Riots remembered on both sides of the border

CTV Windsor: Riots remembered It's 50 years since Detroit's infamous riots in which that National Guard was called it.

It’s 50 years on Sunday since one of the worst chapters in Detroit history played out.

On July 23, 1967, Detroit was hit by a riot.

It started after police made up of predominantly white officers raided an unlicenced after-hours bar.

The raid would spark what would be five days of civil unrest.

There were 43 people killed and more than 400 injured with thousands of buildings and businesses destroyed.

Windsorite Elise Harding-Davis remembers the riots and says.at that time, 93-per cent of the Detroit police force was made up of white officers.

Harding-Davis says one of the immediate impacts in Windsor was that the Emancipation Festival in 1967 was cancelled, much to the anger of African-Canadians.

When it all ended, Harding-Davis says it changed how they lived here. As an example, trips over to Motown bars would become few and far between.

Local historian Chris Edwards is devoting a chapter of his new book to the riots.

The riot would speed up the departure of whites to the suburbs in Detroit. Middle-class blacks would follow. The population has fallen by about 1.1 million since the 1950s.

But Detroit is fixing up its neighborhoods and its image.