rapids, this was the first type of experience of that sort of thing for us. The northeast side was like a different world
One particular day in about 1960, when I was about 10, we were visiting our grandpa and he had given us some money, my brother(8) and I rode our bikes to the store on the corner of Reno and Lafayette and when we entered a little white boy stopped us and said “what are you doing in here n*****?” My brother and I had never experienced anything like this. We couldn't figure out why he called us that and why we couldn’t go to that store. My brother he wanted to fight, but I said no, and we did actually end up buying candy and leaving. But the store owner didn’t say anything to that boy…when we got back to grandpa’s and my cousins found out were so upset when we told them, but they explained to us that this happened to them many times in this area, in “Coon’s Hollow.”
It was so unfortunate that it was called that. These were good people, working people. These people had jobs, the mothers were homemakers. They attended church, they went to school, but still they were looked down upon. Just because everyone on that block was Black.”