TO THE CHAPTER INVISIBLE
The Honorable John J. Conyers 1925–2019 52 nd Laurel Wreath Laureate Longest-Serving African American in U.S. Congress
J ohn James Conyers Jr. (Gamma Eta 1951), the sixth-longest serving member of Congress in U.S. his- tory, entered the Chapter Invisible on October 27, 2019. Born in High- land Park, MI on May 16, 1929 he at- tended Northwestern High School. Upon graduation, he matriculated to Wayne State University for his undergraduate and legal studies. Congressman Conyers served in the National Guard and the United States Army Corps of Engineers during the Korean War as part of a unit of African American combat engineers. Later, he became a civil rights activist, and worked to improve voting rights in Selma, Ala., in 1963. The next year, he made his first run for Congress. Michigan’s congressional districts had been redrawn after a 1962 Supreme Court decision, Baker v. Carr , which made it unconstitutional to draw districts in a way that under-represents minority voters. Brother Conyers pre- vailed in a battle for an open seat. Brother Conyers was among 13 founding members of The Congressional Black Caucus, which was established in 1971. Conyers, a Democrat, began his con- gressional tenure as the representative for Michigan's 1 st congressional district (1965-1992), which encompassed the Detroit metropolitan area; the 14 th congressional district (1993-2012); and Michigan's 13 th congressional where he served since January 3, 2013. He served as the Ranking Member and as former chair of the House Committee on the Judiciary. He also served as Chair of the Committee on Government Operations
Brother Conyers was the only congressman ever endorsed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. By Earl T. Tildon
(now the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform). He was the first African American to hold the distinc- tion as Dean (most senior member) of Congress. In Congressman Conyers’ 52 years of public service, he had been a major proponent of more than 100 pieces of critical legislation including the original Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Motor Voter Bill of 1993, the Alcohol Warning Label Act of 1988, and the Jazz Preserva- tion Act of 1987. Congressman Conyers was also the driving force behind the Help America Vote Act of 2002. One of Brother Conyers’ early supporters in his 1964 campaign was the activ- ist Rosa Parks, whose 1955 arrest had launched the bus boycott in Montgomery, AL. Unable to find work, she moved to Detroit. “If it wasn’t for Rosa Parks, I never would have gotten elected,” he said, according to Jeanne Theoharis’ “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks.” Brother Conyers hired Parks after the election and she re- mained on his staff until retiring in 1988.
On April 8, 1968, just four days after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, TN, Congressman Conyers, Jr. introduced the first bill to establish January 15 th , the slain leader’s birthday, as a Federal holiday. Conyers would persist year after year, Congress after Congress, in introducing the same bill again and again, gathering cosponsors along the way, until his persistence finally paid off some 15 years later when President Ron- ald Reagan signed the King Holiday bill into law on Nov. 2, 1983, thus making the third Monday of January an official Federal holiday. “I consider Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to be the greatest American figure of the 20 th century. When I introduced the bill to establish the Martin Luther King, Jr. national holiday, it was not only for his work to promote equality for African Americans. His advocacy for diplomacy over conflict and for spending on human needs instead of weapons of war was also one of his enduring contributions to mankind,” Rep. Conyers said. Brother Conyers was the only congress- man ever endorsed by Dr. Martin Luther
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