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New Bethel Incident, Detroit 1969

Black Radicalism, Police Repression, Mass Arrests, and an Enduring Mystery

Published June 2021 by Policing and Social Justice HistoryLab/U-M Carceral State Project

Part I: Republic of New Africa

Part II: Outside the Church

Part III: Invading the Church

Part IV: Protests and Trials

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.

Prisoners inside New Bethel Baptist Church ( source )

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

Part I: The Republic of New Africa and Illegal Police Surveillance

The FBI's secret COINTELPRO initiative worked with local police departments to "neutralize" black nationalist groups during the late 1960s and early 1970s ( source )

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.

Republic of New Africa

Cover of the RNA's 1968 founding manifesto ( source ). Read the full document here.

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."

RNA political agenda and manifesto (stamped "confidential" by the FBI) [ source ]

RNA leaders and members including Brother Gaidi (Milton Henry); Brother Robert, Brother Gaidi, and Brother Imari; Rafael Vierra and Clarence Fuller (who stood trial for murder ( source )

Political Surveillance and Infiltration by FBI COINTELPRO

The FBI placed leaders of the RNA under surveillance even before they formed the organization in March 1968. This memo about the RNA's founding to a top FBI official came from an agent who had infiltrated the movement and was reporting on the initial Detroit gathering. This is clear because the author of the memo is redacted, which the FBI always did for its undercover agents and informants when forced to release internal files under Freedom of Information Act requests. Note also that the RNA's Minister of Defense is redacted, indicating that the person in this key position worked for the FBI.

The COINTELPRO program was secret at the time, and the American public did not learn of its existence until 1971. It was standard practice for the FBI's undercover "agents provocateur" to advocate violence so that the FBI could justify the surveillance and repression of radical organizations. The COINTELPRO mission was to "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize the activities of black nationalist, hate-type organizations and groupings, their leadership, spokesmen, membership, and supporters."

According to this report, provided by an FBI informant, the RNA was planning violence and guerrilla warfare.

It is hard to know for sure if RNA members who were radical Black nationalists actually advocated "warfare" against the United States, or if the FBI informant just claimed that they did to justify the law enforcement operation, or whether the leading advocates of violence inside the RNA were the FBI's "agents provocateur."

Source: View the entire memo here .

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.

Hoover's authorization of Los Angeles informant ( source )

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.

The FBI covered up the reports from at least two of its undercover "agents provocateurs" that the Detroit police officers fired at the RNA members outside the church ( source ). The redactions in this document excerpt are FBI agents or informants. View the full document here , taken from FBI files released under FOIA.

Part II: What Happened outside the Church?

"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

Corner of Philadelphia and Linwood where shooting began ( source )

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.

Patrolmen Richard Worobec ( left ) and Michael Czapski ( right )

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 ).

Detailed Accounts of the Initial Shootout

The DPD released this police radio log, which was an incomplete summary not a full transcript, raising more questions ( source )

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.

This five-page Michigan State Police report on the New Bethel Incident is from the files of Governor William Milliken and is marked "confidential."

It provides a log of the reports to the MSP Operations office. The first entry, 12:03 a.m., notes that an MSP "Intelligence vehicle" was present at the intersection during the shooting.

The second page names the MSP undercover officer as Patrolman Landeros of the DPD, who was tasked to the state police intelligence team.

The report notes that Patrolman Landeros gave a statement to the DPD Homicide Bureau--but he never testified at the RNA trials.

This is suspicious. Did Landeros's statement contradict the account of Richard Worobec, the surviving officer?

The third page of the MSP report relays the Detroit Police Department's false story that Black suspects inside the church were wounded in a shootout, when there is no evidence that anyone except DPD officers fired inside.

The 6:50 a.m. entry corrects previous misinformation and says that "12 to 15 colored subjects" fired on the two DPD officers outside the church.

The fourth page provides an updated account of the DPD's version of what happened outside the church. It is likely that at least one of the armed bodyguards named in this entry was an FBI agent.

The entry also notes the arrest of 140+ people inside the church for "conspiracy to commit murder."

The final page lists five Black "suspects" shot inside the church by DPD officers and frames them as having fired on the police when they did not.

Excerpt from Cincinnati Field Office to FBI Director Hoover ( source ). Read the full three-page document here .

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:

Hoover provided the FBI's official coverup of the New Bethel Incident in this April 4, 1969, memo.

He attributed the account to the FBI's undercover sources, even though he misrepresented what they really said, and to the DPD. Hoover also labeled the RNA a "black extremist" group that instigated the violence both outside and inside the church.

The second page identifies RNA members alleged to have fired on the police officers, based on the undercover FBI informant's account, suppressing the information that the same informant said the police fired first and that no one inside the church shot at the DPD backup.

Hoover also sought to discredit Judge George Crockett, who released the people arrested inside the church and criticized the police abuses, by stating that the Black judge was "in close contact with officials of the Communist Party." The FBI also had a political surveillance file on Crockett, who was a left-wing lawyer before he became a judge.

Hoover concludes that "black extremists" are likely to cause more violence in Detroit.

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.

Kelly Zanders

Kelly Zanders, a 20-year-old Black female from Cleveland, was leaving the RNA rally and gave her statement to the defense attorneys. She said she did not see the beginning but did see a Black man with a rifle firing at another man on the sidewalk. She also said that Clarence (Chaka) Fuller, who was charged with murder, was with her the whole time and never fired a gun.

Wilbur Gratton

Wilbur Gratton, a 50-year-old Black man and RNA member from Cleveland, said in his affidavit that he saw a man shooting a rifle at another man "lying prone on the sidewalk." He also swore that Chaka Fuller was not the shooter.

Gerald McKinney

Gerald McKinney, a Black man, was driving by and not involved with the RNA. He said he saw a man with a "rifle and he was firing into the back of the police car." McKinney also said that the other DPD officers were already on the scene during the initial shootout.

William Barry, Jr.

William Barry, Jr., a Black man, was riding in the car with Gerald McKinney and said he saw a man on the sidewalk shooting toward the police car. Barry also stated that 15-20 police officers arrived "within seconds," which again raises questions about the veracity of the police log provided by the DPD.

Max Hardeman

Max Hardeman, a Black man, was interviewed for the investigation by the Detroit Commission on Community Relations. He was across the street and said he saw an RNA bodyguard "fire several blasts" at a police officer. Like every other civilian witness, Hardeman saw only one shooter.

The DCCR report concluded that what happened outside the church "has proved impossible to recreate" but was harshly critical of the DPD's actions inside the church, examined next.

Part III: The DPD's Invasion of the Church

"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.

RNA members held prisoner and "herded up like cattle" after the police invasion; photograph from a legal defense pamphlet by the radical League of Revolutionary Black Workers ( source ).

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.

Source : View the full DCCR investigation report here .

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