The Michigan chronicle. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1936-current, 1943-07-31
Prosecutor
Continued from Page ~

group Of colored boys were pre-
vented from getting off street car
AZ Eastwood Park several weeks
before The riots broke out at Belle
Isle. They had some trouble there.
and they didn't want il 10 spread"
Well, for Mr.. Dowling's infor-
nation. the disturbances occurred
in Eastwood Park and was started
when some white boys attempted
10 take a ball away from a colored
boy. A fight started. but was
stopped by police who escorted the
coiored boys and girls to a street
car and then refused 10 permit any
other colored 10 get off.
Now for the distortion of facts Of
great magnitude. And coming from
a lawyer, too!
Very Inaccurate
The Sunday night OF the riot,
gang of colored boys and girls
ranging in age from - to 20 years
went to Belle Isle with the ex-
pressed purpose Of driving white
people from the island They
started out. knowing that as per
cent OF the approximately 100000
people on the island were colored.
and beat tip white boy. -
Next. they attacked a man and
his wife who were eating picnic
lunch, beat him up and ate the
lunch. They went on around the
bridge and one OF the colored girls
was pushed into a white girl who
was accompanied by a sailor A
) fight followed and 1t spread across
the bridge.
zone of theJ colored boys raced
downtown to l club and had It an
nounced over the public address
system that . Negro woman and
her baby had been thrown into the
river.
Then Il started. BY 4 am, 400
stores owned by whites in the col
ored district had been wrecked
looted. pillsged and destroyed. A
street car had been stopped and so
white factory workers were taken
out and beaten. II was 5 am. be-
fore the whites started to retaliate."
Unknown To Bowling
This time Mr.. Downing is caught
off second base. Evidently Mr..
Bowling has not heard about the
colored man who was tossed off
Belle Isle Bridge and his body
found five days later in the Detroit
River. Nor has Mr.. Bowling heard
about the rumor which was spread
among the whites that white girl
had been raped by colored man.
I'm Just wondering il Mr.. Dow
ling has as yet learned that APP
proximstely 40 colored people were
caught in the Roxy theatre that
Sunday night and beaten? Police
records will disclose that officers
had to escort many OF them through
an alley to avoid the mob OF whites
which had smashed into the theatre.
And that was long before 5 am.
II was some years back that !
heard Mr.. Bowling praise Tom
Paine in political speech, the
writer who stirred The ColonIais
into action against the British, Well,
Paine was asking for rights for an
oppressed people just like the Ne
gro is doing today.
Mr.. Downing also accuses the
NAACP OF sending thugs to start
trouble al the Sojourner Truth sit
ustion." II a man is a thug because
he attempts TO move into home he
has rented. then those people who
started moving into the Sojourner
Truth Project are thugs. They
were on their way to the Project
when the white mob stopped them
at Nevada and Ryan. two blocks
from the Sojourner Truth Homes.
Mr.. Bowling stated that II agrand
jury is called the NAACP will be
named in the first indictment" to
which DR.. James J. McClendon,
president Of the local branch an
Swered. I'VE have nothing 10 fear"
DR.. Mcclendon said he would
consult with attorneys 10 determine
IL there is reasonable ground for
instituting libel action agsins. the
prosecutor for accusing the NAACP
OF instigating the riot without pre-
senting concrete evidence TO sup
port his charges.
And there again Mr.. Bowling is
off base. No good attorney Will
make accusations without first as
eertsining the facts. Mr.. Bowling
is not standing on solid ground
when he makes the above sccuss-
tons. The charges seem 20 stem
from a Pigment Of his imagination.