[Darren McCarty]

Austin was Secretary of State before I was born (I'm in my early 30's) but during my lifetime, he wasn't seen a typical Michigan style of "black candidate." He was just there, and he won everywhere. He always seemed to win largely since the GOP didn't contest the race. In 1994, they finally went after everybody, and took almost all of them except the "eternal general" Frank Kelley. Austin was the old guy who was past his prime and did not do anything about long lines. Candice Miller won. She won re-election easily because people wern't waiting in line for as long as they did for Austin.

Looking back, too bad Austin didn't beat Gribbs in 69. Irony is that I think Obama's biggest problem in Michigan stems from the 1973 mayoral election (along with bussing rulings).

[fieldmarshaldj]

I was glancing through this book online: http://books.google.com/books?id=oVJJPfdZyhwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=who+killed+detroit%3F&sig=ACfU3U1RjjSjFd967pRXT9PjCiET-fnL1g

Seemed interesting detailing the late ‘60s decline of Detroit. Gribbs was seen as a reactionary to Cavanagh, and tried to crack down on crime, but ended up splitting the city in the process. The authors speculate that Austin might’ve been able to steer a more moderate course, not driving out Whites, and not enflaming Blacks (a la Tom Bradley in L.A., though eventually his last term was a disaster culminating with the Rodney King mess). We’ll never know for sure, though Young was such an exploitive race baiter, he still might’ve run out Austin after a single term in ‘73, anyhow, and still exacerbated the already bad situation in the city. Truly a shame.