This event was held to celebrate the reissue of the book "Hurt, Baby, Hurt" — a memoir about the 1967 Detroit Rebellion by William Walter Scott, III. First published in 1970, the book recounts Scott's life from his birth through the rebellion. Guest speakers include Austin McCoy, West Virginia University, who wrote the insightful introduction for the new edition of the book, and Bill McGraw, journalist and author.
The rebellion was the bloodiest of the urban riots in the U.S. during the summer of 1967. It began when police raided an unlicensed drinking club owned by Scott’s father and continued for five days, resulting in forty-three deaths plus many more injuries, fires, and arrests. Scott, who was 19 at the time and working as a doorman at his father’s club, is widely recognized as the man who started the rebellion by throwing a bottle at one of the police officers.
The reissue is available for purchase in paperback and as an Open Access ebook. This project was made possible by support from two library divisions: University of Michigan Press and the Joseph A. Labadie Collection.