Historical marker dedicated where three Black teens were killed in Detroit during 1967 unrest

Detroit activists V. Lonnie Peek Jr. and Dan Aldridge, July 26, 2024 | Ken Coleman

A Michigan Historical Marker was dedicated on Friday at a site where three Black teens were killed by white law enforcement during civil unrest in Detroit in 1967.

The incident at the Algiers Motel, which was located on Woodward Avenue, has been written about for years and is the subject of the 2017 film, “Detroit.”

Three young African-Americans — Fred Temple,18, Carl Cooper, 17, and Aubrey Pollard, 19 — were killed and two white women as well as seven other Black men were brutally beaten, either by city police or U.S. national guardsmen.

At the time, fewer than 300 of the Detroit Police Department’s 5,000-member were African American. However, the Motor City was about 40% Black.

Members of the Temple, Cooper and Pollard families attended the dedication. So did Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, as well as longtime Detroit activists V. Lonnie Peek Jr. and Dan Aldridge, historians Jamon Jordan and Danielle McGuire and Isaiah McKinnon, a one-time Detroit Police Department chief and former deputy Detroit mayor.

“We decided that we were going to build and strengthen one another,” Gilchrist said. “Even in the face of setbacks that came to the Temple family, and the Pollard family, and the Cooper family, the injustices and indignities that they saw and the others who lost their lives during the rebellion saw, their resolve was strengthened day by day.”

The civil unrest began during the wee hours of the morning after Detroit police raided an unlicensed bar, known as a blind pig, in a largely Black neighborhood on the city’s west side. During five days beginning on July 23 there were 43 deaths, hundreds of injuries and nearly 1,700 fires and more than 7,000 arrests. One of the deaths was a 4-year-old girl named Tayna Blanding who was struck by a police officer’s bullet that entered an apartment building unit where she lived.

Later that summer, Peek and Aldridge along with Dorothy Dewberry Aldridge led an effort to carry out a “People’s Tribunal,” a mock trial, to hold the police officers accountable. Civil rights legend Rosa Parks participated in the event.

“It let folks know that the criminal justice system was one that we could not count on,” said Peek, who is African American.”

Ultimately, none of the officers who were formally charged in Detroit Recorder’s Court in connection with the incident were convicted.

“I want the people of Detroit and other people to know and never forget what happened July 26, 1967,” said Aubrey’s sister, Thelma Pollard.

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