Cultural institutions reflecting on Detroit's fractious summer of 1967
The memory of Detroit’s long hot week of violence in July 1967 has taken a turn that no one could have predicted five decades ago: It has become a cultural phenomenon.
It has a brand — “Detroit 67.”
It has a slogan — “Looking back to move forward.”
It will soon have a prominent place at most of the city’s cultural institutions, both big and small.
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Despite the physical and psychic toll the disorder took on the city and region 50 years ago, leaders of the city’s museums and libraries are confronting the troubling story of 1967 in a variety of exhibitions, programs, film showings and even neighborhood-improvement projects.
They want to help the public explore reasons why Detroit erupted into one of the worst civil disorders in American history, and they want people to think about the implications of those issues today — and even get involved in improving the city.
While the 1967 outbreak was not a race riot — black and white residents did not attack each other as they did in the 1943 Detroit riot — questions about race, inequality and police treatment of minorities loomed large in 1967, just as they do in 2017.
“This is a Detroit story,” said Bob Bury, executive director and CEO of the Detroit Historical Society, which operates the Detroit Historical Museum, and began planning for the anniversary by convening discussions with dozens of city organizations. “It is one of the most significant stories of the last 100 years, like it or not. It’s a significant story for America as well.”
Some 1967 activities are under way; others will begin between now and September. The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History already has been looking back on 1967 in its programming for nearly a year.
One exhibit has already closed: “Now and Then: Artists Contemplate the Summer of 1967,” at the Detroit Artists Market. It ran from April 28 to May 27 and included a panel discussion on how artists 50 years ago responded to the events.
Presenting exhibits dealing with 1967 is a challenge, partially because of the enormity of the event. The various institutions have been discussing how to stage their ‘67 retrospectives for two years, sometimes in a group, sometimes within their own organizations. They reached out to a large number of community groups, religious organizations, nonprofits and scholars for feedback and direction. And they collaborated with each other, most notably the Wright Museum and the Detroit Institute of Arts. Despite being neighbors, the two organizations had never worked together in a significant way.
“This will not be a one-time deal,” said DIA Director Salvador Salort-Pons, who was born in Madrid three years after Detroit exploded.
Salort-Pons said he told his counterpart at the Wright, Juanita Moore, that he wants to establish a three- to five-year collaboration on programs and exhibitions. One example: fighting illiteracy. He is also interested in expanding the DIA’s African-American collection, and figuring out if there is a way to have the 70,000 school children who come to the DIA each year visit the Wright on the same day.
The DIA says just 10% of its visitors are African American, a figure Salort-Pons is working to improve.
Like the DIA, the other institutions also had to reckon with their own places in a region still rife with racial tension, though less overt than in 1967.
The Detroit Historical Society, founded in 1921, signed an agreement with the City of Detroit in 2006 to become the day-to-day manager of the historical museum and the Dossin Great Lakes Museum on Belle Isle. Officials have worked hard to reflect the histories of all metro Detroiters, but old perceptions linger that the museum is not sufficiently diverse.
Beyond its own outreach, the society hired Marlowe Stoudamire as Detroit 67 director. He is an African American who grew up at Six Mile and Gratiot in Detroit and runs Butterfly Effect Detroit, a company that helps organizations with their public engagement strategies.
“I challenged the society” to put “your money where your mouth is and show you’re going to be a good community citizen yourself,” Stoudamire said.
At the Wright Museum, the tone is assertive. The institution is structuring its exhibit around the assumption that what happened in July 1967 was Detroiters rebelling against inequality and police brutality.
“We see the Detroit rebellion is part of a long, unbroken chain of resistance to oppression,” said Charles Ferrell, the Wright’s director of public programs. “That situation continues to exist. We are looking at the root causes. We have to tell the truth. We can’t just sugarcoat history.”
Added Erin Falker, an assistant curator: “The Wright Museum has reclaimed the word ‘rebellion,’ and we want to discuss why we did that.”
Fifty years ago, cultural institutions largely stayed within their own walls, but that has changed, like so much else from 1967. In addition to bringing in the community to consult about what to do about commemorating the uprising, the institutions are planning to leave a mark in the various communities as part of the theme of “moving forward.”
Gordon Park, at Rosa Parks and Clairmount, across the street from the blind pig where the disorder began, is undergoing a renovation by the City of Detroit as part of the ’67 outreach initiated by the historical society, which will unveil a state plaque in a ceremony July 23. The community has planned other events to remember that summer, and Life Remodeled, a nonprofit organization that organizes makeover blitzes with thousands of volunteers, has a project planned for the neighborhood.
In addition, the historical society, working with another nonprofit, Community Development Advocates of Detroit, has awarded small grants for such projects as murals and gardens in seven other Detroit communities.
Here's a rundown of some of the key efforts led by cultural institutions:
Walter P. Reuther Library
Wayne State University’s Walter P. Reuther Library on Cass Avenue at Kirby has already opened its exhibit: “12th Street, Detroit, 1967: Employment, Housing, Policing, and Race Relations in Evidence.”
The Reuther specializes in archiving the documents of union, government and community leaders, and it has tapped those collections to display an array of reports, letters, photos, maps and texts that illustrate the events of July 1967 and, especially, what came before and after the disorder.
Among the displayed items is a 1965 flyer announcing a demonstration against police killings of black Detroiters; reproductions of the Michigan Chronicle’s coverage of the 1966 mini-disturbance on Kercheval Avenue and literature from the black autoworkers in the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement.
The library has added a web exhibit (https://reuther.wayne.edu/node/13794) of digitized archival documents from the physical exhibit as well as additional Reuther items.
Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
The Wright Museum has been marking the 1967 anniversary for a year, starting last July, when officials unveiled artist Charles McGee’s “United We Stand” sculpture on the building’s grounds. Programming has included tours, films and lectures on topics ranging from the black nationalist movement in the early 1960s on the Wayne State University campus to the Black Panthers, a talk delivered by Kathleen Cleaver, a lawyer and prominent figure in the black-power movement of the 1960s and '70s.
Starting July 23, the Wright will be home to a two-part exhibition. Inside the museum an art exhibition will display more than 40 works from national and local artists, from the early 1960s until today.
Outside the museum, visitors will see about a dozen large, double-sided panels that will feature photos and text that document the 1967 events.
On July 23, the museum will hold a daylong series of events: A tour of 1967 sites by local history expert Jamon Jordan; a lecture by historian Gerald Horne, a specialist in African American and radical history; a concert that explores the roots of jazz and hip-hop and a reading by poet Melba Boyd. A commemorative flame outside the museum will be ignited that night and will burn for several days.
Detroit Institute of Arts
The DIA, working with the Wright Museum, will open “Art of Rebellion: Black Art of the Civil Rights Movement,” July 23, the date the disorder began in 1967.
“Art of Rebellion” features 34 paintings, sculptures and photographs, mostly by African-American artists in the 1960s and '70s. Many of the artists belonged to collectives that worked together on African-American themes, such as black identity, racial justice and art inspired by the civil rights movement.
In an effort to help build up the collective memory of 1967, the DIA in October started collecting home movies of metro Detroiters that focused on the 1967 era. Some of the movies were used in the Free Press documentary film on 1967, “12th and Clairmount.” So far, the DIA has collected several hundred reels of 8mm, Super 8 and 16mm film, and it will be projected in a marathon screening on July 29.
Detroit Historical Museum
The DHM already has been marking the anniversary by collecting oral histories of metro Detroiters, past or present, who want to tell the story about their lives in Detroit, especially in 1967. (It's on the web here.) Some of the histories were used in “12th and Clairmount.”
The museum’s exhibit, “Detroit ’67: Perspectives,” will open June 24 in the building’s largest gallery, across from the Doorway to Freedom exhibit on Detroit and the underground railroad. Using videos, maps, photos, a mock living room and storefront and one faux armored personnel carrier — among numerous other devices — the museum will tell the story of July 1967 in multiple ways. It will show the causes of what happened; how the disturbance spread; how several newspapers covered the Kercheval Avenue disturbance of 1966; how people learned of the 1967 outbreak during an initial media blackout and how that week affected all Detroiters. It will also challenge visitors on their perceptions and beliefs about what happened. The exhibit will run for three years.
The exhibit will also contain a space called “Moving Forward” for people to take what they have learned at the museum about 1967 and apply it to contemporary Detroit. Visitors will have access to information on how to get involved with a variety of organizations.
The DHM is spending $1 million on the 1967 exhibit and will spend a total of $5 million (including the $1 million) over the next three years on 1967-related programming.
Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit
You’ll have to wait for MOCAD’s “Sonic Rebellion: Music as Resistance” exhibit, which will run from Sept. 8 to Jan. 7. But the content is unique among the other offerings concerning 1967.
“We’re not an historical museum; we look toward the future,” said Elysia Borowy-Reeder, MOCAD’s executive director. “Our show is about the intersection of art, music and politics, protests, the role of music as a catalyst for social change and protest.”
The exhibit will take over the entire, 22,000-square-foot building. The Mike Kelley Homestead next door will be turned into “Punk House,” which will explore punk rock as resistance. That exhibit will be curated by Cary Loren, the owner of Book Beat in Oak Park and lyricist for the bands Destroy All Monsters and Monster Island.
Matrix Theatre Company
The Matrix, at 2730 Bagley in southwest Detroit, is presenting “Dream Deferred: Detroit, 1967,” an original production that runs through June 25.
The production dramatizes never-heard interviews of a cross-section of Detroiters after the violence. The recordings were made by Xavier Nicholas — a University of Michigan graduate student in 1967. Nicholas’ subjects include police officers, firefighters, residents, community leaders and government officials. Post-show events, including facilitated discussions and Q&As, are planned for performances.
Concert of Colors
The Concert of Colors is the world music festival that is produced by the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn in partnership with a variety of other cultural organizations, among them the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the DIA and the Wright Museum.
The 25th anniversary edition will run July 12-16, primarily in Midtown.
On July 13, the Arab American Museum will host theannual Forum on Community, Culture & Race, which will highlight July 1967 and feature presentations and discussions among artists, community leaders and cultural institutions.
Famed music producer Don Was will continue the 1967 theme July 15 during the 10th anniversary of his Detroit All-Star Revue, presenting a lineup of single-song performances by classic and contemporary Detroit acts on the theme of “Music of Rebellion.”