Hubert G. Locke

Locke was a DPD admin at the time of the riots, and hence, he was able to give this detailed survey, a chronological account as received by Detroit Police. There is even provided a map so you can visualize--or try to imagine--the extent of this, which would be considered the worse riot of its time. Fifty cities in America had riots in 1967. Detroit has not yet fully recovered from theirs.

I felt impressed by Locke's ability to empathize with all perspectives, while providing analysis and show more commentary. On the one hand, more complicated analysis is necessary than is given in this slim volume, and that this was an early account written in 1969. But on the other hand, we may never fully know what happened or why.

The riots were the beginning of the full abandonment of Detroit. Known as "white flight," what was left behind were vast numbers of vacant buildings and properties. Just as DPD was inundated by the riots, the local governments were completely overwhelmed with the complexity of Detroit's problems.

Locke, For both racial components [black and white]...there is deeply held convictions, again for drastically different reasons, that American society, "the system," is in shambles, that the cities of America are tragically symbolic of this societal confusion, and that in some form or other violence is inevitable. show less