SAGINAW, MI – Brenda Moore is Saginaw’s second mayor to serve beyond a pair of two-year terms, taking office Nov. 18 for a third go-round. She joins the company of Gary Loster, who chaired four City Councils from 1993 to 2001.

Moore was selected on a 6-1 vote over Michael Balls, who was nominated by Monique Lamar Silvia. Moore was nominated by Priscilla Garcia, with support from Bill Ostash and the four Nov. 5 election newcomers — Jacinta Seals, Eric Braddock, Heidi Wiggins and Carly Hammond. The candidates could not vote for themselves.

Balls, elected  with Moore to the council in 2013, also lost out on a bid for pro-tem. This time Wiggins joined Silvia in backing him, but Moore and the remainder of her supporters rallied behind Garcia. She becomes the first Latino to hold one of the council’s two leadership posts.

Beyond Loster and Moore, Saginaw’s prior two-term mayors under the 1936 City Charter were Stew Francke (1961-65), Larry Crawrford (1983-87), Henry Nickleberry (1989-93), Wilmer Jones Ham (2001-05), Greg Branch (2009-13) and Dennis Browning (2013-2018). Browning had an extra fifth year because City Hall switched away from odd-year separate elections.

The brief proceedings, with swearing-in ceremonies and acceptance statements, may be viewed on YouTube or on saginaw-mi.com, sometimes appearing on Spectrum cable 191, which is Saginaw Government Television, SGTV.

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With a long history of leadership and advocacy, the Braddock family has been synonymous with dedicated public service in the city of Saginaw, and Eric Braddock Sr. is ready to uphold and expand that legacy.

Eric’s uncle, Pastor Charles Braddock, who took on leadership of St. Luke C.M.E. Church in 2010, had already established himself as a significant figure in Saginaw well before his pastoral role.

Before his untimely passing in 2013, Charles devoted his career to uplifting at-risk populations, serving in roles such as Director of the Summer Food Program, Finance Specialist, Research Analyst, and Law Enforcement Officer. As Executive Director of First Ward Community Services, he became a steadfast advocate for marginalized communities, expanding his influence statewide through his appointment to the Michigan Department of Corrections Parole Board Commission by Governor John Engler.

Inspired by his family’s impact and his own deep love for Saginaw, Eric decided to run for city council—a decision he first contemplated four years ago.

“I waited too late to get my paperwork in order back then,” Eric admitted. “But looking back, I think those four years gave me the opportunity to fully immerse myself in the community and prepare for this moment.”

Ironically, Eric faced the same level of competition this year as he would have four years ago, with 11 candidates vying for the five available four-year terms. Now elected, he is eager to continue his family’s tradition of service and build a legacy of his own. 

After an accomplished 20-year military career as an Army combat veteran, Eric returned to Saginaw in 2018 to be closer to family. Since then, he has dedicated himself to the community as a basketball coach and youth interventionist, focusing on shaping the next generation by fostering leadership, responsibility, and integrity in young people—a reflection of the values his family has long championed.

“Saginaw is my home,” Eric said. “I’ve seen its challenges and its potential, and I want to be a part of its revitalization—building a community where everyone has opportunities to thrive.”

Eric never expected—or wanted—to win based solely on his last name. He actively connected with the community, engaged with neighborhood organizations, and shared his vision on various platforms. His campaign emphasized public safety, community engagement, and economic inclusion.

“2024 will usher in the next generation of young political leadership in the city of Saginaw. With that comes the next generation from the Braddock family in the form of Eric D. Braddock Sr.,” said Norman Braddock, a former Saginaw Public School Board president. “Eric is a product of Saginaw, a graduate of Saginaw High School, and a retired veteran. The grandson of Talmadge Braddock and nephew of George Braddock, he is a proven leader, and I am confident he will serve the citizens of Saginaw with dedication.”

Norman’s own legacy is notable. First elected to the Saginaw school board in 1999, he later joined the City Council in 2011, where he received more votes than any other candidate. Over the years, he held roles such as Director of Quality and Business Development for SVRC Industries Inc., spent two decades at General Motors’ Saginaw Steering Gear Division (Nexteer), and led the Minority Entrepreneur Development Projects.

Sheilda Braddock, Eric’s aunt and a Community Development Liaison for Isabella Bank, emphasized his commitment to supporting young people.

“Eric brings a strong sense of service and leadership to the community,” Sheilda said. “His dedication to youth development shines through in his work and the countless hours he has spent teaching young people important values like character, responsibility, leadership, and integrity. With his proven track record of service to both his city and his country, Eric is the ideal representative for Saginaw on City Council.”

Joining Braddock on the council will be Jacinta J.J. Seals, another first-time council member and daughter of former Mayor Joyce Seals, along with Heidi G. Wiggins. Incumbents Bill Ostash and Monique Lamar-Silvia secured additional terms. Carly Rose Hammond also won a seat in a separate race for a two-year term. Together, they will join Mayor Brenda Moore, Priscilla Garcia, and Michael Balls.

The new City Council members will be sworn in at today’s meeting at 6:30 p.m., where they will also elect the Mayor and Mayor Pro-Tem. The meeting will be streamed live on the city’s YouTube channel.

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SAGINAW, MI — Four decades ago, the Saginaw election of November 1983 produced the first African American majorities to serve on the City Council and the Board of Education.

Locally, this occasion was celebrated somewhat like President Obama’s national victory a quarter-century later. A mountain had been climbed.

One individual is absent from official records, even though he had a prime role. Oliver Bruce Moorer was not among the six black candidates who won office as part of this major chapter in Saginaw civil rights history. He had lost his life by then, but his legacy remained alive in every polling place.

To begin the scenario, Moorer was 41 years old when he was slain April 23, 1981, in a torrent of police gunfire during a middle-of-the-night drug raid by an all-white SWAT team with a warrant for marijuana at his residence, 1911 Cherry.

From the first day, an “enough is enough” outcry arose, like Black Lives Matter ahead of its time. The man who died at the hands of city police was well-known and highly-regarded among minority citizens as a 1960s and ’70s activist who had evolved to become the county jail’s first black probation officer.

Celestia Moorer-Brown, eldest of his six children, recalls when their father would take them bowling or to summer ballgames, and “everyone would honk their horn at him, and he would honk back, because he knew everybody else.”

Therefore, “it was the Bruce Moorer election” in 1983, asserts Larry Crawford, condensing the mutual memories of council peers like Carter McWright and later, Gary Loster, who were leaders during the time of turnaround, and who are sharing their thoughts at the anniversary.

In fall 1981 at the polls, the community’s response to the slaying began with re-election of Joe Stephens, along with Crawford, a newcomer who would be followed by the big surge two years later. Stephens had served as the second black mayor, following Henry Marsh’s footsteps. Crawford soon would become third in line.

But the Moorer groundswell didn’t have time to fully develop in time for the ’81 vote, Crawford explains, and momentum grew during 1982 and 1983 as the slaying more and more became Saginaw’s last-straw symbol for years of oppression in the name of law enforcement.

Citizens absorbed the scenario, all too familiar, as officers were exonerated after an inquest, in large part based on their assertions that Moorer had fired first through closed front doors, forcing their onrush and repeated rounds of fire. His supporters responded that even if true, most people would react the same, figuring these were robbers, not cops.

With two more Moorer years for the reality and facts to sink in, these were the November ’83 election results:

• On the City Council, mid-term incumbents Stephens and Crawford were joined by Mildred Mason, Lou Oates, Joy Hargrove and Carter McWright to hold six of the nine seats, only 22 years after there had been zero minorities.
• On the Board of Ed, pioneers Ruben Daniels and Willie Thompson welcomed Hazel Wilson and James W. Woolfolk Jr. to the table. A short 15 years earlier the seven trustees all had been white, and now four faces of color suddenly made up the majority. Mason, an educator and businesswoman, and Wilson, a social worker both professional and volunteer, were the top vote-getters as women began to emerge.

Voting matters

By no coincidence, this was the first time East Side blacks ever had outvoted the West Side, which in 1983 remained more than 90 percent white during the first stages of cross-river neighborhood integration. The inspiration for this new voting outbreak, surviving participants agree, was the furor over the Bruce Moorer case, with spinoff from the council election affecting the school board.

At City Hall on election night, results gradually were posted on a raised TV in council chambers. Totals grew precinct by precinct. Black activists gathered mainly in one corner and began to celebrate the victorious breaking news. Whites, huddled across the room, still carried hope that at least twice-appointed Del Schrems would keep his place for the final elected spot.

But then Arthur Eddy was slow to arrive because of record heavy turnout, and when the screen showed McWright rallying from behind to capture that last seat from Schrems, the scene mixed one group’s arms-raised joy with the other section’s astonished silence.

(Historians note that back in 1955, the early numbers indicated Harry Browne was going to win, becoming the pioneer, until a big load of late votes came in from another Arthur, in this case Arthur Hill, with backing from the white-collar “Committee of 50,” later United Saginaw Citizens. And so 28 years later, in 1983, the same fate happened to Schrems in reverse as had been for Browne, reflecting the tide of change.)

But there’s a downside. The 1983 East Side voter turnout turned out to be a one-time thing, burning out before the decade ended, declining even more sharply here on the 21st century side of history.

By 1985 Schrems was running again, with yard signs that showed not only his name, but a slogan: “Balance the Power.” This, he explained, was “the same as what black people have been saying all these years when they were on the short end.”

That November, Schrems was the West Side’s leader in the totals, but the power was not immediately balanced. Other winners were Crawford, Roosevelt Ruffin, and Randy Jurrens, keeping the 6-3 ratio.

But the white backlash and black apathy reached full fruition in 1987, with East Side turnout further falling to barely half the ’83 headcount, Oates and Mason were voted out of office, and McWright didn’t run again, already frustrated and soon to move with his Music Planet store to Flint. Schrems subsequently was appointed mayor by the restored white majority.

On the ballot’s other portion, Thompson in ’87 was voted off the school board. His demise was not from opposing votes, but from a lack of supporters at the polls.

A single-issue election

No Saginaw election, before or after, has come down to one “big thing” that dominates public response in any similar way to the Moorer slaying, not even after city police in 2012 gunned down Milton Hall in the Riverview Plaza parking lot.

Even future voters were affected by Moorer’s death in 1981. Elbony Washington, an 11-year-old neighbor at the time, recalls the drug raid as an “ambush.” From her home in Seattle, she said recently, “As a child, it had me devastated. I can remember clearly entering the house where he was killed shortly after the investigators had cleared out. I can see the red blood on the pool table (where he died) as if this had happened yesterday. Mr. Moorer is a hero in my eyes and in his honor I’ve made a choice to stand and speak up against injustice.”

The East Side’s strong showings at the polls after 1983 were not local, but national. Rev. Jesse Jackson visited during his groundbreaking bids for the presidency in the 1984 Democratic primary and then again in ’88, when he won a stunning Michigan victory with overwhelming Saginaw support, only months after the Mason/Oates/Thompson defeats.

Although Loster didn’t fully emerge in city politics until the 1990s, he observed the 1980s as a Vietnam vet who had served a stint as Buena Vista’s police chief before he enlisted with General Motors security. The level of local interest “has never been the same since the Bruce Moorer case, and then for Jesse Jackson, for whatever reason,” he says.

A contrasting scenario

Compared to the tragic fate that befell Milton Hall, there were (and are) no videos of what happened to Bruce Moorer that spring evening on Cherry near South 13th. Even so, the outlook among most black citizens was, he was interrupted from sleep and, if he fired, he fired as a natural reaction, especially given his line of work.

Did four cops really need to barge in and fire more than 30 rounds in return? Besides, a neighbor testified that after the first shots, she heard Moorer plead for mercy with shouts that he had not realized they were vice officers, and he had attempted to surrender during the start of the return spree of bullets, to no avail.

In most residents’ eyes, there may as well have been a tape.

Celestia Moorer still was a teen at the time, but as the case and the commentary evolved, she immediately started filling scrapbooks with clippings from both The Saginaw News and The Detroit Free Press, which had picked up on the story. She recalls, in retrospect, that her father had become quiet and distant during the final weeks, as though he foreshadowed the tragedy that was ahead.

Milton Hall was a helpless homeless man. Not Bruce Moorer, among the first mid-1950s students at then-new Saginaw High School. He enlisted in the Army and returned for work at the Chevy Parts Plant on East Genesee during the 1960s, and started his family of six children.

Still, he found time for studies at what then was Saginaw Valley College, SVC, with degrees in sociology and psychology that freed him from the auto-plant grind and led to his second career as a parole officer.

Moorer was involved in Model Cities discussions, similar to today’s ARPA, for the federal War on Poverty, mostly through the newly established Saginaw County CAC. He formed a group called “Why Can’t We Live Together?” and taught a class in community organizing at the Delta College St. Joe’s Center.

He declared in a Saginaw News report on April 22, 1973, “If City Hall won’t come to northeast Saginaw, then northeast Saginaw will come to City Hall.” This was eight years and one day before he was slain.

Moorer again was featured in a Nov. 14, 1976, newspaper profile, this time at his courthouse desk, adjacent to the jail. A photo showed him in disco-era polyester attire, and correspondent Venice Holmes wrote about how Moorer could relate to the clientele, having himself been busted during prior times, socializing at after-hours establishments along Potter Street or in the neighborhoods.

The section-page profile, more deeply, demonstrated that the hip new probation officer wasn’t only teaching community action, he was engaged in it himself. A main opinion he expressed, more than once, was that City Hall was far too slow in recruiting more minority police officers.

Days after Moorer was killed, five members of the Black Police Officers Association helped carry the casket during a memorial service that overflowed Bethel AME Church. They were Ernie Bradley, Henry Hopson, Bill Washington, Al Jamison, and John McAfee.

Each in the quintet refused remarks for media members who asked why they were paying tribute to someone who allegedly had fired shots at brethren officers. The five had spoken with their actions. Meanwhile, the Black Business Association raised funds for legal proceedings.

Lee Elsenia Porterfield, a South Sider who took her ever-present foster children and her knitting to the Human Relations Commission meetings, was among letter-to-the-editor authors. She wrote that Moorer “went to the same church as I do, and he took his children. He spoke to the congregation about his love for his mother, for his family, and for the people of Saginaw who needed a helping hand.”

Patricia Mosley wrote, “Mr. Moorer’s death has only served to reawaken the East Side citizens, and these emotions will not blow over, and our voices will not be quieted until justice is done.”

White letter-writers responded that race-based sentiment against white police was unfounded, and that lawbreakers always have only themselves to blame.

Latinos as third parties

No Latino candidate emerged in 1983. A blowup had taken place a few years earlier on the school board side, when trustees appointed Gilberto Guevara to fill a vacant seat, only to have the interim city manager, Bob Dust, issue a debatable declaration that the City Charter prohibited municipal employees from holding any sort of public office.

In January 1985, when constant nemesis Walt Averill III resigned, the new council took a new step toward three-way ethnic makeup with the appointment of attorney J. David Perez, 26, fresh out of law school and even younger than Crawford, Mason, Oates and McWright.

Perez had only 10 months to make a name for himself and fell short, middle of the pack, in the November 1985 election. He never re-joined local politics or community affairs, saying at the time he felt “like a ping-pong ball” being knocked back and forth by local special interests, both black and white.

(Vernon Stoner, named first African American city manager in 1987, upon departing four years later remarked, “For many people, I was too black for the whites, and not black enough for the blacks.”)

For the 1993 elections, Guevara reappeared as leader of “Hispanics for Better Government,” resulting in the first two Latinos elected to local office.

Popular volunteer Minerva “Minnie” Rosales invested six frustrating years on the school board, home to no other Latino trustees before or since. Superintendent Foster Gibbs and other board members would ask for specific proposals geared to Latinos, and she would respond that she could offer advice with her advocacy, but that she was not a professional educator and that the task ultimately was up to Gibbs and his team. The lowest moment was when she protested with a spontaneous walkout during an all-day planning session.

Dan Soza Jr. attained a council seat in tandem with Rosales. He was a more traditional liberal and managed smooth relations with most of his City Hall peers, even commuting with Joyce Seals to work at MSU in East Lansing. He closed his 12-year tenure by rounding up support from Council members two decades ago, both black and white, to transfer ownership of an historic city-owned home across from Hoyt Park as a community center for the newly-formed Mexican American Council.

Was there justice? 

With Moorer, as with Milton Hall three decades later, there were no criminal prosecutions. Families received civil settlements — $350,000 for the Moorers, and $725,000 for Hall’s mother, Jewel. They had sued for more than $20 million in each case.

City Councilman Walt Averill and other conservatives who had pushed the 1979 frozen property tax caps, which still are in place, protested the money for the Moorers. Jerome McKenzie of Saginaw United Taxpayers said it was the police who should be reaping the cash settlements instead, suggesting something in the range of $100 million, a statement that was part of the racial split at the time.

To face up to the protests, then-City Manager Tom Dalton within 24 hours announced an independent probe. He also halted such aggressive drug enforcement tactics as moonlight raids and undeclared door knocks. This was similar to the Louisville 2020 follow-up to Breonna Taylor’s death.

Under the black majority from the ’83 election, Dalton assigned Labor Relations Specialist Ralph Carter to develop recruiting and training policies with specific numerical targets for race and gender integration in both police and in fire, resisting (and sometimes settling) reverse discrimination lawsuits from whites who didn’t receive promotions.

This didn’t mean there would be smooth sailing. During the years between the Moorer and Hall slayings, a major incident involved two white off-duty officers who kidnapped a teen who they claimed spoke something sexual to one of their wives from a neighborhood sidewalk near Arthur Hill High School, where many police resided, still bound at the time by a residency requirement. The young man testified that the officers forced him into their trunk and dumped him on the other side of the river. Outrage occurred, along with a mix of silent thanks that an Emmett Till-type tragedy was not carried out.

City Manager Tim Morales and Police Chief Bob Ruth both took office in the aftermath of the Milton Hall tragedy and have aimed for reforms. City police ranks now are one-third minority and/or female, although the impact is lessened by the higher reliance on less-integrated state police. During a public forum last spring, complaints focused on MSP traffic stops even beyond the publicized incidents on Annesley and then Webber streets.

Also, Saginaw’s part in the nationwide protests that followed the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd led the prior City Council in 2020 to establish by ordinance the Citizens Police Advisory Commission, CPAC, which has met bimonthly for three years but has not staked out any policy or reform positions in a similar manner to the old Henry Marsh-inspired Human Relations Commission, which was active in the Moorer case along with day-to-day grievances based on race.

(Three years before his election to City Council broke the color barrier, Marsh in 1958 had ruefully nicknamed HRC as the “Bar Commission” while he served as founding chairman, because so many complaints regarded refusals of service in taverns and nightclubs. In one case, a recalcitrant bar tender/owner “complied” by indeed serving a customer of color, but then shattering the emptied glass against a wall so that no white patron’s lips ever would be “soiled.” The Elks Club, formerly across from the Potter Street Station, now is located in the former Plant 8 Lounge.)

Joe Stephens speaks out

African-American council members who took the 1983 post-election lead for public safety integration — Crawford, Mason, Oates and McWright — were from Bruce Moorer’s generation or younger. Their mentors and elders included Stephens and Marsh, who encouraged a lower-key approach to pursuing change, rather than weekly council-table orations on the need to reform the cops.

But it was Stephens, generally conservative with original Committee of 50 backing, who ended up taking the most strident public stand. A former police officer among the first to integrate the force, he was not popular with some of his white peers downtown to the point where as mayor (1977-79) they posted a traffic ticket on his windshield when he parked behind the Civic Center for a quick ceremonial entry-and-exit to a Wendler Arena event.

He thus believed police leaked a 1984 report to news media that he owned a private operation, Gibraltar Services, that provided security at an after-hours club on East Road named “Do Drop In.” This was learned from a vice raid.

Angered, Stephens countered months later with a public allegation that several unnamed Saginaw police officers were engaged in sex crimes, theft of evidence, false reports and use/sale of illegal drugs seized from citizens.

An appointed three-member panel for a closed-door probe included two out-of-towners and Saginaw attorney M.T. Thompson Jr., future county judge. The investigators found evidence to support some of Stephens’ claims, but no criminal charges were filed or grand jury formed, similar to the previous Bruce Moorer case and then Milton Hall in the future.

Findings were kept private by court mandate, and neither Thompson nor any of the six black council members would agree to “leak” any details to news media, not even anonymously. This was done instead by a white councilman who perceived that the report summary, overall, would build public confidence, among all ethnic groups, in city police and their conduct.

Aiming to compromise

Police reform may have been the driving force behind the unprecedented African American voter turnout in 1983, but of course this was not alone on the agenda. While the newly empowered black leaders stood strong on integrating the law enforcement ranks, their strategy otherwise was to demonstrate that the remaining white city dwellers need not feel excluded by the new experience of others holding the helm.

In effect, the new council reached out to whites far more in full than whites had reached out to them through the years:

• One olive branch was to expand federal block grant target zones for the first time into lower-income neighborhoods on the near West Side, so that someone on Harrison Street could qualify for a home-repair grant, for example, the same as a resident in need near Sheridan Avenue.
• Another plan was to devote 1 percent of the general fund budget to arts organizations, with full inclusion of traditional white-oriented groups like the symphony and the choral society. Budget shortfalls soon stopped the full amount, $250,000 at the time, but the old Andersen Pool shower space was converted to today’s showcase Enrichment Center, and the Arts Commission was formed.
• The moniker “Celebration Square” was created so that the central parks would not be thought of so much as East Side, and the script “Saginaw” lapel pins first became trendy, a small first step toward creation of the Saginaw Future agency for economic development.
• For the ever-present 1980s question of tax breaks to help save General Motors, the black members generally stood with the Chamber of Commerce in favor. Only Oates joined Sister Ardeth in left-wing opposition, bringing Ralph Nader’s watchdogs to town to help advocate against abatements. Crawford summed up reasons to stick with the establishment when he noted that without the tax breaks, GM full well might move Saginaw operations to Ohio or Indiana or Mexico. This happened anyhow, but the question seemed still up in the air in 1983.

Double standards

The wave pool later in the decade was a fast failure, with the black council members blamed and ridiculed, but this idea was not from them, but from Frank Andersen himself, with former Mayor Paul Wendler at his side. How were they supposed to say no to a generous civic giant who donated the first $1 million for his final wish after his 100th birthday, which was to replace the worn out municipal swimming pool in his name with something more modern to promote “urban tourism?”

This didn’t seem so far-fetched back then. Saginaw even seemed ahead of Frankenmuth. By the time the water park opened in 1988, Crawford had resigned as mayor to pursue his business interests, and it was Schrems who took the inaugural ride down the slide.

The $3 million grant- and gift-funded construction was not questioned; instead, it was the annual operating cost from the general fund. This was seen as a double standard among black leadership, because nobody ever questioned the annual tax subsidy for the old Andersen Pool with its 10-cent admission.

Other examples:

• When members, especially Oates with Sister Ardeth, followed larger cities in adopting a local divestment ordinance in protest of South African apartheid, they were accused of going beyond their assigned local duties. However, when Carol Cottrell as mayor won support years later for a resolution against the Iraq War, no similar level of disapproval came forth, displaying another double standard.
• In the same vein, the new council was downgraded for occasions of public discord. It turned out that black politicians not only didn’t always agree with one another, they also ironed out things openly, not secretly at the Saginaw Club, as had been white professional precedent.

There was not the same sort of criticism only a few years earlier, the first and final white public battle among United Saginaw Citizens, with Paul Prudhomme and Ron Bushey in 1979 haggling for four weeks over the mayorship. The final ’79 compromise was for Prudhomme to take the immediate two years as mayor, followed by Bushey for the next pair.

There also were inner conflicts. Hargrove was a Republican who drew self-attention by aiming to simultaneously serve on the County Board. Stephens, with a home on the Ren View subdivision’s new Martin Luther King Drive, blocked a McWright effort to follow national trends and rename Genesee Avenue, both east and west, in a larger tribute, dubbing him “Carter McWrong.”

Crawford started the trend for multi-term mayors when he changed his mind in 1985 at the last minute on giving Mason a chance to become the first woman, later achieved by Wilmer Jones Ham. Gary Loster ultimately attained four two-year mayor terms in a row.

On the school side, one foretelling event was the vote to close Potter Elementary, especially emotional for alumni Daniels and Thompson, who insisted on doing the deed not in the downtown board room, but in the gym at 10th and Farwell, out of respect for the remaining residents who attended. There were explanations that Potter’s loss would not be alone because population trends showed more mothballs to come, but the sweeping decline that followed (closing Edith Baillie, Longstreet, Houghton, Morley, Heavenrich, Emerson, Jones, Longfellow, Webber, Salina, Coulter) was fathomed by few in advance.

(The late 1980s seemed for a moment like the 1960s when the empty Potter structure was scheduled for the wrecking ball, and activist Bobby Stitt chained himself to the entrance in a protest that endured for several days.)

What caused voting drop off?

After her 1987 backlash ouster from the council, Mason spoke in “us and them” terms regarding blacks and whites in leadership. “We tried to work with them,” she said, “but despite our outreach, they turned us away.”

Crawford at the time theorized that some black people became disenchanted because they expected mass employment to result from the 1983 election’s local power flip, but this was at the same time that Reagan Republicans were chopping federal revenue sharing grants to cities that had paid for some of those jobs, and so he felt the ’83 council was blamed for actions the national GOP took during their years in the majority.

Henry Nickleberry, who would become the fourth black mayor in 1989, said a ward system was an answer to address the apathy, an idea that still is floated from time to time, along with an elected mayor.

As then-Saginaw NAACP President Bernice Barlow lamented, “By the time white people fled and allowed us to share power, the cities already were becoming decimated, so thanks a lot.”

Henry Marsh pointed to the theme of blacks needing to be “twice as good” to overcome obstacles to equality, in the perceptions of ethnic peers as well as the eyes of whites, asserting, “We are harder on ourselves.”

Willie Thompson, the only 1987 defeated candidate to stick with it, returned for a 1989 bid, campaigning as though he was a newcomer rather than a respected elder to win back his seat, serving until his death in 2005. Wife Mattie and son Jason followed his footsteps. Part of his analysis at the time was that many everyday citizens had switched to audiocassette tapes and no longer tuned to WWWS-FM, now KISS 107, for election day get-out-the-vote radiothons, with the Rev. Roosevelt Austin hosting from the Zion Baptist gymnasium and joining activists like Al Loveless, John Pugh and Rosa Holliday over the airwaves during the 13 hours of polling. As a Delta College professor of sociology, Thompson’s overall analysis was far more in-depth, but this was an example of the dilemma.

(In one of the few community-driven actions of recent years, Holliday organized petitions to rename Second Street as Roosevelt Austin Avenue.)

Back to basics

Pastor Austin, who joined Marsh and legal partner Carl Poston on the City Council during the later 1960s, advocated for black voter registration in his Louisiana hometown of Opelousas during the early 1950s, even prior to the Montgomery bus boycott. One of his four cohorts was killed by the Ku Klux Klan, and he realized that he just as well could have been the victim.

When he moved to Saginaw with Nurame, his wife, he vowed never to miss an election, be it a big presidential ballot or a mere local vote.

“I was fighting for my rights,” he noted in a final interview, “even if I had to risk dying in trying.”

In signs that decline has extended into the 21st century:

• Carl Williams barely missed out on becoming Saginaw’s first black state senator in 2006, after breaking the state rep barrier six years earlier, losing narrowly to Roger Kahn because East Side turnout was a scant 15 percent, compared to 33 percent west of the river.
• Even when Barack Obama achieved his historic triumph for president in 2008, and repeated in 2012, East Side turnout was less than 50 percent.
• More recently, for the school millage approval in 2020, mostly for Saginaw United High, the wide margin was attained on the West Side, with the East Side nearly deadlocked in comparison.

Today’s lack of participation has become so dire among all ethnic groups, especially Blacks, that separate city elections in odd-numeral years like 2023 have been merged into even-numeral years (2024 for president, ’26 for governor, etc.) so that more people will show up beyond 15 percent.

That’s why there was not a city-only election last fall. In effect, the same ballot that would have been alone last fall was on the back of the sheet, behind Harris and Trump, behind campaigns for Deb Stabenow’s and Dan Kildee’s successors.

Covid is not to blame because the shorter election lines had taken root long prior. And it’s not like people don’t want to get involved, because summer events like the African Cultural Festival and the Gospel Fest, even the third annual Unity in the Community Kickball at Hoyt Park, drew large post-pandemic audiences this summer.

There’s simply something more challenging about persuading people to participate in voting and political action. City, school and county “liaison” members have adopted voter registration as a top item for future joint efforts and outreach, but they have not contemplated any sort of return to city-only elections, like the landmark in 1983.

What would the elected “Class of ’83,” along with community organizer Bruce Moorer, have to say 40 years later, in regard to the sagging voter outlook that has taken place since their time?

The post 1983: Landmark ‘Bruce Moorer election’ created a watershed in local politics appeared first on The Michigan Banner.

Brenda Moore is eligible for her third two-year mayoral term. For council experience, she is matched only by Michael Balls, with both elected in 2013. Balls was mayor pro-tem during 2020-22, replaced for the ’23-24 term by Annie Boensch.

When Boensch was first elected in 2011, she was the lone woman on the council. She may have been defeated on Nov. 5, but a half-dozen females are following her footsteps. They are Moore, Priscilla Garcia and the re-elected Monique Lamar Silvia, along with newcomers Jacinta Seals, Heidi Wiggins and Carly Hammond.

The males who will join Balls on the local governing body are Bill Ostash and the fourth first-timer, Eric Braddock. George Copeland fell short of a second term.

This is the first time women have held a majority of seats, and also the first occasion for four newcomers to join the council. It’s the biggest transition since 1983, when the elections of four Black candidates created Saginaw’s first-ever minority majority on the governing body. (See related documentary report elsewhere in this Banner edition.)

Federal and state election winners, along with most local choices, do not take office until January. The Saginaw City Council is different, with newbies getting started right away.

Their first dilemma, even before they are sworn in, is choosing the mayor for the following two years. Past efforts for a switch to an  elected mayor and a ward system have failed, most recently with a 2007 Charter Commission.

The separate towns of East Saginaw and Old Saginaw City were forced to merge under a state mandate in 1889, with an elected mayor and 21 wards with two representatives apiece.

This eventually was seen as too large, and so a switch was made to electing commissioners in five areas — finances, public works, health/safety, parks/cemeteries, water/sewer. However, “too big” became “too small” as the headmasters were seen as hiring family and friends, in some cases lining their own pockets as well.

In 1936, the second set of reforms found middle ground. The City Council would serve similar to a board of directors, setting policy and employing a manager to carry out those policies in day-to-day operations. The mayor would function similar to the chairman of a board, appointed by the board.

From 1936 through 1985, with most councils controlled by business and white-collar slates, members took turns as mayor, with one exception. G. Stewart Francke held the post for two terms, 1961-65, to show stability while seeking the first city income tax to fund the budget during times of rapid population growth.

Change began in 1985 when Crawford pursued a second term as mayor. Other multi-term mayors have been Henry Nickleberry, Wilmer Jones Ham (now McZee), Greg Branch and Dennis Browning. Gary Loster holds the record with four consecutive terms that spanned 1993 to 2001.

If Moore seeks and gains a third term, she would become Saginaw’s second-longest-serving mayor.

She has emphasized volunteerism among both residents and their elected council members, most notably with a series of community cleanups and also holiday giveaways to children. When final decisions on ARPA spending, she took a stand that if the council did not take action, the money would funnel back to the administration with no followup say-so.

Saginaw generally has avoided logjams in the council appointing a mayor. The exception was in 1979, when a tie between Paul Prudhomme and Ron Bushey took four weeks to resolve, with Bushey stepping aside in exchange for a promise to be selected in 1981.

The post Saginaw council to select mayor appeared first on The Michigan Banner.

His appointments reflect a focus on loyalty, conservative principles, and an aggressive approach to policy implementation. Here’s a look at his selections so far:

Trump’s Cabinet and Key Appointments

• Secretary of State: Senator Marco Rubio is set to lead the State Department, the first Latino to fill this role. Rubio, known as a foreign policy hawk, is expected to focus on strengthening alliances and addressing adversaries like China and Russia.
• Secretary of Defense: Army veteran and Fox News contributor Pete Hegseth has been tapped to oversee the Pentagon, prioritizing military readiness and global threat response.
• Attorney General: Congressman Matt Gaetz has been nominated to head the Department of Justice. Gaetz’s controversial history suggests a continued focus on investigating political opponents and perceived corruption.
• Secretary of Health and Human Services: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent vaccine skeptic and healthcare reform advocate, reflects Trump’s unconventional approach to public health.
• Secretary of Homeland Security: Governor Kristi Noem will lead the Department of Homeland Security with a focus on strengthening border security and immigration enforcement.
• National Security Advisor: Congressman Michael Waltz, a former Green Beret, brings extensive military and national security expertise to the advisory role.
• Director of National Intelligence: Tulsi Gabbard, a military veteran with bipartisan appeal, will lead the intelligence community, offering a potentially unique approach to intelligence operations.
• EPA Administrator: Lee Zeldin is tasked with leading the Environmental Protection Agency, emphasizing business-friendly policies and deregulation.
• Border Czar: Former ICE Director Tom Homan will spearhead Trump’s hardline immigration policies and border security initiatives.
• Co-Leaders of the Department of Government Efficiency: Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have been appointed to bring private-sector innovation and efficiency to federal operations.

Challenges on the Horizon

Some of Trump’s appointments are already stirring controversy. Congressman Matt Gaetz, nominated for Attorney General, faces ongoing scrutiny from an ethics panel investigating allegations of sexual misconduct, drug use, acceptance of improper gifts, and obstruction of justice since 2021.

Pete Hegseth’s nomination as Secretary of Defense has sparked debate due to his limited managerial experience, raising concerns about his ability to oversee the Pentagon. He has faced scrutiny for advocating presidential pardons for service members accused of war crimes, potentially undermining military justice, and for a past allegation of sexual misconduct, though no charges were filed.

Vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s appointment to Health and Human Services has also raised eyebrows, reflecting Trump’s willingness to challenge conventional public health approaches.

Trump’s administration will begin its term navigating a divided political landscape, with a Republican-controlled House and a narrowly divided Senate. The success of his appointments will hinge on their ability to pass the Senate confirmation process and build coalitions to implement Trump’s ambitious agenda.

As the confirmation hearings unfold and additional appointments are announced, all eyes will be on how Trump’s administration sets the tone for governance over the next four years.

The post Trump’s cabinet picks draw controversy appeared first on The Michigan Banner.

Slotkin, who is now beginning her third term in Congress, defeated former Republican Congressman Mike Rogers in a hard-fought race. For years, Michigan’s Senate seats have been held by Democrats, but with the retirement of longtime Sen. Debbie Stabenow, the party faced a challenging path to retain its hold.

Slotkin’s win offered a glimmer of success for Democrats, though they ultimately lost their majority in the Senate. Michigan was one of several pivotal Senate races that Democrats struggled to defend.

With a razor-thin margin separating the candidates, Slotkin addressed her supporters in Detroit shortly before her victory was announced. She noted that many Michigan voters appeared to split their tickets, voting both for her and for President-elect Trump, who narrowly won the state’s electoral votes over Democrat Kamala Harris.

Slotkin reassured her supporters that she understands her duty to serve Michiganders, regardless of the political landscape. “Just as I did in President Trump’s first term,” she said, “I’m a problem solver and I will work with anyone who is actually here to work.”

The post Slotkin defeats Mike Rogers in Michigan US Senate seat appeared first on The Michigan Banner.

McDonald Rivet, who currently serves in Michigan’s state Senate representing a competitive district that includes Bay, Genesee, Flint, Midland, Saginaw, and Tuscola Counties, won with 51.3% of the vote (217,390 votes) to Junge’s 44.6% (189,238 votes). Her win follows a campaign that focused on addressing economic issues, supporting working families, and building a strong coalition across mid-Michigan.

McDonald Rivet celebrated the win among hundreds of supporters gathered at U.A. Local 85’s hall in Saginaw, where she was joined by union members, business owners, educators, law enforcement, and community leaders. Reflecting on the journey to her victory, she expressed gratitude for the broad support and highlighted her plans for Congress.

“I am honored by the trust of our neighbors to represent mid-Michigan in the U.S. House,” McDonald Rivet told the crowd. “We won this race with a broad and energized coalition, and I am grateful to the tens of thousands of people who voted, volunteered, and donated. We showed that even amidst negativity and attack ads, we can come together as a community with a positive vision for our region.”

Her opponent, Paul Junge, a former official with U.S. Customs and Immigration Services during the Trump administration, previously ran unsuccessfully against Kildee in 2022. McDonald Rivet’s win underscores a commitment from voters to maintain a Democratic presence in the district, despite challenges in a closely contested area.

The post Kristen McDonald Rivet wins Michigan’s 8th Congressional District appeared first on The Michigan Banner.

The Nov. 5 election featured 11 candidates competing for the five available four-year seats. Eric D. Braddock Sr., Jacinta J.J. Seals, and Heidi G. Wiggins were elected as new members of the council, joining incumbents Bill Ostash and Monique Lamar-Silvia, who secured another term. Notably, Lamar-Silvia is currently under investigation for allegedly falsifying signatures on her nominating petitions.

In a separate race for a two-year council seat, Carly Rose Hammond triumphed over write-in candidate Reggie Williams II, capturing 88.49% of the vote with 10,637 votes, compared to 1,383 write-in votes.

Despite seeking re-election, incumbents Mayor Pro Tem Annie Boensch and George Copeland Jr. did not secure enough votes to retain their seats among the top candidates.

Election Results for Saginaw City Council:

• Jacinta J.J. Seals led with 10.52% of the vote, securing 5,476 votes.
• Monique Lamar-Silvia followed closely with 10.45%, garnering 5,440 votes.
• Bill Ostash received 9.93% of the vote, with 5,172 ballots cast in his favor.
• Eric D. Braddock Sr., also at 9.93%, received 5,171 votes.
• Heidi G. Wiggins captured 8.78% with 4,571 votes.

Several voters at the polls cited the council’s handling of ARPA funds as a key factor in their decisions, which may explain the number of newcomers elected.

As the newly formed council takes office, Saginaw residents will be watching closely to see how the council addresses the community’s priorities and implements solutions to drive growth for the city.

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Trump’s campaign to reclaim the presidency faced unprecedented challenges, including his refusal to accept the 2020 election results, his involvement in events surrounding the January 6 Capitol riot, a conviction on felony charges, and surviving two assassination attempts. Despite these obstacles, Trump’s path to the White House has once again resonated with enough voters to secure his place as the nation’s 47th president.

Before the final race call was made, Trump addressed an energized crowd at the Palm Beach Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. Standing alongside family and campaign staff, he spoke confidently about his campaign’s resilience. “We overcame obstacles that nobody thought possible,” he said to cheers from supporters.

The Harris campaign has not yet issued a formal statement regarding the outcome. However, they have indicated that Vice President Kamala Harris plans to address the public later today.

Trump’s victory signals a shift in the political landscape, as he returns to office with a highly engaged and loyal base. Political analysts anticipate significant challenges ahead, as the country remains deeply divided.

The post Donald Trump wins 2024 presidential election appeared first on The Michigan Banner.

Below are the unofficial results for contested races on Saginaw County ballots in the 2024 general election. Click here for the complete 2024 Saginaw County results.

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