The Detroit 1967 Riot was not kind to 12th Street where the riot began with an early morning raid of an after-hours blind pig on July 23, 1967.
Renamed Rosa Parks Boulevard, blight and emptiness plague the block that was once part of the thriving business district.
Now an estimated $12-million development is planned for the boulevard between Atkinson and Clairmount. The Boston-Edison & Atkinson Business District project, as it's called, is seen as a way to bring back shops, residences and a cultural center, writes Louis Aguilar of The Detroit News.
"Most everything was gone [after the five days in July 1967]. The stores were burned and most never opened again" says Katrina Lockhart, who lived one block away on Atkinson at the time.
