Conyers, John, Jr., 1929-2019

CONYERS, JOHN, JR., A Representative from Michigan; born in Detroit, Wayne County, Mich., May 16, 1929; attended Detroit public schools; B.A., Wayne State University, Detroit, Mich., 1957; LL.B., Wayne State Law School, Detroit, Mich., 1958; lawyer, private practice; Michigan National Guard, 1948-1950; United States Army, 1950-1954; United States Army Reserve, 1954-1957; staff, United States Representative John D. Dingell, Jr., of Michigan, 1958-1961; general counsel for three labor locals in Detroit, 1959-1964; executive board member, Detroit, Mich., American Civil Liberties Union, 1964-2019; executive board member, Detroit, Mich., NAACP, 1963-2019; referee for Michigan workmen's compensation department, 1961-1963; elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-ninth and to the twenty-six succeeding Congresses until his resignation on December 5, 2017 (January 3, 1965-December 5, 2017); one of the managers appointed by the House of Representatives in 1988 to conduct the impeachment proceedings against Alcee Lamar Hastings, judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida; chairman, Committee on Government Operations (One Hundred First through One Hundred Third Congresses); chairman, Committee on the Judiciary (One Hundred Tenth and One Hundred Eleventh Congresses); died on October 27, 2019, in Detroit, Mich.

<p>John Conyers Jr. of Michigan served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 52 years—nearly one-fifth of the House’s entire existence. During his career he set a number of milestones. He was the first African American to serve on the Judiciary Committee. He was one of a handful of African-American Members to head two standing committees: first, Government Operations, and then Judiciary. And in his fiftieth year of service he became the first African-American Dean of the House, the Member with the longest continuous service.</p>

<p>The eldest of four brothers, John Conyers Jr. was born in Detroit, Michigan, on May 16, 1929, to John and Lucille Conyers. His father was an auto worker and a representative for the United Automobile Workers union. Conyers attended Detroit public schools and graduated from Northwestern High School in 1947. He served in the National Guard from 1948 to 1950 before enlisting in the U.S. Army and attending officer candidate school. Conyers was commissioned a second lieutenant with the Army Corps of Engineers and served in Korea on combat duty for a year. In 1954 he was honorably discharged and served three more years in the Army Reserves. Taking advantage of the G.I. Bill’s educational benefits, Conyers earned a bachelor of arts degree from Wayne State University in 1957 and, a year later, earned a bachelor of laws degree from the Wayne State Law School. In June 1990, Conyers married Monica Ann Esters. They had two sons: John III and Carl. Esters launched her own political career when she won a seat on the Detroit city council in 2005.</p>

<p>Conyers’s first political experience came in college, where he joined the Young Democrats and served as a precinct official for the local Democratic Party. After college, Conyers joined the staff of Michigan Representative John Dingell Jr. as his legislative assistant from 1958 to 1961. Conyers passed the Michigan bar in 1959, and cofounded the law firm of Conyers, Bell & Townsend. Michigan Governor John B. Swainson appointed him as a labor mediation referee for the Michigan workmen’s compensation department in 1961, and he also served as general counsel for several labor union locals. In 1963 President John F. Kennedy appointed Conyers to the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law, which promoted racial toleration in the legal profession.</p>

<p>John James Conyers Jr. (May 16, 1929 – October 27, 2019) was an American politician of the Democratic Party who served as a U.S. Representative for Michigan from 1965 to 2017. The districts he represented always included part of western Detroit. During his final three terms, his district included many of Detroit's western suburbs, as well as a large portion of the Downriver area.</p>

<p>Conyers served more than fifty years in Congress, becoming the sixth-longest serving member of Congress in U.S. history; he was the longest-serving African American member of Congress. Conyers was the Dean of the House of Representatives. By the end of his last term, he was the last remaining member of Congress who had served since the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson.</p>

<p>After serving in the Korean War, Conyers became active in the civil rights movement. He also served as an aide to Congressman John Dingell before winning election to the House in 1964. He co-founded the Congressional Black Caucus in 1969 and established a reputation as one of the most liberal members of Congress. Conyers joined the Congressional Progressive Caucus after it was founded in 1991. Conyers supported creation of a single-payer healthcare system and sponsored the United States National Health Care Act. He also sponsored a bill to establish Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday. Conyers ran for Mayor of Detroit in 1989 and 1993, but he was defeated in the primary each time.</p>

<p>Conyers served as the ranking Democratic member on the House Committee on the Judiciary from 1995 to 2007 and again from 2011 to 2017. He served as chairman of that committee from 2007 to 2011 and as Chairman of the House Oversight Committee from 1989 to 1995. In the wake of allegations that he had sexually harassed female staff members and secretly used taxpayer money to settle a harassment claim, Conyers announced his resignation from Congress on December 5, 2017.</p>

<p>Congressman John Conyers, Jr. was born in 1929, in Detroit, Michigan. After graduating from Detroit public schools, he earned his B.A. degree in 1957, and his J.D. degree in 1958, from Wayne State University. Before beginning a career as a private attorney, Conyers served one year in Korea as an officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and was awarded combat and merit citations.</p>

<p>In 1958, Conyers began his work in politics as an aide to Congressman John Dingell, whom he served until 1961. Conyers made history when he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1964 on a platform of jobs, justice and peace. During his years in Congress, social justice and economic opportunity have remained focal points of Conyers’ platform.</p>

<p>The list of Conyers’ legislative accomplishments is long and impressive. Some of the bills authored or sponsored by Conyers include the Martin Luther King Holiday Act, the Alcohol Warning Label Act, the National Voter Registration Act and the Hate Crime Statistics Act. As the first African American Democratic leader on the House Judiciary Committee, he attached crucial civil rights measures to the 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill, including the Racial Justice Act and the Police Accountability Act. Conyers generated the Justice Department’s national study on police brutality, and he conducted hearings in several cities on police violence, racially motivated violence, sentencing, white-collar crime and other criminal justice matters.</p>