The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Longtime U.S. Rep John Conyers dies at age 90
DETROIT — Former U.S. Rep. John Conyers, one of the longestserving members of Congress whose resolutely liberal stance on civil rights made him a political institution in Washington and back home in Detroit despite several scandals, has died. He was 90.
Conyers, among the highprofile politicians toppled by sex harassment allegations in 2017, died at his home on Sunday, said Detroit police spokesman Cpl. Dan Donakowski. The death “looks like natural causes,” Donakowski added.
Known as the dean of the Congressional Black Caucus, which he helped found, Conyers became one of only six black House members when he won his first election by just 108 votes in 1964. The race was the beginning of more than 50 years of election dominance: Conyers regularly won elections with more than 80% of the vote, even after his wife went to prison for taking a bribe.
That voter loyalty helped Conyers freely speak his mind. He took aim at both Republicans and fellow Democrats: He said thenPresident George W. Bush “has been an absolute disaster for the AfricanAmerican community” in 2004, and in 1979 called thenPresident Jimmy Carter “a hopeless, demented, honest, wellintentioned nerd who will never get past his first administration.”
Throughout his career, Conyers used his influence to push civil rights. After a 15year fight, he won passage of legislation declaring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a national holiday, first celebrated in 1986. He regularly introduced a bill starting in 1989 to study the harm caused by slavery and the possibility of reparations for slaves’ descendants. That bill never got past a House subcommittee.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Sunday that without Conyers there would be no King holiday — “no doubt about that.”
“He was one of the most consequential congressmen,” Jackson said.
His district office in Detroit employed civil rights legend Rosa
Parks from 1965 until her retirement in 1988. In 2005, Conyers was among 11 people inducted to the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame.
But after a nearly 53year career, he became the first Capitol Hill politician to lose his job in the torrent of sexual misconduct allegations sweeping through the nation’s workplaces. A former staffer alleged she was fired because she rejected his sexual advances, and others said they’d witnessed Conyers inappropriately touching female staffers or requesting sexual favors.
He denied the allegations but eventually stepped down, citing health reasons.