Born and raised in a suburb of Detroit. Libertas hnits the nail on the head once again - here's the run down of Detroit Mayors. Sorry it's long. Many earlier, but Only three Republicans from the 1940's to 1963.
Edward Jeffries.JPG Edward Jeffries January 2, 1940 – January 5, 1948 [Republican[/color][7] Edward Jeffries was the son of Recorder's Court Judge and civic servant Edward Jeffries Sr.[95] The younger Jeffries ran for Detroit City Council in 1932, and served on that body for four terms, from 1932 to 1940, serving the last two as City Council president.[71] In 1940, Jeffries moved to the mayors office, winning four consecutive terms before losing to Eugene Van Antwerp in 1947. Jeffries was elected once more to serve on the City Council, beginning in 1950, but died in office shortly thereafter.[71]
65 Eugene I. Van Antwerp.jpg Eugene Van Antwerp January 6, 1948 – January 2, 1950 Democratic[7] Eugene Van Antwerp was a civil engineer and a captain in the United States Army Corps of Engineers during World War I.[96] He served in the Detroit City Council from 1932 to 1948, when he moved to the mayor's office.[71] During that time, he also served a stint as the commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in 1938–39.[97] Van Antwerp served a single term as mayor, moving back to the council in a special election in 1950 and remaining on the council until his death in 1962.[71]
66 Albert Cobo January 3, 1950 – September 12, 1957 Republican[7] Albert Cobo worked for Burroughs Corporation when, in 1933, the company "loaned" him to the city of Detroit to help with their financial crisis.[98] Cobo never returned to Burroughs, instead running for the position of city treasurer in 1935, and serving seven consecutive terms.[98] In 1949, he ran for mayor, winning that election and the next two (the last for a four-year term).[98] Cobo ran for governor in 1956, but was handily beaten by G. Mennen Williams, his first loss after ten successful citywide campaigns.[99] He declined to run for a fourth term as mayor, but died in office near the end of his term.[6]
67 Louis Miriani Mayor of Detroit.jpg Louis Miriani September 12, 1957 – January 2, 1962 Republican[100] Louis Miriani was elected to the Detroit City Council in 1947, and was council president from 1949 to 1957.[71] After Albert Cobo died in office, Miriani served as acting mayor for the remainder of Cobo's term and was elected himself beginning in 1958.[6] He served until 1961, when he was defeated for reelection by Jerome Cavanagh in an upset fueled largely by African-American support for Cavanagh.[101] Miriani was again elected to the City Council in 1965.[100] In 1969, he was convicted of federal tax evasion and served approximately 10 months in prison.[100] He retired from politics after his conviction.[100] Most recent Republican to serve as mayor of Detroit.
68 Jerome Cavanagh - WJROneOfAKind.jpg Jerome Cavanagh January 2, 1962 – January 5, 1970 Democratic[7] The 1961 mayoral race was the first campaign undertaken by the young Jerome Cavanagh.[101] He was perceived as an easy opponent for incumbent Louis Miriani, but with the backing of the city's African-American community, Cavanagh pulled off a stunning upset.[101] Cavanagh 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. Cavanagh was reelected overwhelmingly in 1965, and in 1966 was elected president of both the United States Conference of Mayors and the National League of Cities.[101] 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.[101]
69 Roman S. Gribbs.jpg Roman Gribbs January 6, 1970 – January 1, 1974 Democratic[7] 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.[102] Gribbs served a single term as mayor, declining to seek re-election.[103] 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.[102][103]
70 Mayor Young Coleman Young January 1, 1974 – January 3, 1994 Democratic[7] Coleman Young was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, but moved to Detroit when he was five.[104] During World War II, Young served as one of the Tuskeegee Airmen, and returned to Detroit at the end of the war.[104] He ran for state representative in 1959 but lost; in 1963 he ran for state senate and won.[104] He served in the senate until 1974 when he moved into the mayor's office, becoming the city's first African-American mayor.[104] Young remained as mayor for a record five terms, becoming the longest-serving mayor in city history.[104] During his tenure, Young was the vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1977 to 1981 and chair of the Democratic National Convention Platform Committee in 1980. He also led the United States Conference of Mayors and the National Conference of Democratic Mayors at various times.[104] With his health deteriorating, Young declined to seek a sixth term.[104]
71 Mayor Archer Dennis Archer January 3, 1994 – December 31, 2001 Democratic[105] 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.[106] The following year, Archer was elected to a full eight-year term.[106] 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.[105] Archer declined to seek a third term.[105] 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.[106]
72 Mayor Kilpatrick Kwame Kilpatrick January 1, 2002 – September 18, 2008 Democratic[107] Kwame Kilpatrick is the son of former county commissioner Bernard Kilpatrick and former Michigan legislator and United States congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick.[107] The younger Kilpatrick began his political career by running for the Michigan House seat his mother vacated in 1996,[108] and was minority leader in the state house by 2001.[107] Kilpatrick was twice elected mayor, but resigned office in 2008 after a corruption scandal; he was later sentenced to 28 years in prison.[109]
73 Mayor Cockrel Kenneth Cockrel, Jr. September 18, 2008 – May 11, 2009 Democratic.[110] Ken Cockrel is the son of the late Kenneth Cockrel Sr., a civil rights activist and Detroit City Council member.[111] The younger Cockrel also ran for city council, and was first elected in 1997.[111] Cockrel was elected council president in 2005,[111] and assumed the mayorship after Kwame Kilpatrick's resignation in 2008.[112][113] However, Cockrel lost the ensuing special election to Dave Bing, and returned to his seat on the city council.[110] Cockrel was re-elected to the city council later in the year.[114]
74 Mayor Bing Dave Bing May 11, 2009 – December 31, 2013 Democratic[110] Dave Bing played 12 seasons in the National Basketball Association (9 with the Detroit Pistons) and was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.[110] After retiring from basketball, Bing started an auto parts manufacturing business, the Bing Group.[110][115] He moved to Detroit specifically to run for mayor,[115] and won the special election in May 2009 to fill the remainder of Kwame Kilpatrick's term,[110] and was elected to a full term later in the year.[116]
75 Mayor-elect Duggan Mike Duggan January 1, 2014 – present Democratic Mike Duggan served as the deputy County Executive and prosecutor for Wayne County, and was president and CEO of the Detroit Medical Center from 2004–2012. He resigned to run for Detroit mayor;[117] after failing to qualify for the primary ballot, he waged a successful write-in campaign to qualify for the run-off election,[118] where he beat Benny Napoleon. Duggan is the first white mayor since Roman Gribbs, who served when the city was still predominantly white.
I left there in 1985 during Coleman Young era, {a real piece of work}
