| Name |
Michigan Connection |
Birthplace |
Date |
| Richard H. Austin |
Michigan's Secretary of State, 1971-1995; delegate to 1961 MI Constitutional Convention; state's first black Certified Public Accountant (CPA) |
Stouts Mountain, Alabama |
1913-2001 |
| Henry Walton Bibb |
Escaped slave and abolitionist lecturer; agent for the Raisin Institute; author of Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, an American Slave (1849); lived in Detroit from 1842 to 1850(?) |
Shelby County, KY |
1815-1854 |
| Frederic Baraga |
Missionary, author, 1st Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Upper Michigan |
Dobernig, Slovenia (Austria) |
1797-1868 |
| Lewis Cass |
Governor of MI Territory (1813-1831), U.S. Senator from MI (1845-1857); Presidential candidate 1848 |
Exeter, NH |
1782-1866 |
| Robert Cavelier (Sieur de La Salle) |
Explorer |
France |
1643-1687 |
| Zachariah Chandler |
Detroit mayor (1851-52), U.S. Senator from MI 1857-75 |
Bedford, NH |
1813-1879 |
| Rev. Charles E. Coughlin |
Activist Catholic Priest and radio broadcaster in Detroit |
Ontario, Canada |
1891-1979 |
| James Couzens |
Automobile manufacturer, Detroit mayor (1919-22), U.S. Senator (1922-36) |
Canada |
1872-1936 |
| Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer |
Army officer, lived in Monroe |
Ohio |
1839-1876 |
| Antoine de la Mothe (Sieur de Cadillac) |
Founded Detroit 1701 |
France |
1660-1730 |
Horatio S. Earle
(State Archives Photo) |
Came to Detroit 1889; State Senator (1901-1902); 1st State Highway Commissioner (1903-1909) |
Mount Holly, VT |
1855-1935 |
| Woodbridge N. Ferris |
Governor (1913-1916), U.S. Senator from MI (1923-29) |
Spencer, Tioga County, NY |
1853-1928 |
| Gerald R. Ford (Leslie King Jr.) |
U.S. President (1974-77); grew up in Grand Rapids |
Omaha, NE |
1913-2006 |
| Martha Griffiths |
Michigan's lieutenant governor (1982-90); 10-term U.S. House member; led the fight to pass the Equal Rights Amendment in Congress and added language banning sex discrimination in the 1964 Civil Rights Act |
Pierce City, Missouri |
1912-2003 |
| Philip A. Hart |
Lt. Governor (1955-1958); U. S. Senator (1959-1976) |
Bryn Maur, Pennsylvania |
1912-1976 |
| Laura Smith Haviland |
Abolitionist, lived in Raisin Township |
Ontario, Canada |
1808-1898 |
| Douglass Houghton |
Geologist, physician and surgeon, Detroit mayor (1842-43) |
New York |
1809-1843 |
| Louis Joliet |
Explorer |
Quebec, Canada |
1645-1700 |
| Jacques Marquette |
Explorer, Jesuit missionary |
France |
1637-1675 |
| Rosa Parks |
Seamstress; "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement"; moved to Detroit in 1957; received Congressional Gold Medal (June 15, 1999) |
Tuskegee, AL |
1913-2005 |
Gabriel Richard
(Detroit News article) |
Sulpician missionary, educator; printed first newspaper in Michigan, 1809; territorial delegate to Congress (1823-1825) |
France |
1767-1832 |
| Fannie Richards |
Detroit's first black teacher and first kindergarten teacher; cofounded Phillis Wheatley Home for Aged Colored Ladies |
Fredericksburg, VA |
1840-1922 |
| Henry Rowe Schoolcraft |
Geologist with Cass expedition in 1820; appointed Indian agent at Sault Ste. Marie in 1822; served in Michigan Territorial Legislature (4th Legislative Council, 1830-1831 |
Albany, NY (near) |
1793-1864 |
| Sojourner Truth (Isabella
Baumfree) |
Abolitionist, moved to Battle Creek in 1856, buried there |
New York |
1797?-1883 |
| Malcom X (Malcolm Little) |
Civil Rights activist, lived in Lansing as a youth |
Nebraska |
1925-1965 |
| Coleman Young |
Delegate to 1961 MI Constitutional Convention; Detroit's first Black mayor, serving from 1974 to 1994 |
Tuscaloosa, AL |
1918-1997 |
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