A Dearborn newspaper echoes a question raised here. "Should Orville Hubbard's statue be removed?" asks a headline this this week's issue of The Arab American News.
"A conversation has surfaced locally over whether former racist Mayor Orville Hubbard’s statue should be taken down," writes Natasha Dado, mentioning Monday's article by Deadline co-founder Bill McGraw, a Dearborn resident whose essay has 92 comments on our site.
Mayor John O'Reilly, Jr.: "The statue in its current location can be a distraction from the reality of our story as a city today."
She raises the issue with Mayor Jack O’Reilly, who indicates a change is coming:
“On a practical level, the statue can’t stay where it is on the former City Hall property. And so we are already engaged in a discussion about its disposition, including the need for broader historical context."
He added that the city welcomes further input as it and communities across the country look for ways to keep discussions about race moving forward. . . .
“We agree that the statue can become a focal point as people locally — and across the country — rightly take a hard look at race relations in the past. We understand the statue in its current location can be a distraction from the reality of our story as a city today.
"It certainly doesn’t define us, so we’d much rather put our energy into conversations that reflect the progress we’ve made as a community and as a country.”
The second-generation city leader is the son of John B. O'Reilly, Sr., who was Dearborn police chief from 1966-77 and served two mayoral terms from 1978-85. He died at 89 in 2008.
In her 24-paragraph article, Dado quotes two residents about the statue. "You can still know your history and not have to glorify it,” says Rima Zalghout, who sees the tribute to "one of the biggest segregationist of the North” as inappropriate.
Dania Habhab Farhat defends the display:
“He provided the citizens of Dearborn with great services and parks,” she said. “I do not agree with his bigotry and racist tactics. Because he's done so much for the city, I believe his statue should stay up.
"He was mayor for 36 years. That should be a reason to keep it up on its own.”
-- Alan Stamm
