On Detroit's lush, leafy Belle Isle, thousands of Negroes and whites nervously held their Sunday picnics under the trees. They had reason for nerves: rumors of race trouble poisoned the June air, the same rumors that have stirred the city for months. As the sweltering thousands jammed the bridge to the mainland on the way home, they were ripe for explosion.
A sudden fist fight touched it off, sent fighting, cursing whites and Negroes battling across the bridge, spilling through the city. Like wildfire, the rioting spread to "Paradise Valley," Detroit's downtown Negro section, washed over Woodward Avenue, Detroit's main...
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