Calendar

On May 3, 1881, Leonidas G. Woolley, of Mendon, patented the nation’s first electric locomotive headlight. Woolley suspended his polygonal lamp frame in position with opposing strings which neutralized jarring.

—Source: Mich-Again’s Day.

Champion boxer Sugar Ray Robinson was born in Detroit, Michigan. One of the greatest pugilists in history, Sugar Ray Robinson (born Walker Smith Jr.) was born in Detroit. When he was a teenager his parents moved to New York City. At the age of nineteen, Smith changed his name to Sugar Ray Robinson and became a professional boxer. After serving in the U.S. Army, Robinson returned to boxing and became the welterweight champion from 1946 to 1950.

For more information, see Sugar Ray Robinson with Dave Anderson, Sugar Ray. New York : Viking Press, 1970.

Source : Michigan Historical Calendar, courtesy of the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University.

On May 3, 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in a case brought by a Detroit couple that racial covenants in housing were unconstitutional. Racial covenants had been used for years to bar people of color from Detroit neighborhoods.

During the Depression decade, the demand for housing in Detroit plummeted. Owners were looking for renters so they paid less attention to the color or religion of the applicant. As I understand it, the owner of the property at 4626 Seebaldt knew that it had a restrictive covenant restricting occupancy to Caucasians, but they were so in need of cash that they rented it during the Depression to African Americans: Orsel McGhee who was a press operator at the Freep and his wife, Minnie, who sorted mail for the post office. They lived on Seebaldt for about a decade and sought to purchase the home.

During the World War II years, whites in many Detroit neighborhoods knew that the high wages of that era were creating a large black middle class who could afford to live outside of the neighborhoods where Jim Crow had confined them. Whites in the Seebaldt street neighborhood organized a neighborhood club in 1944 and emphasized enforcing the restrictive covenant that prevented the McGhees from living on Seebaldt. Since the McGhees were, apparently, well-liked by their neighbors, the block group had a hard time finding a litigant who would sue to remove the McGhees. Eventually, the Sipes family agreed to become a plaintiff and a suit to expel the McGhees was filed in Detroit’s Recorders Court. The strong NAACP in Detroit immediately recognized the significance of the litigation and arranged for one of their attorneys Thurgood Marshall to defend the McGhees. The called upon the sociologist, Mel Tumen, from Wayne who argued that racial categories were not scientific and that no one could scientifically define the term Caucasian or certify that the McGhees totally lacked Caucasian blood. This was a typical defense used at that time in restrictive covenant cases. Detroit’s Recorders Court agreed with the plaintiffs, upheld the restrictive covenant and ordered the McGhees to leave. The NAACP immediately appealed and advanced the case through the Michigan state courts. Eventually the Michigan Supreme Court upheld the restrictive covenant, but the NAACP won a stay of their expulsion order and filed suit in federal court.

When the McGhee v. Sipes litigation reached the Supreme Court in Washington, they had two other restrictive covenant cases to decide. The lead case was Shelley v. Kramer concerning restrictive covenants in St. Louis. The Supreme Court merged the Seebaldt Street litigation with that from St. Louis since the instant matter was the same. The Supreme Court had ruled in 1922 that restrictive covenants were legal but in their 1948 decision in Shelley v. Kramer (May 3, 1948), the Supreme Court decided that while there was no federal prohibition against including restrictive covenants in property deeds, no state or federal court could enforce them. Civil rights activists viewed this as a great victory since restrictive covenants could not longer be used to keep Jews or blacks out of a neighborhood. However, developers continued to insert them into property deeds until the 1960s. In theory the Shelley v. Kramer decision was a major blow to Jim Crow practices in residential segregation but the actual segregation of blacks from whites in neighborhoods did not start to decline until after 1970, presumably due in part to the Open Housing Law that Congress passed in 1968.

After the case was over and the McGhees’ right to live in their home had been upheld, they and the couple who had brought the suit against them, neighbors Benjamin and Anna Sipes, became lifelong friends.

It was that friendship–transcending fear, threats, anger and heartache–that inspired Kathleen McGhee Anderson, the granddaughter of the McGees an consulting producer for the critically acclaimed Lifetime series “Any Day Now” to write “The Color of Courage,” a USA Network movie.

Sources :

The Orsel and Minnie McGhee Home

If life were like a Saturday-matinee serial, the further adventures of Vincent Markowski would have had a more upbeat, action-packed ending. However, this was Hamtramck, not Hollywood, and Markowski — better known to the world as Tom Tyler — had come to his sister’s large frame house on Moenart Street to suffer a slow, tedious death. Only 50, the celluloid action hero and Western movie actor was afflicted by a rare and frightening disease that had already cost him his looks, his marriage, and his livelihood.

Film Buffs generally consider the dozen chapters of the Captain Marvel saga the apex of Tom Tyler’s screen career, a 30-year stretch that spanned the period of silent films through the early years of television. All told, Tyler appeared in seven serials and more than 150 movies, including minor roles in such classics as Gone With the Wind and Stagecoach. He associated with some of the greatest names of Hollywood’s golden age, both on and off the set, and had a fling with one of the era’s legendary actresses. He was a versatile, hard-working, and well-liked professional who thought no role was beneath him. As his illness advanced and his film career dried up, he took dozens of bit parts on such popular TV shows as The Lone Ranger, The Roy Rogers Show, and Sky King. One of his last roles was in a never-aired pilot directed by the infamous Ed Wood.

For the full article, see Richard Bak, “A Hero From Hamtramck”, Hour Detroit, September 2010.  He is the strongest man in Hollywood. A man who carries trunks of trees on his head and doesn’t think anything of it.  He is… a hero from Hamtramck

After 62 years, live harness racing came to a close Saturday night at Hazel Park Raceway. The track, in an effort to increase its dwindling revenue, plans to return to thoroughbred racing next month for the first time since 1984.

Hazel Park’s financial struggle is part of a decades-long decline in Michigan horse racing, dwarfed by casinos and other forms of gambling. In the past decade, Michigan has lost at least four tracks: Jackson Harness Raceway, Saginaw Harness Raceway, Great Lakes Downs in Muskegon and Pinnacle Race Course in Huron Township.

Michigan has just four remaining: Hazel Park Raceway, Northville Downs, Sports Creek Raceway in Swartz Creek and Mount Pleasant Meadows, which has closed at least temporarily.

From 1953 to 1984, Hazel Park and Livonia-based Detroit Race Course shared hosting duties between harnesses and thoroughbreds. DRC then became a strictly thoroughbred track, while Hazel Park became a harnesses-only track. DRC closed in 1998.

This week, Hazel Park begins an estimated $250,000 transformation back to a thoroughbred track, replacing the limestone base with a sandy loam surface. Live thoroughbred racing returns on Sunday, June 29.

For the full article, see Dave Mesrey, “End of an Era: After more than 6 decades, harness racing comes to an end at Hazel Park”, Motor City Muckracker, May 5, 2014.

Fossils of an extinct fish were discovered last week here in Alpena. The ancient discovery took place along the limestone break wall at Bay View Park. The remains were from more than 300 million years ago, during a time period called the Devonian period- also referred to as the age of fish.

Over 350 million years ago, Michigan was covered by a warm shallow tropical sea– causing the sea to team with both life and fish- and thus resulting in what was found here in our city.

“They’re preserved in the stones here on this breakwater so one of the fossils is here you can see it exposed,” pointed out matt Fieldman, University of Michigan Paleontologist. “It’s a plate of a kind of extinct fish called a Placoderm which is an armored creature that lived many millions of years ago,” said Fieldman.

With the permission of the city of Alpena, the paleontologists were able to collect these rare fish fossil specimens to conduct research at the University of Michigan.

However the excavation process wasn’t a simple one. The fossils will be taken to the University of Michigan’s Museum of Paleontology for more research. Once the research is complete they will be added to the existing fossil exhibit at Besser Museum.

For the full article, see Jamie Sherrod, “Ancient Discovery Made at Bay View Park“, WBKB Alpena, May 3, 2017.

Patty Birkholz

Patricia Birkholz, whose 14 years in the Legislature left a legacy of major policy changes, especially on natural resources and the environment, died Thursday of cancer. She was 74.

Ms. Birkholz, a Saugatuck Republican who served in the House from 1997-2002 and the Senate from 2003-10, did not suffer fools and during an era where men mostly called the shots in the Legislature, especially in the Republican caucuses in which she served, she was a force with several major pieces of legislation to her name. She was the first woman elected speaker pro tem in the House.

Indeed, while some legislators merely get their name on the bill with staff and leadership doing the heavy lifting, Ms. Birkholz did her own heavy lifting and emerged as a major figure in the previous decade from her perch as chair of the Senate Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee.

The list of major bills signed into law that she sponsored or had a hand in sponsoring is long:

• The recreation passport bill of 2010 that enabled all motorists to purchase a passport to state parks when renewing their vehicle registration to create a steady funding stream for state parks;

• The Great Lakes Compact of 2008 that put Michigan into the compact on how water withdrawals from the Great Lakes were to be regulated;

• The requirement that utilities produce 10 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2015;

• The income tax checkoff for breast cancer research;

• The tool to analyze proposed water withdrawals;

• The film production tax credit;

• A wetlands protection law;

• The law that allows a mother to surrender her newborn child safely instead of abandoning it; and

• Land use regulations.

She later said the law allowing the safe, legal surrender of newborns was her best memory of her time in the House.

“Patty cared deeply for the people she served and for the natural beauty of our Michigan land and water,” U.S. Rep. Fred Upton (R-St. Joseph) and former House Speaker Paul Hillegonds said in a statement. “We are forever thankful for her stewardship and the friendship we shared. She will be greatly missed.”

Ms. Birkholz succeeded Mr. Hillegonds in the House in 1997 after a run as the Allegan County treasurer and a Saugatuck Township trustee.

She quickly became a go-to person for the House on natural resources and the environment. She served two terms as the speaker pro tem, presiding over the House. She briefly put her name in to run for speaker at one point.

Ms. Birkholz developed a reputation for smarts and kindness – and purple. She wore purple seemingly everywhere and every day and it was her calling card.

It was in the Senate that Ms. Birkholz hit her stride as chair of the natural resources committee.

The recreation passport legislation was one telling example. It had some setbacks and at one point appeared on life support, much to her fury after the House gutted it, but it eventually passed and provided a lift to a strapped state parks system.

As Ms. Birkholz walked past reporters on her way to a Senate Republican Caucus meeting, she pumped her fists in triumph.

And while praise poured in for her kindness and sense of humor in the wake of her death, Ms. Birkholz could throw a dagger too. She was so angry at then-House Speaker Andy Dillon after the House gutted the park passport bill that when she spoke to reporters she repeatedly called him “Andrew,” like an angry parent, practically spitting out the name in disgust.

In 2007, Ms. Birkholz was one of four Senate Republicans to vote for the income tax increase that helped end a budget showdown.

After term limits ended her run in the Senate, Governor Rick Snyder named her director of the Office of the Great Lakes, where she served for two years before going to work for the Michigan League of Conservation Voters. She recently endorsed the redistricting ballot proposal.

“Patty was a tireless and highly regarded advocate for Michigan and our lakes,” Mr. Snyder said in a statement. “Under her leadership, we saw the formation of the Great Lakes Inter-Basin Compact and the passage of significant legislation regarding water withdrawal assessment, the Michigan state parks passport, ballast water standards, and renewable energy mandates. We all should remember Patty for her dedication to protecting Michigan’s environment and residents, which will benefit Michiganders for generations.”

In 2010, a 291-acre portion of the Saugatuck Dune State Park was renamed the “Patricia Birkholz Natural Area” by the state.

Lisa Wozniak, executive director of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, said among Ms. Birkholz’s strengths was being able to work both within her party and across the aisle. She noted Ms. Birkholz’s work with Sen. Rebekah Warren (D-Ann Arbor), then in the House, on the Great Lakes Compact. She said a picture of the bill signing, with Ms. Birkholz behind then-Governor Jennifer Granholm smiling with her arms raised, illustrated her passion for her work.

“Patty was a force to be reckoned with and it wasn’t the kind of force that was in your face,” she said. “She was a story teller.”

Ms. Birkholz had breast cancer about a year ago and had thought it was in remission, Ms. Wozniak said. After a recent fall, though, blood tests showed the cancer had returned and had spread, she said.

“The decline was, for everybody, very fast,” she said.

Ms. Birkholz seemed to relish the chance to obtain wide agreement on major legislation.

“The best takeaway that I have is the lesson my mother taught me as a very young child. We are all God’s children, and we should treat others as we would like to be treated,” she said in her 2010 farewell speech to the Senate. “If we work that way in the legislative process, we can accomplish good things for the people of our state. We can bring all parties together – both sides of the aisle and both sides of the dome – but we have to listen. We have to communicate honestly, we have to negotiate fairly, and with that and God’s help, you can reach reasonable and doable compromises and promote good public policy for our state.”

Sources:

“Birkholz, Giant On Environmental Policy, Dead At 74“, Gongwer News Service, May 3, 2018

Susan J. Demas, “Meet the Republican who helped save Michigan’s parks”, MLive, June 23, 2015.

Ernestine Rose became the first woman to address the Michigan legislature when she spoke to the all-male body about women’s suffrage.

The rest of the story:

Ernestine Rose — Polish-born feminist, atheist, and abolitionist who had relocated to New York — spoke twice to the state House of Representatives in Michigan.

She spoke “on the science of government.” The lecture is well received and the House passes a second resolution granting Mrs. Rose the use of the House of Representatives the following evening for a second lecture on “the antagonistical principles of society.” Both lectures were likely on women’s rights and the lack of protection afforded to women under the law.

Her talks are remembered both as the first time a woman spoke to the Legislature and for bringing the question of female suffrage to the state.

The Daily Advertiser urged residents to go hear her speak, noting that they “will be gratified to ascertain that talent and genius are not confined to the stronger sex.”

Sources :

Michigan Historical Calendar, courtesy of the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University.

Michigan Historical Review Facebook Page, March 24, 2017.

Ernestine Rose wikipedia entry

Jewish Virtual Library

Michigan Women’s Historical Center and Hall of Fame Historical Timeline

Rebels and reformers : biographies of four Jewish Americans : Uriah Phillips Levy, Ernestine L. Rose, Louis D. Brandeis, Lillian D. Wald / by Alberta Eiseman ; illustrated by Herb Steinberg.

The American life of Ernestine L. Rose / Carol A. Kolmerten.

Ernestine L. Rose and the battle for human rights / Yuri Suhl.

Eloquent crusader: Ernestine Rose / Yuri Suhl.

In the little country village of Niles, a thousand people crowded the main four corners on May 4, 1861 to see a magnificent flag presented to the Berrien County Volunteers. The 88 infantry volunteers, somestimes called roughnecks or mudsills, carried the flag with them on the Michigan Central Railroad on their way to Detroit. There it was adopted as the regimental flag of the Second Michigan Infantry, and the Volunteers became Company E, the color company of that regiment. The flag was carried proudly at the Battles of Blackburn’s Ford, First Bull Run, the Yorktown siege, Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Malvern Hill, Second Bull Run, Chantilly and Fredericksburg. At that point it was returned to the ladies of Niles since with forty bullet holes in it, it was too tattered for further use. By then 11 of the original 88 volunteered were dead.

Source : Twice Told Tales of Michigan and Her Soldiers in the Civil War, Michigan Civil War Centennial Observance Commission, 1966, pp. 5-7.