DEARBORN—As
Americans debate removing the Confederate Flag from the South Carolina State House
grounds, a conversation has surfaced locally over whether former racist Mayor Orville Hubbard’s statue should be taken down.

Hubbard
served as the Mayor of Dearborn for 36 years, from 1942 to 1978. His statue
sits across the old City Hall on Michigan Avenue.

“On
a practical level, the statue can’t stay where it is on the former City Hall
property,” said Mayor Jack O’Reilly. “And so we are already engaged in a
discussion about its disposition, including the need for broader historical
context.”

He
added that the city welcomes further input as it and communities across the
country look for ways to keep discussions about race moving forward.

Hubbard
was known as an outspoken segregationist. He is widely remembered as much for
his racism towards African Americans as he is for the contributions he made to
improving city services.   

During
his administration, non-Whites were aggressively discouraged from residing in
Dearborn. Today Arab Americans make-up more than 40 percent of the city’s
population according to the 2010 Census.  

Hubbard’s
longstanding campaign to “Keep Dearborn Clean” was interpreted to mean “Keep
Dearborn White.”

He
was once quoted as saying “Goddammit. I don’t hate n—–s. Christ, I don’t
even dislike them. But if Whites don’t want to live with n—–s, they sure as
hell don’t have to. Dammit, this is a free country. This is America.”

He
added: “I favor segregation. Because, if you favor integration, you first have
kids going to school together; then the next thing you know, they’re
grab-assing around, then they’re getting married and having half-breed kids.
Then you wind up with a mongrel race. And from what I know of history, that’s
the end of civilization.”

Throughout
his time in office, Hubbard delivered a wide range of city services to his constituents.
He was responsible for the construction of the city owned Camp Dearborn located
in Milford. Under his administration, the city purchased an eight-story senior citizen
tower in Florida for the use of Dearborn residents.

O’Reilly
said the statue installed in 1989 was created through private funds raised by
people in the community and was born out of their regard for the impact Hubbard
made on the quality of services offered in the city over his career.

When
asked whether Hubbard’s statue should be removed, O’Reilly said, “We agree that
the statue can become a focal point as people locally— and across the country—
rightly take a hard look at race relations in the past. We understand the
statue in its current location can be a distraction from the reality of our
story as a city today. It certainly doesn’t define us, so we’d much rather put
our energy into conversations that reflect the progress we’ve made as a
community and as a country.”

The
discussion about Hubbard’s statue emerged this week after Deadline Detroit
co-founder Bill McGraw wrote an article entitled, “Our version of the
Confederate Flag is 10 Feet Tall and Waving in Dearborn.” The article was
published after a White man fatally gunned down nine Black men and women at a
historic church in Charleston, South Carolina. The gunman was spotted in a
photo posing with the Confederate Flag.

The
city has also received criticism for designating a municipal holiday and naming
a street and two senior citizen’s centers after Hubbard.

O’Reilly’s father was the Dearborn Police Chief during Hubbard’s administration
before becoming mayor himself.

Hubbard’s
daughter, Nancy Hubbard, served on the Dearborn City Council for more than 10
years. She first began serving on the city council in 1990 and announced she
would not seek another term in 2013.

Over
the years she was a secretary in two departments: Building and Safety and
Public Works.

Many
Arab Americans had mixed reaction about whether the statue should be removed.

Rima Zalghout,
a Dearborn resident, said many Arab Americans who support the statue are
probably unaware of how racist Hubbard really was.

“He
was one of the biggest segregationist of the North,” she said.  She referenced the time Hubbard examined
the bullet-riddled body of a Black man and called it an open-and-shut case of
suicide.

“You
can still know your history and not have to glorify it,” Zalghout said.

Dania
Habhab Farhat said that she believes Hubbard’s statue should stay up
because of his service to the community.

She’s
lived in Dearborn all her life, except for a three year period when she moved
to Northville, and said there is no comparison with city services and parks.

“He provided the citizens of Dearborn with
great services and parks,” she said.  “I do not agree with his bigotry and
racist tactics.  Because he’s done so much for the city, I believe his
statue should stay up.  He was mayor for 36 years. That should be a reason
to keep it up on its own.”