In 1967, they watched their city erupt. Fifty years on, how has Detroit changed?

Detroit’s riots were some of the most violent in US history. As Kathryn Bigelow’s new dramatization of the unrest hits screens, Detroiters who lived through it reflect on how far their city has come

In 1967, when Marsha Music was 13, her father owned a record store and studio that recorded some of the most famous American blues and gospel of the 20th century. Artists who had graced the building included John Lee Hooker, Sonny Boy Williamson, and the very first gospel song recorded by the queen of soul, Aretha Franklin.

But the family was forced to move their store when a freeway was built in the neighborhood. The new store was located on 12th Street in Detroit – just blocks away from the epicenter of where the civil unrest of 1967 would become one of the most violent and destructive disturbances in the US since the American civil war.

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