Lamont Powell

My name is Lamont Powell. I was only 3 at the time of the riot. My family lived in SE Detroit near Water Works Park. What I will never forget is stories my mom, Bobbie Dean Powell told me. We lived around the corner from a day care, Mom and Tots, that had a community clinic. I remember the area being full of trees. There is a sticker on one of the windows to this day called ESCIA (East Side Community Improvement Assn); possibly from the era. Mom used to say that we had to stay low at night (not a problem at 3, right?) because of the gunshots those two summers. Dad worked at Chrysler Lynch Road plant and had to cross checkpoints to get to work and back home. After the '67 riot the whole block at Parkview and Kercheval was gone. As I grew older, fascination with the Detroit story led me to work at the Detroit Historical, Motown, and Henry Ford museums.