ANN ARBOR, MI Larry Hunter, a social activist who served 12 years on Ann Arbors City Council and advocated for human rights and affordable housing and fought racial discrimination and segregation, died Nov. 12.
He was 69.
Hunter was a Democratic 1st Ward representative from 1982 to 1994 and served as mayor pro tem under both Democratic and Republican mayors.
At last weeks council meeting, 1st Ward representative Jeff Hayner observed a moment of silence for the late city leader, calling him a king among men who will be missed.
Born in 1951, Hunter, one of 14 siblings, grew up in a public housing project and lived in both the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti areas.
He became politically active at an early age, organizing walkouts at Pioneer High School as a Black Student Union leader, and joined the Black Panther Party and participated in marches and demonstrations against injustice.
He made his first run for public office in 1982 as a 30-year-old former city employee and 18-year resident of Ann Arbor, unseating three-term incumbent Earl Greene.
At the time, Hunter lived at 610 N. Fifth Ave. in a historically Black neighborhood just north of downtown.
Hunter, an anti-death penalty advocate with the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization, lost in eight of 11 precincts in his first run, but scored heavily in the three precincts that included predominantly Black neighborhoods, The Ann Arbor News reported in 1982.
In a win that somewhat surprised his opponent, he outpolled Greene 70-25 at the Ann Arbor Community Center, 97-35 at the Arrowwood Hills Cooperative and 127-37 at Mack School.
We reached the grass roots, Hunter said. People have traditionally written off Arrowwood, but we didnt.
Prior to being elected, Hunter spent several years working with Ann Arbors public housing and Model Cities youth programs.
He also was on the board of the Community Skills Center, where he once recalled we managed to save a lot of kids and return them to the Ann Arbor Public Schools system. He also served as director of the Ypsilanti Resource Center.
These are some of the most difficult times in Ann Arbors history, Hunter wrote during his 1982 campaign, calling attention to revenue challenges, business losses and declining human services.
However, after many years of grassroots involvement in this community, I know that solutions will be found and that we will prevail and prosper, he said. This is because Ann Arbors greatest asset is its people and the unique human environment they have generated. Now more than ever, we need to mobilize their energies to solve our problems through active participation in the process of city government.
He advocated for holding the line on property tax increases wherever possible, while addressing neighborhood needs. He called for aggressive leadership to ensure the continuation of essential human services by the public sector.
Hunter also thought economic regeneration, along with carefully planned growth, should be among the citys top goals, pursued through broad-based community involvement.
On the campaign trail in 1982, he vowed to give careful consideration to the concept of a Downtown Development Authority, which City Council created during his first term. In November 1982, council adopted a downtown development and tax-increment financing plan to combat urban decline and revitalize downtown.
Hunter vowed to work with downtown businesses to advance equitable measures to improve the business environment and create jobs.
He quickly rose to party leadership after knocking off Greene, an old-guard Democrat, and was known for a blunt and sometimes rambling speaking style, engaging opponents in bitter debate while providing sage political advice for his allies, The News reported.
In a 7-3 vote described as a symbolic blow against apartheid in 1985, Hunter won support for a resolution to divest stock the city held $19 million in city pension funds in companies doing business in South Africa. He carried a Divest Now sign as he marched with protesters in front of city hall beforehand.
In an endorsement in 1990, The News called Hunter a consistent, thoughtful voice for the 1st Ward and a council member who worked skillfully behind the scenes.
He is a respected and knowledgeable politician, whose contributions to the community are numerous, The News wrote, saying one of his strongest traits was his willingness to compromise and find consensus, such as his work with Mayor Jerry Jernigan and other Republicans to assist the Ann Arbor YMCA with building additional housing.
Hunter has put his longevity to good use by taking strong leadership positions on major issues without neglecting the benefits of compromise, The News wrote. He also has represented his district with sensitivity, continues to press for affirmative action and articulates a vision of the city that includes affordable housing.
Few at city hall had a better grasp of the issues or better knowledge of the workings of government than Hunter, The News said.
In January 1991, Hunter, then 39, was arrested by Washtenaw County sheriffs deputies following a traffic stop on Michigan Avenue in Ypsilanti, an arrest he and his Democratic colleagues argued amounted to racial harassment.
White deputies who made the arrest alleged Hunter assaulted a deputy after the car in which he was a passenger was stopped because of a broken tail light.
Deputies also arrested the driver, 46-year-old Raymond Chauncey, an Ann Arbor human rights investigator and 21-year employee of the city.
Both men were jailed for about seven hours, according to news reports.
Hunter said the next morning there was absolutely no basis for the arrest and he questioned why deputies asked him for ID and searched him. He said his hand accidentally brushed a deputy while he was being searched and another deputy laughed and said, Thats assault.
The prosecutors office later determined there was not enough evidence for an assault charge.
Deputies claimed Hunter initially did not produce ID when requested and slapped and pushed away a deputys hand three times, and they searched him because he made a rapid movement to his pocket. Hunter maintained he initially didnt identify himself because he wasnt accused of a crime and was asserting his legal rights.
Hunter and Chauncey filed complaints against the sheriffs office alleging they were harassed because they were Black, and the sheriffs office launched an internal investigation.
Ray and I were subjected to brutality and incarceration and received overtly racist treatment by some deputies, Hunter said. It is not a crime to be born as an African American.
City Council Member Ann Marie Coleman, who represented the 1st Ward with Hunter, said she was truly outraged, while Liz Brater, D-3rd Ward, said she was very disturbed.
Everyone reports that when they have a tail light out and theyre stopped by the police, they get a warning, Coleman said. Im speechless that they did all they did with Mr. Chauncey and Mr. Hunter.
Weeks later, Republican Sheriff Ronald Schebil exonerated his deputies, saying they did nothing wrong.
There was probable cause to stop the vehicle, arrest the occupants and detain them at the correctional facility, he said in a news release.
Hunter called the finding an outrage and vowed to file a lawsuit for false arrest, false imprisonment and racial harassment.
He said he and Chauncey were not allowed to call attorneys while they were jailed until they pointed out two white men who also were jailed were given access to a phone.
Sabra Briere, a former 1st Ward council member, recalled this past week how Hunters arrest became a prime example of racial harassment by police when she was president of the Washtenaw County branch of the ACLU in the 1990s.
That was one of the things that people used when the ACLU was looking at driving while Black issues ... and its still an issue, Briere said. It is a shame it happened.
In 1993, as Ann Arbors longest-serving council member, Hunter announced he would not seek another term, saying 12 years is enough. He instead threw his support behind Pat Vereen-Dixon, manager of the Arrowwood Hills housing cooperative, who ran in the citys first November election and became the first Black woman on council.
Hunter later went on to earn a law degree and got involved in supporting lawsuits for fair housing and other issues in Washington, D.C.
Two years ago, while he was in town from D.C., he participated in a 74-minute video interview about his life as part of the Living Oral History Project, a partnership between the Ann Arbor District Library and the African American Cultural and Historical Museum of Washtenaw County.
He recalled his early life, how he became politically active, how he was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War and his involvement with the Black Panthers, which he called the first Black mans book club.
He also offered some advice to the younger generation to stay in school and never fall behind on getting an education.
But my most important thing is be yourself and learn how to stand up and fight, he said. And if you get knocked down, you get back up and you keep fighting.
Briere said shes saddened by Hunters loss. She considered him a fighter for human rights and those with lesser means.
Hunter was probably concerned about national issues more than some were comfortable with locally, Briere said.
What Larry was, was a good spokesperson for all politics is local ... think globally, act locally, she said. Those were things that he was always doing.
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Larry Hunter, former Ann Arbor council member and Black Panther, dies at 69 - MLive.com
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