A Windsor woman is sharing her memories of the 1967 Detroit Riot.
This Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of the start of the five-day riot which left 43 dead, 1,189 injured, over 7,200 arrests, and more than 2,000 buildings destroyed.
AM800 is replaying some of the coverage of the riot from the historic CKLW 20-20 files. The first instalment of the 'Riot Remembered' on AM800's 'The Afternoon News' is stirring the memories of many listeners.
Lynn was 18 at the time and working at Wally's Bait Shop in Windsor's west end. She says they went to the end of Mill St. to see what was happening across the Detroit River. "We were watching because you could see the smoke and all the fire. You could hear like the slight noise, you know like a dull, like a crowd of people."
"The sounds of the riot were clear across the river," says Lynn. We could hear a lot of, we could hear sirens I remember that, we heard sirens, saw the fire and the smoke."
Lynn says customers who came to the store were telling what was happening. "We know of the looting because people would come across and get fishing gear and they would say that, you know anything you wanted, TVs, cameras whatever there was a lot of that looting going on."
You can hear the next part of 'Riot Remembered' today at 5:20pm on 'The Afternoon News. The third piece will air on Friday and the final piece Monday.
A special series continues on AM800's 'The Afternoon News' today at 5:20, tomorrow at 5:20 and on MONDAY at 5:20.
You can also hear the piece in its entirety this Sunday morning at 9am on AM800.