A Fiery Unrest: Why Plymouth Avenue Burned
“A Fiery Unrest: Why Plymouth Avenue Burned” is a feature-length audio documentary that revisits the causes and consequences of racial unrest and street violence that brought National Guard troops to North Minneapolis during the turbulent Long Hot Summer of 1967. This was a time not unlike the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, when frustrations about racial discrimination came to a head on city streets across the U.S. Compared to uprisings that erupted in places like Newark and Detroit, the late 1960s events in Minneapolis aren’t well known, even among people in Minnesota.
I produced, wrote and scored “A Fiery Unrest,” including sourcing rare archival footage. Over a year and a half, I interviewed dozens of people whose stories didn't necessarily make headlines in their time, but whose memories reveal the tensions and complexity of this history from different and sometimes conflicting perspectives.
I received a 2018 Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative grant to produce “A Fiery Unrest,” which aired on KFAI and Minnesota Public Radio in the summer of 2019 and 2020.
Archival Images
As I was researching “A Fiery Unrest: Why Plymouth Avenue Burned,” I spent many hours at the Minnesota Historical Society and the Minneapolis Central Library sourcing archival photos and newspaper clippings. Along the way, I digitized original photo negatives from the Minnesota Historical Society’s Minneapolis Star and Tribune collection, including some images that had never been published before. Here’s a sample:
Three girls walk through the rubble of Grace Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church, 1709 Plymouth Ave. Its pastor, the Rev. Orpheus Williams, told the University of Minnesota’s Ivory Tower magazine that his church burned after Silver’s Food Market was firebombed next door. A year later, he was still looking for a new church and his congregation had dwindled.
Firefighters fight the blaze at Grace Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church on Plymouth Avenue.
Knox Food Market, 1819 Plymouth Ave.
A police officer guards Polar Grill Restaurant, 2001 Plymouth Ave.
Firefighters fight blaze at Silver’s Food Market.
Ethel Silver, Faye Silver (now Faye Krupp) and Irving Silver in front of their grocery store at 1711 Plymouth Ave.
National Guard members look at the camera from the back of a truck.
National Guard members stop a car on Plymouth Avenue.
A street dance with a live band took place the same night that 150 National Guard troops pulled onto Plymouth Avenue.
Four young men sit in front of The Way community center.
