TOLEDO, OH (WTOL) - A half century ago this week, Toledo's closest "big" city neighbor was burning in one of the worst riots in the nation's history.
Toledo itself however, wouldn't be unaffected by the violence that was infecting the nation.
In one of the worst and bloodiest civil insurrections in modern American history, Detroit was writhing in a riot that has never been forgotten.
When the smoke cleared, over 40 people had been killed and thousands were wounded or injured. More than 2000 homes and business were destroyed by the flames of fire bombers during those five hot days of July 1967.
They were five days that changed the Motor City forever.
In the coming days, Americans will be exposed to shocking replays of grainy black and white films that captured only a fraction of the insanity that ran loose in the lawless streets.
As civilian snipers on rooftops took deadly aim at people on the streets, U.S. Airborne troops and National Guardsmen were trucked in by the hundreds to keep order using an arsenal of Vietnam-era hardware from .50 caliber machine guns to M-16s to tanks.
They were urged to shoot and ask questions later and they did.
Their lethality left 24 people dead; all young black men.
What began as public disorder escalated to a "riot" and within days, morphed into a "racially charged" urban war.
And while Detroit suffered the indignity of its destruction, other cities around the nation were also infected with the metastasizing virus of violence during what would become known as "The Long Hot Summer."
More than 150 cities in all were affected, including Toledo.
The first glass was broken in Toledo on Monday, the day after the unrest began in Detroit.
It was mostly the work of roving gangs of kids, likely inspired by the images they were seeing on TV coming from the Motor City.
They began their copycat crime spree by walking the streets of several neighborhoods, breaking windows, looting stores and setting fires.
A dozen fires were set the first night, many of them in the Dorr Street corridor between Detroit Avenue and City Park.
There were shots fired, but no reports of anyone hit. To keep more guns from flooding the streets, Toledo Police asked store owners to take gun displays out of windows and to secure their inventories of ammunition. Some stores opted to just stop selling guns or ammo altogether.
The first night, Monday, July 23rd, several buildings and businesses were destroyed by flames.
The most intense area of violence that first night was near Dorr and Heston Streets where Harry's Clothing Store and a furniture store were burned and several other nearby business were looted.
Police told a Blade reporter that the looting started with a group of juveniles and then "everybody got into the act".
One police man was cut on the arm by a broken bottle that had been thrown.
There was also looting of stores in the downtown area at Monroe and 17th Streets and windows were smashed in the Miracle Mile Shopping Center in west Toledo.
As the night progressed, violence flared in numerous sections of the city. At Monroe and 10th Street, nine people were arrested with gasoline, bottles and rag wicks, the crude ingredients for firebombs.
A fire bomb was believed to have caused a $10,000 fire at the Kellermyers Chemical Co on Brown Ave in east Toledo.
As the reports of fires and looting continued in the early hours of the morning, more Toledo police officers were called in to help quell the situation and even in the Toledo suburbs, of Oregon, Maumee and Sylvania, extra crews were summoned just in case their normally tranquil streets would become targets for the restless youth.
In another preemptive move, Toledo Police and County Deputies camped out on the Michigan State border to stop any potential Detroit "rioters" from coming across the state line.
Also on alert, and ready for deployment was the Ohio National Guard and they got their chance the next day when 500 guardsmen were mobilized and put on standby at the Secor Road Armory in the event that Toledo Police needed their assistance.
A 9pm curfew was placed on everyone under the age of 21 in the city by Mayor John Potter.
Many stores and bars and taverns were also asked to close, while some Community Traction bus routes were shut down through some neighborhoods.
After several motorists were attacked and seriously injured by rock and bottle throwing teens, police opted to block off some streets in area of known trouble spots.
Tuesday and Wednesday brought more reports of looting and dozens of scattered disturbances around the city including the arrests of more than a dozen people caught with fire bomb materials and weapons.
When the city finally calmed down after five tense and turbulent days, police had made more than 180 arrests, and fire crews had responded to almost 80 arson fires.
Fortunately the injuries were mostly minor and there were no fatalities.
Toledo could have just as easily mirrored more tragically the events that unfolded 50 miles to the north, but luckily did not. Instead of counting the dead, we were counting our blessings.
One of the more interesting, if not ironic footnotes of the "Toledo Riots" story was that on Saturday of that week, Toledo's Scott High School was to play host to civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. where he was to give a speech.
It was a speech that had been planned many months before the disturbances began.
However, given the tensions in the city, community leaders, including Councilman Andy Douglas and Mayor Potter, urged Black community leaders to cancel the Toledo speech for fear that Dr. King's presence might inflame the situation here and that even a small group of troublemakers could trigger a much larger problem.
The speech which had been a year in the planning was canceled.
Dr. King would return to Toledo in September of 1967 where he addressed a crowd of over 3500.
King was assassinated 7 months later in Memphis, Tennessee.
