People, Locations, Episodes

Thu, 05.16.192916

John Conyers, Michigan Congressman born

John Conyers, Jr., a Black politician and lawyer, was born on this date in 1929.

From Detroit, MI, after graduating from the Detroit public schools, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree (1957) and a Doctor of Law degree (1958) from Wayne State University.  Conyers served one year in Korea as an officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and was awarded combat and merit citations. From 1958 to 1961, Conyers worked as an aide to Congressman John Dingell. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1964 on a "Jobs, Justice, and Peace platform." Social justice and economic opportunity remained focal points of his Congressional career during his years in Congress.

He was the founder of the Congressional Black Caucus. He authored or sponsored bills like the Alcohol Warning Label Act, the National Voter Registration Act, and the Hate Crime Statistics Act.   In 1983, Conyers introduced the original bill to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day a federal holiday.

In 1989, he introduced the first Reparations Bill, H.R.40, for African Americans and, in 1994, worked on the Violence Against Women Act. He attached crucial civil rights measures, including the Racial Justice Act and the Police Accountability Act, to the 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill.

Conyers produced the Justice Department's national study on police brutality and held hearings in several cities on police violence, racially motivated violence, sentencing, white-collar crime, and other criminal justice matters. Conyers was re-elected in November 2000 to his 19th term in the House, winning 93 percent of the vote in Michigan's 14th Congressional District. He became the first African American to serve as Chair of the House Judiciary Committee 2007.

His district was the City of Detroit, including the Wayne County communities of Dearborn Heights, Pointe Shores, Grosse Pointe Woods, Harper Woods, Highland Park, and Redford. Conyers was the second most senior member of the House and the longest-serving African American in the House's history.

Conyers was also a jazz enthusiast responsible for the music’s classification as a national American treasure. Conyers was married to the former Monica Estersm, and they raised two sons, John III and Carl Edward.  In 2017, Conyers was one of several legislators accused of sexual harassment.  He chose not to seek reelection.

John Conyers died on October 27, 2019.  Rep. Rashida Tlaib, representing Conyers' district, tweeted that he "never once wavered in fighting for jobs, justice and peace."  "We always knew where he stood on issues of equality and civil rights in the fight for the people," she said. "Thank you, Congressman Conyers, for fighting for us for over 50 years."

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