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.