--- title: Detroit Movie True Story and the Algiers Motel Incident Book description: The true incidents that inspired the movie Detroit were described by TIME magazine in 1968 as "a local cause célèbre." canonical: https://time.com/4882143/detroit-movie-algiers-motel-incident/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-02T13:30:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:48:59.274Z article:section: History og:title: Detroit Movie True Story and the Algiers Motel Incident Book og:description: The incidents were described by TIME magazine in 1968 as "a local cause célèbre" og:url: https://time.com/4882143/detroit-movie-algiers-motel-incident/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea71b0eb7be453a2/6988d7ec86f68e16856e5d1d/algiers.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Algiers Motel og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Detroit Movie True Story and the Algiers Motel Incident Book twitter:description: The incidents were described by TIME magazine in 1968 as "a local cause célèbre" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea71b0eb7be453a2/6988d7ec86f68e16856e5d1d/algiers.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Real Events Behind the Movie _Detroit_, as Described in 1968 > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Aug 2, 2017 1:30 PM UTC  The Algiers Motel neon sign as depicted in the movie 'Detroit' The Algiers Motel neon sign as depicted in the movie 'Detroit' Francois Duhamel—Annapurna Pictures  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Aug 2, 2017 1:30 PM UTC When _Detroit_, filmmaker [Kathryn Bigelow’s take on that city’s violent summer of 1967](http://time.com/4877385/detroit-review-katheryn-bigelow/), arrives in movie theaters on Friday, 50 years will have passed since the events it depicts took place. Since then, the world’s understanding of the social factors that lead to a race riot — or rebellion, as many see it — has evolved. The stories that began that summer have continued to gain chapters. Yet, as the film notes, some of the details from the eruption in Detroit remain unclear. It was less than a year after the summer of ’67 when the first major attempt was made to distill the events that make up the film’s centerpiece. The moments in question earned only three sentences in TIME’s [original report](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-08-04/page/15/) on the riots, but the writer John Hersey began work almost immediately on what would become the 1968 book _The Algiers Motel Incident_. **(You may want to stop reading here if you consider the history a spoiler for the movie.)** By the time the book was released around the first anniversary of the riots, the incident in question was well known — it was “something of a local cause célèbre” when Hersey arrived in Detroit about two months after it happened, TIME noted in reviewing the book, and was extensively covered in the local press. But Hersey’s work, and his ability to win the trust of the witnesses he interviewed, won praise for processing a complex and tragic series of events in poignant fashion. Here’s how TIME’s 1968 review of the book [described](http://time.com/vault/issue/1968-06-21/page/58/) those events: --- > “” --- Hersey’s book was published before the 1969 [trial](http://time.com/vault/issue/1969-06-20/page/29/) at which one of the policemen involved was acquitted of first-degree murder. (In fact, the book was [part of the reason](https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/07/09/77093599.html?pageNumber=22) why the trial was delayed and eventually took place in a community outside Detroit, on the theory that the publicity meant a fair jury could not be found closer to the scene.) In a 1970 civil-rights trial, the three police officers as well as a black security guard who was present were also found [not guilty](http://www.nytimes.com/1970/02/26/archives/4-in-motel-trial-freed-in-michigan-police-and-a-guard-cleared-in-67.html) of a federal civil-rights conspiracy charge. But the court records and results weren’t the only things that Hersey’s quickly-published book didn’t include. For example, historians now say that the [snipers](http://time.com/4848976/newark-riots-1967-photographer/) mentioned in reports of riots in many cities that summer were more fear than reality. But Hersey said at the time that he felt he could not afford to wait. He wrote the book, [according](https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/06/28/91232307.html?pageNumber=39) to the _Times_, “in despair relieved only by a sense of great urgency” and acknowledged that, while some might see it as prudent to wait to publish until after the trials, “time does not stand still in the crisis of black and white in our country.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4882143/detroit-movie-algiers-motel-incident/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4882143/detroit-movie-algiers-motel-incident/"},"headline":"The Real Events Behind the Movie Detroit, as Described in 1968","datePublished":"2017-08-02T13:30:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:48:59.274Z","description":"The true incidents that inspired the movie Detroit were described by TIME magazine in 1968 as \"a local cause célèbre\"","url":"https://time.com/4882143/detroit-movie-algiers-motel-incident/","keywords":["movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea71b0eb7be453a2/6988d7ec86f68e16856e5d1d/algiers.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea71b0eb7be453a2/6988d7ec86f68e16856e5d1d/algiers.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Algiers Motel","caption":"Algiers Motel","creditText":"Francois Duhamel—Annapurna Pictures","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4882143/detroit-movie-algiers-motel-incident/","name":"The Real Events Behind the Movie Detroit, as Described in 1968"}}]}] ```