It’s over. The President is just not going to do anything more. That’s it. He’s through with domestic problems, with the cities… He’s not going to do anything. And he’s the only man who can.
A look back on the eventful month of July 1967: LBJ’s grandson is christened; German Chancellor Erhard visits (again); Newark erupts in violence, and then Detroit; and LBJ sets up a commission charged with investigating the cause of the riots.
July 27, 1967. LBJ speaks to the nation a second time about the violence in Detroit:
“So, my fellow citizens, let us go about our work. Let us clear the streets of rubble and quench the fires that hatred set. Let us feed and care for those who have suffered at the rioters’ hands–but let there be no bonus or reward or salutes for those who have inflicted that suffering.
"Let us resolve that this violence is going to stop and there will be no bonus to flow from it. We can stop it. We must stop it. We will stop it.”
President Johnson's Address to the Nation on Civil Disorders, July 27, 1967.
The catastrophe which has struck the City of Detroit is a ‘disaster’ by any reasonable definition of that term. Entire blocks have been leveled by fire and pockets of destruction exist throughout the city. Losses due to fire and looting have been estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars and these estimates may very well prove to be conservative. However, we have been advised by Governor Farris Bryant and Deputy United States Attorney General Christopher that the provisions of the Federal Disaster Assistance Act have not in the past been applied to disasters other than those resulting from natural causes. Last week part of the Detroit metropolitan area was declared a disaster area following a five-inch rainfall. It simply does not make sense not to commit Federal assistance to the City of Detroit in view of what has happened there in recent days. We urgently request that this policy be reevaluted, in view of the fact that the statute covers natural disasters, “or other catastrophe which in the determination of the president” warrants special Federal assistance and that such assistance be approved for the City of Detroit.
GOVERNOR GEORGE ROMNEY
JEROME P. CAVANAGN, Mayor
July 29, 1967. During the first meeting of the Kerner Commission, President Johnson signs Executive Order 11365 “Establishing a National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders.”
Foreground L-R: Roy Wilkins, Governor Otto Kerner, and President Johnson. LBJ Presidential Library photo A4526-16; image is in the public domain.