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 |
|
| 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 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.[6]
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.[7][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.[8]
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