Some year, July 23 will pass in metro Detroit without reexaminations of the 1967 riot/rebellion/insurrection/civil disturbance.
Some year, the scratchy images of Motown's version of the Summer of Love — burning buildings, looted stores, sniper fire, “Soul Brother” graffiti, combat-hardened paratroopers and spread-eagled young black men in fedoras and skinny pants — will fade.
Forgetting won't be easy, though. There are numerous books about the riot, at least one TV documentary and songs by Gordon Lightfoot, John Lee Hooker and the MC5.
The riot also looms large in the consciousness of white suburbanites; conventional wisdom is that July 1967 was the turning point in Detroit's recent history, the cause of flight to the suburbs, the breeder of all things bad about their once-beloved city, the event that kicked off Detroit's transformation from the world's greatest factory town to the struggling, impoverished city of today.
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