Poletown Race Wars: The Battle of Bicentenial Market
In Detroit’s heyday, there were corner stores in most neighborhoods. Initially, these shops stood as a place for Detroiters to purchase groceries, kids to buy candy, youth to hang out at the soda counter, and young people to get after-school and summer jobs. Business owners typically lived in the community where the shop was. People knew them and looked out for their stores because they were run by their neighbors.
Over time, Detroit’s white population began fleeing for the suburbs for a variety of reasons ranging from a loss of jobs, deep-rooted racism, and a desire for more land. As business owners left, community stores were no longer run by community members. They were run by folks who had left for the suburbs or those they had sold the property to.
The loss of neighborhood-run corner stores combined with the commercialization of grocery and convenience stores altered the landscape of Detroit’s tight-knit communities. After the rebellion in 1967 and as population loss became palpable in the 1970s, many of the chains abandoned the neighborhoods they had monopolized, and the few and far-between corner stores were all that was left behind in their wake. This is a story about one of those stores. Welcome to the Bicentenial Market at 5222 Chene Street.
The stretch of Chene where the market was in December 2023.
The structure occupied by the Bicentenial Market (sometimes stylized as the Bi-Centenial Market) had been there for decades before the corner store made national news. It was a small storefront that may have had a frame house attached to the rear end. The structure was located in Poletown East, a neighborhood that was primarily Polish through the 1940s. However, by the 1970s, it was a hodgepodge of demographics, but, like most of Detroit, a plurality was black.
In the mid-1970s, the store was purchased by Thomas Dickow, a Chaldean Immigrant and naturalized American from Iraq. By the 1980s, it was estimated that 75% of the 1,100 markets in Metro Detroit were owned by people of Middle Eastern origin, according to Larry Joseph, the chairman of the Associated Food Dealers of Michigan.
In March 1983, Detroit Free Press Staff Writer Rick Ratliff wrote, “The Bicentennial exemplifies deep animosities between Detroit’s party store owners, most of whom are Middle Eastern, and their clientele, most of whom are black. It’s a clash of cultures, personalities and economics — and it often erupts in violence.” Before covering that violence, we must understand the fissure between these two groups.
The Bicentenial Market in December 2023.
Earlier in this piece, I mentioned that Detroit corner stores used to be a place for youthful Detroiters to hang out and get after-school and summer jobs. As immigrants purchased more and more corner stores from fleeing whites, those jobs dried up, and they weren’t as welcome in the store as they used to be. That’s not to say that these new owners were racist; they just didn’t live in the neighborhood and didn’t know the local kids, so they weren’t as keen to have them hanging out inside the store without purchasing anything.
Many of the store owners were also fearful of working at times. According to Richard Zipser, a Southfield lawyer who had represented multiple store owners, over 40 grocers of Middle Eastern descent had been killed in Michigan in a decade.
Another pain point was that these store owners often employed strictly family members, so there was no chance for a kid in the neighborhood to get a job close to home. With no money in their pocket and few resources in their communities, it was only a matter of time before heads came together.
January 1983
Early in 1983, several youths were barred from Dickow’s Bicentenial Market due to alleged vandalism and theft. One report stated that one of the youths had thrown a pop bottle through a glass meat case after Dickow’s nephew had allegedly pulled a gun on him. The three youths in question were George Young, Darnell Randall, and Albert ‘A.C.’ Wilson.
The sidewalk where violence would erupt in 1983.
February 1983
In late February, Dickow’s car was firebombed. No arrests were made initially, but Dickow believed the trio he had barred from entering his shop were responsible. Darnell Randall may have later seen charges. Regardless of whether or not these youths destroyed Dickow’s car, the shopowner was on high alert. According to reports, this was not the first time Dickow and other shop owners had their vehicles destroyed while working.
March 1, 1983
On March 1st, 1983, somebody threw a brick through Dickow’s car window. George Young, one of the barred youths, and Brenda Barnes, a woman visiting her sister’s apartment across the street, were eyewitnesses, stating that an unknown man threw the brick and sped off. However, that wasn’t the worst of what they saw.
According to eyewitnesses, there was a group of kids wrestling near the storefront when Dickow came charging out of Bicentenial Market. As he tried to chase the kids off, Albert ‘A.C.’ Wilson stood his ground, picking up a bottle, ready to fight Dickow. As the two came closer, Dickow’s nephew snuck up behind A.C., held his arms on his sides, and wrestled him to the ground. Once immobilized, the 16-year-old nephew began striking A.C. with a baseball bat, and Dickow battered him with the end of his pistol, eventually firing a single shot that grazed Wilson’s shoulder. The beating continued, “He was hitting him, hitting him, hitting him, He just kept hitting him,” Young said.
Detroit Free Press, 1983
Brenda Barnes, on the witness stand the following year, said that “He could just barely walk, the way they was beating him…He kept like, collapsing, going down. A.C. was on the ground…I heard a shot, and Tom was up over him.” A.C. was able to make it to Monumental Baptist Church (5210 Chene) down the street before Thomas Dickow shot and killed him at point-blank range. The shot was fired so close that it was enough to burn A.C.’s clothing and skin.
Thomas Dickow and his nephew, a minor, were arrested. The youth was taken to the Juvenile Detention Center and remained anonymous due to his age.
March 10, 1983
On March 10th, 1983, Bicentenial Market burned. Detroit Firefighters found a gas can inside, and it was suspected to have been arson. The neighborhood hadn’t reacted kindly to A.C.’s murder, and the looting of beer, wine, and soft drinks followed the fire. Three were arrested in the wake of the destruction, and two Detroit Police Officers were ordered to guard the store after it had been boarded up again.
Detroit Free Press, 1983
Two days after the fire, a fifth judge refused to set bond for Thomas Dickow after it had been revoked a few days prior. His privilege to get bailed out was taken away because he had told multiple DPD officers that he was planning to sell Bicentenial Market and move back to Iraq. Once Lee Janice, Assistant Prosecutor, got wind, he presented that information to the court. Elliott Hall, Dickow’s defense attorney, claimed this was false, stating that because he was Christian, he would be shot immediately upon entering Iraq.
May 1984
The trial was underway by May of 1984. Brenda Barnes’ testimony was integral to the case. Jurors took a field trip to the crime scene to see whether she would have been able to see everything that she said she saw from the vantage point of her sister’s apartment. They walked the same route A.C. and Dickow did before the murder occurred, inspected the rubble next to the burnt-out Bicentenial Market, and saw the blood-stained wall and sidewalk in front of Monumental Baptist Church.
The former location of Monumental Baptist Church in 2023.
Dickow argued that he was trying to escape from Wilson, who was chasing him, and that the gun went off when Wilson tried to grab it. He indicated he didn’t care that his car window had been smashed—he was going after the kids who had just kicked in his market door. He planned to bring the youth inside, perform a citizen’s arrest, and call the police. He said he was grappling with Wilson when he pulled out his .357 Magnum when Wilson started punching him, so he fired his gun twice into the ground to try and frighten Wilson. The gun went off two more times as the men wrestled for control of it, ending in the murder of Albert ‘A.C.’ Wilson, whose toxicology report indicated that he had been drinking on the day of the events in question.
The jury had heard both sides and visited the scene of the crime.
May 15, 1984
After three and a half hours of deliberation, a jury of his peers convicted Thomas Dickow on two charges: involuntary manslaughter and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. The former had a maximum of 10 to 15 at the time, whereas the latter had a mandatory 2-year sentence attached.
Defense attorney Edward Bell felt the conviction was wrong. He alluded that Detroit is “turn[ing] the streets over to hoodlums.” Assistant Prosecutor Lee Janice was happy with the results. He believed that it came down to “a sort of vigilante justice. It is when we have vigilante justice that none of us are safe on the streets.” Yes, what A.C. had done in the past was wrong. However, that didn’t mean that he deserved to be beaten with a baseball bat and murdered, according to Janice. If he was happy with the conviction, he wouldn’t be with the sentencing.
Detroit Free Press, 1983
June 6, 1984
On June 6th, 1984, Thomas Dickow was sentenced to two years behind bars, five years probation, fined $5,000, and ordered to pay for his victim’s funeral. Essentially, he got the mandatory two-year sentence for the firearm charge and the rest, which included no jail time, for the involuntary manslaughter charge.
A.C.’s mother, Ruby Wilson, said, “It’s outrageous. I don’t want his money, I want my child.” His father, Michael Jackson, said, “A man get off like that, this is — I just don’t know. They tried to treat the boy like he was some type of hoodlum, like he just didn’t count.”
Detroit Police Officer Gary Porter was fed up with the sentence, “This is Vincent Chin all over again. It’s exactly the same thing.” Chin was murdered in Highland Park in 1982, and his killers received three years’ probation and a fine. Officer Porter had confiscated a gun from Thomas Dickow after he had a confrontation with another customer. After having his gun taken, according to Porter, Dickow said he had other guns and would use them. Recorder’s Court Judge Donald L. Hobson did not allow his testimony to be read to the jury.
As a part of his probation sentence, Dickow would have to complete 250 hours of community service. Judge Hobson warned him that if the terms of his conviction weren’t met, he would be given a 10 to 15-year sentence.
November 1986
Despite playing a hard figure after handing down an incredibly light sentence, Recorder’s Court Judge Donald L. Hobson terminated Thomas Dickow’s probation in November 1986, over four years early. If that seems dubious, that’s because it was. Dickow had served two years in Jackson.
Detroit Free Press, 1982
August 1, 1989
On August 1st, 1989, a federal indictment was unsealed after an FBI probe that began in 1984 came to fruition.
In 1984, Sabah ‘Sam’ Dickow, Thomas’ brother, tipped off the FBI that there were judges who were taking bribes and that there was at least one “defendant who was being tried on murder charges and that $15,000 was to be paid to a Recorder’s Court judge to guarantee that the defendant would receive probation on a murder charge,” according to the Detroit Free Press. According to FBI documents, “The defendant ultimately was sentenced by the judge to probation for manslaughter plus a mandatory two years for a firearm offense.”
Initially, Hobson claimed his innocence. However, the probe was in-depth. Sabah Dickow attended numerous poker games with Detroit Judges and Clerks, including Leon Jenkins, John Cozart Jr., William Haley Jr., Rudy King, Warfield Moore Jr., and Donald Hobson. Sabah, who owned a market downtown, said he spoke about his brother’s case to William Haley Jr., who said he would introduce him to Judge Hobson “to help” his brother.
December 14, 1989
On December 14th, 1989, Recorder’s Court Judge Donald L. Hobson pleaded guilty to bribery and tax evasion. He took $9,500 in bribes, including one for $3,000 from Sabah to dispose of his brother’s probation. It appears he was not convicted on any charges stemming from the initial 1984 trial despite getting no jail time for involuntary manslaughter.
Where Bicentennial market once stood.
The FBI investigation into Detroit’s justice system led to at least 11 convictions. Judge Hobson’s case was the final one.
April 9, 1990
On April 9th, 1990, Recorder’s Court Judge Donald L. Hobson was sentenced to five years in prison, which was the most allowed under his plea deal. That’s three more years than the murderer he tried six years earlier.
I haven’t been able to determine whether or not Thomas Dickow’s probation period was reinstated; however, I doubt it was.
Judge Donald L. Hobson died on May 4, 2011.
Today, the location of Tomas Dickow’s Bicentenial Market and the church where he murdered Albert ‘A.C.’ Wilson are vacant lots. More than ever, there are very few neighborhood-owned corner stores in Detroit.
40 years later, Chene Street looks very different.
I do not know why Bicentenial Market is spelled that way; it was probably a typo on the shop’s facade.
To learn more about historic buildings in Detroit, check out my Historically Significant Map.
