Michigan's State Government Doesn't Trust Black People to Govern Themselves

By Carl Gibson, Reader Supported News

02 May 14

espite the majority vote of Michigan residents in a 2012 referendum, unelected autocrats appointed directly by Republican governor Rick Snyder still have rule over local governments in which the governor and state treasurer have declared a “state of financial emergency.” These emergency managers have executive and legislative powers, can fire democratically-elected public officials, can privatize public resources, and can write and pass budgets without any opposition.

After the passage of the referendum overturning PA 4 and PA 72, the previous emergency manager and financial emergency laws, the Republican-controlled state legislature and governor immediately passed PA 436, which reinstated the emergency managers. These emergency managers have all been placed in majority Black communities in Michigan like Detroit, Flint, Benton Harbor, Pontiac, and Highland Park. Even though Michigan is only 14 percent Black, 80 percent of Michigan’s Black residents live under an emergency manager.

Michigan vs. The State

On April 29, US District Judge George Steeh heard oral arguments over the constitutionality of the emergency manager law. Plaintiffs’ attorneys suing the state of Michigan allege that the law violates the 1st, 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the US Constitution; article 4, section 4 of the Michigan state constitution; and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Plaintiffs argue that an unelected emergency manager making financial decisions with tax dollars without consent of a democratically-elected government means that citizens’ votes don’t count, by default.

“We don’t live in a democracy,” said Michael Murphy, lawyer for the Michigan attorney general’s office. “We live in a Republican form of government where we elect representatives to pass laws for us.”

Murphy cited the 1907 Hunter v. Pittsburgh case, which argued that incorporated municipalities were entirely under the control of the state, that the state could destroy a municipal corporation entirely, and could do so unrestrained by any provision of the US Constitution, and in spite of the protests and will of the people. He also argued for the right of emergency managers to usurp absolute control of local governments, saying that all decisions made by any city government involved the spending of tax dollars.

“If we had to list all duties of local government that don’t involve finance, it would be a litany of items, like who sits on a historical board, for example,” argued one plaintiff’s attorney, who said the Hunter case cited by the state’s attorneys wasn’t valid. “What we’re really doing is setting up two forms of government – one for the rich, and one for the poor.”

"Our republican form of government depends on the democratic principle of the people electing their representatives," the plaintiff's attorney continued.

Plaintiff attorney Herb Sanders argued that the emergency manager law was unconstitutional, citing the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the US Constitution – the specific amendments that abolished slavery, guaranteed equal protection under the law for citizens of color, and guaranteed voting rights for all citizens despite ethnicity or previous condition of servitude. Sanders said that prior case law determined that 13th Amendment complaints were vital if they involved badges of slavery.

“Disenfranchisement of the voting process, denial of open and clean streets, and no access to good public schools, are all badges of slavery,” Sanders argued. “The emergency manager law implies a stigma that Black communities are ineffective at governing.”

At one point during the hearing, Judge Steeh asked Michael Murphy if the state attorney general wished to challenge the general standing of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

“Of course I want to challenge their standing to sue, your honor,” Murphy said, smugly adding, “I just didn’t want to waste your time with so much talking.”

Detroit’s Ineffective Autocracy

Detroit has lost 1.1 million residents in the last 60 years, largely due to the offshoring of manufacturing jobs, the systemic decline of organized labor, and the housing crash caused by manipulation of mortgage-backed securities by big banks. Billionaires like Quicken Loans’ Dan Gilbert are buying up vacant property in the downtown area to be gentrified for high-income housing and expensive restaurants and shops, while extreme blight surrounds it just blocks away. Land has become so cheap that the town of Warren is selling vacant lots to adjacent homeowners for $1.

Despite the city’s spending decisions having been taken over by emergency manager Kevyn Orr, Detroit hasn’t grown its population, or done anything with the thousands of vacant lots and houses in the city. Orr is currently forcing through a plan that would cut the pensions earned by city employees earned over a lifetime of work, to pay off the banks responsible for the financial crisis. He also fired top elected officials, like former Detroit Public Schools Superintendent John Telford.

“Orr is a tyrant in blackface who is playing the part of the house negro for his white masters,” said Telford, who refers to himself as “superintendent in exile.” Telford sued to get his job back and lost, and is now forced to pay the city $36,000. “My position was voluntary, but now I have to pay for the city’s lawyer fees and court costs.”

Double-Standard for White Communities

Other cities were able to escape the tyranny of emergency financial managers despite dire financial situations. State representatives Cindy Denby and Bill Rogers, from mostly-white Republican strongholds of Handy and Livingston Counties, co-sponsored a bill that would use state funds to bail out their counties as a result of the bad financial decisions they made as county supervisors and commissioners.

Denby and Rogers both took on millions in debt on behalf of their counties to pay for expensive water and sewer lines for expensive new housing developments. Rogers, as county commission chair, signed off on an agreement that would make his county responsible for any bond payments that weren’t made on time. Now, after two failed attempts at bills that only created a bailout fund for the kind of debt taken on for development of housing for the wealthy, a third bill has finally passed that includes bailouts for school districts and government entities. Despite over $100 million in debt for Livingston County, Rogers’ home was exempted from having an emergency manager installed.

Judge Steeh is expected to make a decision on the constitutionality of the emergency manager law by this summer. Neighborhood activists, labor unions, and community organizations in Detroit are already planning mass mobilizations no matter the result of the decision.

Carl Gibson, 26, is co-founder of US Uncut, a nationwide creative direct-action movement that mobilized tens of thousands of activists against corporate tax avoidance and budget cuts in the months leading up to the Occupy Wall Street movement. Carl and other US Uncut activists are featured in the documentary "We're Not Broke," which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. He currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin. You can contact him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , and follow him on twitter at @uncutCG.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.