5 slain, 200 injured in Detroit race riots
326 arrested – 3,500 cops fight for order – 2,500 home guards, troopers held ready
Detroit, Michigan (UP) –
Race rioting growing out of a fight between a white man and a Negro at Belle Isle last night spread through the downtown Negro section today and before noon, five persons were dead.
Authorities, faced with the prospect of the rioting getting out of hand, ordered 2,500 home guards, auxiliary police and state troopers to “stand by.”
A white man was reported near death at Receiving Hospital. A physician, he was pulled from his overturned car and beaten severely.
Approximately 3.500 policemen were put on duty to quell the rioting.
Governor to arrive
The main area of rioting was a two-mile strip of Negro residential and business district east of Woodward Ave., Detroit’s main thoroughfare.
Governor Harry F. Kelly announced at a governor’s conference in Columbus that he had chartered a special plane and would arrive here early this afternoon to confer with civilian and military authorities.
Police reported 326 persons taken into custody and more than 200 injured. The latter included eight policemen.
Police said the riots were touched off late last night during a fight between a white man and a Negro at Belle Isle Park south of the city. Other persons joined in and the rioting spread slowly early today to Negro sections of the city. “Zoot suits” were not involved.
Mayor Edward J. Jeffries Jr. and Police Commissioner John Witherspoon were reported to have asked the State Liquor Commission to “dry up” the entire city – close all state-owned or controlled liquor stores. Establishments in the Negro sections had already been closed.