Calls To Remove Hubbard Statue In Dearborn Renewed

DEARBORN, MI — Statues of Robert E. Lee and other Confederate Army figures have been toppled since last weekend’s violence in Charlottesville, Va. as symbols of racism. The statue of former Dearborn Mayor Orville Hubbard — an outspoken segregationist and, in some opinions, racist — still stands. But new calls are being made for its permanent removal from city grounds.

Michigan State University research assistant Christopher Zatzke recently asked Dearborn’s current may, John B. O’Reilly, to have the 10-foot bronze statue of Hubbard removed from the Dearborn Historical Museum. He told the Detroit Free Press Dearborn is a “beacon of diversity” and that getting rid of the Hubbard statue, a reminder of the city’s less tolerant past, was the “right thing to do.”

Hubbard served as mayor for 36 years from 1942-1978, during the post-World War II era when Dearborn, home of Ford Motor Co., was considered Detroit’s most important suburb. The statue sat at old Dearborn City Hall, near the corner of Michigan Avenue and Schaefer Road, since 1989.

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But when the city moved its operations down Michigan Avenue to near the Ford Motor Company World Headquarters in 2014, the Hubbard statue was left behind. It was moved to the Historical Museum in late 2015, restored and placed prominently.

Earlier this month, it was moved yet again, this time to near the McFadden Ross House. It’s out of the public eye, but not far enough for Zatzke and others.

For his part, O’Reilly did respond to the MSU employee. He told the Free Press he was upset over the recent violent incidents in Charlottesville and locations and sensitive to concerns about the Hubbard statue. He said it would be moved inside the McFadden Ross house when renovations are completed and a marker will provide historical context to Hubbard’s service to the city.

Zatzke’s call for the removal of the Hubbard statue isn’t the first to be made. In 2015, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee of Michigan asked that it be permanently removed.

ADC-Michigan asked the Dearborn City Council not only to remove the statue from the former city hall grounds, but also “formally acknowledge and disavow [the city’s] racist past of segregation and intolerance.”

Executive Director Fatina Abdrabboh said Hubbard, who reportedly “used every racial slur imaginable,” was the chief architect of a campaign called “Keep Dearborn Clean” – a slogan emblazoned on police cars – that actually was a euphemism widely interpreted to mean “Keep Dearborn White.”

File Photo