JFK, Detroit 1960 & meetingn with AA ministers & labor leaders

[irisblue]

Source-"https://michiganadvance.com/2022/09/04/on-this-day-in-1960-jfk-lands-in-metro-detroit-ahead-of-labor-day-parade/

snip-"Some Detroiters point to a little known June 1960 private meeting that pushed Kennedy over the top with the growing African American demographic in Michigan and throughout the Midwest."

snip-"A group of Detroit Black Democratic leaders that included UAW official Horace Sheffield Jr., business owner Forrest Green, longtime Democratic stalwart Joseph Coles and Detroit Common Council member William Patrick Jr. met with Kennedy at his home. The event was set up by Williams, Michigan’s popular governor."


snip-"There, they urged the Massachusetts U.S senator to adopt a stronger civil rights platform.The Rev. Horace Sheffield III said his father made the case

“What are you going to do for Black folks?” said Sheffield III about the question that his father likely had for Kennedy."


more there.
I did not know about this groundwork meeting between the Kennedy people, Dems & UAW & the AA community. Now I will be going down more asides in libraries.

[Kid Berwyn]

1. G. Mennen Williams was a great governor. A veteran of the USN, like JFK

During World War II, he served four years in the United States Navy as an air combat intelligence officer in the South Pacific, where he achieved the rank of lieutenant commander and earned ten battle stars.

Source: Detroit Historical Society https://detroithistorical.org/learn/encyclopedia-of-detroit/williams-g-mennen

Michigan has produced many great governors, mostly Democratic, like Soapy.