"We are the demon chasers" was the coined theme to kick off the movement.
Now, what this "commitment" is, one can only assume it has to do with John Conyers, Jr., for the simple fact that not one person mentioned his name in speaking upon Voting Rights.
Executing such a daunting task of not saying his name, may be what is the commitment.
Reverend Charles Williams III of Al Sharpton's National Action Network was the first speaker, so his silence should tell you something.
"No justice, no peace" was the mantra throughout the event as they referenced the Civil Rights leaders of yore, and mystically did not once, ever, say my Sweetie's name.
"So, let's march on in the name of our ancestors" was the call to action of Kamala Harris, even though she failed to give any attribution to the legacy of the man who championed Voting Rights.
A former Harris County District Judge, who was indicted on wire fraud charges last year, has been arrested again, according to court records. She is accused of assaulting her husband’s girlfriend.
Alexandra Smoots-Thomas was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon Wednesday. According to court records, she fired a shotgun in the direction of a woman outside a home in the 1400 block of Jewel Meadow Drive on Monday.
“My client was in a car and the other woman was outside the car. I believe she was carrying a club or some sort of stick with the intent to assault my client and a gun appeared. A shot was fired but nobody was hurt,” said Smoots-Thomas’ attorney Kent Schaffer.
Smoots-Thomas is out on bond and not permitted to possess a weapon.
“We have reason to believe that they will move to revoke her bond in federal court and because of that we are already getting ready for a bond hearing to try and keep her out on bond,” Schaffer said.
Smoots-Thomas was scheduled to appear in federal court in November on wire fraud charges for allegedly misusing campaign funds.
“The government has alleged that she used her campaign account to pay personal expenses,” Schaffer said.
Schaffer said his client is accused of using funds to pay her home mortgage and tuition for one of her children.
Select Committee on Cornovirus Oversight has been proposed.
The timing is spectacular considering that Elizabeth Warren made headlines, but not for her seat on the Select Committee on TARP Oversight.
Her Flatulent Boviness, Sheila Jackson Lee has that crown, now.
More money for stealin' the children, land & votes because these re-election campaigns do not pay themselves.
What you are hearing is the transposable model, federally funded, for TARP 4.0 & 5.0, reparations, but, before the finale, the masked marauders will pitch the "save the children" - Child Welfare needs more money, for those Targeted Populations that can catch meningitis, you know.
A quorum in the House of Representatives is when a majority of the Members are present. When there are no vacancies in the membership, a quorum is 218. When one or more seats are vacant, because of deaths or resignations, the quorum is reduced accordingly. Because of Members' other duties, a quorum often is not present on the House floor. But any Member may insist that a quorum must participate in any vote that takes place in the House. If a Member makes a point of order that a quorum is not present, and the Speaker agrees, a series of bells ring on the House side of the Capitol and in the House office buildings to alert Members to come to the Chamber and record their presence.
If a quorum of 218 Members of the House is necessary to vote which is ≩ 122 Members of the House who did vote; and, 307 Members did not check in with the Clerk of the House to vote which is ≩ 122 Members of the House who did check in with the Clerk of the House to vote; then, when is the lawsuit going to be filed on Voting Rights violations?
Mr. McGovern submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Rules
RESOLUTION
Establishing a Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis as a select investigative subcommittee of the Committee on Oversight and Reform.
Resolved, That there is hereby established a select investigative subcommittee of the Committee on Oversight and Reform called the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis (hereinafter referred to as the “select subcommittee”).
Sec. 2. (a) The select subcommittee shall be composed of not more than 12 Members, Delegates, or the Resident Commissioner appointed by the Speaker, of whom not more than 5 shall be appointed on the recommendation of the minority leader. The Speaker shall designate one member of the select subcommittee as its chair. Any vacancy in the select subcommittee shall be filled in the same manner as the original appointment.
(b) Each member appointed to the select subcommittee shall be treated as though a member of the Committee on Oversight and Reform for purposes of the select subcommittee.
Sec. 3. (a) The select subcommittee is authorized and directed to conduct a full and complete investigation and study and issue a final report to the House of its findings (and such interim reports as it may deem necessary) regarding—
(1) the efficiency, effectiveness, equity, and transparency of the use of taxpayer funds and relief programs to address the coronavirus crisis, including through Federal agencies, State and local government entities, financial institutions and other private businesses, contracts, grants, loans, loan guarantees, investments, cooperative agreements, or any other means;
(2) reports of waste, fraud, abuse, price gouging, profiteering, or other abusive practices related to the coronavirus crisis;
(3) the implementation or effectiveness of any Federal law applied, enacted, or under consideration to address the coronavirus crisis and prepare for future pandemics;
(4) preparedness for and response to the coronavirus crisis, including the planning for and implementation of testing, containment, mitigation, and surveillance activities; the acquisition, distribution, or stockpiling of protective equipment and medical supplies; and the development of vaccines and treatments;
(5) the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis on individuals, communities, small businesses, health care providers, States, and local government entities;
(6) any disparate impacts of the coronavirus crisis on different communities and populations, including with respect to race, ethnicity, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, and geographic region, and any measures taken to address such disparate impacts;
(7) executive branch policies, deliberations, decisions, activities, and internal and external communications related to the coronavirus crisis;
(8) the protection of whistleblowers who provide information about waste, fraud, abuse, or other improper activities related to the coronavirus crisis;
(9) cooperation by the executive branch and others with Congress, the Inspectors General, the Government Accountability Office, and others in connection with oversight of the preparedness for and response to the coronavirus crisis; and
(10) any other issues related to the coronavirus crisis.
(b) The select subcommittee may report to the House or any committee of the House from time to time the results of its investigations and studies, together with such detailed findings and legislative recommendations as it may deem advisable.
(c) The select subcommittee may not hold a markup of legislation.
Sec. 4. (a) Rule XI and the rules of the Committee on Oversight and Reform shall apply to the select subcommittee in the same manner as a subcommittee except as follows:
(1) The chair of the select subcommittee may authorize and issue subpoenas pursuant to clause 2(m) of rule XI and rule 12(g) of the rules of the Committee on Oversight and Reform in the investigation and study conducted pursuant to section 3, including for the purpose of taking depositions.
(2) The chair of the select subcommittee is authorized to compel by subpoena the furnishing of information by interrogatory.
(3) Subpoenas so authorized may be signed by the chair of the select subcommittee or a designee.
(4) The chair of the select subcommittee may order the taking of depositions, under oath and pursuant to notice or subpoena, by a member of the select subcommittee or a counsel of the select subcommittee. Such depositions shall be governed by rule 15 of the rules of the Committee on Oversight and Reform. For purposes of such rule, references to “the Committee” shall be construed as references to the select subcommittee.
(5) The chair of the select subcommittee may, after consultation with the ranking minority member, recognize—
(A) members of the select subcommittee to question a witness for periods longer than five minutes as though pursuant to clause 2(j)(2)(B) of such rule XI; and
(B) staff of the select subcommittee to question a witness as though pursuant to clause 2(j)(2)(C) of such rule XI.
(6) Agenda and reports required by rule 2(f) and rule 4(c) of the rules of the Committee on Oversight and Reform shall be required on the third calendar day before a meeting, hearing, or consideration of a report, as applicable.
(b) The provisions of this resolution shall govern the proceedings of the select subcommittee in the event of any conflict with the rules of the House or of the Committee on Oversight and Reform.
Sec. 5. Any committee of the House having custody of records in any form relating to the matters described in section 3 shall transfer copies of such records to the select subcommittee within 7 days of the adoption of this resolution or receipt of such records. Such records shall become the records of the select subcommittee.
Sec. 6. Service on the select subcommittee shall not count against the limitations in clause 5(b)(2)(A) of rule X.
Sec. 7. The Committee on Oversight and Reform is the “successor in interest” to the select subcommittee for purposes of clause 8(c) of rule II.
Sec. 8. The select subcommittee shall cease to exist 30 days after filing the final report required under section 3.
Sec. 9. (a) For further expenses of the Committee on Oversight and Reform for the One Hundred Sixteenth Congress, there shall be paid out of the applicable accounts of the House of Representatives an additional amount of $2,000,000.
(b) Payments under this resolution shall be made on vouchers authorized by the Committee on Oversight and Reform, signed by the chair of that committee, and approved in the manner directed by the Committee on House Administration.
Sec. 10. Amounts made available under this resolution shall be expended in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Committee on House Administration.
I have found the formal terminology for Corporate Shape Shifters.
It is call Special Purpose Vehicle.
The Detroit Land Bank Authority was supposed to fall under this business model, but, alas, they failed to incorporate and I still possess the claim of the entity.
This is also called corporate layering, where, as political chatter has it, Michelle Obama has an expertise in this area, but, hey, what do I konw.
This is what was implemented in TARP, but, this time, in TARP 2.0, otherwise known as this Cooties C.A.R.E.S. Act, or Families First, it is a free for all, because they all believe they got away with it.
In this secondary iteration of TARP, the vehicle for approval is the propaganda tool, of which I so adoringly call the #colored revolution.
Detroit is dealing the race card, claiming the cooties discriminates, without presenting how they came to this conclusion, unless you speak with Her Flatulent Boviness, Sheila Jackson Lee and her newest butt buddy, Dr. Death Bell Curve Fauci.
They all lie, and they lie into the public record for the purposes, at this time, to save their arses because they know they were all caught being mean to my Sweetie.
This is foreign propaganda, which has perpetuated WWII and the residuals of the peculiar institution.
Foreign operatives come in all shapes and colors.
Someone should as Bankole how he makes his determination of who is black and who is not black.
I want to see his Brown Paper Bag Test.
Reparations have absolutely nothing to do with the amount of melanin in one's epidermis, but the content of one's character, under juridic law.
Bankole is a vile creature because he as very mean to my Sweetie.
He was auctioning off his seat.
I watched.
Not because I write for the newspaper, but this column by @GaryMiles_DN publisher and editor of @detroitnews, is spot on and answers some basic fundamental questions about the proper role of the media in COVID-19 era. This pandemic has shown race matters.https://t.co/jW4rDtGO4T
Michigan is to get Contact Tracers, boots on the ground for field data collection, to go door to door, for the purposes of more Predictive Modeling Crap.
Then, this happened....
The following is a living, breathing, working example, in real time, of the transposable model for reparations, because they bastardized the original intent, for the purposes of stealin' the children, land & vote. https://beverlytran.blogspot.com/search?q=reparations
I love to be reiterative.
The cadence will eventually set in to grasp the concept of modern day human trafficking, called AI Gerrymandering, but this time, the model is being nationally diffused.
How do I know?
They unsuccessfully formatted the same state by state model when they set off the Parental Rights Amendment.
That is how I know because I know all the vile creatures.
#maytheheavensfall
Ohio Health Race Metrics Exclusive Measurement Tool
Lump and dump the missing variable data you can use to plug in to your predictive modeling crap to get the pareto optimalized crap to match your fact based theories to pitch for those federal grants to come up with some fake ass Public Private Partnership to come up with some foreign corporate Social Impact Bond programs that you go and run some longitudial cohort crap, to prove you are a statistical soothsayer?
Is that what the multiracial is all about?
Predictive modeling is propaganda crap they call "evidence-based".
"Look what I made! I made some facts to base my evidence."
That is called fraud and you know if someone took the time to read your methodology, it would be found some serious mental health issues when it comes to treating people as humans, and not goods.
The first rule in any form of research methodology is to explain how you constructed your tool of measurement.
In U.S. prisons, they run blood tests to determine which population you are assigned.
It is AI gerrymandering, more intuitively recognized as modern day human trafficking.
It is an entire industry, from cloud based genetic libraries to data management systems, going through the universities, putting the money in their own, private ventures pockets.
These data are so dirty, dirty, dirty.
They fraudulently manipulated the public record.
They falsely advise through dirty data.
You cannot measure race because it is fake, a pseudo science based upon chattel law of property ownership of Partus Sequitur Ventrum doctrine.
It is not a Bell Curve, it is a Gaussian Function!!!
What if these were false claims promulgated by Emergency Manager Emperor Pence and his Procurement Consortia Task Force, which falsely advised the president in the public record by and through Predictive Modeling Crap, to personally inure themselves for profit, holding a title of nobility as a foreign corporation, by fraudulently procuring federal contracts to use tiny humans as lab rats by billing Medicaid Fraud in Child Welfare, to profit from mass hysteria that resulted in shutting down the global economy?
I bet that would suck if there already exists a transposable model for prosecution of false claims, like Medicaid Fraud in Child Welfare, but, hey, what do I know?
I know the same privatization Michigan Emergency Manager Law which raped Detroit in a fake ass bankruptcies of the City and Big 3 Detroit Automakers to get all the TARP, was generated by the same exact same people, who are now the Procurement Consortia Task Force.
FUN FACT! LAURA INGRAHAM USED TO WORK WITH SKADDEN, OF DETROIT LAND BANK AUTHORITY FAME
ANOTHER FUN FACT! HER FLATULENT BOVINESS, SHEILA JACKSON LEE IS ON THE CONGRESSIONAL COOTIES COMMITTEE JUST LIKE SHE WAS ON THE TARP CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE
Rep. Jackson Lee also showed that she could be bought back in November 2008, when she went on a Citigroup-funded junket to the Caribbean island of St. Maartens along with four other members of the Congressional Black Caucus. The excursion, led by then-Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, whose penchant for IRS tax avoidance was coming to light, by any reasonable standard had violated recently-established ethics rules against House members accepting multi-day corporate trips. The staged event looked like a pat on the back from Citigroup for voting for the Bush administration’s $700 billion financial industry bailout proposal, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. The House Ethics Committee, under pressure from the black caucus, did not impose sanctions on any of the congressional participants.
This week, the Department of Health and Human Services announced five new contracts for ventilator production rated under the Defense Production Act (DPA), to General Electric, Hill-Rom, Medtronic, ResMed, and Vyaire, as well as two other contracts for ventilator production, to Hamilton and Zoll.
In total, combined with contracts with General Motors and Philips rated under the DPA earlier this week, HHS has finalized contracts to supply 6,190 ventilators for the Strategic National Stockpile by May 8 and 29,510 by June 1. The seven new ventilator contracts announced by HHS this month will provide a total of 137,431 ventilators by the end of 2020.
The rating of the five contracts under the DPA follows President Trump's direction to HHS Secretary Alex Azar to invoke the Act with regard to General Electric, Hill-Rom, ResMed, Medtronic, and Vyaire on April 2.
Secretary Azar issued the following statement:
"President Trump and HHS's use of the DPA is getting private manufacturers what they need to ramp up ventilator production rapidly. We are grateful to the patriotic Americans at companies working around the clock and retooling factories to increase ventilator production. The thousands of ventilators delivered to the Strategic National Stockpile starting this month, continuing through the spring and summer, will mean we have more capacity to respond to the pandemic as it evolves. HHS and FEMA deployment of ventilators from the stockpile have helped ensure that hospitals in states such as New York have not run out of ventilator capacity while working to save lives."
General Electric's contract, at a price of $64.1 million, is for 2,410 ventilators produced by June 29, with 112 by May 4 and 736 by June 1.
Hamilton's contract, at a price of $552 million, is for 14,115 ventilators produced by July 3, with 850 by May 8 and 4,404 by May 22.
Hill-Rom's contract, at a price of $20.1 million, is for 3,400 ventilators produced by July 13, with 400 by June 1.
Medtronic's contract, at a price of $9.1 million, is for 1,056 ventilators to be produced by June 22, with 200 by May 4 and 678 by June 1.
ResMed's contract, at a price of $31.98 million, is for 2,550 ventilators produced by July 13, with 400 by May 4 and 1,150 by June 1.
Vyaire's contract, at a price of $407.9 million, is for 22,000 ventilators produced by June 29, with 1,200 ventilators by May 4 and 9,100 by June 1.
Zoll's contract, at a price of $350.1 million, is for 18,900 ventilators produced by July 3, with 1,010 by May 4 and 4,410 by June 1.
She is a vile creature who has no soul worthy in this ethereal realm of existence.
Her Flatulent Boviness, Sheila Jackson Lee, in her regal leadership on reparations, is now memorialized as the one who publicly initiated Emergency Manager Emperor Pence's Procurement Consortia Task Force to launch her bipartisan working group for TARP 2.0, because they stole all the TARP and need more money so their fake ass schemes for stealin'the children, land and vote can get bailed out, from another bailout, because they ran all the money out the country through children's trust funds, then back into the country to fund political campaigns, like hers.
It is all about the timing.
It is almost that time for Trump to stop obstructing justice and pull those IG Reports from his backpocket.
I bet they timed this to blame her this all fell apart, which is shall, when the heavens fall.
This is about the trafficking of tiny humans, of which, Her Flatulent Boviness promulgates the residuals of the peculiar institution for her personal inurement.
At this point in your life, I do not believe you are capable of descending any further into the ranks of ethical depravity.
Why are you bearing false witness in the public record, as a public official of the City of Detroit?
Did you tell City Council that you were going to be promulgating published child welfare propaganda, as an act of personal inurement, by promoting your segregational, bleachbitted book, about to come out next year, through a public university, Wayne State University, to further privatization?
Rochelle, precious, are you not aware of the genus of this entire Mueller Investigation?
I do pray your response is in the form of a tale of an affirmative defense, because the only other, plausible explanation you can provide to the people, as to why you used your public office to advertise your anti-ammalgamationist narrative to perversely infect the annals of history by reducing the legacy of My Sweetie down to the latest round of talking points memo, is that you are a co-conspirator of the coup.
He represented everyone, not just your #coloredrevolution army of greedy, blackhearted souls who perpetuate the residuals of the peculiar institution for any kind of pecuniary interests they can conjure up in a fake ass Public Private Partnership, like the Detroit Land Bank Authority, and all those other wonderful child welfare foreign corporations stealin' the children, land & votes. Dare I mention that you neglected his history on impeachment, a core component of Voting Rights?
I have a much, deeper level of respect for the work of Nolan Finley over your actions of election interference, simply for the fact that he has no shame to his game, because his trolling generates hits for The Detroit News, a great marketing technique for a private corporation.
You cannot use your office to be mean to my Sweetie.
That gives me the Saddy Face because you breached the children's trust.
What also gives me great pause in filing a formal complaint against you to the City Inspector General for Ethics violation, is to only reinforce my position that you are just a vile creature, in the realms of Jeanine Pirro.
How come you made no mention of #MeToo, a major component of the legacy of Conyers?
Is this not a violation of civil rights to due process, or were you explicitly instructed not to mention anything about what you know, due to pending scheduling for you to your act of contrition in an attestation in the public square...or a court of law, but hey, what do I know?
I know nothing because you kept to the talking points when cranking out this distractionary indicator of another #coloredrevolution psyoptic.
Are you that crass that you would masticate your paid interpretation of what you wish to interject in the educational curriculum of our schools by failing to mention that due process is the edifice of the rights of a civil society in your omission of the two Ethics Investigation Referrals to the U.S. Department of Justice, which were completed quite some time ago?
That is quite bold because he denied the allegations and you do not consider this a major part of history.
Rochelle Riley, a longtime newspaper columnist, is director of arts, culture and entertainment for the City of Detroit. She is author of The Burden: African Americans and the Enduring Impact of Slavery and the young readers anthology That They Lived: Twenty African Americans Who Changed the World (Wayne State University Press, 2020).
The school that birthed the lions is closing. And its alumni are dying.
That school was the Civil Rights Movement, the heartbreaking fight for equal rights for black Americans that took up most of the 1950s and 1960s. Its classrooms were the streets of myriad urban centers and stubborn Southern strongholds, where brave young warriors faced off against America’s longest-serving tradition: bigotry.
Those warriors changed America. Some preached. Some taught. Most marched. But some, like the late U.S. Representative John Conyers were born to lead.
Conyers—a war veteran who earned his law degree after serving in the Michigan National Guard, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Army Reserves and a year in Korea during the Korean War—jumped feet-first into the movement. As a young lawyer, he worked with the National Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and with some of Detroit’s labor unions. In 1964, he won his first congressional race, hiring civil rights legend Rosa Parks to work in his Detroit office.
He went on to win 25 more times.
While in Congress, Conyers made achieving racial equality his primary mission. He co-founded the Congressional Black Caucus. He was, as the Nation put it after his death, the “only African American member of the House Judiciary Committee during the crucial debates about strengthening the Voting Rights Act.” Days after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Conyers proposed a national celebration of his birthday. It took him and the indomitable Representative Shirley Chisolm until 1983 to win that battle, when President Ronald Reagan signed the bill for what is now a federal holiday honoring King.
Conyers learned the ropes from fellow Michigan Representative John Dingell, whose record congressional longevity he nearly matched. Conyers, at the time of his death in October, had become the longest-serving African American representative, completing nearly 26 terms.
As momentous and heartbreaking as his death was for his constituents, his family and his friends, Conyers’ passing also signaled the passing of something far greater: the movement that gave him his start and his heart, that fueled his passion and that of so many others. Conyers, who was born four months before the stock market crashed in 1929 and who was a witness to nearly every major American news event for almost a century, was one of the last of the civil rights warriors. He represents a kind of leader that doesn’t really exist anymore, no matter how many pretenders try to match it. He was a man of the streets who became a man of Congress—who was still a man of the streets. Revered in his hometown, Conyers knew nearly everyone. And if he didn’t know you, he made you feel like he did.
People still talk about that time—back when segregation was a legal way of life in Detroit and the mistreatment of black folks finally pushed a city over the edge—that Conyers stood on top of a car. It was July 23, 1967, and the beginnings of a melee that arguably has been called a riot, rebellion, demonstration or reckoning. As the Detroit News recounted 50 years later, when the trouble started, the phone rang at Conyers’ house on Dexter Avenue. An aide told the 38-year-old second-term congressman that the Fire Department was calling for him to come to the corner of 12th Street and Clairmount Avenue.
Conyers went. Why would he not? That is what lions do. He was there for his people, but he was too late. He went to that street corner teeming with angry Detroiters, and he hopped onto a car in an attempt to be seen and heard above the fray. But he could not staunch the anger of so many who had been ignored or beaten down for so long. The crowd shouted him down. But he didn’t get angry. He understood.
“I was telling them this was not going to settle anything by getting mad and looting and having arguments with one another,” Conyers told the News as if that half-century were just a week ago. “They were fed up with the discrimination, segregation and all that goes along with it,” he said. “It was like they just couldn’t take it any longer, and collectively, it was like a fuse was blown. It was a dangerous thing because they didn’t care what happened.”
The crowd shouted him down that day, but it was a rare occurrence. He was beloved by his constituents who watched him introduce bill after bill, unapologetically, to help African-Americans and the poor, who had few others to carry their concerns. He called for health care for all Americans decades before President Barack Obama did, and he sponsored the United States National Health Care Act. He fiercely opposed the Vietnam War, which sent countless African American men into a senseless battle, and he fought against the death penalty, which was applied unjustly to more African American men than white.
No issue was more important to him than the study of reparations for the forced enslavement of African Americans. He introduced and reintroduced legislation seeking to study the issue—for three decades. That Congress and presidential candidates are now finally talking more seriously about reparations is a testament to Conyers and to the school that birthed him.
In the end, Conyers was once again in the spotlight—not atop a car but facing allegations of sexual misconduct, which he denied; nonetheless, he resigned in 2017. But unlike the first time, when he was ignored, his constituents largely rallied around him. My hope was that such a storied career wouldn’t end in tatters.
It didn’t. And for those of us watching the sun setting on the lions of the Civil Rights movement, it was a hard good-bye. Conyers died 10 years shy of a century that he helped shape. Barring another movement, another seismic shift in the fight to end second-class citizenship in America, there won’t be more like him.
Just go through the motions because I have a sneaky suspicion that a quorum does not exist for the impeachment vote, anyway, but hey, what do I know?
I know you gotta be duly elected to vote.
So, you mind as well summon Adam Schiff, Jerrold Nadler, Jamie Raskin, Sheila Jackson Lee, Maxine Waters, and of course, Nancy Pelosi as witnesses, too.
You are going to have to definitely call Bob Goodlatte, because he showed up at the ghetto ass funeral.
Too bad you can not summon John Conyers, Jr. to be a post mortum witness...or can you?
Oh, you do know that you would be remiss not to summon Judiciary Staff.
You will figure it out.
Routing for you!
#perkinscoiesucks
#maytheheavensfall
Collins to Nadler: Make witness lineup fair and credible
“The Committee must ensure it maintains its credibility and its historically preeminent role in the impeachment of presidents by not rushing to articles of impeachment or hearing only from scholars with demonstrated animosity towards the President. Throughout this hurried and partisan impeachment process, I have consistently requested mere fairness from members of the majority. An equal distribution of experts for the December 4 hearing would be a small concession to demonstrate to the American people this impeachment inquiry is not merely political theater.”
Detroit — The late U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr. was praised Monday as a giant for civil and voting
rights, a soft-spoken but fierce advocate for Detroit and a "unique figure" in black history.
Former President Bill Clinton, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and dozens of congressional and community leaders attended the more than five-hour funeral to laud Conyers, the longest-serving African American congressional member in the nation’s history.
In his 53 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, Conyers became the first black chairman of the House Oversight and Judiciary committees. The longtime Democrat created a federal holiday for Martin Luther King Jr., and various speakers noted how he served as a mentor on public service and politics.
Conyers, who died Oct. 27 at age 90, was "an incredible thinker politically," said Georgetown University professor Michael Eric Dyson, the congressman's main eulogist — “what he did legislatively, what he did politically, what he did in terms of changing the tide for black people is incalculable.”
Issues such as reparations for blacks and the struggle for civil rights were his legacy, Dyson said after the funeral.
“So he leaves a huge gulf,” he said. “Plus he was a progressive in the pure sense. He was willing to compromise to be certain, but he was unstinting in his advocacy for those who were most vulnerable.”
Clinton thanked the leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus and others who joined him to pay tribute to Conyers, thanking the people of Detroit “for electing him 27 times.”
“When somebody served as long and as well as John did, it’s tempting to list every last bill that he sponsored or co-sponsored or had anything to do with,” Clinton said.
“In a way, that’s a big mistake because it tends to turn history into dry bones. The most important thing is to remember how different the playing field was when he began rather than ended … how many lives were improved by his labors.”
Conyers’ casket sat just below the packed stage, a folded American flag resting on top next to a spray of red flowers. Former Detroit Pistons star Isiah Thomas paid a special tribute.
Among the dignitaries who attended but did not speak were civil rights icon and U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia; U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing; and U.S. Reps. Brenda Lawrence, D-Southfield; and Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, who eventually replaced Conyers after his resignation in December 2017.
Conyers came to Washington in January 1965, voted for the Voting Rights Act and ended up sponsoring three years later legislation to create Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday in the wake of the civil rights leader's 1968 assassination.
At the time Conyers took office, Clinton said, millions of African Americans still could not exercise the right to vote.
“When it (The Voting Rights Act) passed, he said it was the most important thing he would ever work on,” the Democratic former president said of Conyers. “He had no way of knowing then, he’d be hanging around in Congress for 54 years.”
The effects of that bill were immediate, Clinton said.
“When he did all this there were fewer than 1,000 African Americans in any form of local, state or national office in this whole country,” he said. “Today, there are more than 10,000.”
Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton would never have become president without the Voting Rights Act, Clinton said.
“He fought tooth and nail against every encroachment on the right to vote,” he said, including restoring elements to the Voting Rights Act that were nullified by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013. “He kept on going right to the very end.”
Rosa Parks story
Clinton shared a story Monday of Conyers’ reaction to Rosa Parks moving to Detroit. Parks couldn’t make a living at her home in Alabama.
“Even an icon has to eat, buy clothes, have a place to sleep. We often forget that,” Clinton said. “John Conyers, a young congressman, knew that she was in a fix, so he hired her. And she worked for him in his local district for 23 years, until she retired."
Clinton also shared some personal experiences with Conyers, including how Conyers brought jazz great Lionel Hampton to the White House in 1998 to play for Clinton.
“John Conyers’ autobiography might have been subtitled Jazz in the Key of Life,” he said. “He was not perfect and that made all of his achievements all the more important. Remember the circumstance, the action, the impact and make your own music.”
Conyers resigned in December 2017 after several former female staffers accused him of sexual harassment. He denied the claims of misconduct and said at the time of his resignation he hoped his departure would be viewed "in the larger perspective of my record of service."
Motown singer Stevie Wonder hailed Conyers as the catalyst for the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday legislation in 1968 and pushing it through to passage in 1983. It helped inspire Wonder's "Happy Birthday" song in tribute to King.
"We cannot forget the life of John Conyers, and getting people registered to vote is the way to honor him," said Wonder, who later played his 1969 hit "My Cherie Amour" in honor of the congressman.
Conyers' wife Monica told the audience toward the end of the funeral “don’t feel sad for us.”
“We feel sad for ya’ll," said Monica, the 55-year-old former Detroit City Council president. "You don’t have anyone to fight for you. Can you call somebody, really call somebody who is going to pick up the phone and stop it (a problem) in an instant.”
She warned people to be mindful of who they elect and “allow in your circle.”
'Losing too many giants'
The funeral followed a weekend of remembrances for the man who became the dean of the U.S. House of Representatives as he lay in state at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.
Among those at the service were Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, Wayne County Executive Warren Evans, Detroit Councilman Gabe Leland and former Detroit city councilwoman, the Rev. JoAnn Watson.
Lawmakers and colleagues of Conyers reflected on the legacy of the civil rights champion who loved Detroit.
Conyers served with 10 presidents and continued to be successful even in his final years, said former House Judiciary Chairman Robert Goodlatte of Virginia, who was the only Republican to speak at the event.
Goodlatte said he worked with Conyers against government surveillance, on criminal justice reform and policing strategy.
“He didn’t just care about people here in Detroit or elsewhere in the United States, he cared about people all across the globe,” Goodlatte said, adding that the congressman was a gentleman with strong convictions but who was always polite and soft spoken.
Conyers was a giant who stood amid turmoil and "kept on standing," said U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas.
Conyers introduced a bill for a committee to study reparations proposals in 1989, one of the “continuously unpopular things” he did it to “give a voice to the silenced and he gave them hope," Jackson Lee said as the crowd rose to its feet and applauded.
U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-California, hailed Conyers as a mentor who showed that "a progressive is someone who has no fear.”
“John Conyers gave me the spirit. He helped me to know I can have a voice. You can do all of this and still be respected,” said Waters, who has criticized and called for the impeachment of President Donald Trump.
She also took a swipe at Trump, who she said “doesn’t understand the Constitution” or “have an appreciation for the democracy” and “doesn’t deserve to be the president of the United States.”
The impeachment inquiry will continue despite death threats that have come her way, Waters said.
“John Conyers, whether you said it or not, this fight is for you," she said. "I’m not walking away from this fight. You have done too much to allow that this man who is that office illegally be allowed to stay in this office and to undermine all that you have done, all that you have cared about, all that you have thought about.”
U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn, who lost husband U.S. Rep. John Dingell earlier this year, said she knew the family’s pain.
“We’ve lost so many people this year,” she said. “...We’re losing too many giants.”
When he first ran for office, Conyers won by 158 votes, Dingell said.
“John Conyers was a fighter,” she said. “He always had a vision for the future and a respect for the past.”
Conyers knew she had been sad when Dingell’s husband fell ill after she took office and always took the time to check on her, Dingell said.
“He was dean of our region and he never left our side to make sure we were taken care of,” she said.
Julian Epstein, a congressional staffer for Conyers, said remembered the longtime congressman as a man who was “unfailingly dignified.” He was “the first to call whenever the chips were down” and “I never knew him to take a day off," Epstein said.
“He loved the people of this great city of Detroit,” he said. “He was never too busy or never to self-important to make time for any of you.”
Sen. Gary Peters said Conyers was a “living legend” who freely gave advice, even when the Bloomfield Township Democrat said he did not ask for it.
“But I always gladly accepted it,” Peters said. “It always was wise and from his heart.”
Memorial in works
Conyers “was my man,” said the Rev. Wendell Anthony, senior pastor of Fellowship Chapel and president of the Detroit branch of the NAACP.
“He was consistent, he was a leader and he was our own national treasure," Anthony said.
“John Conyers went out on the limb for us. He shook the tree,” he added. “Who will pick up the fruit and who will shake the tree now?”
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said he and City Council President Brenda Jones will be working with the Conyers family on a permanent memorial.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer noted the auto workers, seniors and everyday people whose lives were made better because of Conyers’ work.
“Jobs, justice, peace …,” Whitmer said. “That is a legacy that everyone in our state is proud of.”
The Democratic governor said she had ordered all flags be flown at half-staff in Michigan through Sunday to pay tribute to the former congressman who enlisted as a soldier in the National Guard just after high school.
“He could not have known at the time how appropriate the guard could be for his life; always ready, always there,” she said. “It is on us to mentor the next generation and make sure they know the legacy of John Conyers.”
Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist added Conyers, a family friend, created conditions that “propelled us to places that were unavailable and unimaginable” to prior generations.
“Every time there was a wrong to be righted, John Conyers was there,” he said. “These historic actions will reverberate for eternity … and no innuendo will take that away. We have to commit to honoring him.”
First family of Detroit
Bishop Charles H. Ellis III, pastor of Greater Grace Temple, opened the Monday service, noting that the Conyers’ family is one of the most significant in the history of Detroit.
“This is not just a distinguished gentleman, this is the distinguished gentleman,” Ellis said of Conyers.
Bishop P.A. Brooks, during the invocation, called Conyers a “man of steel and velvet.”
Before the funeral, former Detroit Mayor Dave Bing said he was surprised by Conyers' passing. He had been looking well a month ago when the two spent time together during an outing at the Detroit Golf Club, Bing said.
Bing said he regarded Conyers as a “warrior, a fighter, another great man” who dedicated his life to service.
Stabenow said Conyers cared about people and his city of Detroit.
“He was a man who put his imprint on the fight for civil rights, and justice and equal treatment for people,” Stabenow said.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer hugs the Rev. Jesse Jackson during the family hour.Buy Photo
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer hugs the Rev. Jesse Jackson during the family hour. (Photo: Robin Buckson, The Detroit News)
“He was a gifted politician,” Dyson said before entering the church on Seven Mile. “His life was its own eulogy. All I have to do is narrate the details of his tremendous and transcendent career. An extraordinary figure, he lived his life fully every day.”
Former Detroit Democratic Congressman Hansen Clarke, the friend, former aide and fundraiser to Conyers, held back tears as he described how “I owe the fact that I held political office to him.”
“I saw firsthand how he would help people and support causes that were unpopular,” Clarke said. “But he would do it because it was the right thing.”
In Washington, D.C., Rocky Twyman of Rockville, Maryland, organized a prayer vigil in front of the White House in Conyers’ honor. He asked passerby to sign a card for Conyers’ family.
“He fought many different presidents to get the King Day celebration,” Twyman said of Conyers.
“I don’t want him to be forgotten,” he said. “He really gave his life fighting for people and all of us got something.”
Conyers was scheduled to be interred after the funeral at Detroit Memorial Park in Warren, according to the funeral program.
