SPECIAL DETROIT EDITION
The Past Is Always Present
In your olde hometown, you may be aware of familiar street
names such as John R, Brush, Mack, Van Dyke, Pingree, John C. Lodge, and James
Couzens.
They all have something in common.
As do the names of the Buhl Building, Cobo Hall (auto show)
and the
Jeffries Housing Project.
What is the common thread tying them all together?
Itv Tukel knows the answer, as does Eugene Driker, Arnie Garber, Stuart Opotowsky, Stanley Halprin, Harvey Zalla, and many more of you.
Race Relations
All of the above (except Tukel, Driker, Garber, Opotowsky, Halprin and Zalla) were the
names of former Mayors of Detroit, primarily before we entered elementary
school, and they were all White males. Since that time, the following
individuals have served as Detroit’s mayors; some were White (W), and others
were either Negroes (N), Colored (C) or Black (B) (your choice of designation).
Edward Jeffries 1940-1948 (W)
Eugene Van Antwerp 1948-1949 (W)
Albert Cobo
1950-1957 (W)
Louis Miriani
1957-1962 (W)
Jerome Cavanagh
1962-1970 (W)
Roman Gribbs
1970-1974 (W)
Coleman Young 1974-1994 Mayor (N,C, or B)
Dennis Archer
1994-2001 Mayor (N,C,
or B)
Kwame Kilpatrick
2002-2008 Mayor (N,C, or B)
He resigned in 2008 after
pleading guilty to two counts of felony obstruction of justice
Kenneth Cockrel, Jr.
2008-2009 Interim Mayor (N,C, or
B)
David Bing May
2009-2013 Former Detroit Piston and
Mike Duggan, a White man, was elected Mayor in 2014. He will
be opposed in the November 7th Mayoral race by Coleman Young II, the
N, C, or B son of Coleman Young. See the attached article for more information.
Now It’s Our Turn
When I started teaching at the University of Detroit in
1966, the population in Detroit-area public schools was on the decline, blamed
in part on “white flight” to the suburbs. At the same time, school board
members who were primarily N, C, or B, were taking advantage of whatever fringe
benefits they could grab. This included siphoning monies from an already tight
budget for their own personal perks, such as having chauffer-driven limousines
available when they were so inclined to use them.
I had an intelligent, articulate 35-year-old Black woman in
my classes, and I was her principal advisor. She had two children in the Detroit public school
system, and when I asked her if she was aware of this misuse of educational
funds that could better serve her children, Carol said to me; “Your people
(Whites) have been doing the same thing for years. Now it’s our turn.”
