Christine Tomassini

Christine Tomassini

Christine Tomassini recalls memories of being 11 years old in July, 1967.

Detroit Historical Society

07/17/2015

Detroit Historical Society, Detroit, MI

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Monica Avenue, Detroit, Michigan

I am white, a native Detroiter, and was 11 in 1967. We lived on Monica in Detroit, right off the Lodge freeway. It was an old immigrant neighborhood; I think there was one Black family on the block. There was a pedestrian bridge at the end of the street. I don't know how we first found out about the riots but my parents always watched the news so that may have been it. I remember we walked onto the bridge overlooking the Lodge--it was closed to traffic but the National Guard had tanks rolling down the freeway. Livernois was 3 blocks away. It was a commercial district and it was looted and some buildings set on fire--you could easily see the smoke and flames from the overpass. [I still wonder why people burn their own neighborhood when they didn't have anything to begin with--it just made things worse since the store owners couldn't afford to rebuild.]

All the neighbors were outside wondering what to do and whether they should leave and stay with relatives. I think everyone stayed. We did because my parents thought it would be safer than driving the streets and they weren't sure that the trouble wouldn't spread although I don't remember anything happening in the neighborhood itself. We did move within a couple of years, but stayed in Detroit, just to the far west side. I did move to the suburbs in the late '80s.

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Christine Tomassini

03/20/2015

Monica Street, Lodge Freeway, National Guard