Century. They discuss in detail the work of longtime district president s rosa parks and congressman john conyers. This event was part of the association for the study of African American life and historys annual conference. They also provided the video. We have three panelists today. I think i have this order right. Doctor danielle mcguire, is a great friend from grad school and colleagues. She is a author and historian and independent scholar now. Shes the author of the path of breaking and deeply influential book, at the dark end of the street. We also have, ive lost track of whos gone, i think its kalonji whos going next. Doctor kalonji walton who is the director of global black studies at western carolina. Our third panelist is doctor David Goldberg, who isnt associated associate professor at wayne state university. The term comment or today is jamon jordan, who is the ditch the president of the detroit chapter of a sala. He is a tour leader and historian of all things African American in detroit. Really an Incredible Community scholar out of detroit. A wonderful set of folks that are going to help us think about politics in detroit and michigan and how to make sense of that. So im going to throw it over to the panel now. Again, thank you all for being here. All right, thank you, patrick. Hello everybody. Again, my name is jamon jordan and im the chair. So i have a couple remarks really quick before we started the panel. I want to thank everyone for coming to the session in hearing a little bit about detroits politics, and in particular its radical politics. I think of course my panel for being here. Real quick, i want to say that even though its from coleman to conyers. Were talking about the mid 20th century up until the beginning of the 21st century. Their span of influence, that time period, of rosa parks, john conyers and mayor Coleman Young. Detroits radical politics begin in the 1800s. A couple of things that happened in the 1800s that really sets the stage for detroit being a hotbed of radical politics is an uprising in 1833, when 400 black people leading uprising to say to people from slavery. They had been captured by slip catchers, the sheriff and deputy were also involved in the city of detroit, and they will first preet lucy by having a black woman go into the jail cell with her and switching close with her. She visits in the sheriff illustrated visit, and she switches close with lucy blackburn. This sheriff, he thinks all of these black women lookalike, he could not tell which one he should be letting out and which one was still there. That is how she escapes. The next day, theres 400 people outside to free thornton blackburn. In the course of that, the sheriff will be killed. One of the people who passes the gun to thornton, who is being transported by the slave catchers, and hes given again, is a man who is named madison lightfoot. Madison lightfoot who hands the gun to thornton is reverend madison lightfoot. At the onset of this early black community uprising, you have police to send a religious community in Armed Struggle against slavery. This is the beginning of Institution Building by African Americans. You have black People Living in the city of detroit, but now they are going to start churches. That group that thornton and less lucy black foreign will found the Oldest Black Church in the city of detroit. It will be the First Underground Railroad and the first black school in the city of detroit. So faith an freedom go hand in hand along with education in detroit. It will be the site for the 1846 Color Convention in michigan. The Michigan Colored Convention happens. One of the members, william lamberts, will petition and demand a right to end slavery, but for black people to have the right to vote, for black people to have schools. So hes making these demands going a period when most black people in the city of detroit are interested in ending slavery or helping people escape from slavery. He is adding on to that. They want full citizenship. This is really a radical demand. The state legislature will respond to him the next year by passing a law that black people cannot vote. So to make it clear where the state stood. So the early history in the city of detroit, both the Color Convention and this uprising, of which william lumbered is a teenager. He plays a part. Hes 13 years old in the uprising of 1833. Hes one of the people involved in the uprising. He goes on both sides and that is how these radical leaders in detroit do. Both william lumbered and his wife. Julia lamberts. They are petitioning for the right to vote, but they are also involved in armstrong will. They dont see a contradiction in those two. Today, there are people who want you to be on one side or the other. But for black people in the 1800s, all of this was part of one struggle. I say all that to say its time to listen to our panel. I just wanted to give a little background of how this happened. Of course, two important pieces of this are from montgomery alabama, or from alabama, the state of alabama. We would have been in montgomery this year for the conference. So two of the topics, or two of the subjects that will be talked about today, are from alabama. We are going to start with doctor mcguire. Shes going to get more first presentation. She will introduce her topic herself. Thank you. Okay. So i wanted to just talk a little bit about rosa parks. Rosa parks is probably one of the most familiar historical figures in the United States history. Almost every Public School kid can tell you who rosa parks is and what she did on one day of her life. Right . The popular presentation of rosa parks is often as a quiet yet courageous woman. A woman whose humble righteousness shamed america into doing the right thing. A woman whose put fatigue alone really brought down the cradle of the confederacy. This is the way shes presented in every single museum, textbook, popular presentation. As this quiet, humble and elderly woman who sat down so we could all stand, as so many eulogists put it. In this version of history, rosa parks is living in invented life outside of history. Free from its context and constraints, shes presented as this matronly figure who, as her goal put it, acted on impulse and emotion rather than intelligence or conviction or a political agenda. There is no sense of her as a leader, as a member of a politically active community, or as part of a group of citizens organized against systemic oppression. Shes always presented alone, is if one person can truly changed history by sitting still. Right . So by telling a simplistic tale of rosa parks as this quite women who tipped tote into history, we really limit our understanding of her. I think it really hurts kids understanding of her radicalism, her importance in american democracy, and it limits their understanding of what they can do to make change in the world to. I always talk about we might talk about her differently and how we can teach young people, especially, about a more radical rosa parks. A rosa parks that had a really important date in december of 1955, but who had a life of commitment to radical politics and freedom. So thats the rosa parks that i think we need to Start Talking more about. So we dont have a lot of time today and we could talk about rosa parks forever, at least i could, because i think shes such a fascinating historical figure. But let me just sort of go through things kind of quickly. Rosa parks grew up at the foot of her grandfather. From the very young age, she was steeped in the traditions of black nationalism. She was raised to take pride in her skin color, in her family, in her history and in her roots. She was raised to not take any mess from anybody. She saw her grandfather and her family use armed selfdefense when necessary. When the ku klux klan marched through pine level, alabama, rosa parks was there waiting for her grandfather to get his shotgun. She says in many of her autobiographical histories, that she was hoping she could see her grandfather use that gun. So she was raised in a family that believed in armed selfdefense. And believed in black nationalism and she was steeped in pride in her own history and her people. She married a man raymond parks, who carried a pistol in his pocket around town, as a way to defend himself from violent White Supremacists in the community. From a very young age, this married couple held voter League Meetings in their home in montgomery, alabama. In the late 1930s they held meetings to try to organize around the defense of the scots borough boys who were accused of raping two white women in alabama in the early 1930s. She recalls in her memoirs sitting up late at night with groups of men with their guns piled on the dining room table, talking about how they were going to work to free the scotts burrow men. In the 1943, she joined the montgomery chapter of the naacp. She did this after she attempted to vote and was denied. It was her third attempt to try to register to vote and her third denial. She was furious. So she decided she would join the montgomery naacp and they immediately asked her to be secretary. We tend to think of her, her secretarial role as about paperwork or filing or taking notes. But rosa parks was a field secretary. But that meant was that she was the detective for that chapter. They center throughout alabama, investigating crimes, getting testimony from people who had been attacked or assaulted. And bringing that information back to the montgomery chapter where they would then decide how they wanted to respond. One of the biggest cases that you worked on, right away in her career, as secretary, whats the assault on receive taylor. Which have been the 1944. She was a sharecroppers, a mother, she was married, she was walking home from church when a group of white men kidnapped and raped her. Rosa parks was dispatched from the montgomery a naacp to get her testimony, which he did. And then she traded back to montgomery, where the most militant black activist organized a committee for justice for this lady. That campaign went international. It was one of the largest activist campaigns in the United States, in 1944 and 45. Second only, really, to i think the case of the 1930s. Rosa parks did that kind of work throughout the 1940s, and into the 19 fifties. And its that work, at the center of black alabama, that puts here in the center of the montgomery bus boycott. She knew they were looking for plaintiffs to test segregated transportation. She knew that the two women who had already been arrested werent going to be used by the montgomery branch, and the w. Rcep for a variety of reasons. And when the opportunity presented itself, to get arrested, she took it. She knew what that would entail, she knew that she could go to jail, she knew what that meant as a black woman. She would go to jail in alabama. So she took an extraordinary risk. Throughout the bus boycott, we think that she just got arrested and that was it. But she was a primary fundraiser for the Boycott Movement in montgomery. And the wac be flew her all over the country, where she gave speeches and she raised tens of thousands of dollars. Because we often think about her as something who didnt speak that much, as a quiet person and why while she made have been softspoken, she was very resistant to White Supremacy. And so she was a real active speaker during those years. Whats interesting is i found a document in king papers, where rosa parks actually requested arm guards for her home, in montgomery, during the bus boycott. Because she was a frequent target of white supremacist violence. And so you could see that tradition of her supporting arms in selfdefense, throughout the boycott. Finally she feels so in safe in alabama, that she decides to move to detroit. Which she called the Promised Land that wasnt. Everything she hoped for, the ability to move freely through the world, the ability to have access to a good paying job, decent housing, all of that didnt happen in the choice. It was just a segregated, just as an equal, just as many limits as there was in alabama. So she was set about doing which had always done, which was to resist that. To organize in a community. To build and networks, to join organizations. Opposing things like segregated housing, and pushing for better Educational Opportunities for kids in her neighborhood and in her community. She eventually began to work with john conyers, which was her first paid political position, which was really incredible. And then she worked with him for the rest of her life. In detroit, she joined black power groups. She supported the black panthers. She was an anti vietnam war organizer. She opposed the apartheid, she march in washington against apartheid and against a vietnam war. So she had this long history as a radical activist. I history that she, she was rooted and continued throughout her life. One of the last things she did, in this israel and, is that she gave the eulogy for Robert Williams. As many of you know, he was an advocate of arms selfdefense, naacp leader in north carolina, who became exiled from the United States and went to cuba. And then to china. And other places. Rosa parks delivered his eulogy. Thats the company she kept, thats the world she was immersed in. And thats the work she did throughout her entire life. So i think we need to start telling rosa parks story, move her away from that bus seat in montgomery, move her more towards the radical politics that she was a port up throughout her long history. And that rosa parks, that rosa parks will interest young people and old people, and everyone in between from now until the end of time. Thank. I thank you doctor maguire. Just real quick about some recent news about rosa parks, its that the home she lived in for a short period time is now in spain, it was a journey for a little while. I want us to move away, just as doctor mcguire said, we need to move away from her sitting on the bus and move into the more radical politics. Move away from that home that she lived in for a very short period of time. It was really her brothers home. I moved to the house that she was living in when she was involved in all of this radical politics. I am part of the state committee that is going to make that a historic site. So thats her Virginia Park home, which is in the virginia partner boyhood. A neighborhood where the 1967 rebellion occurred. Its a community, where black madonna is, not far from a Baptist Church where they had their meetings. Im not gonna preempt the other speakers, so im gonna stop talking about this. But i just wanted to understand that the way history is presented in the popular media, just as doctor mcguire said about rosa parks, the same thing goes on about these historic sites. Including her home, so if youve probably seen an article about her home was taken from detroit and is now going through europe, that does not really represent her home. Thats all i wanted to. Second im going to introduce our next presenter. Which will be kalonji, dr. Walton and i will let him introduce his topic. Thank you. Thank you brother john, thank you to the panelists, thank you everyone is joining us. My topic is briefly the congressman from the Congressional Black Caucus, to h. R. 40 which is now known as the reparations investigative commission, for lack of a better way to put it. Theres a lot of mixup that it was a bill for reparations. It was a bill to study the potential reparations, the nuances of reparations, who would qualify, and those types of things. So it was an exploratory commission that he wanted to have established. I first want to say that i am not going to address his exwife scandals, nor his sexual harassment. But i do want to mention that they exist, these allegations, in all fairness. Anyway, its important to note that congressman can years wasnt military veteran, he was a veteran prior to his education at blank state university, where he received a bachelors degree and a law degree 50 7 58 respectively. And he first was integrated into white liberal politics in detroit, as a staffer for congressman john. Thats important. His entree into politics was via the white liberal establishment. However, he had history, as being a labor activist. He was a labor attorney, and he was a referee for the michigan Workers Compensation department. That is where he got his start in detroit. And in the struggle in politics, in that regard, activism. And of course, because of the history of black labor in the trite, and the history of the need or cautious, he first was introduced respectively to radical politics. Black and white radical politics. John dingell, the liberal politics, the Labor Movement radical politics. He benefited from preexisting and continued black nationalism and black radicalism in detroit. As well as white liberalism and white radicalism. Thats important to note. Im not gonna list along black radical and black nationalist organizations in detroit during that time, and prior to. But its important to mention people like doctor charles h. Wright, which the museum is named after. He wrote a book. If people dont realize that, he was a close friend of his. Also we had the panafrican, i mean the Orthodox Church the shrine to the black madonna. As well as republican africa, wayne state university, and that can go on and on. But im gonna address some of this with irans general vaguer. But its key that we understand that without those preexisting politics, radical politics, black and white, white john conyers achieve and what he set out to do would not be as realistic, or really possible, if we sized and ignored history. John conyers was their first nonpolish, well second nonpolish, and first black congressman from the original First District in michigan. That is key. The only other non bullish prior to him goes back to prohibition, and that was clancy. Who is most famous for him and the mayor, and the sheriff, getting in a car drinking, during prohibition. That is his claim to fame, outside of being non polish. Now, congressman conyers, was elected in 1964. This is important. Because if we check across the country this wave of black elected officials outside of the people like these ones, we see after the black power movement. This is prior to the black power movement. And he would win, in that district as well as that same geographic area, after various manifestations of redistricting, 25 or elections. 25 reelections. All of them except for one he won by a margin of over 84 . One was 77 . That was his low marks. 77 . That was those are great numbers if we look at it. But that was made possible by those that supported him in those coalitions, that is being pointed out in the book about detroit which were white liberals, white radicals, black liberals, black radicals. Uniting against white conservatism. Thats a book, right there. And he was the first dean of the house of representatives. The first black teen of the house of representatives. Their longest serving member of the house, and sixth longest serving Congress Member in u. S. History. Those things are important. I do have criticisms of when people stay too long and it towards or retards next generations of black leadership, but thats a different conversation. Now he was one of the 13 founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus, founded in 1969. Another one, charles takes from detroit, was a cofounder as well. And it was partially sparked for him, featured politics in the Civil Rights Movement experiences. Speaking of montgomery, where we should have been, he actually went down in the Voters Registration in montgomery, alabama, prior to being elected to congress. When he joined, he identified a Key Committee to become a member of that would later be crucial to his understanding or his bush for the commission to explore reparations. And that was digit issue very committee. And he was viewed at the time as the most liberal member of congress. And of course, because of detroit politics, because of black Labor Movement, that David Goldberg is gonna talk about, because radicalism and detroit and his embracing or flirting with those segments, he quickly became one of the top targets of Richard Nixon and president nixons socalled enemies list. And he was a vocal member of congress for nixons impeachment, because of the watergate. Now you say well why is all of this important . This is important because it also explains his involvement in a Congressional Black Caucus, as well as the Congressional Black Caucus is move, that danielle already mentioned for staying in marching against apartheid. Several citizens, where several people were arrested against apartheid in the mid 19 eighties. In fact, congressman conyers, was not just awarded the naacp awards, he was awarded the line refund our fraternity cap south, incorporated, because of his involvement along with author ash, in that anti apartheid struggle. All right. Now, moving to the late eighties. I know i fast forward a lot. I couldve discussed the Republican National convention in detroit when they nominated ronald reagan. I have to fast forward because we are limited with time. You first introduced in january of 1989 the hr3745. It developed the moniker of hr40 wasted on the letter he posted in atlanta, he chose the number 40 because it was symbolic of the 40 acres and the mule fallacy, as well as the reneging and coastal carolinas and coastal georgia of the doctrine by general sherman. We have to talk about the for reparations movement. His pushing 89 did not come out of the blue. We have to think of the combination of various Reparation Movement organizations that culminated in the forming of and cobra in september 1987. A year and a half before he introduces legislation. , we had a big conference where all the smaller reparation groups came together to form a national organization. He was very in tune with that because of his history. Importantly, what he wanted his commission to explore was not just reparations for slavery, and this is where the hashtag people get it all messed up. I think most importantly and most realistically, of getting reparations from state and federal governments. I will tell you local municipalities, state and federal governments was the treatment of the freed slave from 1865 up until the present, but at that time up until 1989. Were talking about jim crow segregation. It is easy to prove in his lawyer ideology, a tort action of the harm committed by local, state and federal governments. Also, i know im running out of time, i want to mention that every year after that, he introduced the variation of that bill. Every year after words, he introduced a variation of that bill. He was committed to that. What we saw happen, and i have problems with it mainly because of the people they had speak in front of congress, was that they didnt have enough experts. They had too many celebrities, too many literary ans. They did not have enough experts. I dont believe it was framed properly. But it was his endeavors and the work of ncobra, the cbc brain trust on reparations, as well as an organization who grew out of those organizations as well. Those are the new organizations. The national African American reparations committee. This hr 40 we just saw the hearings on, it achieve its goal. Thats what was wrong. I was just explore the possibility. Now, the real work has to be done and that was is wet congressman conyers wanted. A plan now has to be developed. What is reparations look like . Who will be qualified for reparations . It opens us up way more then the narrow view of a hashtag when we include jim crow segregation. That means west indian immigrants and the 1900s would qualify because they were subject to these things as well. Thank you all for very much. Im sorry if i want overtime. Thank you brother kalonji. Really quick because we are running out of time. I want to two things together. If you did not know, rosa Parks Campaign for john conyers in 1964, she was even able to bring my luther king jr. , who is a first to campaigning for politicians, but she was able to convince him to participate in one of the campaigns that rosa parks will go to work for. So you see these two this panel being connected in history. I just wanted to make sure i said that. We will move to our last presenter. Doctor David Goldberg. He will let you know what his topic is. Thank you. Thank, you everybody. Thank you jamon. I want to be quick because i want to try to get some questions from the audience. My topic is about the league of revolutionary black workers. I believe it is titled from the blackguard to the universe revolutionary movement to the legal workers. Want to say briefly a little bit of those components. The first component, but by god signifies the revolutionary action movement. A group of students at wayne state detroit formed a group. From there they were really trying to push the white establishment, but the black establishment as well. That included radical black activists. And includes milton henry and his brother richard. They saw them is quite moderate, ironically. This gives you an idea of the militancy of this group. They were engaged in learning about Armed Struggle. They looked to Robert Williams and his emphasis on selfdefense. But when he was in cuba, he was also a proponent of guerrilla warfare. This is where graham was looking. Just to give you their ideology, the way they used to phrase it. They used to call themselves maoists. They definitely see themselves in the tradition of panafricanism and the global third world. Beyond that, we have the dogs revolutionary movement in the league of revolutionary black workers. I assume many of you are very familiar with the formations. I will kind of skip over and kind of get to some of their influence on electoral politics because that is in our theme here. The biggest thing that i dont think a lot of people know about is the lead had a tremendous influence on radicalizing the black panther party. Its not given full institutional support. It did have an influence on them. More importantly, it had an impact on local politics in detroit. Heathers book looks at this from the context of what is happening in detroit in terms of the White Community and black community. Im very interested in how they radicalized the black community. Not only them, but the republic of new africa reverent clegg, etc. It is kind of a struggle between old guards civil rights leadership and the black power leadership. I would argue that what emerges out of this is Coleman Young. You would not have a figure like Coleman Young in 1973 if it hadnt been for the black power struggle. I think the lead was the backbone of it in detroit. But i also think it was the most advanced expression of black liberation ideology in the country. I think also, as we have activists today fighting against White Supremacy and racial capitalism, is the benchmark example to turn to one looking at how to struggle today. I thank you for your time. I hope we can get to some questions. A panel of scholars discusses the tenure and impact of kenneth gibson, elected in 1970 as newarks first black mayor, and the first black mayor of any major northeastern city. They examine the impact this election had on the broader Civil Rights Movement and how gibson did and did not meet the expectations of the black voters who elected him. This event was part of the association for the study of African American life and historys annual conference, and they provided the video. Good morning, everyone. Thank you all for joining us for what promises to be a timely and illuminating roundtable discussion log