June 20, 1943: Detroit's Wartime Race Riot

June 20, 1943: A race riot breaks out in Detroit, then the nation's 4th-largest city behind New York, Chicago and Philadelphia. It isn't remembered as much as the one it had in 1967, because it wasn't shown on television. But it killed more people, 34 as opposed to the 25 who died in the 1967 riot.

It broke out on a Sunday, amid rising tensions due to black workers -- and white workers, too -- having come from the segregated South to take jobs in the automobile assembly plants of the "Motor City," jobs forfeited by white workers who had been drafted into the armed forces because of World War II.

By this point, Detroit had 1.6 million people, and about 1/10th of them were black -- a far lower percentage than it would become, but one of the largest percentages in the North at that point. Add in the fact that a lot of those 1.6 million were white Southerners, used to feeling superior to black people, and it was inevitable that something would happen.

On a hot Sunday, June 20, 1943, something happened. As would happen so often in the race riots of the 1960s, a false rumor was spread that a white person had killed a black person. Unlike most of those 1960s rumors, the white killer was not said to be a policeman.

In response to this false rumor, black teenagers attacked white ones on the beach at Belle Isle Park. Soon, the fighting moved into the city proper, with most of it taking place in Paradise Valley, a mostly-black neighborhood that was razed in the early 1960s in the name of "slum clearance." Today, it's a mostly industrial area along Gratiot Avenue, with Interstate 375 separating it from Detroit's modern sports facilities -- Comerica Park, Ford Field and the Little Caesars Arena.

It took 6,000 federal troops to stop the violence, after 3 days. Of the 34 people killed, 25 were black, and most of those by the police, and the department was nearly all-white at the time. This riot was preceded by one in Beaumont, Texas the week before, the Zoot Suit Riot in Los Angeles the week before that, and Mobile, Alabama the week before that; and would be followed by a race riot in New York's Harlem in early August.

A federal investigation showed that unemployed young white men made their way across the city to join in fighting the young black men. The NAACP studied the riots, and determined that a shortage of affordable housing, discrimination in employment, and police brutality had pushed young black men too far.

What did Detroit do about these conditions? Nothing. That's why the conditions were still in place in 1967, and it happened all over again.

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June 20, 1943 was a Sunday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The Detroit Tigers were swept in a doubleheader with the St. Louis Browns, 6-3 and 5-4 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit, less than 2 miles from the site of the riot. (Briggs Stadium was renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961.)

* The New York Yankees split a doubleheader with the Washington Senators at Yankee Stadium. The Senators won the opener, 5-3. The Yankees won the nightcap, 7-6. Charlie Keller hit home runs in both games.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat their arch-rivals, the New York Giants, 8-7 at Ebbets Field. Augie Galan singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning. Dixie Walker reached base all 6 times he came to the plate: 2 doubles, 2 singles, 2 walks. Mel Ott went 2-for-3 with a walk, an RBI, and was hit with a pitch.

* The Boston Red Sox swept a doubleheader with the Philadelphia Athletics, 7-3 and 6-5 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.

* A doubleheader was split at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The Chicago White Sox won the 1st game, 10-6. The Cleveland Indians won the 2nd game, 7-2.

* The Philadelphia Phillies swept a doubleheader from the Boston Braves, 13-7 and 7-0 at Braves Field. Former Tigers ace Elwyn "Schoolboy" Rowe pitched a 3-hit shutout for the Phillies in the 2nd game.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates swept a doubleheader from the Cincinnati Reds, 5-4 and 4-2 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.

* And a doubleheader was split between arch-rivals at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The St. Louis Cardinals won the 1st game, 10-9. The Chicago Cubs were leading the 2nd game, 2-1 after 5 innings, when the game was called due to darkness.