New Bethel Incident, Detroit 1969

Story design by Francesca Ferrara, Caroline Levine, and Matt Lassiter; based on the Detroit Under Fire exhibit section " New Bethel Incident ," researched and written by Aidan Traynor and Matt Lassiter.

On March 29, 1969, a dozen officers from the Detroit Police Department (DPD) invaded the New Bethel Baptist Church and arrested 142 African Americans gathered for the national convention of the Republic of New Africa (RNA). The Black nationalist organization was under constant surveillance by the FBI and the DPD, including multiple undercover agents and informants who had infiltrated the group. The incident began when two white officers initiated a confrontation with armed RNA bodyguards outside the church. What exactly happened is still in dispute, but one officer died in the shootout and his partner claimed that they did not have their guns drawn and were just trying to talk to the Black men. Black power and civil rights activists in Detroit did not believe this cover story and considered the confrontation to be part of the  broader policy of politically motivated police repression  during the late 1960s. After the 1967 Uprising, the Detroit Police Department criminalized Black Power organizations through  illegal surveillance ,  targeted repression , and  mass arrests , including a parallel  campaign to destroy  the local chapter of the Black Panther Party.

A contingent of DPD officers responded to the shooting outside the church by storming inside with extreme force, firing wildly and hitting at least four unarmed and innocent people, taking everyone prisoner and threatening to kill them, and committing many acts of brutality. The DPD's official report claimed that a "hail of gunfire" from inside the church justified the police action, which was a lie to justify the abuses and was contradicted by all of the physical evidence and Black eyewitness testimony. The white police officers arrested all 142 people present--men, women, and children--for "conspiracy to commit murder."

Judge George Crockett, an African American and frequent critic of illegal DPD action, ordered the release of everyone wrongfully detained, which set off a political firestorm. The DPD hierarchy and the Detroit Police Officers Association (DPOA), the  reactionary white-dominated union , attacked Judge Crockett in a sustained campaign. Black power and civil rights groups defended the judge and escalated their fight against DPD repression. The murder trials of two RNA bodyguards resulted in acquittals and highlighted additional evidence of unconstitutional police methods. The question of what exactly happened outside the church remains an enduring mystery.

This investigative report reproduces secret FBI and DPD surveillance documents as well as eyewitness accounts of the church invasion, inquiries by civil rights agencies, protests by Black community organizations, and records from the murder trials. Scroll down to explore one of the most controversial and polarizing incidents in the history of Detroit during the civil rights era.

"Can any of you imagine the Detroit Police Department invading an all-white church and rounding up everyone in sight? . . . Can anyone explain in other than racial terms the shooting by police into a closed and surrounded church?"--Recorder's Court Judge George C. Crockett, April 3, 1969 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation launched its COINTELPRO against "Black Nationalist-Hate Groups" on August 25, 1967. The top-secret mission instructed FBI field offices to "disrupt" and "neutralize" Black Power organizations, ostensibly because they advocated violence. In reality, COINTELPRO was an overtly political repression campaign in service of a right-wing law enforcement agenda, part of the  FBI's long history  of investigating "subversive" civil rights groups and criminalizing political dissent. The FBI shared its "counterintelligence" with local police departments across the country, including the DPD. Even though Black Power groups advocated self-defense against police brutality, the FBI claimed that they were part of a nationwide conspiracy to promote "bitter and diabolic violence" in urban America. The FBI  specifically warned  that Black radical "urban guerillas" were plotting to ambush police officers through "acts of outrageous terror."

The Detroit Police Department conducted its own secret and unconstitutional political surveillance program, often dubbed the "Red Squad" because of its primary focus on left-wing radicals. The DPD's  clandestine Criminal Intelligence Bureau  spied on civil rights, Black Power, and New Left organizations--collecting intelligence to help guide illegal police crackdowns designed to repress their political activities. The DPD worked closely with the FBI as well as the  Special Investigation Unit  of the Michigan State Police, which shared the same mission and engaged in massive civil liberties violations of the rights of citizens during this era. All three of these law enforcement agencies had the Republic of New Africa under surveillance in the build-up to the New Bethel Incident of March 1969, including at least five undercover agents and informants and probably more.

The Republic of New Africa (RNA) was a Black nationalist organization that originated in Detroit at the Black Government Conference called by the Malcolm X Society in March 1968. The founding meeting took place at the Shrine of the Black Madonna, a church pastored by Rev. Albert Cleage, one of Detroit's most influential Black Power leaders. About two hundred Black people from all over the United States signed the RNA’s declaration of independence stating, “forever free and independent of the Jurisdiction of the United States.” 

The RNA's purpose was to establish a "Black Nation" inside the United States and to gain international recognition as a politically independent entity. The group demanded political control of the "black ghettoes" and of a large territory with a majority-Black population in five southern states. The RNA also called on the United States government pay each Black person $10,000 for reparations. The delegates elected Robert F. Williams, a Black Power leader from North Carolina who was exiled in Cuba, as their president, and Milton Henry, a well-known radical attorney in Michigan, as their vice-president. The RNA included a statement that it would achieve its goals "by arms if necessary."

The COINTELPRO program rapidly infiltrated RNA chapters around the country, and the FBI's full RNA file (available in the Archives Unbound database) makes clear that the Bureau had more than a dozen and perhaps several dozen informants inside the organization, making up a significant percentage of its active membership.

The FBI sent several undercover informants to the second convention of the RNA, held in Detroit in late March 1969, that culminated in the New Bethel Incident. In the memo below, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover personally authorizes travel to Detroit by an RNA member from the Los Angeles chapter who is working undercover for the FBI, one of several such memos in the COINTELPRO file.

The FBI shared this information with the Detroit Police Department and the Michigan State Police, who also had the RNA under surveillance through their own political counterintelligence operations. In addition, based on the COINTELPRO file, it is almost certain that the FBI also had an undercover operative in a position of influence inside the central RNA group in Detroit.

This is particularly important because, as revealed below in secret FBI documents, the Bureau's own undercover agent stated that the Detroit Police Department officers initiated the confrontation outside the New Bethel Baptist Church by firing first, and that no RNA members inside the church fired on the DPD before they stormed inside. But Director J. Edgar Hoover covered up this evidence and reported to the Attorney General and Congress that the RNA radicals had shot at the police first at both stages of the encounter.

"Is it reasonable to believe two white cops would approach 10-12 armed black men, with their pistols in their holsters and no weapons in their hands? . . . Is it conceivable the police behaved illegally? And would they admit it? Have they ever admitted to error in killing black people?"--People Against Racism

The Republic of New Africa rented the New Bethel Baptist Church for a rally as part of its multi-day Detroit convention in March 1969. The church was pastored by Reverend C. L. Franklin, a prominent civil rights leader in Detroit, and located at the intersection of Philadelphia and Linwood, northwest of downtown. The RNA's rally started at 8 p.m. and ended at 11:25 p.m.

Armed bodyguards were escorting RNA leaders to their cars, and many of the people who attended the rally were still inside, when the gunfire began on the corner of Philadelphia and Linwood.

The Detroit Police Department claimed that two officers were just driving by and saw "approximately 10 to 12 Negro males with guns entering automobiles," so they stopped to investigate. Given that the DPD had the RNA rally under massive surveillance, it is not clear why the patrol officers instigated this encounter, although one theory is that they did not realize what was happening and just stumbled onto the scene.

The two white patrolmen, Michael Czapski and Richard Worobec, approached the RNA group and gunfire ensued. Patrolman Czapski ended up dead with up to seven bullet wounds. Patrolman Worobec was seriously wounded but managed to get into his squad car and drive away before crashing into a storefront.

The evidence regarding who shot first is contradictory:

• Patrolman Worobec testified that a "lone Negro male" shot them both without provocation.
• Multiple witnesses said they heard a single shot, then another, then a sustained volley of gunfire. This could support a scenario in which the officers fired first and the RNA bodyguards returned fire.
• At least two of the FBI's undercover agents reported that the patrolmen fired first, but the FBI covered this up and so the account never came out. Another FBI informant said that the RNA bodyguards fired first.
• An undercover officer with the Michigan State Police claimed to have witnessed the incident and said that the RNA fired first, but he did not testify in the trials, which raises suspicion about the truthfulness of his account.
• People Against Racism, an anti-police brutality group in Detroit, asked the DPD story that the white officers approached the large group of armed RNA men with their guns in their holsters and did nothing to provoke the incident, asking: "Is it reasonable to believe two white cops would approach 10-12 armed black men, with their pistols in their holsters and no weapons in their hands?" (Read the full  document here ).

The DPD Version: The police department provided the city of Detroit's civil rights agency with a partial and edited "transcript" of the radio log, based on communications with the dispatcher and the squad car of Patrolman Czapski and Patrolman Worobec, as well as other squad cars that responded (left).

At 11:42 p.m., Scout 10-5 (Czapski and Worobec) radioed in, “We got guys with rifles out here Linwood and Euclid.” The dispatcher sent backup, and a minute later Worobec gave a distress call over the radio and the "two officers shot" report went out.

At 11:48 and 11:49 p.m., the transcript reports that responding officers radioed in that they were taking fire from inside the church. As explained below, there was zero forensic evidence to support this claim, and it was almost certainly a cover story to justify the police action in storming the church.

The clear fabrication of the gunfire from inside the church raises the question of what else the DPD left out of or doctored in this incomplete transcript, which was provided to the Detroit Commission on Community Relations as part of its investigation of police abuses inside the church. It seems particularly unlikely that the two officers would have calmly approached a group of armed Black men at night without having their weapons drawn, as Patrolman Worobec later insisted when he claimed that most of the group scattered before a "lone Negro male" shot them both.

Patrolman Richard Worobec was later part of the notorious STRESS operation that  killed at least 22 people , mainly unarmed Black males during undercover decoy operations, between 1971 and 1973. Worobec himself shot and killed two Black teenagers in a  September 1971 incident  that generated massive community protests. He claimed that the youth had attacked him first, but the evidence strongly indicated that he lied to cover up what really happened, and the city of Detroit paid a $270,000 wrongful death settlement to their families.

Michigan State Police Surveillance: The Michigan State (MSP) version (below) is most interesting because it proves that the law enforcement agency had undercover officers on the scene placing the RNA under surveillance, including one who witnessed the shooting.

The FBI Informants: At least two of the FBI informants/agents provocateurs told the Cincinnati field office that Patrolmen Worobec and Czapski fired first, and then the RNA bodyguards returned fire.

The document at right is from a heavily redacted report from the FBI's Cincinnati office to Director J. Edgar Hoover. Based on the context, it is clear that at least one and probably two of the undercover informants were sent there by the Cincinnati office and is reporting back. Both say the "police fired first."

The document also makes clear that no one inside the church fired on the police before the DPD rained gunfire into the building.

This document is crucial not only as an eyewitness account insisting that the two white officers provoked the shootout, but also because it proves that FBI Director Hoover lied in his official report about what happened in the New Bethel Incident, found immediately below.

Director J. Edgar Hoover: The FBI Director suppressed all information in the reports he received that contradicted the Detroit Police Department's story that the violent Black radicals in the RNA opened fire unprovoked on the police officers both outside and inside the church. He then sent this memo to Attorney General John Mitchell:

Black Civilian Witnesses: Multiple witnesses gave statements in the murder trials or to the civil rights investigation by the Detroit Commission on Community Relations. None of them had seen what happened to instigate the encounter, meaning that they did not know whether the two white officers fired first or not. All of them stated that they saw only one Black man (only one of the RNA bodyguards) fire at the officers. This also fits Patrolman Worobec's testimony, and it means that the law enforcement accounts that a large group of RNA bodyguards opened fire were not true. Additionally, the witnesses report that the DPD backup officers were on the scene immediately when the gunfire erupted, which indicates a broader tactical surveillance operation rather than the police department's official story that the squad cars only responded when Patrolman Worobec radioed the dispatcher for help.

"Were basic constitutional rights flouted by acts of reprisal generated from uncontrolled anger over the slaying of a fellow officer?" -- Detroit Commission on Community Relations, investigative report of New Bethel Incident 

All of the civilian witnesses agreed that the solitary man who shot at the white police officers did not flee into the church, as the DPD claimed the shooters did in its official report. Whether the two officers fired first or not in the encounter outside the church is still uncertain to this day. What happened next is not. The contingent of DPD officers on the scene fabricated a story that multiple RNA shooters fled into the church, and that "black extremist" radicals inside the church fired at the officers outside, to justify the armed invasion and brutal retaliation that followed. All non-police testimony and all forensic evidence reveals that no one inside the church fired a shot and that every bullet came from a police weapon.

There were 142 African Americans, including many women and children, still inside the New Bethel Baptist Church after the RNA rally when the police assault began around five minutes after the sidewalk shooting. The police contingent of at least a dozen officers fired around 100 rounds into the church before and during the invasion. The Black civilians took refuge and later described a campaign of racial terror and indiscriminate vengeance by the invading officers, even as they tried to surrender and after they were prisoners. The police officers who invaded the church arrested them all and booked everyone present for conspiracy to commit murder.

The DPD claimed that 10-12 RNA assailants fled into the New Bethel Baptist Church after shooting the two police officers and then sent a "hail of gunfire" at the backup contingent from inside. The DPD insisted that its officers followed proper procedures and only fired at armed people who posed a direct threat. The manipulated  police radio log transcript  (reproduced in the previous section)provided to investigators by the DPD includes alleged calls from squad cars stating "officer shot from the church," "officer shot from inside the church," "between 10 & 12 of them and they are armed with carbines in the church," and "the ones who shot that officer are in the church."

Sgt. Harold Smith, a ranking officer on the scene, filed the incident report below that became the basis for the DPD's public cover story.

Sgt. Smith’s incident report says that he and his partner responded to the "officer down" call and were putting Patrolman Czapski on a stretcher when he “heard a shot which seemed to come from the interior of the church.” He then led a contingent inside, breaking down the front door and shooting through it. They claimed to order everyone inside to "come out with their hands up," saw "what appeared to be a man pointing a rifle in our direction," and began firing. He also stated that a Patrolman Boylan fired at an unidentified man who was "crawling along the floor" and refused to surrender. This slanted report obviously omits many crucial details.

Detroit Newspapers: The Detroit Free Press and Detroit News, the city's two mainstream newspapers, reported the story to the public based on the police version alone. The newspapers repeatedly described the New Bethel Incident as an "ambush" by 10-12 Black men, which was inaccurate, and also repeated the police story that RNA members fired from inside the church. Both newspapers also took the law enforcement side in criticizing the African American judge who ruled that the mass arrests and murder charges for all 142 people inside the church violated their constitutional rights. The Detroit News also ran many many articles right after the New Bethel Incident hyping the allegedly violent threat of black militants in Detroit and throughout the United States. The coverage in the newspapers was racially inflammatory and strongly criticized by the Detroit Commission on Community Relations in the memo excerpted at right.

The Detroit Commission on Community Relations, a city government agency, often investigated allegations of police brutality and misconduct because the DPD  routinely covered up its actions  and  exonerated its officers  every time a Black citizen or organization filed a complaint. The DCCR did not have disciplinary power over the police department, and its investigations often brought out the Black victim perspective on what happened without resulting in any real change.

"Mr. Williams observed one white officer deliberately shoot a Negro male with hands aloft. . . . He observed a [different] white officer deliberately shoot another male Negro 'as he came from between some chairs'" -- DCCR Investigation

Ralph Williams was the janitor for the New Bethel Baptist Church and present for the police invasion because he was waiting to close up after the rally. The DCCR investigation considered him a neutral witness because he was not a member of the RNA.

In a second DCCR document (below), Ralph Williams also stated that women and children were screaming hysterically and that the white officers used constant racist epithets. Williams also said that an officer held him against the wall at gunpoint and threatened to kill him.

FBI Informant: The undercover FBI informant from Cincinnati reported that he was inside the church when the police invaded. The informant also said that the RNA security guards did not fire from inside the church. The informant said that "dozens of shots were fired into church apparently by police" and that he was afraid for the lives of his wife and child who were present with him for the rally.

Detroit Commission on Community Relations: The DCCR's investigation found that the police fired more than 100 rounds into the church, that none of the RNA members inside fired any shots, and that the white officers committed widespread brutality and abuses against Black prisoners who had surrendered.

"I deplore the senseless shooting of the policemen. I also deplore the armed assault on a church, particularly a church occupied by men, women, and children, whom we must presume innocent until and unless evidence to the contrary is presented. I deplore too, that so many innocent people were rounded up by the police, incarcerated for many hours in violation of their rights as citizens, and that some officials who are sworn to enforce equal justice have complained because I have done so" -- Judge George Crockett, April 3, 1969 

Judge George Crockett was a civil rights activist and Black lawyer elected to the Recorder's Court, Detroit's main criminal court, in 1966. He was a frequent critic of police misconduct and provided a check on the historical freedom of the DPD and the Wayne County Prosecutor to run roughshod over the constitutional rights of Black citizens. He became a hero to many Black Detroiters for his insistence on the rule of law.

Crockett strongly the mass arrest of 142 Black people ordered the release of all those detained without any evidence of criminal activity. Law enforcement officials attacked the judge, while Detroit's coalition of civil rights and radical left organizations mobilized to defend Crockett's insistence on racial justice under the law.

At 5 a.m. on March 30, Judge Crockett received calls at home from local Black politicians and Reverend C. L. Franklin of New Bethel Baptist Church informing him of the mistreatment and illegal detainment of 142 people. Crockett rushed to the First Precinct station, located inside the DPD's downtown headquarters, and requested the list of all people held. He had to call the police commissioner personally to force the First Precinct officers to comply, and then the judge set up a temporary courtroom right inside the station house and began holding habeas corpus hearings (requiring law enforcement to show legal grounds for keeping a person as a prisoner).

Crockett made it through 30 habeas corpus hearings, ordering release of the local residents and giving the DPD until noon to produce evidence for the out-of-town RNA members.

Then Wayne County Prosecutor William Cahalan arrived and interrupted the hearings by ordering the police not to comply with Judge Crockett's direct orders. Cahalan was a law-and-order conservative who always defended the DPD against charges of police brutality and  exonerated almost every officer  who shot and killed a Black person, regardless of the circumstances. The prosecutor had no legal authority to interfere in the proceedings and countermand Crockett's orders.

Judge Crockett threatened to hold Cahalan in contempt, and he later accused the prosecutor of racism in his disrespect and defiance of the lawful actions of a judge. After this conflict, the hearings continued and Judge Crockett released 130 of the 142 persons in total. He later released most of the others because the police had violated their rights by interrogating them and conducting gunshot residue tests without providing access to an attorney.

"I will not lend my office to practices which subvert legal processes and deny justice to some because they are poor or black" -- Judge Crockett in The Ghetto Speaks, April 1, 1969

On April 3, Judge Crockett  released a public statement  to refute attacks on his actions by the DPD, Prosecutor Cahalan, and the white newspapers. He specifically accused the prosecutor of denying justice to citizens "because they are poor or black" and being "resentful that ordinary and undemocratic police practices were challenged." Crockett also said that the DPD's response was racist and that police officers never would have invaded a church in a white community with guns blazing. Read an excerpt below

The Detroit Police Officers Association (DPOA), the white-dominated police union, launched a fierce attack on Judge Crockett. The DPOA operated as a  racist and right-wing force in local politics  and obstructed all investigations into police brutality and misconduct.

The DPOA organized an anti-Crockett demonstration by 300 police officers in front of Recorder's Court and launched a campaign to remove the judge for misconduct. In this advertisement in the Detroit News, the DPOA denounced Crockett as a radical who wanted to free Black militants who murdered a police officer. The DPOA claimed that RNA “guerrillas” had ambushed the officers outside the church and that Black militant snipers fired at police from the inside.

The Black community mobilized to defend Judge Crockett and denounce the police abuses at the New Bethel Baptist Church.

The Detroit Branch of the ACLU  issued a statement  defending the judge and condemning the DPOA's "campaign of villification" against him.

This editorial cartoon in the Baltimore Afro-American, a prominent Black newspaper, reveals that Judge Crockett's stand against racist law enforcement received significant national attention as well.

The East Side Voice of Independent Detroit, a Black Power community organization, headlined its newsletter coverage "Police Launch Assault on Black Church." The group held a march and rally outside Recorder's Court in downtown Detroit, and picketed the DPD headquarters.

The Guardians of Michigan, an association for Black police officers, praised Judge Crockett for his "courage and brilliance" and condemned the DPD's actions at New Bethel as "the brutal use of police power without the boundaries of the law." 

RNA leaders accused the DPD of a "conspiracy to destroy the RNA" through a preemptive assault and specifically contended that the operation that night at New Bethel Baptist Church had intended to kill vice-president Milton Henry (Brother Gaidi). Therefore, the RNA bodyguard who fired at the police was acting in self-defense.

The RNA also accused Prosecutor William Cahalan of not caring at all that police officers shot four RNA members at point blank range after they stormed into the church. The RNA even implied that Patrolmen Czapski and Worobec might have been "innocent pawns" in this broader law enforcement conspiracy.

People Against Racism, a white New Left organization, held a protest march and stated that based on the long history of racist violence against black people in Detroit, the DPD did not deserve the benefit of the doubt and was almost certainly orchestrating a coverup with the prosecutor's involvement.  

Prosecutor Cahalan brought charges against three men, Alfred Hibbitt (Alfred 2X), Clarence Fuller (Chaka), and Rafael Viera, for the murder of Patrolman Czapski and attempted murder of Patrolman Worobec.

There were two separate trials, which became known as New Bethel I and New Bethel II. Hibbit stood trial in New Bethel I, and Fuller and Vierra together in New Bethel II.

The defense team was led by Kenneth Cockrel, a radical African American lawyer, and Justin Ravitz, a white New Left attorney. The team would go on to  lead the legal movement  against the DPD's murderous STRESS operation in the early 1970s and participate in the defense of many Black radical political activists through their advocacy group, the Labor Defense Coalition.

In many ways, Cockrel and Ravitz sought to put the entire law enforcement and criminal justice system on trial, and Cockrel even faced a contempt proceeding after he called the judge in one of the cases a racist.

The preponderance of testimony from witnesses pointed to a single shooter, although the DPD and the prosecutor's office continued to insist that a large group of RNA bodyguards were responsible. Patrolman Worobec, the wounded officer, could not positively identify any of the defendants as the assailant(s) and ultimately gave inconsistent testimony at the two trials that weakened the prosecution's cases. The defense attorneys even got Worobec to admit that he had made inaccurate statements under oath during pretrial examination, for which he blamed his pain during the recovery process. In the second trial, Worobec stated that a "lone Negro male" had done the shooting and specifically said that Rafael Viera was not that person.

The main prosecution witness was David Brown, who was a juvenile from Compton, California, and was likely the undercover FBI informant that J. Edgar Hoover  authorized to be compensated  for attending the RNA convention. The prosecutor had initially charged Brown with assault with intent to kill a police officer inside of New Bethel Church, and it seemed on the surface that his decision to become a cooperating witness was based on a deal to reduce these charges to three years probation. But it is probable that the initial felony charge against David Brown was a facade to mask his role as an undercover informant. A known FBI tactic was to recruit young African American males who had been arrested to become undercover informants in exchange for leniency, and it is possible that this is why Brown flew to Detroit from Los Angeles to attend the RNA convention in the first place.  

In the document below, the Inner-City Voice, a Black Power newspaper in Detroit, points out the suspicious circumstances around David Brown's testimony and also highlights inconsistencies in Patrolman Worobec's testimony.

David Brown's testimony was quite convenient for the prosecution and also very dubious, as he claimed to have seen everything that happened both outside and inside the church. At the New Bethel I trial, Brown testified that he had been outside during the initial confrontation and had seen Alfred Hibbit shoot Richard Worobec. At the New Bethel II trial, Brown testified that Michael Czapski had approached a group of 4 armed RNA members, yelled "wait a minute," and then Rafael Viera turned and started shooting at him. Then, he claimed, Hibbit and two other RNA bodyguards began firing at Richard Worobec. Brown did not identify Clarence Fuller as one of these shooters. Brown further testified that police officers had beaten and kicked him during the assault on the inside of the church. He did not end up persuading either jury.

All three defendants in both New Bethel trials were acquitted of all charges. The juries were racially mixed, which had not generally been the case in previous high-profile trials involving alleged police misconduct in Detroit, especially because prosecutors often used preemptive challenges to remove Black jurors. Attorneys Kenneth Cockrel and Justin Ravitz successfully challenged this practice in the New Bethel cases and obtained juries not inclined to rubber-stamp the prosecutor's case. As part of the proceedings, a local judge ruled that prosecutors had illegally dismissed 80 percent of the potential New Bethel jurors and that at least 2,000 citizens, mostly Black residents of Detroit, had been unconstitutionally excluded from jury service during the previous year.

The defense team also accused the police department and prosecutor's office of many illegal and improper activities and argued that much of the evidence should be suppressed because it had been obtained through the unconstitutional mass arrest inside the church. In the end, though, the juries acquitted all three defendants because the prosecutor did not present compelling evidence that any one of the men was the lone shooter that the most reliable witnesses and the surviving police officer had testified to but could not clearly identify. 

Black radical groups viewed the legal proceedings as political trials designed to destroy a radical Black nationalist organization. The final documents in this report show the Black community mobilization in defense of the three defendants and in support of the radical attorneys who secured their acquittals.

Dan Aldridge, pictured in the video below, was a preacher and Black Power leader in Detroit who helped organize the protests against the police department and prosecutor after the New Bethel Incident. In this interview montage, Aldridge and other civil rights activists from the late 1960s recall the encounter and discuss its meaning.

"The New Bethel Incident, Detroit 1969" is an initiative of the  Policing and Social Justice HistoryLab  at the University of Michigan, part of the U-M Carceral State Project's  Documenting Criminalization and Confinement  initiative.

This report is based on the Detroit Under Fire exhibit section " New Bethel Incident ," researched and written by  Aidan Traynor and Matt Lassiter .

Story design by  Caroline Levine  and  Francesca Ferrara , student research associates with the U-M Carceral State Project, with additional editing and design by  Matt Lassiter , Professor of History and director of the Policing and Social Justice HistoryLab.

Full documents and citations for all materials used in this report are linked from the document excerpts and captions.

For more on police brutality and civil rights activism during this time period, please visit the website  Detroit Under Fire: Police Violence, Crime Politics, and the Struggle for Racial Justice in the Civil Rights Era . For additional investigative reports in this format, visit the " Policing and Criminalization " section of the Carceral State Project website.