Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor of the Pan-African News Wire, To Deliver Major Address on the 40th Anniversary of the 1967 Rebellion

Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, holding microphone at Detroit MLK Day March on Washington Blvd. downtown, January 15, 2007. (Photo: Robert Akrawi).
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

For Immediate Release

Media Advisory

Event: PANW Editor to Deliver Address on 40th Anniversary of
the 1967 Rebellion in Detroit
Date: Saturday, July 21, 2007, 5:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.
Venue: 5920 Second Avenue at Antoinette, near WSU campus
Sponsors: Workers World Party Detroit Branch
Contact: (313) 831-0750, 680-5508

Abayomi Azikiwe, the Editor of the Pan-African News Wire, Will Deliver a Major Address on the International Significance of the Detroit Rebellion of July 1967

On July 23 the city of Detroit will commemorate the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the 1967 rebellion. During that summer the masses of African-Americans and other working people rose up in opposition to the conditions of racism, police repression and economic exploitation.

After six days of unrest, more than 40 people were dead, thousands of businesses and residences were destroyed by looting and arson and the city was occupied by over 15,000 National Guard soldiers, U.S. Airborne Division Troops, local police and government agents.

This rebellion, which was the largest to date in American history, did not take place in a vacuum. During 1967 there were other outbreaks in over 160 cities throughout the United States. The then Johnson Administration plead for calm while ordering tens of thousands of occupation troops into the urban areas across the country.

The rebellions of the 1967 took place alongside the armed struggles of the Vietnamese people against U.S. imperialist occupation; the growing national liberation struggles on the African continent and the Arab/Israeli war of June 1967.

Utilizing primary source documents and oral histories from the period, Abayomi Azikiwe, will argue that the urban rebellions of the 1960s were part and parcel of a broader struggle against national oppression, western imperialism and international racial capitalism.

In addition, a video featuring rare footage of the 1967 Detroit rebellion will be screened.

This event is open to the general public. For more information contact the Detroit offices of Workers World at numbers listed above.