Livernois-Fenkell riot

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The Livernois-Fenkell Riot was a racially motivated disturbance, that almost escalated into a full blown racially-motivated riot. It occurred in the summer of 1975 on Livernois Avenue at Chalfonte Avenue, just south of Fenkell Avenue, in Detroit, Michigan. The violence emanated from a disturbance at a bar when a white bar owner at Bolton's Bar shot and killed a black youth. Crowds gathered and random acts of vandalism, assault and racial fighting along Livernois and Fenkell Avenues ensued, killing one unwitting white motorist who was driving along Fenkell.

The newly elected Mayor of Detroit, Coleman Young, successfully thwarted the escalation of violence by walking along Livernois Avenue for two nights after the initial incident. The damage to property in the Livernois-Fenkell area numbered in the tens of thousands of dollars. According to the Detroit Free Press, Mayor Coleman Young defused the potential riot by his personal actions; in fact, the disturbance is not generally regarded as riot by many Detroiters, despite the loss of life. Actually, the incident, or 'riot', is usually mentioned as an early highlight of Coleman Young's twenty years of leadership. Upon his passing, many chronologies of his life cite the July 1975 crisis as a notable achievement.