BROADCASTS.com

Orville Hubbard:  His Life and Career

This is based on a zoom talk I did with Community Conversations, a social activist group associated with Littlefield Presbyterian Church of Dearborn, Michigan in May of 2021.  It is a broad discussion of the life and career of Orville Hubbard, for 36 years the creative but extremely controversial mayor of Dearborn.  I think Hubbard was one of the most unique political figures in  20th century America. 

Because the audience had many Dearborn people, they were good at asking questions based on their experiences.  I knew several of these people so we had brief exchanges of greetings.  I edited those out.  If you notice a jump, that may be the reason. 

David Good wrote the definitive biography of Orville Hubbard, based partially on extensive interviews with the mayor.  His book is Orvie: The Dictator of Dearborn.  Thanks, Dave.  I borrowed some of your anecdotes for this talk. 

In the two thousand and tens, the issue of statues became a central battle ground in the struggle over racism.  Why were there so many statues of people who had devoted their military careers to destroying the union and perpetuating slavery?  And why was there a statue of Orville Hubbard in front of the city hall?  I discuss my own evolving thinking on this issue, and the controversy over the Hubbard statue. 

For a thoughtful discussion of statues Mitch Landrieu is a good source.  He was the mayor of New Orleans.  He had a statue of Robert E. Lee in the middle of his town square.  Given that Robert E. Lee had never visited New Orleans it was not clear why the statue was there.  Its presence also  caused some distress to Black residents.  Landrieu wrote a thoughtful book, In the shadow of Statues, describing the controversy over those statues and how he managed to remove it. 

Terms used:  Southend (a small, isolated neighborhood in Dearborn near the enormous Ford Rouge Plant;  the  Ambassador Bridge connects Detroit with Windsor, Canada;  Camp Dearborn is  about 40 miles west of Dearborn. Dearborn people go there in the summer.   

Note that there is another Hubbard podcast focusing on an interview with him and on his reputation as America’s “Meanest Man” in race relations. 

The music TakingStock was written by G. Kevin Dewey.  Thanks, Kevin.