Date | Friday, August 1, 1975 |
---|---|
Location | Livernois Avenue at Chalfonte Avenue, just south of Fenkell Avenue, in Detroit, Michigan |
Deaths |
|
Non-fatal injuries | 10 injuries |
The Livernois–Fenkell riot was a racially motivated riot in the summer of 1975 on Livernois Avenue at Chalfonte Avenue, just south of Fenkell Avenue, in Detroit, Michigan.
The trouble began when Andrew Chinarian, the 39-year-old owner of Bolton's Bar, observed three black youths tampering with his car in the parking lot. He fired a pistol or rifle, fatally wounding 18 year old Obie Wynn. [2] According to some accounts, Wynn was fleeing; according to others, he was approaching Chinarian with what the latter thought was a weapon, it later emerged that Wynn was holding a screwdriver. He died from a gunshot wound to the back of the head. [3] Crowds gathered and random acts of vandalism, assault, looting and racial fighting along Livernois and Fenkell avenues ensued. Bottles and rocks were thrown at passing cars. [3]
The second fatality was Marian Pyszko, a 54-year-old dishwasher and a Nazi concentration-camp survivor who had emigrated from Poland in 1958. [4] As he drove home from the bakery/candy-factory where he worked, he was pulled from his car by a group of black youths and beaten to death with a piece of concrete. [5][ page needed] Ronald Bell Jordan, Raymond Peoples, and Dennis Lindsay were all charged with first-degree murder. [6]
Police were ordered to avoid the use of deadly force, and indeed, not a shot was fired. [5] The crowd of 700 was dispersed by morning. However, angry crowds and violence reappeared the following night – using a car as a battering ram, the crowd stormed and ransacked Bolton's Bar. [3]
Detroit mayor Coleman Young then worked to defuse the situation by appearing in person, along with numerous clergy, at the scene of the disturbance. [7][ incomplete short citation] Another key factor was Mayor Young getting every black policeman in the city to police the riot, further defusing the situation. [7]
The damage to property in the Livernois-Fenkell area amounted to tens of thousands of dollars. Fifty-three people were arrested, and ten injuries were recorded (including one firefighter and one police officer). [3]
CBS News reported an unverified claim that the bar served white patrons only, and noted the 25% unemployment rate as an aggravating factor. [8]
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