[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 71 (Tuesday, May 22, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H2543-H2546]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CONGRATULATING DETROIT AND ITS RESIDENTS ON THE TRICENTENNIAL OF THE
CITY'S FOUNDING
Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the
Committee on Government Reform be discharged from further consideration
of the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 80) congratulating the city
of Detroit and its residents on the occasion of the tricentennial of
the city's founding, and ask for its immediate consideration in the
House.
The Clerk read the title of the concurrent resolution.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Simpson). Is there objection to the
request of the gentleman from Ohio?
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, reserving the right to object, I
yield to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. LaTourette) to explain the bill.
Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to
me.
Mr. Speaker, this resolution congratulates the city of Detroit and
its residents on the city's tricentennial. It is fitting that the
Congress chooses to honor Detroit's three centuries, rich in culture,
ethnic diversity, natural resources, commerce, and industry.
Detroit, which began in 1701 as a French community known for its fur
trade, is now the tenth most populous city in the United States.
Throughout its history, Detroit has served as a strategic staging area
during the French and Indian War, an important stop for the Underground
Railroad, and as the city that made automobiles affordable for people
of all walks of life.
Detroit also has a rich sports tradition and unique cultural
attractions. Several centers of cultural excellence are located in
Detroit, including the Lewis College of Business, the only institution
in Michigan designated as an historically black college.
Throughout its history, Detroit has provided America with many great
artists, including Berry Gordy, who created the musical genre known as
the Motown Sound.
Mr. Speaker, on behalf of Congress, I would like to congratulate the
city of Detroit and its residents for their important contributions to
the economic, social, and cultural developments of the United States.
This year Detroit is 300 years old.
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, continuing to reserve the right
to object, I would say that the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms.
Kilpatrick) introduced this resolution to congratulate Detroit and its
residents on the 300th anniversary of the city's founding.
The city of Detroit, founded in 1701, incorporated as a city in 1815,
has many great attributes, but none greater than the people who
contribute to the cultural and economic diversity of the city.
During the 19th century, it took brave and courageous people to make
Detroit a vocal center of antislavery advocacy, and for more than
40,000 individuals seeking freedom in Canada, it was an important stop
on the Underground Railroad.
Detroit is known as the automotive capital of the Nation, and an
international leader in automobile manufacturing and trade because of
the workers and laborers who worked on the assembly line, and continue
to do so.
It is fitting that the Detroit Historical Museum, in recognition of
Detroit's 300th anniversary, honor 30 Detroiters who dared to make a
difference. The exhibit features the biographies of Detroiters who have
made a difference in various ways over three centuries. It is not meant
to choose or display the most important people. Rather, the names
selected illustrate the diversity of Detroit's history by telling
lesser-known stories.
I certainly want to congratulate the city of Detroit.
Mr. Speaker, I withdraw my reservation of objection.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Ohio?
[[Page H2544]]
Ms. KILPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, reserving the right to object, I thank
the chairman, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. LaTourette), and the
gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman) of the full committee for
allowing us to have the full debate this afternoon, and to bring House
Concurrent Resolution 80 forward.
The city of Detroit was established in 1701. We will be celebrating
our 300th anniversary with ceremonies in July, at which time we will
have people coming forth to our city, and over 1 million residents
there, honoring our great heritage.
I am very thankful to the committee, its chairmanship, the ranking
members, as well as my colleagues, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr.
Davis) and our senior member, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. LaTourette),
for allowing us to have this debate today.
As has been mentioned, from Motown Sound to the motor cars, Detroit
has been in the forefront of development for our country. We have been
there for this country, and we appreciate all that the citizens of the
city of Detroit have done in their own right and for the Nation as a
whole.
I appreciate the cooperative record of the Michigan delegation. Each
member of our Michigan delegation has signed onto this resolution. We
appreciate them in a bipartisan way for acknowledging the city of
Detroit.
Again, on July 24, we will make this special presentation to the city
founders and the city followers, as well as the city residents. I
appreciate this Congress allowing us to pass today House Concurrent
Resolution 80.
Mr. Speaker, continuing to reserve the right to object, I yield to
the gentleman from Detroit, Michigan (Mr. Conyers), our senior
colleague.
(Mr. CONYERS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, the gentlewoman from
Detroit (Ms. Kilpatrick), for bringing this special resolution to the
attention of the House of Representatives.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to just talk about the great events that
occurred as I was watching the civil rights movement develop; that is,
with the coming of Dr. Martin Luther King, Detroit became a base for
civil rights activity, and frequently there were fundraisers and church
events that were attended by Dr. King, Reverend Andrew Young, Reverend
Ralph Abernathy, and many others.
Detroit became, along with New York and Los Angeles, a great center
for support for Dr. King, which led to his civil rights march in
Detroit down our main street, Woodward Avenue, in 1963, which had been
the largest freedom march that had been held up until the March on
Washington.
There, we were treated in Detroit to hearing Dr. Martin Luther King's
``I have a dream'' speech, which was in its formative stages there, but
one cannot fail to pick that up. I was pleased to have been there.
My interest in the civil rights movement, as one who went South, was
emphasized by the coming on later of a young lady from Montgomery,
Alabama, named Rosa Parks, who came forward and chose, for reasons I
cannot explain, Detroit as her home after she led the bus march, the
bus protests, in Alabama which had called Dr. King to its leadership
and thrust him into prominence in the civil rights movement.
{time} 1730
Mr. Speaker, the civil rights activity was very, very important.
The other thing that seems to me to be important is not only the
development of the automobile industry in Detroit, where all the then
three largest manufacturers had their headquarters, but was the
development of the collective bargaining movement in which the United
Automobile Workers organized members.
It was after Flint General Motors was organized they immediately came
to Detroit, where the Chrysler plant on Jefferson Avenue was organized.
My father was then a strong supporter of the labor movement and worked
in that plant, and there was great excitement and a great amount of
tension, and there was a great struggle.
Finally, after GM was organized in Flint, Chrysler was organized in
Detroit, and then they went out to the workers in the plants, continued
to go to Ford, Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan, where they had
the great battle of the overpass in which it was a very bloody
confrontation.
There is still pictures of Walter Ruther and others, R.J. Thomas
perhaps and Addis and Frankenstein to earlier people that worked with
Walter Ruther, walking towards all these people. The company had a
practice of hiring people who were known for their proclivities towards
violence.
There was violence. There were injuries. Police were called in, but
it was finally organized, and the UAW went on to become one of the
largest unions in the AFL-CIO. So there was this tremendous excitement
that has always characterized Detroit. We unfortunately had race riots
in 1943 and 1967.
I remember then-President Lyndon Johnson called me at my home to tell
me who he was sending in as a special emissary. We worked with them in
terms of bringing order back into Detroit.
Mr. Speaker, at the same time that was coming up was the election of
people of color, and one person in particular that has to be mentioned
in this tricentennial observation who was the first African American
mayor, Mayor Coleman Alexander Young, who was himself a labor
organizer, he came back and became a constitutional convention member
in Michigan in 1958.
Then he went on to become a State senator himself, and then helping
me in my attempts to come to the Congress. Shortly thereafter, ran for
mayor of the City of Detroit himself, where he was the Mayor for
probably more than 15 years, many terms in which we saw the blooming of
many people who went on to other prominent positions who worked for the
city, including Conrad Mallett who became not only a justice of the
supreme court of Michigan but the chief justice of the supreme court.
Then we had earlier, at an earlier period another attorney that
worked with Mayor Young who was a lawyer working with him, he became a
member of the supreme court; that was Dennis Archer, who then later
became the mayor who ultimately replaced Mayor Young. He is currently
the Mayor of the City of Detroit.
I close with a comment and observation in remembrance about our
cultural contributions, because there were two cultural forces
operating, one was the traditional rhythm and blues sound that was
developed by Barry Gordy and his sister Esther Gordy. As a matter of
fact, the whole Gordy family, some of whom are still members of the
district of the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick), they
created the unique Motown sound of Stevie Wonder, the Supremes, the
Temptations, the Everythings.
The music became a national trend, Philadelphia picked it up, and
developed it in another direction.
The other current that was going on was the contribution of
progressive jazz called be-bop, which Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie,
and it just so happened that there was one drummer there named J. C.
Heard, who with Norman Grand started jazz at the Philharmonic, and
artists poured in, Dizzy Gillespie, all the great artists came through
Detroit. It became a jazz mecca and then produced its own generation,
the next generation of jazz artists, Milt Jackson, Donald Byrd, Yusef
Lateef, Barry Harris. It goes on and on.
It became a great center and still is where now we have artists like
Donald Walden, a great tenor saxophone player who is a resident
professor in jazz at the University of Michigan. Jon Hendricks of the
Lampert, Hendricks and Ross trio is a professor of jazz at the
University of Toledo.
Wayne State University has an accredited jazz center. Of course, that
piqued my interests, because it was jazz musicians that urged me to go
to law school, because I tried to play.
So we have all had wonderful continuing relationships with the
musical artists of both genres from one end of the country to the
other.
It is out of this struggle in civil rights, the struggle in
collective bargaining, the development of our culture that we have
enjoyed such wonderful experiences from a great and diverse population
that makes this remembrance and recollection that other Members will
contribute to one of great personal privileges for me to participate.
[[Page H2545]]
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick)
for bringing this to our congressional and national attention.
Mr. Speaker, Detroit was founded in 1701 by French settlers, and
named their new home Fort Panchutrain de De Troit, meaning ``at the
straights.'' This frontier outpost in the wilderness was and remained
``the frontier'' for the next hundred years. The site was a natural
selection, located along the banks of what is now the Detroit River, a
narrow straight separating what is now the United States and Canada,
and connecting Lakes Erie, St. Clair, and Lake Huron. The river
provided a source of food and an easy means of transporting goods, an
activity that remains a vital piece of the Mid-West's economic health.
As a frontier settlement, Detroit passed from the control of the
French to the British and finally to American hands in 1760. Detroit
was incorporated as a city in 1802, and named capital of Michigan
Territory in 1805. In the summer of 1805 Detroit burned to the ground,
but the site was not abandoned. The British recaptured Detroit in the
War of 1812, but was recovered by Gen. William Henry Harrison in 1813.
As the United States expanded westward, Detroit began its change from
frontier outpost to regional center. The completion of the Erie Canal
transformed the Great Lakes into the largest inland waterway, one of
the single greatest influences on Detroit and Michigan's development.
The Detroit River and the proximity to Canada made Detroit a major
stop on the Underground Railroad to freedom for many escaped slaves.
Many recently freed slaves migrated north to Detroit in search of
better living conditions and job opportunity.
An early carriage industry created the economic opportunity that soon
became synonymous with Detroit. In 1897, Ransom Old opened the first
automobile factory, followed closely by Henry Ford. Ford's introduction
of the Model T, and the production techniques of mass production,
created the perfect blend of affordable transportation and economic
opportunity, that has continued to supply Michigan's and the nations
economy for much of the last century. In 1913 Henry Ford created the $5
dollar day. This policy doubled the average daily wage while cutting
working hours down to an eight hour day.
Between 1910 and 1930 Detroit's population ballooned to 4th-largest
in the United States. The rising population and stark economic reality
of the Great Depression contributed to the atmosphere in the city that
culminated in 1936 and 1937 ``Sit Down'' strikes and the growth of the
labor movement. The United Auto Workers now represent over 700,000 auto
workers and have improved the lives and working conditions of millions
of Americans.
World War II brought renewed prosperity to Detroit, ``the arsenal of
democracy'', as Detroit's factories produced tanks, jeeps, bombers, and
liberty ships. The round-the-clock production also helped to speed
women's transition into the work force. The increasing numbers of women
in both offices and labor positions helped to spawn a new sense of
equality throughout the United States.
Detroiter's have long called for greater equality, both among the
sexes, but also among the races. In 1963, the largest civil right's
event to that time took place on June 23, the Great March to Freedom,
where 125,000 people marched down Woodward Avenue singing ``We Shall
Overcome''. We marched to Cabo Hall where the Reverend Martin Luther
King introduced his ``I Have a Dream'' speech.
Detroit elected Coleman Young its first African-American mayor in
1973. Coleman Young served for twenty years fully integrating the city
police and fire departments, as well as other city departments and
agencies, opening doors for both African-Americans and women.
Detroit is a frontier outpost turned industrial city, but the people
of Detroit have created a cultural center equal of any in the world.
Detroit's orchestra is world class. We have more theater seats than
every other American city except for New York. We have the Detroit
Institute for Arts, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African-American
History, and the Detroit Science Center. We have major universities and
research centers.
Detroit has also spawned its own music style, forever leaving its
mark on pop culture and on Detroit. Berry, Gwen, and Esther Gordy
founded Motown Records in 1957, creating the Motown sound and giving
Detroit a new name. Artists such as Temptations, the Supremes, Stevie
Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Smoky Robinson and the Miracles, Gladys Knight and
the Pips, The Four Tops, The Commodores, Rick James, Martha Reeves and
the Vandellas, and the Jackson Five emerged from Motown's music scene.
Detroit's influence was not limited to pop music however. Jazz
musicians such as Milt Jackson, Donald Byrd, Tommy Flanagan, Hank,
Alvin and Thad Jones, Yusef Lateef, Kenny Burrell, and Berry Harris
began their illustrious careers in Detroit's jazz clubs such as the
Flame Show Bar and the Greystone Ballroom.
And Detroit has most recently helped spawn the distinctive techno
sound. Techno and electronica's popularity has spread worldwide, with
electronic music festivals being held annually in Berlin, London, and
Detroit.
Detroit has three hundred years of culture and history to look back
on and be proud of. But Detroit's greatest asset, the one that will
guarantee Detroit's success, is the people of Detroit. The people of
Detroit have struggled with nature, with race and class, with economic
hardship, and the people of Detroit will continue to struggle, to bring
the best and brightest possible future to Detroit over the next three
hundred years.
Ms. KILPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Michigan (Mr.
Conyers) for that very eloquent historical trail for the City of
Detroit as we celebrate our 300th anniversary.
Mr. Speaker, further reserving the right to object, I yield to our
final speaker, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bonior), who is to the
east of the City of Detroit, a leader and soon to be another leader in
the State of Michigan.
Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms.
Kilpatrick) for yielding to me and for her comments this evening and
for her leadership.
The gentlewoman from Detroit has talked, as well as the gentleman
from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) have talked about the great history of the
city. I join with them today in congratulations for 300 wonderful
productive enlightening years.
Mr. Speaker, 300 years ago a fellow by the name of Cadillac left from
up in what we call the upper straits, which was at that time kind of
the heart of not only the economic but the populated cultural part of
the upper Midwest. It was around the Macanaw Island, Macanaw Straits
area, and he came down by water craft to found Detroit.
He came through what is called the Straits, the Detroit River, de
Troit, and set in motion something that we celebrate after 300 years.
As we have heard, it is the oldest major city in the Midwest. It is
the tenth most populated city in our Nation. I have had the honor of
being born and raised in and out of the city. I have watched its great
ethnic diversity grow and prosper through these many years on the East
side. We have the Belgium population and the Polish population and the
Ukrainian population and, of course, the great African American
population that the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) has
illuminated and has given us such a rich cultural history in the area
of music and science and education.
Then on the West side of the city, again, an African American
community, the Latino community, the Jewish community. It is that kind
of strength and that diversity of the city that makes it a special
place in our history. It is that kind of diversity that makes our
country a special place.
Mr. Speaker, the history of our great community, as the gentlewoman
from Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick) has mentioned, was the center of the
underground railroad where literally thousands and thousands of slaves
would migrate north and would cross in Detroit over to Canada, or when
the slave owners would come and try to block the crossing in Detroit,
they had to migrate up to where my district is now, spend some time,
and then cross north about 30 miles across the St. Clair River into
Canada.
Detroit is the automotive vehicle capital of the world. The home, as
we have heard, of the great automobile companies which has changed our
planet and our way of life in a most dramatic way. But as we have also
heard this evening, it is the home of one of the great and I, perhaps,
think the greatest labor movement and labor unions to enter the
movement, the United Automobile Workers of America.
They changed not only the conditions in which workers labored in this
country, but they created for Detroit and for Michigan and for the
country a pattern that enabled the middle class to thrive and to grow
and to set in motion the standards by which all workers are now
measured, at least in our State and in a great many other places around
the globe.
It is a cultural center, as the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers)
[[Page H2546]]
and the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick) have talked to us
tonight. Not only do we have the Detroit Institute of Art, one of the
greatest institutes of art in the world today, but we also have the
Charles H. Wright Museum of African American history.
We have great universities, like Wayne State University and the
University of Detroit and, of course, the Lewis College of Business
that was mentioned by my friend from, I believe it was Ohio.
Detroit has played a central role in the economic and social and
cultural development of not only Michigan, but the entire Nation, and
we have had great political leadership. And what we have not heard
tonight, and I will say it is people like the gentlewoman from Michigan
(Ms. Kilpatrick) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) that
have enriched our city, because of their leadership, not only in
serving in this Congress, but the many years that they have contributed
to public service.
We have great Members of Congress that have come out of our city, but
the two that I have just mentioned at the top are people like George
Crockett. For those of my colleagues who did not serve with George
Crockett, he was an immensely impressive man of great integrity and
great stature and great demeanor. One of the most just and fair people
that you would ever want to serve with.
Of course, I believe the district of the gentlewoman from Michigan
(Ms. Kilpatrick) is the district that he had, and the gentlewoman not
only fills those shoes of one of the great leaders that I have ever
served with in my great public life, but she leads beyond that in her
own special way and in the directions that make not only our State but
our city a very special place.
{time} 1745
Detroit is on its way back in many, many respects. It has had
difficulties, the rebellion of 1943 and 1967, as the gentleman from
Michigan (Mr. Conyers) has indicated. But there is a new spirit there.
There is a spirit of can-do, that we cannot only create the liveliness
of the central city, but we can redo our neighborhoods in the special
ways that will enable us to have decent transportation and education
and all the infrastructure that makes our communities worth living in.
So I want to join with the gentlewoman from Detroit, Michigan (Ms.
Kilpatrick), today in congratulating the city on 300 wonderful years
and wish the celebration that will occur in July to be as successful as
these 300 years.
To the mayor, Dennis Archer, and the city council and all the elected
officials, we congratulate them, we thank them, and we look forward to
making Detroit continue to be the great place that it is.
Ms. KILPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, further reserving my right to object,
just briefly in closing, I want to thank the gentleman from Michigan
(Mr. Bonior), our leader, for his excellent remarks as well.
Since July 1701, when Cadillac founded the city, right through the
Underground Railroad, the Civil Rights movement, the auto industry
which has brought to this country another whole era, right through Rosa
Parks, as was mentioned, who now lives in the city of Detroit, from the
United Auto Workers to the brotherhood of the Teamsters, to the mayor,
Mayor Archer, who has given his notice that he will not seek
reelection, we wish him the best, to our city council, Wayne State
University, one of the premier universities in our region, as well as
the 30 miles of international waterway that separates Detroit from the
country of Canada, we say thank you to the House of Representatives for
acting quickly on H. Con. Res. 80.
Ms. KILPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, I withdraw my reservation of objection.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Simpson). Is there objection to the
request of the gentleman from Ohio?
There was no objection.
The Clerk read the concurrent resolution, as follows:
H. Con. Res. 80
Whereas Detroit is the 10th most populous city in the
United States and the most populous city in Michigan;
Whereas Detroit is the oldest major city in the Midwest,
and 2001 is the 300th anniversary of Detroit's founding;
Whereas Detroit began as a French community on the Detroit
River when Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founded a strategic
garrison and fur trading post on the site in 1701;
Whereas Detroit was named Fort Pontchartrain de' Etroit
(meaning ``strait'') at the time of its founding and became
known as Detroit because of its position along the Detroit
River;
Whereas the Detroit region served as a strategic staging
area during the French and Indian War, became a British
possession in 1760, and was transferred to the British by the
peace treaty of 1763;
Whereas the Ottawa Native American Chieftain Pontiac
attempted a historic but unsuccessful campaign to wrest
control of the garrison at Detroit from British hands in
1763;
Whereas in the nineteenth century, Detroit was a vocal
center of antislavery advocacy and, for more than 40,000
individuals seeking freedom in Canada, an important stop on
the Underground Railroad;
Whereas Detroit entrepreneurs, including Henry Ford,
perfected the process of mass production and made automobiles
affordable for people from all walks of life;
Whereas Detroit is the automotive capital of the Nation and
an international leader in automobile manufacturing and
trade;
Whereas the contributions of Detroit residents to civilian
and military production have astounded the Nation,
contributed to United States victory in World War II, and
resulted in Detroit being called the Arsenal of Democracy;
Whereas residents of Detroit played a central role in the
development of the organized labor movement and contributed
to protections for workers' rights;
Whereas Detroit is home to the United Auto Workers Union
and many other building and service trades and industrial
unions;
Whereas Detroit has a rich sports tradition and has
produced many sports legends, including Ty Cobb, Al Kaline,
Willie Horton, Hank Greenberg, Mickey Cochrane, and Sparky
Anderson of the Detroit Tigers; Dick ``Night Train'' Lane,
Joe Schmidt, Billy Sims, Dutch Clark, and Barry Sanders of
the Detroit Lions; Dave Bing, Bob Lanier, Isaiah Thomas, and
Joe Dumars of the Detroit Pistons; Gordie Howe, Terry
Sawchuk, Ted Lindsay, and Steve Yzerman of the Detroit Red
Wings; boxing greats Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, and
Thomas Hearns; and Olympic speed skater Jeanne Omelenchuk;
Whereas Detroit's cultural attractions include the Detroit
Institute of Arts, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African-
American History (the largest museum devoted exclusively to
African-American art and culture), the Detroit Historical
Museum, the Detroit Symphony, the Michigan Opera Theater, the
Detroit Science Center, and the Dossin Great Lakes Museum;
Whereas several centers of educational excellence are
located in Detroit, including Wayne State University, the
University of Detroit Mercy, Marygrove College, Sacred Heart
Seminary College, the Center for Creative Studies--College of
Art and Design, and the Lewis College of Business (the only
institution in Michigan designated as a ``Historically Black
College'');
Whereas residents of Detroit played an integral role in
developing the distinctly American sounds of jazz, rhythm and
blues, rock 'n roll, and techno; and
Whereas Detroit was the home of Berry Gordy, who created
the musical genre that has been called the Motown Sound, and
many great musical artists, including Aretha Franklin, Anita
Baker, and the Winans family: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring),
SECTION. 1. CONGRATULATING DETROIT AND ITS RESIDENTS.
The Congress, on the occasion of the tricentennial of the
founding of the city of Detroit, congratulates Detroit and
its residents for their important contributions to the
economic, social, and cultural development of the United
States.
SEC. 2. TRANSMITTAL.
The Clerk of the House of Representatives shall transmit
copies of this resolution to the Mayor of Detroit and the
City Council of Detroit.
The concurrent resolution was agreed to.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________