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Livernois–Fenkell riot

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Livernois–Fenkell riot
Map
Map of the riot location
DateJuly 28–29, 1975
LocationLivernois Avenue at Chalfonte Avenue, just south of Fenkell Avenue, in Detroit, Michigan
Deaths
  • Obie Wynn
  • Marian Pyszko[1]
Non-fatal injuries10 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 on the evening of July 28, when Andrew Chinarian, the 39-year-old white 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 man killed 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, but acquitted.[6] Several years later, Peoples returned to headlines after being arrested for dealing heroin.[7]

Police were ordered to not use deadly force, so no shots were fired.[5] 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.[3]

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.[8][incomplete short citation]

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.[9]

See also

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Bibliography

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Notes

  1. ^ Streissguth 2009, p. 115.
  2. ^ Time 1975.
  3. ^ a b c d Jet Magazine 1975, p. 7.
  4. ^ Salpukas 1975a, p. 12.
  5. ^ a b Darden & Thomas 2013.
  6. ^ Buchanan, Stanford & Kimble 2007, p. 19.
  7. ^ "Article clipped from Detroit Free Press". Detroit Free Press. 1979-08-19. p. 19. Retrieved 2025-04-27.
  8. ^ Salpukas 1975b, p. 37.
  9. ^ CBS News 1975.

References

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