St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1943-07-02

In a letter to a staff men,
Der of this paper Raymond O..
Hatcher of the Detroit Urban
League, former Minneapolis
social worker, gives a vivid
picture of the Detroit riot.
Such an eye witness account
of what went on during the
two days rioting should be
of interest to readers of this
paper,
We are therefore reprint
ing Mr.. Hatcher's letter here.
Detroit, Michigan,
June %, 1943.
Editor: You probably know the
whole story by now but we wanted
you to know that we came through
unscathed although my car needs a
job on one of its tenders.
The incidents which set off the
Detroit riots were just the "straws
that broke the camel's back" With
in the past four weeks there have
been a series of minor clashes and
irritations among workers in plants,
school children, and hoodlums in
parks. When white workers at
Packard's struck over the up-grad-
ing of three Negroes it was feared
that our entire war production ma
chinery would stall because of
sympathy strikes on the part of
both white and Negro workers in
other plants and that rioting might
follow. The week prior to the De-
troit riot-there was clash be-
tween Negroes and whites at Ink
ster, a suburban town. There was
little doubt that an explosion was
coming only question was
when?
Minor Clashes Start Blood Bath
A series of minor clashes at Belle
Isle, public recreation spot, cul-
minated by fight between Negro
and a sailor over an alleged insult
to the sailors girl was the spark
that sent Detroit into its blood bath.
This incident occurred on the
bridge leading from the park into
town as the crowd was leaving on
Sunday night and quickly spread
into town. Two rumors were cir
culated-one for whites, that a
Negro had killed a white woman
on Belle Isle; one for Negroes, that
a Negro woman and baby had been
thrown into the river at Belle Isle.
Those rumors set the stage and
black and white hoodlums per-
formed upon it-a tragedy-pre-
scented for the pleasure of Hitler,
TOTO, and company.
Ragged All Night Sunday
Rioting ragged undated all night
Sunday. By daybreak practically
every white owned establishment
on Hastings street had been
wrecked. Other white establish
ments in Negro areas were dam
aged also. By 1000 a. m. Monday
it was apparent to everyone except
our city officials that the situation
was getting out of control and that
innocent and unsuspecting citizens
were being needlessly sacrificed.
The governor of the state acted,
however, and U. S. Army troops
came into the city at 1000 p. M;
by 2:30 a. m. Tuesday it was felt
that the "back of the riot" was
broken. Negro absenteeism at war
plants ranged from 20 to 80 per
cent on Tuesday and war produc-
ton was down to so per cent, by
Wednesday it was back up to 81 per
cent; in all, Detroit contributed
100000 man hours to Hitler.
Police Killed Most
The casualties to date are 80 Of
ficially dead of which % are Ne
groes. Between 600 and 300 per-
sons were injured and over 1900
persons were arrested. With one
or two exceptions all Negroes met
death at the hands of the police.
Police justify their actions on the
grounds that Negroes resisted ar
rest, were rioting, or were looting.
However, had the police exercised
the same diligence in protecting
Negro lives on Woodward avenue