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While Motown Records founder Berry Gordy surely deserves credit for establishing the creative philosophy and business strategy that turned his Detroit-based company into a hit-making machine in the 1960s, the inner workings of that machine during the company’s early years depended almost as much on the talents of a young man named William Robinson, Jr., better known to the world as “Smokey.”  Even if he’d never sung on a single Motown record, Smokey Robinson would still be regarded as one of the label’s most important figures purely on the basis of his production and songwriting work for acts like Mary Wells, Marvin Gaye and The Temptations. But Smokey Robinson did sing, of course, in his trademark falsetto, on some of Motown’s most beloved records: “Shop Around” (1960); “You Really Got A Hold On Me” (1962); “I Second That Emotion” (1967), to name only a few. After more than a decade of hits like these that never quite made it to the top of the charts, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles finally earned their first #1 hit when “Tears Of A Clown” topped the Billboard Hot 100 on December 12, 1970.

Like many of his other songs, “Tears Of A Clown” told a story to which any current or former lovelorn teenager could relate. Mining much the same emotional territory as he did in the song many consider to be his masterpiece, “The Tracks Of My Tears” (1965), Robinson showcased his ability in “Tears Of A Clown” to tell such a story using a catchy melody and clever wordplay—”Don’t let my glad expression/Give you the wrong impression“—without ever lapsing into corniness. It was that ability that led Bob Dylan to refer to Smokey Robinson as America’s “greatest living poet.”

Smokey Robinson’s association with Berry Gordy began even before Motown Records was founded, and it continued long after he stopped scoring hits of his own. Robinson’s “Shop Around” was the company’s first big hit (it was a Billboard #2 hit for The Miracles in 1960), and his “My Guy” (1964) and “My Girl” (1965) were #1 hits for Mary Wells and The Temptations, respectively. In 1967, Smokey Robinson became the vice president of Motown Records Corporation, a position he held for the next two decades until the company was sold to MCA in 1988.

“Tears Of A Clown” gives Smokey Robinson & The Miracles their first #1 pop hit, This Day in History, History.com, December 12, 1970

Union members and others packed the Michigan Capitol on December 6, 2012 to protest the passage of bills promoting Right to Work by both the Michigan House and Senate.   Police attempted to close the doors to the Capitol but protestors went to court to keep them opened.

On December 11th, Governor Rick Snyder signed the legislation causing massive demonstrations both for and against.  Police sprayed tear gas, mounted horses, and wore riot gear trying to keep the two groups apart.   Only two tents, which were torn down during the event, separated the two groups.

Source : Source : Carol Thompson, “Michigan’s Capitol has seen several prominent protests”, Lansing State Journal, January 17, 2021.

Disgusted with the failure of then-President James Buchanan to pursue a stronger policy that might have headed off the threatened secession of southern states, Lewis Cass resigned as Secretary of State and returned to Detroit. Lewis Cass previously helped thwart Aaron Burr’s conspiracy against the United States, served as Michigan’s territorial governor, led an expedition into Western Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin discovering the source of the Mississippi River, oversaw the first statewide elections in Michigan and was elected the first State Governor, served as Secretary of War, was a noted Indian expert and helped formulate and implement Andrew Jackson’s resettlement of Indians in Oklahoma, served as Ambassador to France, and as a U.S. Senator.

As secretary of war in the cabinet of President Andrew Jackson, he help implement Jackson’s policy of “Indian removal” along a “trail of tears,” with many of the 125,000 Native Americans removed not surviving the march west from their southeastern tribal lands.

In her New York Times article last September, “The South Doesn’t Own Slavery,” Professor Tiya Miles of the University of Michigan shined a light on the slave ownership of Lewis Cass (1782-1866) and the sale of his slave named Sally to a member of the Macomb family, as reported by his biographer, Willard Carl Klunder.

Sources :

For more information about Lewis Cass, see Bill Loomis, “Lewis Cass, the titan of Michigan’s early years”, Detroit Free Press, June 28, 2014.

For an extensive list of Lewis Cass’s many achievements, see Paul Mirengoff, “Lewis Cass and Seven Decades of American History”, Powerline, June 17, 2012.

Lewis Cass wikipedia entry

Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower addressed delegates to the Michigan Constitutional Convention at the Lansing Civic Center on December 13, 1961 and spoke about several topics including civil rights and term limits.

“The responsibilities best exercised by the people of a state, can be returned to them, in all 50 states,” Eisenhower told the Lansing Civic Center audience. “And Michigan can lead the way.”

The noted World War II military general and GOP two-term president offered 20 minutes of remarks and took 40 minutes of questions from convention delegates.

“So I hope that the rewritten draft of Michigan’s Constitution will define carefully the responsibilities that its people believe should belong to Michigan, and that they will forthrightly assume and exercise the authority essential to carrying out those responsibilities,” said Eisenhower.

The 1961-62 Michigan Constitutional Convention was a bipartisan body that led an effort to revise the state Constitution for the first time since 1908. The 144-member body produced a document that state voters approved on April 1, 1963. It became the Michigan Constitution of 1963.

Michigan Democratic Gov. John Swainson and Republican George Romney, convention vice chair and future Michigan governor, led the reception committee to host Eisenhower who served as president from 1953 to 1961.

When asked whether he thought that civil rights language should be placed in the state constitution, he was clear.

“I think it is essential,” said Eisenhower.

While president, Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Bill of 1957, the first measure of its kind since Reconstruction. It established the civil rights section of the U.S. Justice Department and empowered federal prosecutors to obtain court injunctions against interference with the right to vote. The creation of a civil rights commission was included in the Michigan Constitution.

Regarding term limits for elected officials, Eisenhower called for governors to have at least a four-year term. At the time, Michigan governors served two-year terms without limits. For example, G. Mennen Williams, a Democrat, served six, two-term terms as Michigan governor before deciding against seeking reelection in 1960.

“Along with this we should have a constitutional amendment some day that will make our congressmen terms four years, being elected at the same time as the President, rather than having two years and spending every instant in campaigning,” said Eisenhower.

The 144 delegates rewrote the state constitution, which, among other things, changed a governor’s term from two years to four.

Sources:

“Journal of Our Times,” by Mark Nixon reposted from Lansing 150 – A Day in History.

Ken Coleman, “On this day in 1961: Ike addresses civil rights, term limits during Michigan visit“, Michigan Advance, December 13, 2021.