Courtney B. Vance became sober to the realities of his Blackness at a young age.
The “The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story” caught up with SiriusXM’s “The Joe Madison Show” on Friday. Vance, 60, reflected on a terrifying encounter he had with the National Guard at age 7.
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The incident occurred during the 1967 civil unrest in Detroit, where confrontations broke out between Black residents and the Detroit Police Department. Michigan Governor George W. Romney ordered the state National Guard to intervene.
“We grew up in Detroit in ’68, with the riots in ’67, and we lived on West Grand Boulevard, and the tanks came right down our street,” Vance said. “And I was into G.I. Joe and I went down, we were sitting on our house which looked right on down, and we had a long front lawn that went down to the Boulevard, and I saw G.I. Joe, and I took off before my parents could get me.”
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Vance was beyond excited “because I was going to get G.I. Joe!” Unfortunately for the future actor, things didn’t go as planned.
“The soldier turned his bayonet on me,” Vance recalled. “And I was in shock by the time my mother and father were on me, and they pulled me back. Defining moment.”
