DETROIT (AP) — The City of Detroit has unveiled a historic marker to reflect on the city’s progress since a five-day period of civil unrest in 1967.
About 300 people gathered Sunday in Gordon Park, which is where the destructive uprising began.
Democratic U.S. Rep. John Conyers of Michigan spoke to the crowd in a softer tone than when he used a bullhorn to address rioters 50 years ago in an unsuccessful attempt to calm the violence.
The 88-year-old said the city should remember the past to see how far Detroit has come and to look forward to what still needs to be accomplished.
“It’s easy for us to get together now and think nothing of it,” Conyers said. “We’re in a different time now.”
The unrest began when police raided an after-hours bar. Carolyn Coldard, 69, and her sister Loretta Holmes, 67, recalled being at the bar, seeing police crash through and forcing them into police wagons.
Police arrested all 85 people found in the bar, which resulted in more than 3,000 people violently protesting on the streets.
Mayor Jerome Cavanagh and Gov. George Romney eventually called in the National Guard for help.
The uprising highlighted unfair treatment of the black community by police.
“At that point, this was a city in which white and black Detroiters experienced the police department in very different ways,” said Mike Duggan, mayor of Detroit. “Instead of reaching across the aisle in racial understanding. ... too many people turned their backs on each other.”
Coldard, who attended Sunday’s gathering, said the city has overcome many obstacles since the unrest.
“I’ve seen improvement,” she said. “But I can see we need more improvement. We need better race relations, even today. We are all a part of the same race — the human race.”
The cast of the new film “Detroit” also spoke at the unveiling. The movie explores an event at a Detroit motel during the uprising that left three young black men dead after a police interrogation.
“I really believe there is hope for Detroit,” said John Boyega, an actor in the film. “Hopefully this movie sparks more conversations.”
The historic marker titled “Detroit July 1967” avoided the use of the word riot, instead using the terms civil unrest, conflicts and violence.
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