The fate of Detroit was sealed Jan 6, 1962 when the last Republican Mayor left office. This is what liberalism does to a society. If liberals cared about people, they would have the courage to challenge the assumptions upon which their failed ideas exist and seek a different path to a healthy society.
- In 1960, the city of Detroit had the highest per-capita income in the entire nation.
- In 1950, there were about 296,000 manufacturing jobs in Detroit. Today, there are less than 27,000.
- 47% of the residents of the city of Detroit are functionally illiterate.
| 8 |  | Jerome Cavanagh | January 2, 1962 – January 5, 1970 | Democratic [6] | The 1961 mayoral race was the first campaign undertaken by the young Jerome Cavanagh. [97] He was perceived as an easy opponent for incumbent Louis Miriani, but with the backing of the city's African-American community, Cavanaugh pulled off a stunning upset. [97] Cavanaugh was initially a popular mayor, appointing a reformer to be chief of police and marching arm-in-arm with Martin Luther King, Jr. down Woodward Avenue. Cavanaugh was re-elected overwhelmingly in 1965, and in 1966 was elected president of both the United States Conference of Mayorsand the National League of Cities. [97] However, his reputation was dimmed by the 1967 riots, and he declined to run for a third term. He later ran for Governor of Michigan, but lost in the primary, and died in 1979. [97] | | 69 |  | Roman Gribbs | January 6, 1970 – January 1, 1974 | Democratic [6] | Gribbs served as an assistant prosecutor from 1956 to 1964 and as sheriff of Wayne County in 1968 and 1969 before deciding to run for mayor. [98] Gribbs served a single term as mayor, declining to seek re-election. [99] After leaving office, he served as a circuit court judge from 1975 to 1982 and on the Michigan Court of Appeals from 1982 until his retirement in 2000. [98] [99] | | 70 |  | Coleman Young | January 1, 1974 – January 3, 1994 | Democratic [6] | Coleman Young was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, but moved to Detroit when he was five. [100] During World War II, Young served as one of the Tuskeegee Airmen, and returned to Detroit at the end of the war. [100] He ran for state representative in 1959 but lost; in 1963 he ran for state senate and won. [100] He served in the senate until 1974 when he moved into the mayor's office, becoming the city's first African-American mayor. [100] Young remained as mayor for a record five terms, becoming the a longest-serving mayor in city history. [100] During his tenure, Young was the vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1977 to 1981 and chair of the Democratic National ConventionPlatform Committee in 1980. He also led the United States Conference of Mayors and the National Conference of Democratic Mayors at various times. [100] With his health deteriorating, Young declined to seek a sixth term. [100] | | 71 | | Dennis Archer | January 3, 1994 – December 31, 2001 | Democratic [101] | Dennis Archer practiced law privately and as a law professor before being named to the Michigan Supreme Court in 1985 by Michigan governor James Blanchard. [102]The following year, Archer was elected to a full eight-year term. [102] He served two terms as mayor of Detroit, during which he was president of the National Conference of Democratic Mayors and president of the National League of Cities. [101] Archer declined to seek a third term. [101] After stepping down from the mayor's office, he was elected chair of Dickinson Wright and served a year as president of the American Bar Association. [102] | | 72 |  | Kwame Kilpatrick | January 1, 2002 – September 18, 2008 | Democratic [103] | Kwame Kilpatrick is the son of former county commissioner Bernard Kilpatrick and former Michigan legislator and United States congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick. [103] The younger Kilpatrick began his political career by running for the Michigan House seat his mother vacated in 1996, [104] and was minority leader in the state house by 2001. [103] Kilpatrick was twice elected mayor, but resigned office in 2008 after pleading guilty to two counts of felony obstruction of justice. [105] | | 73 |  | Kenneth Cockrel, Jr. | September 18, 2008 – May 11, 2009 | Democratic. [106] | Ken Cockrel is the son of the late Kenneth Cockrel Sr., a civil rights activist and Detroit City Council member. [107] The younger Cockrel also ran for city council, and was first elected in 1997. [107] Cockrel was elected council president in 2005, [107] and assumed the mayorship after Kwame Kilpatrick's resignation in 2008. [108] [109]However, Cockrel lost the ensuing special election to Dave Bing, and returned to his seat on the city council. [106] Cockrel was re-elected to the city council later in the year. [110] | | 74 |  | Dave Bing | May 11, 2009 – present | Democratic [106] | Dave Bing played 10 seasons of basketball with the Detroit Pistons and was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. [106] After retiring from basketball, Bing started an auto parts manufacturing business, the Bing Group. [106] [111] He moved to Detroit specifically to run for mayor, [111] and won the special election in May 2009 to fill the remainder of Kwame Kilpatrick's term, [106] and was elected to a full term later in the year. [112] |
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