Tune in to News at Six Windsor on channel nine and CBC Radio One at 1550 AM during the week of July 23 for a retrospective on the 40th anniversary of the Detroit riot.

The race riot lasted five days, claimed 43 lives and created the Detroit we see today - the most segregated major city in the United States. It also had a major impact here in Windsor. 40 years after, CBC Windsor examines the state of race relations in this part of the world.

Eight days before the Detroit riots, Newark, New Jersey was the scene of widespread rioting. In this photograph, a National Guardsman prepares to search a man. (CP)
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The summer of 1967 has been described as a long, high-pitched scream of rage for many black people in the United States. There were dozens of race riots from Omaha, Nebraska; to Chicago, Illinois; Jackson, Mississippi; Tampa, Florida; Boston, Massachusetts; Atlanta, Georgia; Newark, New Jersey; Ohio, Alabama, and even California.

Many black Americans were poor and militant, aware and impatient. They were angry. They wanted something better, and were determined to get it by any means necessary.

Throughout the '60's, the Civil Rights Movement promoted black identity, racial consciousness and pride. The movement also pointed out racial discrimination, injustice, and inequality. Many black Americans lived in squalid, crime infested cities. They were poorly educated, had few recreational facilities, few jobs, and even fewer prospects. Black people wanted better housing, and social reforms. They wanted racial justice, and they weren't willing to wait anymore.

The stage was set for the Detroit riot, one of the bloodiest, deadliest, most destructive urban riots of the century. It was a week of fire and rage in which more lives were lost, more damage done than in any riot to that time in any American city. It was even more devastating than the Watts riot of 1965 in Los Angeles.

Officially, 43 people were killed in Detroit, 33 of them black. There was millions of dollars in property damage with over 400 buildings destroyed. Over 600 people were injured, and hundreds more left homeless, and without jobs. It was a high-pitched scream of rage that scarred Detroit's soul for years to come.