Word: council
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...some ways, Cockrel is a relic of Detroit's past. She is the only white member of the city council and, when her term ends in late December, she could well be its last. Even though she is personally popular, she is leaving the council partly because she is tired of the scandals that have rocked the city lately. Her departure is a significant moment in the history of Detroit, the largest majority-black city in America. In the 1950s, when Detroit's population reached its 2 million peak, nearly 1.6 million white people lived here. In 1990, though whites...
Sheila Murphy Cockrel, a member of the Detroit city council, has never been afraid to swim against the tide. She opposed proposals to create "Africa Town," a district exclusively for black-owned businesses in the heart of downtown. She regularly sparred with the city's former mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, who resigned in 2008 amid enormous legal problems. Just last month, she drew headlines for abruptly leaving the council's chambers to protest a rushed measure, backed by Christian conservatives, to restrict alcohol sales at Detroit's strip clubs. "It was an act of democracy to walk...
...efforts of Detroit's first black mayor, Coleman Young, to integrate the city's police force. That led to the appointment of Detroit's first black police chief and, eventually, the suspension of a unit known for harassing young black men. Cockrel helped her husband win a city-council seat, and he was viewed as a leading potential successor to Young. But in 1989, Ken had a heart attack and died. For a while, Sheila stayed home to care for her young daughter. Four years later, she successfully ran for a city-council seat of her own, hoping...
Cockrel quickly became known as one of the council's most astute political observers and best-prepared members. She regularly sparred with a fellow city councilmember, Monica Conyers - wife of Democratic Congressman John Conyers Jr. - who recently pleaded guilty to bribery charges. She's also had her differences with the current city-council president - Ken Cockrel Jr., her own stepson. He recently called her walkout from the city council's chambers during the strip-club debate "the height of irresponsibility" and said it "shows a high level of disrespect for the people that put elected officials in office." (See TIME...
...Cockrel says race and ethnicity did not factor into her decision to leave Detroit's city council. Ultimately, she says, residents will elect "people they believe are authentically going to represent their interests - and get their lights on." But race remains an unavoidable theme in this region's narrative. Some blacks have called Cockrel a racist, despite her background, while whites have questioned her racial authenticity. During a dinner at a downtown Cuban restaurant recently, a white suburbanite told her, "You're one of my black friends." Cockrel wasn't amused...