BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY
John Conyers
| John Conyers | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 44th Dean of the United States House of Representatives | |
| Assumed office January 3, 2015 | |
| Preceded by | John Dingell |
| Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee | |
| In office January 3, 2007 – January 3, 2011 | |
| Preceded by | Jim Sensenbrenner |
| Succeeded by | Lamar S. Smith |
| Chairman of the House Oversight Committee | |
| In office January 3, 1989 – January 3, 1995 | |
| Preceded by | Jack Brooks |
| Succeeded by | William F. Clinger, Jr. |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan's 13th district | |
| Assumed office January 3, 2013 | |
| Preceded by | Hansen Clarke |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan's 14th district | |
| In office January 3, 1993 – January 3, 2013 | |
| Preceded by | Dennis Hertel |
| Succeeded by | Gary Peters |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan's 1st district | |
| In office January 3, 1965 – January 3, 1993 | |
| Preceded by | Lucien Nedzi |
| Succeeded by | Bart Stupak |
| Personal details | |
| Born | John James Conyers, Jr. May 16, 1929 Highland Park, Michigan, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Monica Esters (1990–present) |
| Children | John Carl |
| Alma mater | Wayne State University |
| Religion | Baptist |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Service/branch | Army National Guard United States Army |
| Years of service | 1948–1950 1950–1957 |
| Battles/wars | Korean War |
John James Conyers, Jr. (born May 16, 1929) is the U.S. Representative for Michigan's 13th congressional district,[1] serving in Congress since 1965 (the district was numbered as the 1st District until 1993, and as the 14th district from 1993 to 2013). The district includes the western half of Detroit, as well as Dearborn, Highland Park, and most of the downriver suburbs includingWyandotte and Romulus. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Conyers, as its longest-serving current member, is the Dean of the House of Representatives. He is also the oldest and the longest-serving current member of the United States Congress.
Early life, education, and early career
After graduating from Northwestern High School in Detroit, Conyers served in the Michigan National Guard 1948–50; U.S. Army1950–54; and the U.S. Army Reserves 1954–57. Conyers served for a year in Korea as an officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and was awarded combat and merit citations.[2] Conyers grew up in Detroit, and received both his B.A. and his law degree from Wayne State University.
Conyers was present in Selma, Alabama, on October 7, 1963, for the civil rights movement voter registration drive known as Freedom Day.[3] He served as an assistant to U.S. Congressman John Dingell, Jr., prior to his election to Congress.
Detroit Mayoral campaigns
While serving in the U.S. House, Conyers made two unsuccessful runs for mayor of Detroit: one in 1989 against incumbent Coleman Young and again in 1993.[4]
1989
Incumbent Democratic Mayor Coleman Young decided to run for a fifth term, despite growing unpopularity and the declining economy of Detroit. In the September primary, Young won with 51% of the vote. Accountant Tom Barrow qualified for the November run off by getting second place with 24% and Conyers got third place with 18% of the vote.[5] Young defeated Barrow in the run off with 56% of the vote.[6]
1993
In June 1993, incumbent Democratic Mayor Coleman Young decided to retire instead of seeking a sixth term, citing his age and health, although many believed he decided not to run because of his growing unpopularity. In a Detroit News poll in February, 81% said Young should retire.[7] Conyers was one of the 23 candidates who qualified for ballot access.[8] Dennis Archer was a clear front runner from the beginning. He was a 51-year-old former State Supreme Court Justice who raised over $1.6 million. He won the September primary with 54% of the vote. Conyers came in fourth place.[9] Archer won the November election.
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
In 1964, he ran for an open seat in what was then the 1st District, and defeated Republican Robert Blackwell with 84% of the vote. He was reelected 13 times with even larger margins. After the 1990 United States Census, Michigan lost a congressional district and Conyers's district was renumbered to the 14th district. In 1992, he won re-election to his 15th term in his new district with 82% of the vote against Republican nominee John Gordon. He won re-election another nine times after that. His worst re-election performance was in 2010, when he got 77% of the vote against Republican nominee Don Ukrainec.
In total, he has won re-election twenty-five times and is serving in his twenty-sixth term. He is the longest-serving current member of the House, the longest-serving current member of the entire Congress, the fourth longest-serving member of the House in history, and the seventh longest-serving member of Congress in history. He is the second-longest serving member of either house of Congress in Michigan's history, trailing only his former boss, Dingell. He is also the last member of the large Democratic freshman class of 1964 who is still serving in the House.
In May 2014, Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett determined that Conyers had not submitted enough valid nominating petition signatures to appear on the August 2014 Primary Election ballot.[10] Two of his petition circulators were found not to have been registered voters at the time they were collecting signatures, as required under Michigan law. However, on May 23, Federal District Judge Matthew Leitman issued an injunction placing Conyers back on the ballot, ruling that the requirement that circulators be registered voters was similar to an Ohio law previously found unconstitutional by a Federal appeals court in 2008.[11] The Michigan Secretary of State's office subsequently announced they would not appeal the ruling.[12]
Tenure
Conyers is one of the 13 founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and is considered the Dean of that group. Formed in 1969, the CBC was founded to strengthen African-American lawmakers' ability to address the legislative concerns of Black and minority citizens. He has served longer in Congress than any other African American. In 1971, he was one of the original members of Nixon's Enemies List.
In 1965, John Conyers won a seat as a freshman on the influential Judiciary Committee, which was then under the leadership of Democratic Congressman Emanuel Celler of New York. At the time, the assignment was an elite one, as Judiciary ranked behind only Ways and Means and Appropriations in terms of the number of Members who sought assignment there.[13]
According to the National Journal, Conyers has been considered, with Pete Stark, John Lewis, Jim McDermott, and Barbara Lee, to be one of the most liberal members of Congress for many years. Civil rights icon Rosa Parks served on Conyers' staff between 1965 and 1988.
Conyers is known as one of the opponents of the drive to regulate online gambling. He has likened the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, hidden within theSAFE Port Act, to Prohibition.
After Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination in 1968, Conyers introduced the first bill in Congress to make King's birthday a national holiday. It is now celebrated as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
Conyers introduced the "Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act" (H.R. 40) in January 1989, and has re-introduced anew this bill each congressional term. This bill calls for the creation of a commission to research the history of slavery and its effects on current America, resulting in recommendations on how to remedy this injustice. Its current version was introduced and referred to committee on January 3, 2013.[14]
Conyers first introduced the House of Resolution 40 in 1989, and have annual proposed this act until it is approved and passed. The House Resolution 40 expresses the impact of slavery's brutal institution on today's society, politics, and economy. "My bill does four things: It acknowledges the fundamental injustice and inhumanity of slavery It establishes a commission to study slavery, its subsequent racial and economic discrimination against freed slaves; It studies the impact of those forces on today's living African Americans; and The commission would then make recommendations to Congress on appropriate remedies to redress the harm inflicted on living African Americans."[15]
- Nixon and Watergate
Conyers was critical of Richard Nixon during his tenure, and as a result was number 13 on President Richard Nixon's enemies list during Nixon's 1969–74 presidential tenure. The president's Chief Counsel described him as "coming on fast," and that he was "emerging" as a "black anti-Nixon spokesman."[16][17]
Conyers voted on the Articles of Impeachment against Nixon in July 1974. He is the last remaining member of the House Judiciary Committee who did so, although another fellow Committee member, Democratic Congressman Charles B. Rangel, of New York, is still in Congress.
- National Health Care Act
The United States National Health Care Act (Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act) (H.R. 676) is a bill submitted to the United States House of Representatives by Conyers which, as of September 29, 2008, has 93 cosponsors. It was first introduced, with 25 cosponsors, in 2003,[18] and reintroduced each session since then. The act calls for the creation of a universal single-payer health care system in the United States, in which the government would provide every resident health care free of charge. In order to eliminate disparate treatment between richer and poorer Americans, the Act would also prohibit private insurers from covering any treatment or procedure already covered by the Act. The bill is currently in the House Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Health.
- Downing Street memo
On May 5, 2005, Conyers and 88 other members of Congress wrote an open letter to the White House inquiring about the Downing Street memo, a leaked memorandum that revealed an apparent secret agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom to attack Iraq in 2002. The Times reported that newly discovered documents reveal British and U.S. intentions to invade Iraq and leaders of the two countries had "discussed creating pretextual justifications for doing so." The documents go on to say that Tony Blair decided the United States would need to "create" conditions to justify the war.[citation needed]
The memo story broke in the United Kingdom, but did not receive much coverage in the United States, prompting Conyers to lament: "This should not be allowed to fall down the memory hole during wall-to-wall coverage of the Michael Jackson trial and a runaway bride."[19] Conyers and others reportedly considered sending a congressional investigation delegation to London.[20]
- What Went Wrong In Ohio
In May, 2005, Conyers released What Went Wrong In Ohio: The Conyers Report On The 2004 Presidential Election, which discusses the voting irregularities in the state ofOhio during the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election. The evidence offered consists of statistical abnormalities in the differences between exit poll results and actual votes registered at those locations. The book also discusses reports of faulty electronic voting machines and the lack of credibility of those machines used to tally votes.
He was one of 31 members of the House who voted not to count the electoral votes from Ohio in the 2004 presidential election.[21]
- The Constitution in Crisis
On August 4, 2006, Conyers released his report, The Constitution in Crisis: The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retributions and Cover-ups in the Iraq War, an edited collection of information intended to serve as evidence that the Bush Administration altered intelligence to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The Constitution in Crisis examines much of the evidence presented by the Bush Administration prior to the invasion and questions the credibility of their sources of intelligence. In addition, the document investigates the conditions that led to the torture scandal at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, as well as further evidence of torture having been committed but not made known to the public. Finally, the document reports on a series of "smear tactics" purportedly used by the administration in dealing with its political adversaries.
The document calls for the censure of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Notably, however, Conyers refused to back impeachment proceedings.
- On anti-Muslim intolerance
Conyers has proposed House Resolution 288, which condemns “religious intolerance” but emphasizes Islam as needing special protection from acts of violence and intolerance. It states that “it should never be official policy of the United States Government to disparage the Quran, Islam, or any religion in any way, shape, or form,” and “calls upon local, State, and Federal authorities to work to prevent bias-motivated crimes and acts against all individuals, including those of the Islamic faith.” The bill was referred to the House subcommittee on the Constitution in June 2005.
- Conyers v. Bush
See also Conyers v. Bush
In April 2006 Conyers, together with ten other senior congressmen, filed an action in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division, challenging the constitutionality of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. The complaint alleged the bill was not afforded due consideration by the United States Congress before being signed by the President.[22] The action was subsequently dismissed on grounds of lack of standing.[23]
- Ethics controversy
In letters sent separately to the House Ethics Committee, the FBI, and the US Attorney's office, two former aides of Conyers alleged that Conyers used his staff to work on several local and state campaigns, and forced them to baby-sit and chauffeur his children.[24] In late December 2006, Conyers "accepted responsibility" for possibly violating House rules. A statement issued December 29, 2006, by the House Ethics Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-WA) and Ranking Minority Member Howard Berman (D-CA), said thatConyers acknowledged what he characterized as a "lack of clarity" in his communications with staff members regarding their official duties and responsibilities, and accepted responsibility for his actions. In deciding to drop the matter, Hastings and Berman stated:
Also, in 1992, he was implicated in the House banking scandal.
- Copyright controversy
Conyers has come under fire from scientific and taxpayers' advocacy groups[26] for repeatedly introducing a bill that would overturn NIH Public Access Policy, and forbid the government from mandating that federally funded research be made freely available to the public.[27] Critics assert that Conyers has been influenced by publishing houses who have contributed significant money to Conyers.[28]
- House Report on George W. Bush presidency and proposed inquiry
On January 13, 2009, the House Committee on the Judiciary, led by Conyers, released "Reining in the Imperial Presidency: Lessons and Recommendations Relating to the Presidency of George W. Bush," a 486-page report detailing alleged abuses of power that occurred during the Bush administration, and a comprehensive set of recommendations to prevent recurrence. Conyers has introduced a bill to set up a "truth commission" panel to investigate alleged policy abuses of the Bush administration.[29][30]
- Bill reading controversy
In late July 2009, Conyers, commenting on the healthcare debate in the House, stated: “I love these members, they get up and say, ‘Read the bill'... What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?” His remark brought criticism from government transparency advocates such as the Sunlight Foundation, which referred to readthebill.org in response.[31] In the House, 93 representatives signed a pledge, started by Mike Pence of Indiana, to read a health care bill before voting on it.[32]
- Bribery conviction of wife, Monica Conyers
On June 16, 2009, the United States Attorney's Office said that two Synagro Technologies representatives had named Monica Conyers as the recipient of bribes from the company totaling more than $6,000, paid to influence passage of a contract with the City of Detroit.[33][34] The information was gathered during an FBI investigation into political corruption in the city.[35] She was given a pre-indictment letter, and offered a plea bargain deal in the case.[33] On June 26, 2009, she was charged with conspiring to commit bribery. She pleaded guilty.[36] On March 10, 2010, she was sentenced to 37 months in prison, and also received two years of supervised probation.[37] She ended up serving just over 27 months at the Alderson Federal Prison Camp[38] and was released from federal custody officially on May 16, 2013.[39]
- Response to accusations regarding American Muslim spies
In October, Conyers responded to allegations from four Republican Congress Members, in the wake of the launch of the book Muslim Mafia, that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) sought to plant Muslim "spies" in Capitol Hill. He strongly opposed the accusations, saying:
| “ | It shouldn't need to be said in 2009, and after the historic election of our first African-American president, but let me remind all my colleagues that patriotic Americans of all races, religions, and beliefs have the right – and the responsibility – to participate in our political process, including by volunteering to work in Congressional offices. Numerous Muslim-American interns have served the House ably and they deserve our appreciation and respect, not attacks on their character or patriotism.[40] | ” |
Conyers was one of the first three U.S. Congress members to condemn the allegations, joining André Carson (D-IN) and Loretta Sanchez (D-CA).
- WikiLeaks
At a December 16, 2010 hearing of the House Judiciary Committee on the subject of "the Espionage Act and the Legal and Constitutional Issues Raised by WikiLeaks,"[41]Conyers "argue[d] strongly against prosecuting WikiLeaks in haste—or at all."[42] He strongly defended the whistleblowing organization, saying:
Conyers's statement was "in marked contrast to the repeated calls from other members of Congress and Obama administration officials to prosecute (or kill) WikiLeaks headJulian Assange immediately."[42]
- Criticism of American foreign policy
Conyers and his Republican colleague Ted Yoho offered bipartisan amendments to block the U.S. military training of Ukraine's Azov Battalion of the Ukrainian National Guard. Some members of the battalion are openly white supremacists.[43] Conyers stated, "If there’s one simple lesson we can take away from US involvement in conflicts overseas, it’s this: Beware of unintended consequences. As was made vividly clear with U.S. involvement in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion decades ago, overzealous military assistance or the hyper-weaponization of conflicts can have destabilizing consequences and ultimately undercut our own national interests."[44]
Committee assignments
- Committee on the Judiciary (Ranking Member)
- As Ranking Member of the full committee, Rep. Conyers may serve as an ex officio member of all subcommittees.
- Subcommittee on Courts and Competition Policy
- Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties
- Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law
Caucus membership
- Founding Member and Dean of the Congressional Black Caucus
- Congressional Progressive Caucus
- International Conservation Caucus
- Out of Afghanistan Caucus (Co-Chair)
- Congressional Cement Caucus
Electoral history
Personal life
Conyers is married to Monica Conyers.
He appeared in Michael Moore's documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 discussing the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, stating that members of Congress "don't read most of the bills." Conyers frequently posts at Daily Kos and Democratic Underground. Since May 2005, he has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post and his own blog.
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