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 PrizeGÇôwinning 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.
Introduction: John Hersey and the Tragedy of Race
Part I: The Odor of a Case July 2631
1. Do You Hate the Police?
2. A Dangerous Account
3. Too Hot to Handle
Part II: Three Cops and Three Days July 235
4. The First Day
5. Snake
6. The Second Day
7. An Out-of-Doors Man
8. The Third Day
9. Quiet and Respectable
10. An Alarm of Snipers
Part III: Auburey and His Circle
11. The Fork in the Road
Part IV: Confession July 31
12. Could You Get My Statement Back?
Part V: The Algiers Motel Incident July 256
13. The Snipers
14. A Game of Chess
15. Man, They're Going to Shoot
16. How to Attack a Building
17. Everybody Downstairs!
18. Phone Calls
19. Enter and Exit: State Police
20. Conduct Becoming an Officer
21. Up and Down the Line
22. Just in Time to Pray
23. Enter Warrant Officer Thomas
24. Interrogations
25. The Knife Game
26. Skin Show
27. The Death Game
28. The Death Game Played Out
29. Out
Part VI: Aftermath July 31 and after
30. A Matter for Investigation
31. First Man in Court
32. First Man in Court
33. Senak's Peninsula
34. These Are Not Little Boys
35. The Law Was Made by People
36. Law and Order for All?
37. Under Indictment
38. A Mother Speaks
39. The Net Is Thrown Again
40. Snipers: The Myth
41. Fuel for the Fire Next Time
42. Harassment?
43. The Paille Appeal
44. A Numbness
45. Conspiracy?
46. Padlocking
47. A Cutting
48. A Winter of Waiting
49. Three Men at Work
50. The Legal Maze
51. Last Words
52. What Is Wrong With the Country?
""[The Algiers Motel Incident] demonstrates [Hersey's] astonishing talent for eliciting oral history and forensically reconstructing the experiences of people who have endured a major disaster.-á""
