For this year’s A to Z Challenge, I will be posting an event for that date involving someone in my family tree. Of course it will also involve the letter of the day. It may be a birth, a death, a christening, a journal entry, a letter or a newspaper article. If the entry is a news item, it will be transcribed immediately below. Click on photographs to enlarge in another window.
Detroit Churchmen Hanged In Effigy
DETROIT (AP) – Archbishop John F. Dearden, the Rev. Albert Cleage, Milton Henry and Richard Lobenthal were found hanged in effigy Thursday in Detroit’s Kennedy Square.
The name-carded, stuffed-clothing figures were cut down quickly by police.
Archbishop Dearden heads the Detroit archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church. The Rev. Albert Cleage and Milton Henry, are leaders among “Black Power” advocates, and Lobenthal is Michigan director of the Jewish Antidefamation League.
Police said they did not know who hanged the four in effigy, but suspected “right wingers who have created similar incidents in recent months.” They did not name the “right wingers.”
The figures were strung up on the superstructure of a new underground parking garage in the square.
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Oddly enough, although I was 21, I don’t remember anything about this event. I wonder if it was not printed in the Detroit papers. I found this article in an Ann Arbor paper. Rev. Albert B. Cleage Jr. is my father.
Note: From November 1967 to August 1968, both daily papers, the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News were on strike. That is why it didn’t appear in my search of those papers online. Also why I didn’t know about it.
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My friend, historian Paul Lee, put this short clip of an interview with my father, Rev. Albert B. Cleage Jr. by Chet Huntley on YouTube. It is from late 1967 or early 1968, not long after the 1967 Detroit riot.
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1300 Lafaytte – Apartment for Security 1968 – A post about my father’s life during that time
HOw wonderful to have footage of you father, you must be very proud. I wonder if the news about the effigy hanging was suppressed or deliberately not published in home paper. I suppose it depends like today who controls the media.
There are several youtube videos with him speaking or being interviewed and I have quite a few of his sermons on tape, or formerly on tape and now on my computer. I wish I had some of my mother’s voice.
Those were dark days in America’s history. Things got better and now they’ve gotten bad again.
There also seemed to be more hope. More organizing going on, more regular people involved in movements. More community unity. Today things seem so bleak.
thank you for including the video! interesting that you don’t remember it ~ i wonder if pearl might? this post taught me the word “effigy”
I checked with Pearl as soon as I found it. I wonder if the adults didn’t mention it to us? That would be unusual as we were not youngsters. Weird.
Glad you learned a new word!
Wow – what a dramatic discovery, Kristin!!! You must be very proud of the stance your father took and dismayed at the current climate which is taking, or trying to take, the US backwards…
It really involved the whole family back then and yes, I’m very proud of my father and my uncles and aunts and mother. It’s so sad that so much of what my father was saying back then, in the 60’s is still true today. Horrifying really.
The white -washed news continues today with stories skewed to sell products to the more affluent of white viewers. I was not pleased to see that effigies were hung in 1968. Civil Rights worked so long and hard, but schools weren’t even successfully integrated by then, and my children who were born in the 60s attended Florida schools where lots of bussing had started. I did enjoy hearing your father being interviewed.
I just remembered that there was a newspaper strike in Detroit around that time, both the big papers – The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News were on strike for nine months from November 1967 to August 1968, which includes the time of this incident in April of 1968. That explains why it wasn’t in the local papers.
As for schools, they still are largely not integrated. i don’t think integration is the answer though. How about good schools for all, across the board instead.
Oh wow! That’s really scary. It is interesting that you don’t remember the incident. As you point out, it raises the question of whether it was kept from you. And it is wonderful to have videos of people who have passed. Really reminds you how they sounded and moved. Thanks for this!
I just realized there was a newspaper strike in Detroit during that time and that is why we didn’t hear about it.
I agree about having videos.
What profound pieces of history to carry forward, ensuring they will not be erased by time or narrative. I’m so glad you have them.
That seems like such a scary to have happen. At the same time, it’s an indication that your father was effective in his work to get that much attention.