Workers taking down the statue of Orville Hubbard, Sept, 29

DEARBORN – Workers Tuesday morning removed the 10-foot bronze statue of Dearborn’s segregationist mayor, Orville Hubbard, from its perch next to the former city hall.

A supervisor on the scene said they were taking the statue to the Dearborn Historical Museum, where it will be stored until city officials figure out what to with it.

Hubbard, mayor from 1942 to 1978, became known nationally for providing extraordinary city services and his objection to African Americans living in Dearborn, where many held jobs at Ford Motor Co. and other businesses. 

In recent months, as the discussion of race relations intensified across the country, the statue began attracting attention as a symbol of Dearborn’s unsavory past.

In 1969, The New York Times wrote that “Hubbard’s Dearborn is a symbol of the deep-seated racism of the North.”

Hubbard told The Times: “Goddammit. I don’t hate niggers. Christ, I don’t even dislike them. But if whites don’t want to live with niggers, 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.”

The statue was paid for with private funds and erected in 1989 by Hubbard supporters. Hubbard died in 1982.

With the former city hall being transformed into living and working space for artists, Mayor John O’Reilly said this summer the statue would have to be moved eventually.

O’Reilly told the Arab American News in July:

“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.”