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The Algiers Motel Incident
From the bestselling author of Hiroshima , a searing account of police brutality, white racism, and black rage in 1960s Detroit. On the evening of July 25, 1967, on the third night of the 12th Street Riot, Detroit police raided the Algiers Motel. Acting on a report of gunfire, officers rounded up the occupants of the motel's annex—several black men and two white women—and proceeded to beat them and repeatedly threaten to kill them. By the end of the night, three of the men were dead. Three police officers and a private security guard were tried for their deaths; none were convicted. In The Algiers Motel Incident , first published in 1968, Pulitzer Prize–winning author John Hersey strings together interviews, police reports, court testimony, and news stories to recount the terrible events of that night. The result is chaotic and sometimes confusing; facts remain elusive. But, Hersey concludes, the truth is clear: three young black men were murdered "for being, all in all, black young men and part of the black rage of the time." With a new foreword by award-winning author Danielle L. McGuire, The Algiers Motel Incident is a powerful indictment of racism and the US justice system.
424 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1968
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About the author
John Hersey
115 books863 followersJohn Richard Hersey, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer, earliest practiced the "new journalism," which fuses storytelling devices of the novel with nonfiction reportage. A 36-member panel under the aegis of journalism department of New York University adjudged account of Hersey of the aftermath of the atomic bomb, dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, as the finest piece of journalism of the 20th century.
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August 31, 2013
This book is based on events that happened during the Detroit riot of July 1967. I was 20 years old, a college student in Ann Arbor. My parents lived at Woodward Avenue and Fourteen Mile Road in the white suburb of Royal Oak. Would the riot reach beyond the Detroit city limit of Eight Mile Road? People thought it might and they paid attention fearfully. This book was rushed to print in January 1968. Author John Hersey initially was thinking about race riots in general, then examining the Detroit riot in particular, then ultimately the Algiers Motel incident specifically.
I know John Hersey best as the author of the book Hiroshima, the nonfiction story of the atomic bombing by the United States of that city in Japan in 1945. I take his reporting as accurate and to the point. He writes early in this book that
This book was published 45 years ago, in 1968. That event is part of my life. In selecting this book, I looked forward to being sensitized and to getting the point.
Slightly more than halfway through the book author John Hersey speculates why the three young men were shot and killed at the Algiers Motel:
The content of the book is predominantly vignettes of events and snippets of interviews, statements and court hearings that might be likened to a series of short clips in a documentary film.
The myth of the 1967 Detroit riot was that it was the Great Sniper Battle involving 140 blocks in the heart of the city. Journalists writing for the Detroit Free Press concluded that
The incident at the Algiers Motel began with a broadcast on police radio that the “Army was under heavy fire,” a description that was untrue. But really the incident was spawned by the racism and injustice that was omnipresent In Detroit, Michigan in the summer of 1967. My experience growing up in a white suburb both insulated me from the injustice of racism while also sensitizing me to the inequity explicit in the racial divide. I came into my adulthood knowing that as a white male I benefited from racism and sexism that gave me unearned power.
I think that The Algiers Motel Incident is an important documentation of injustice that made it a significant wake-up call when it was published forty-five years ago within a year of the incident. To me it seems more historic, examining issues that seem to need little argumentation these years later to be accepted as true and valid. But maybe that is more obvious and accurate for me than for the portion of society that may still hold firmly to its racism and sexism.
I hope there are people who think that the 21st century has things to learn from this book. At least someone at the Johns Hopkins University Press thought enough of it to reissue it in 1997, almost thirty years after it was first published. I am wondering what college courses have this book as required or optional reading. In short, I am pleased that this book was reissued and is potentially still in use for educational purposes. What more could an author hope? Although I suppose in the publishing world a reissue 16 years ago is ancient history about a book that some might say is about even more ancient history.
I am giving The Algiers Motel Incident four stars although it turned out that I had already learned the lessons and felt the guilt that was promised by the author. Maybe my four stars will encourage a couple of people to pick up and read the reissued trade paperback edition.
As I explored Detroit’s riot in those first weeks, the incident at the Algiers Motel kept insisting upon attention, and eventually I determined to focus on it. The episode contained all the mythic themes of racial strife in the United States: the arm of the law taking the law into its own hands; interracial sex; the subtle poison of racist thinking by “decent” men who deny that they are racists; the societal limbo into which, ever since slavery, so many young black men have been driven in our country; ambiguous justice in the courts; and the devastation in both black and white human lives that follows in the wake of violence as surely as ruinous and indiscriminate flood after torrents.
I know John Hersey best as the author of the book Hiroshima, the nonfiction story of the atomic bombing by the United States of that city in Japan in 1945. I take his reporting as accurate and to the point. He writes early in this book that
Perhaps the whole point of this book is that every white person on the country is in some degree guilty of the crimes committed at the Algiers.
This book was published 45 years ago, in 1968. That event is part of my life. In selecting this book, I looked forward to being sensitized and to getting the point.
Slightly more than halfway through the book author John Hersey speculates why the three young men were shot and killed at the Algiers Motel:
. . . as it turned out the boys were not executed a snipers at all. They were executed for being thought to be pimps, for being considered punks, for making out with white girls, for being in some vague way killers of a white cop named Jerry Olshove, for running riot – for being, after all and all, black young men and part of the black rage of the time.
The content of the book is predominantly vignettes of events and snippets of interviews, statements and court hearings that might be likened to a series of short clips in a documentary film.
The myth of the 1967 Detroit riot was that it was the Great Sniper Battle involving 140 blocks in the heart of the city. Journalists writing for the Detroit Free Press concluded that
“Both the number of snipers active in the riot area and the danger that snipers presented were vastly overstated. Only one sniper is among the riot victims and only three of the victims may possibly have been killed by snipers, two of them doubtful. In all, some 31 persons were arrested and charged with sniping” – out of 7,231 arrested altogether.
The incident at the Algiers Motel began with a broadcast on police radio that the “Army was under heavy fire,” a description that was untrue. But really the incident was spawned by the racism and injustice that was omnipresent In Detroit, Michigan in the summer of 1967. My experience growing up in a white suburb both insulated me from the injustice of racism while also sensitizing me to the inequity explicit in the racial divide. I came into my adulthood knowing that as a white male I benefited from racism and sexism that gave me unearned power.
I think that The Algiers Motel Incident is an important documentation of injustice that made it a significant wake-up call when it was published forty-five years ago within a year of the incident. To me it seems more historic, examining issues that seem to need little argumentation these years later to be accepted as true and valid. But maybe that is more obvious and accurate for me than for the portion of society that may still hold firmly to its racism and sexism.
I hope there are people who think that the 21st century has things to learn from this book. At least someone at the Johns Hopkins University Press thought enough of it to reissue it in 1997, almost thirty years after it was first published. I am wondering what college courses have this book as required or optional reading. In short, I am pleased that this book was reissued and is potentially still in use for educational purposes. What more could an author hope? Although I suppose in the publishing world a reissue 16 years ago is ancient history about a book that some might say is about even more ancient history.
I am giving The Algiers Motel Incident four stars although it turned out that I had already learned the lessons and felt the guilt that was promised by the author. Maybe my four stars will encourage a couple of people to pick up and read the reissued trade paperback edition.
September 23, 2009
Very much worth revisiting if you've read it before--very much worth discovering if you haven't. A tense and meticulously told true crime story with real journalistic care about a profile act of racial violence (with more than a little police complicity) in Detroit in and around the 1967 riots.
Hersey was an interesting and versatile writer. His portfolio is diverse--both lyrical and pragmatic, but in this work he opened important doors for the hard-edged reporting style of prose into the new more complex sociological terrain of the Civil Rights/there's a riot goin' on era.
This book can be enjoyed as a stand-alone novel...or as part of the "muckraking" social advocacy stream in American literature, which dates back in it strength to the 1870s.
I think Hersey is a writer, famous in his day, who deserves reappraisal. He did a lot of different things well. Not easily categorized in the totality of his work, which may be why he's not appreciated as much as he should be.
Hersey was an interesting and versatile writer. His portfolio is diverse--both lyrical and pragmatic, but in this work he opened important doors for the hard-edged reporting style of prose into the new more complex sociological terrain of the Civil Rights/there's a riot goin' on era.
This book can be enjoyed as a stand-alone novel...or as part of the "muckraking" social advocacy stream in American literature, which dates back in it strength to the 1870s.
I think Hersey is a writer, famous in his day, who deserves reappraisal. He did a lot of different things well. Not easily categorized in the totality of his work, which may be why he's not appreciated as much as he should be.
February 25, 2015
I had this book for a long time. It was acquired free and I grabbed it because I recognized the author's name (having read Hiroshima in middle school). I never knew of the incident it covers, nor did I ever bother to read the back cover synopsis. Given the profile in recent years of cases involving the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner (to name but a few), it is frightening how this book reads like it could have been written today and not some 40+ years ago. Hersey writes very soon after the deaths of three unarmed black men in 1967 at the Algiers Motel in Detroit during the riots. He immerses the reader in the confusion, rage, corruption, and injustice of the moment with stark retellings, direct witness quotes, narratives from official reports, and a birdseye view of the judicial process. It reads a little like a Werner Herzog documentary with a touch more indignation/judgment on the part of the author. This is the kind of story history attempts to erase, but the heart never forgets.
October 4, 2017
The movie Detroit brought me to this book. On the one hand, as a detailed document of a specific time and place and for the raw expression of pain and anger, particularly of Auburey Pollard's mother, this book is invaluable. On the other hand, it's just a jumbled, repetitive mess.
Surprisingly the best extended moments come from the interviews and history of the policemen accused of these horrible, racist crimes. We have an engaging account of the officers' lives, then a description of the incident where they were involved, but nothing linking them. Did the author even ask any of them about their actions during this incident? Were they asked but refused to comment? There's an incredible disconnect here.
The cops' stories are presented simply and directly but the victims' stories are given a lofty prose, full of ridiculous sentences. My favorite is probably "Friendship was the highest prize of life to Lee, and Carl, above all others, was the giver of the prize." These people don't need a false illumination of dignity, although maybe John Hersey thought they might've needed it at the time it was written.
I'm really torn about this book, it's certainly compulsively readable, and important, but it's kind of irritating, too.
Surprisingly the best extended moments come from the interviews and history of the policemen accused of these horrible, racist crimes. We have an engaging account of the officers' lives, then a description of the incident where they were involved, but nothing linking them. Did the author even ask any of them about their actions during this incident? Were they asked but refused to comment? There's an incredible disconnect here.
The cops' stories are presented simply and directly but the victims' stories are given a lofty prose, full of ridiculous sentences. My favorite is probably "Friendship was the highest prize of life to Lee, and Carl, above all others, was the giver of the prize." These people don't need a false illumination of dignity, although maybe John Hersey thought they might've needed it at the time it was written.
I'm really torn about this book, it's certainly compulsively readable, and important, but it's kind of irritating, too.
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March 1, 2020As Roderick Davis' sister, I can say that this book is an accurate account based on the author interviewing all involved--perpetrators, police investigators, survivors and their effected families, and many hours of Mr. Hersey's investigative footwork and review of documents in order to create a comprehensive account, more knowledgeable and objective than the evidence police compiled in preparation for the trial of the officers. The format reflects giving due representation to all his informants.(The movie some reviewers refer to is inaccurate. The informants used as their consultants were not even all there until the end of the murdering and assaults. The murdered victim's families were not consulted.) Mr. Hersey, of course, could not include every detail that existed but what you have is the documentation of the realities and historical truth! Current realities of events between too many government levels, from the president to local law representatives and multiple minority communities does indeed make Mr. Hersey's journalistic account almost prophetic!
October 28, 2017
Written in 1968, it is disturbing that so many of the themes in Hersey's book still ring true. Hersey focuses on the killings that took place at the Algiers Motel during the Detroit riots. Three of the 47 deaths during the riots took place on one night in which it seems no one either knows or will tell the truth about what happened.
I opted to read this book before watching the movie, "Detroit" as I wanted some background before seeing a movie that may sensationalize the events that took place at the Algiers Motel. I really don't know if I can say that I have a better understanding of the events as Hersey's book is sometimes disjointed with the fragmented style he chose to use in this book. It also bothered me that Hersey opted to quote the victims' family members and individuals present verbatim. It seemed as if he was trying to portray them as uneducated. Perhaps he quoted everyone verbatim and all the police officers and other individuals involved spoke perfect English. It was really a sticking point for me though.
Overall, I enjoyed this book and it has made me think how little has changed since these riots in the 1960s between police and members of the African American community. We continue to see riots, albeit not to this magnitude, when one race suffers brutality at the hands of those who are meant to protect them. This book also gave me insight to those who are effected by the brutality, a glimpse into the anger and distrust some have toward the police. Some of us were blessed to grow up knowing the police were our friends and looking up to them; in Hersey's book you see a different side where individuals are targeted simply because of their family members and learn at a young age that the police are out to get you.
I opted to read this book before watching the movie, "Detroit" as I wanted some background before seeing a movie that may sensationalize the events that took place at the Algiers Motel. I really don't know if I can say that I have a better understanding of the events as Hersey's book is sometimes disjointed with the fragmented style he chose to use in this book. It also bothered me that Hersey opted to quote the victims' family members and individuals present verbatim. It seemed as if he was trying to portray them as uneducated. Perhaps he quoted everyone verbatim and all the police officers and other individuals involved spoke perfect English. It was really a sticking point for me though.
Overall, I enjoyed this book and it has made me think how little has changed since these riots in the 1960s between police and members of the African American community. We continue to see riots, albeit not to this magnitude, when one race suffers brutality at the hands of those who are meant to protect them. This book also gave me insight to those who are effected by the brutality, a glimpse into the anger and distrust some have toward the police. Some of us were blessed to grow up knowing the police were our friends and looking up to them; in Hersey's book you see a different side where individuals are targeted simply because of their family members and learn at a young age that the police are out to get you.
July 3, 2016
Terrible story about three men being killed by the police for no reason. Without making any big deal out of it, the author makes clear how easy it is to arrange things so that the system lets the wrong people off the hook. The book bogs down here and there because Hersey leaned a little too hard on writing down what each participant said, complete with reiterations, redundancies, repetitions, and expletives. But that didn't make me want to stop reading. A very sorry chapter in the history of my hometown.
June 14, 2013
Thoughtful, provocative. A little disjointed in terms of structure.
March 22, 2016
poorly written.
true story Detroit riots
true story Detroit riots
December 4, 2016
I discovered this book fifteen years ago on a shelf at the Lawrence Technological University, startled to see an incident of the 1967 Detroit riots given full-length treatment and startled to find it in the library of an engineering and architecture school. I read it and thought it was interesting, but viewed it a window to the past, a world of institutional racism that the intervening years had broken down substantially.
Oh, the innocence and optimism of youth.
Rereading this masterful work of reportage today, from the perspective of somebody who has looked at the statistics of today's American criminal legal system a little too long, under the shadow of the calamitous election of 2016, made for a completely different experience. A physically sickening experience, but a much more vivid one.
The focus on Auberey, as a child trying to decide what kind of man he would be, is justified. And the particular way he was tortured by these adult men is hard to shake. But I feel the mysterious and unwitnessed deaths of Carl and Fred as deeply. I identified a lot with Fred. If his friends were correct that he survived the "death game", and was killed afterwards...
I look forward to Katherine Bigelow's adaptation of this, heading to screens next summer for the fiftieth anniversary of the riots, and I hope - assuming it draws the same conclusions about the incident that Hersey does - it's a box office smash. Not because it will be any more truthful than the book - it won't be - or more vivid - it can't be - but because more people are liable to see a film by the auteur of Zero Dark Thirty than to pick up a dusty piece of old news. And people have got to understand that we still live in the world that this book describes.
Oh, the innocence and optimism of youth.
Rereading this masterful work of reportage today, from the perspective of somebody who has looked at the statistics of today's American criminal legal system a little too long, under the shadow of the calamitous election of 2016, made for a completely different experience. A physically sickening experience, but a much more vivid one.
The focus on Auberey, as a child trying to decide what kind of man he would be, is justified. And the particular way he was tortured by these adult men is hard to shake. But I feel the mysterious and unwitnessed deaths of Carl and Fred as deeply. I identified a lot with Fred. If his friends were correct that he survived the "death game", and was killed afterwards...
I look forward to Katherine Bigelow's adaptation of this, heading to screens next summer for the fiftieth anniversary of the riots, and I hope - assuming it draws the same conclusions about the incident that Hersey does - it's a box office smash. Not because it will be any more truthful than the book - it won't be - or more vivid - it can't be - but because more people are liable to see a film by the auteur of Zero Dark Thirty than to pick up a dusty piece of old news. And people have got to understand that we still live in the world that this book describes.
April 22, 2021
A harrowing reconstruction of the brutal torture and killing of three young black men by police during the 1967 Detroit riots. Police stormed the Algiers Motel on the suspicion that snipers were holed up there. They found among the rooms about ten young black men and two young white women. The police stripped and beat the women, calling them nigger loving whores. Police officers also beat badly the black men, and then a killing game began. One by one the men were taken by police into a room to be "killed". Most were actually not killed, with the gunshot at the last second deliberately missing. But at least one officer didn't realize it was a game.
The author interviewed survivors, and family members, and police officers all to reconstruct what happened.
Of course justice was denied, as the cases against the police officers were blocked and sabotaged by judges and prosecutors both.
Finishing this book as the jury deliberates on the verdict of the Minneapolis officer who killed George Floyd made me wonder how much has changed. There was real fear that the murderous officer would be found not guilty.
I first read Hiroshima by Hersey as it appeared in the New Yorker Book of War Stories. It was gripping and horrifying. I next read his slim volume of reporting from the fighting on Guadalcanal; Into the Valley. Taken as a trilogy these three provide quite a journey through isolated parts of US history that nonetheless make of a kind of a whole. I am left wanting to read all his non fiction, and to give his fiction a try.
The author interviewed survivors, and family members, and police officers all to reconstruct what happened.
Of course justice was denied, as the cases against the police officers were blocked and sabotaged by judges and prosecutors both.
Finishing this book as the jury deliberates on the verdict of the Minneapolis officer who killed George Floyd made me wonder how much has changed. There was real fear that the murderous officer would be found not guilty.
I first read Hiroshima by Hersey as it appeared in the New Yorker Book of War Stories. It was gripping and horrifying. I next read his slim volume of reporting from the fighting on Guadalcanal; Into the Valley. Taken as a trilogy these three provide quite a journey through isolated parts of US history that nonetheless make of a kind of a whole. I am left wanting to read all his non fiction, and to give his fiction a try.
October 17, 2012
Man, nothing like reading a bit of history.
I wish the author had spent more time on his interviews and research; the book was very uneven and left many un answered questions. It was written only a year or so after the events transpired.
The central story is set during the civil unrest/ race riots in Detroit during the summer of 1967 and concerns the massacre of four young black men staying at the annex of the Algiers Motel, and the gross injustice that followed.
38. A Mother Speaks
"This broke up our whole house... They got Tanner doing time. He's in the House of Correction right now. For driving without a license. And I swear I know they can give the police some time because they did a murder. Tanner's doing time, Robert's doing time. Robert couldn't even come home for the funeral. He didn't kill nobody, but still this policeman walk the streets. See, Robert robbed a paperboy. He's still doing time for that. They gave him three years. Three years. And they ain't gave that police not a day; that's what I can't understand."
-Mrs. Pollard, mother of Tanner, Robert, and the murdered Auburey Pollard.
I wish the author had spent more time on his interviews and research; the book was very uneven and left many un answered questions. It was written only a year or so after the events transpired.
The central story is set during the civil unrest/ race riots in Detroit during the summer of 1967 and concerns the massacre of four young black men staying at the annex of the Algiers Motel, and the gross injustice that followed.
38. A Mother Speaks
"This broke up our whole house... They got Tanner doing time. He's in the House of Correction right now. For driving without a license. And I swear I know they can give the police some time because they did a murder. Tanner's doing time, Robert's doing time. Robert couldn't even come home for the funeral. He didn't kill nobody, but still this policeman walk the streets. See, Robert robbed a paperboy. He's still doing time for that. They gave him three years. Three years. And they ain't gave that police not a day; that's what I can't understand."
-Mrs. Pollard, mother of Tanner, Robert, and the murdered Auburey Pollard.
September 8, 2017
"What is wrong?"
Equal parts masterful and horrifying, Hersey presents a near-perfect piece of journalistic achievement, while also making it clear that only one message should endure from the nightmarish events of July 1967: racism is real, and the system that perpetuates it is pervasive. Sadly 50 years later this message still rings true for people of color in our nation today.
Hersey asks his audience, "should law be used to support or retard obviously needed changes in the fabric of society?" A question, like his message, that has endured. To what end is our government assembled, and by what methods are we willing to allow it to achieve this end? Are we to support our neighbors in their pursuit of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Or are we to act only out of self-preservation and the protection of our own interests?
Hersey's book is a necessary and (unfortunately) timely witness to the too-real and too-often events that have shaped the racial past of this suffering nation.
Equal parts masterful and horrifying, Hersey presents a near-perfect piece of journalistic achievement, while also making it clear that only one message should endure from the nightmarish events of July 1967: racism is real, and the system that perpetuates it is pervasive. Sadly 50 years later this message still rings true for people of color in our nation today.
Hersey asks his audience, "should law be used to support or retard obviously needed changes in the fabric of society?" A question, like his message, that has endured. To what end is our government assembled, and by what methods are we willing to allow it to achieve this end? Are we to support our neighbors in their pursuit of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Or are we to act only out of self-preservation and the protection of our own interests?
Hersey's book is a necessary and (unfortunately) timely witness to the too-real and too-often events that have shaped the racial past of this suffering nation.
September 6, 2017
Very emotionally difficult book to read. I was just a kid when the riot took place in Detroit; I lived in a white suburb. The rawness of what happened at the Algiers Motel is written in a very confusing and disorganized fashion; I believe on purpose to show how difficult it was to really determine what happened with all the inconsistent recollections. Really doesn't matter; what this book really shows is the terrible racism in America during the 1960's. And the reader was left thinking--is it really any better now?? I know it will be difficult to watch but I do want to see the movie "Detroit" that was based on this book.
September 15, 2017
Living in the Detroit area, I'd been hearing lots this summer about the 50th anniversary of the Detroit riots and, by association, the incident on which Kathryn Bigelow's film "Detroit" is based. Knowing of my interest in learning more about that time period, a friend recommended this book; and as difficult as it was to read, I am glad to have read it. The author seems to make a solid effort to explore all the various facets of this incident, and yet it's hard to finish this book and realize that some things haven't changed as much as they could or should have.
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August 2, 2018Hersey backgrounds himself entirely, allowing participants in this chapter of the 1967 Detroit riots speak for themselves. The events of that night have never been definitively laid out, and Hersey, while letting his readers decide for themselves what happened that night and who was at fault, gives those at fault just enough space to convict themselves. A fascinating approach to illuminating events shrouded in violence, mystery and self-interest.
October 7, 2014
Probably the seminal book to come out of the 1967 Detroit riots. To read it today, it almost doesn't seem real as if it were fiction. To understand the thought patterns, life experiences and prejudices of the time and put them into the context of the narrative gives the reader a great understanding of what Detroit and the country was like at the time. I would love to see an update somewhere on all of the principles in this book and what happened to them over the last 45 years.
September 17, 2008
it is amazing how one single act in the midst of a city in anarchy can reverberate throughout many of the problems still facing that city half a century later. quite simply an amazing piece of literature, that tells of an event that should have never been forgotten.
March 26, 2022
Better on re-reading than I'd remembered. The fragmented presentation--Rashomon in the midst of the 1967 Detroit riot--works nicely. Great introductions by historians Danielle McGuire and Thomas Sugroe.
February 4, 2009
non fiction
March 27, 2008
an account of one of the uglier episodes in american race relations. john hersey is one of my favorite writers. he's so overarchingly compassionate.
April 13, 2008
I was living in Detroit in 1967 when the riots broke out.
We had heard stories of the snipers.
Hersey's book tells what really went down that night at the Algiers Motel.
We had heard stories of the snipers.
Hersey's book tells what really went down that night at the Algiers Motel.
July 22, 2009
Scary to think things like this happen.
July 24, 2017
earlier this year i realized that the detroit riots occurred 50 years ago. i wanted to learn more about them, so i decided to buy this book. after starting it, everyone told me that a movie was coming out in august. i have a lot of feelings about that film, but basically: it's NOT based on this book, the author accepted no royalties from this publication (something i highly doubt the film maker is planning to do), and hersey stated that he would never sell the film rights. please keep that in mind before seeing the movie, and perhaps read this (or any other books about the 1967 riot) instead... ANYWAYS... please read this if you are interested in the detroit riots, police brutality, racism, the urban crisis, etc. it's an amazing, saddening, and thought-provoking read. some people did not like this book due to the "chaotic" structure -- i thought it perfectly illustrated the atmosphere in detroit before, during, and after the riots. this is a great piece of journalism which shows that not much has changed in this country over the last 50 years...
October 1, 2020
Reading this in 2020, not just at the time of Black Lives Matter, but during the shameful experience of Donald Trump's presidency of the United States, a tenure that has made a mockery of any shred of decency in contemporary politics, was demoralising.
John Hersey creates a patchwork of different voices, reportage, and occasional commentary. He seems very deliberately to resist drawing too neat patterns or reaching easy conclusions. Over all, though, the feeling is one of deep deep institutional injustice, casual stupid racism, and a resolute refusal to learn lessons or even to accept lessons are there to be learned.
In a section entitled Violence Breeds Violence, Hersey reports, "Policemen shot and killed two looters that night (the night of Martin Luther King's assassination), one of them accidentally, the police said: 'an eighteen-year-old named Robert Baughan, who, with his hands up, backed into a cop's gun and died of carelessness'."
This was 1968. Fifty years ago. What has changed since?
John Hersey creates a patchwork of different voices, reportage, and occasional commentary. He seems very deliberately to resist drawing too neat patterns or reaching easy conclusions. Over all, though, the feeling is one of deep deep institutional injustice, casual stupid racism, and a resolute refusal to learn lessons or even to accept lessons are there to be learned.
In a section entitled Violence Breeds Violence, Hersey reports, "Policemen shot and killed two looters that night (the night of Martin Luther King's assassination), one of them accidentally, the police said: 'an eighteen-year-old named Robert Baughan, who, with his hands up, backed into a cop's gun and died of carelessness'."
This was 1968. Fifty years ago. What has changed since?
November 29, 2020
Disturbing and appalling. During riots in Detroit in the summer of 1967, police, National Guard, and private security mounted an all-out assault on a motel, rounded up the twelve guests, and proceeded to beat them all (even breaking a rifle stock over one man’s head), rip the clothes off two women, and kill three of the men. The crux of the story: the cops and National Guard were white and the guests were mostly black - except for the two women. This book details ingrained racism where the whites don’t even know they’re racist, they just know that this is the way white cops treat black people.
The events at the Algiers Motel that July night were made into a powerful movie by Kathryn Bigelow, “Detroit.” I’d been wanting to read this since I saw the movie three years ago.
The book is a collection of interviews, police reports, and court transcripts. Some have criticized the format as being too chaotic but I think it mirrors the chaos of Detroit during those days, and the Algiers Motel that night.
Highly recommended.
The events at the Algiers Motel that July night were made into a powerful movie by Kathryn Bigelow, “Detroit.” I’d been wanting to read this since I saw the movie three years ago.
The book is a collection of interviews, police reports, and court transcripts. Some have criticized the format as being too chaotic but I think it mirrors the chaos of Detroit during those days, and the Algiers Motel that night.
Highly recommended.
April 6, 2021
“The Algiers Motel Incident” by John Hersey gave detailed descriptions in a journalistic style of who was involved and what those interviewed had to say about what occurred in Detroit Motor City during the mid 1960s, in which the murder of three innocent African American men by three white police officers soon happened. Hersey reported exactly what he analyzed from the arrests, deaths, and witnesses that were at the scene of the riot that led to the tragedy. Although it was a lot of different information to grasp and an emotional book to read, I feel like it was vital to include all the evidence of police officers having prejudice against African Americans because it shows how racial inequality was faced during that time without excluding any experiences mentioned by those who dealt with it. It also helps to further examine whether history is repeating itself as of today in similar incidents due to discrimination, and if anything has changed for the better within America’s justice system.
September 6, 2019
Wow. This book confirms for me that we haven't really progressed much from when this incident took place.
A black teenager charged with stealing $7 from a newsboy was given 3-10 years in prison. Isn't that radically extreme? Plus he was severely beaten by police officers.
"If you got enough money you can do just about anything you want to do in the world." Still true today.
"...the white man's justice, in a Northern city just as much as in Mississippi, almost invariably prefers the unreliable testimony of whites to the unreliable testimony of blacks."
Several senseless killings and beatings occurred during this incident. Totally out of control actions on the part of police and other law enforcement. And even with testimony and identifications, justice was NOT served. So very sad. But even sadder is the fact that this type of thing still happens.
A black teenager charged with stealing $7 from a newsboy was given 3-10 years in prison. Isn't that radically extreme? Plus he was severely beaten by police officers.
"If you got enough money you can do just about anything you want to do in the world." Still true today.
"...the white man's justice, in a Northern city just as much as in Mississippi, almost invariably prefers the unreliable testimony of whites to the unreliable testimony of blacks."
Several senseless killings and beatings occurred during this incident. Totally out of control actions on the part of police and other law enforcement. And even with testimony and identifications, justice was NOT served. So very sad. But even sadder is the fact that this type of thing still happens.
April 6, 2021
I want to start with this book is amazing for everyone. It taught me so much even though it’s very emotional or a hard to follow John Hersey’s writing. However, I don’t want to spoil too much but it talks about how there is no equal justice and about police brutality. There is too many violence in the book and also many trues. It’s a wonderful book and not very surprising, you’ll know what I mean once you read it. I highly recommended for those who want to learn more about the truth this book speaks it all.
February 28, 2020
Confused
After watching the movie “Detroit,” I looked for additional information. Having read other works by This author I was looking for a narrative that would help my perspective. As stated in the book, it is difficult to actually know what happened at this incident. This book doesn’t help clarify any of the actions that night. It does, however, reveal the societal racial inequality our country still suffers.
After watching the movie “Detroit,” I looked for additional information. Having read other works by This author I was looking for a narrative that would help my perspective. As stated in the book, it is difficult to actually know what happened at this incident. This book doesn’t help clarify any of the actions that night. It does, however, reveal the societal racial inequality our country still suffers.
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