Livernois–Fenkell riot - Misplaced Pages

Racially motivated riot in Detroit, Michigan, US

Livernois–Fenkell riot
Map of the riot location
Date	Friday, August 1, 1975
Location	Livernois Avenue at Chalfonte Avenue, just south of Fenkell Avenue, in Detroit, Michigan
Deaths	Obie Wynn Marian Pyszko
Non-fatal injuries	10 injuries

The Livernois–Fenkell riot was a racially motivated riot that occurred 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. 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. 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.

The second man killed was Marian Pyszko, a 54-year-old dishwasher and a Nazi concentration camp survivor who had emigrated from Poland in 1958. 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. Ronald Bell Jordan, Raymond Peoples, and Dennis Lindsay were all charged with first-degree murder.

Police were ordered to not use deadly force, so no shots were fired. A crowd of 700 was dispersed by morning. Angry crowds reappeared and violence resumed the following night – a car became a battering ram and a mob ransacked Bolton's Bar.

Detroit mayor Coleman Young defused the disturbance by appearing in person (along with several clergymen) and ordering every black policeman in the city to police the riot.

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).

CBS News reported an unverified claim that the bar served white patrons only, and noted the 25% unemployment rate as an aggravating factor.

Bibliography

Notes

Streissguth 2009, p. 115.
Time 1975.
^ Jet Magazine 1975, p. 7.
Salpukas 1975a, p. 12.
^ Darden & Thomas 2013.
Buchanan, Stanford & Kimble 2007, p. 19.
Salpukas 1975b, p. 37.
CBS News 1975.

References

Buchanan, Heather; Stanford, Sharon; Kimble, Teresa (2007). Eyes on Fire: Witnesses to the Detroit Riot of 1967. Aquarius Press. ISBN 9780971821453. - Total pages: 80
CBS News (July 29, 1975). "CBS Evening News for Tuesday, July 29, 1975". Vanderbilt Television News Archive. Retrieved August 4, 2019.
Darden, Joe T.; Thomas, Richard W. (2013). Detroit: Race Riots, Racial Conflicts, and Efforts to Bridge the Racial Divide. Michigan State University Press. ISBN 9781609173524. - Total pages: 325 - Article on book: Detroit: Race Riots, Racial Conflicts, and Efforts to Bridge the Racial Divide
Jet Magazine (August 14, 1975). "Violence erupts in Detroit". Jet Magazine. XLVIII (21). Johnson Publishing Company: 6–7. OCLC 20729894. Retrieved August 4, 2019.
Salpukas, Agis (July 31, 1975a). "Detroit Authorities Move To Keep Unrest in Check". The New York Times. ISSN 1553-8095. OCLC 1645522. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
Salpukas, Agis (August 1, 1975b). "Symbols of Black Power". The New York Times. New York City. ISSN 1553-8095. OCLC 1645522. Retrieved August 4, 2019.
Streissguth, Thomas (2009). Hate Crimes. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 9781438119045. - Total pages: 337
"The Nation: Close to the Brink". Time. August 11, 1975. Retrieved August 4, 2019.

v t e Riots and civil unrest in the history of the United States (1964–1980)
California	Watts riots (1965) Compton's Cafeteria riot (1966) Hunters Point social uprising (1966) Sunset Strip curfew riots (1966) Chicano Moratorium (1970) 1973 San Quentin State Prison riot White Night riots (1979)
Florida	1967 Tampa riots 1967 Riviera Beach riot 1968 Tallahassee riots 1968 Miami riot St. Petersburg sanitation strike of 1968 Escambia High School riots (1972–1977) 1980 Miami riots
Idaho	1971 Idaho State Penitentiary riot 1973 Idaho State Penitentiary riot
Illinois	Division Street riots (1966) 1966 Chicago West Side riots Waukegan riot of 1966 Racial unrest in Cairo, Illinois (1967–1973) 1968 Chicago riots 1968 Democratic National Convention protest activity Days of Rage (1969) Humboldt Park riot (1977) Disco Demolition Night (1979)
Maryland	Cambridge riot of 1967 Baltimore riot of 1968
Michigan	1966 Detroit riot 1966 Benton Harbor riots 1967 Detroit riot 1967 Saginaw riot 1968 Detroit riot 1970 Memorial Park riot Livernois–Fenkell riot (1975)
New Jersey	1967 Newark riots 1967 Plainfield riots Trenton Riots of 1968 1970 Asbury Park race riots Camden Riot of 1971
New York	1967 Buffalo riot 1967 New York City riot 1968 New York City riot Stonewall riots (1969) Hard Hat Riot (1970) Attica Prison riot (1971) Clifford Glover shooting riots (1973) August Rebellion (1974)
North Carolina	1969 Greensboro uprising Greensboro massacre (1979)
Ohio	Hough riots (1966) 1966 Dayton race riot 1967 Avondale riots 1968 Avondale riots Wooster Avenue riots of 1968 Glenville shootout (1968) Kent State shootings (1970)
Pennsylvania	1968 Pittsburgh riots 1969 York race riot
Texas	1974 Huntsville Prison siege Moody Park Riot (1978)
Others	Ghetto riots (1964–1969) Long, hot summer of 1967 1967 Milwaukee riot Orangeburg massacre (1968) King assassination riots (1968) 1968 Kansas City, Missouri riot 1968 Louisville riots 1968 Washington, D.C. riots Wilmington riot of 1968 Zip to Zap (1969) 1970 Augusta riot New Haven Black Panther trials (1970) Student strike of 1970 USS Kitty Hawk riot (1972) Wounded Knee incident (1973) 1973 Oklahoma State Penitentiary riot Baltimore police strike (1974) Boston busing desegregation (1974–1988) Herman Hill riot (1979) New Mexico State Penitentiary riot (1980)
Related articles	List of incidents of civil unrest in Colonial North America Mass racial violence in the United States

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Bibliography