Error processing SSI file'Lynching' ad heats up hot mayor's race
Ad-verse reaction
The Michigan Chronicle this week published a full-page ad headlined "Lynching is still legal in America." Beneath it is a faded image of black corpses dangling from trees with nooses around their necks and text comparing the media's treatment of Kwame Kilpatrick to the murder of African Americans in the south. Are the accusations in the ads fair?
Recent Nolan Finley editorials
Mayor's race more recall election than head-to-head fight
King Kwame's court may cost their boss his head next year
What others are saying
Comment on this story
DETROIT -- A newspaper advertisement likening media critiques of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to lynchings drew swift complaints from his opponent Thursday and reopened concerns that the mayor's re-election campaign was racially polarizing.
The Michigan Chronicle this week published a full-page ad headlined "Lynching is still legal in America." Beneath it is a faded image of black corpses dangling from trees with nooses around their necks.
Kilpatrick's opponent, Freman Hendrix, accused the mayor of approving the ad and called it despicable and divisive.
"What I think makes that ad especially reprehensible in the Detroit Chronicle is that it was printed in the commemorative edition for Rosa Parks," Hendrix said. "To place an ad like this at this time, it's typical of this administration who would try to win at any cost."
In a statement, Kilpatrick distanced himself from the ad, but was vague as to whether he condemned it.
"This advertisement is not affiliated in any way with the Kilpatrick administration or the Kilpatrick for Mayor campaign," the statement said. "Detroiters are very passionate people, and while I appreciate the spirit of some of the content, I do not condone the images in this advertisement."
Hendrix said the mayor "clearly had to authorize that ad." When asked if he had any proof of Kilpatrick's involvement, Hendrix said, "Let's get serious."
The ad was purchased by Citizens for Honest Government, a political action committee formed in April and headed by Robert J. Miller Jr. of Grosse Pointe Park. Cathy Nedd, a spokeswoman for the Hendrix campaign, identified Miller as a supporter of Detroit City Council member Sharon McPhail, who endorsed Kilpatrick after her own bid for the mayor's office failed in the August primary election.
The mayor's office did not return repeated phone calls to elaborate on his statement. Miller and McPhail also did not return phone calls about the ad Thursday.
The ad accuses the media of trashing Kilpatrick while giving Hendrix a pass from serious scrutiny. Throughout the mayoral campaign Kilpatrick has trumpeted a similar theme: The news media is biased against him.
"We are under siege. The mainstream news media have declared war on the city of Detroit," the ad says. "They have repeatedly condemned those self-assured African-Americans who dare stand up against racism and bigotry in Michigan."
Heading the "media lynch mob" are Mildred Gaddis of radio station WCHB, and political columnists Jack Lessenberry of the Metro Times, Brian Dickerson of the Free Press and Nolan Finley of The Detroit News. They and other writers and commentators have criticized Kilpatrick for the city's financial woes and accused him of freewheeling with taxpayer's money.
The ad closes with the message, "Just say 'no' to the suburban raiders and their puppet Helmut Hendrix (a.k.a. Freman)." "Helmut" is Hendrix's first name, given by his Austrian-born mother. It was used frequently in the campaign by some of his opponents to disparage him.
According to campaign records with the Michigan Secretary of State, Miller is the treasurer for Citizens for Honest Government.
Little is known about the group except that it has repeatedly failed to pay a $1,000 late filing fee for a report due in early July. The state has sent at least two notices, including one earlier this month, reminding Miller that the money is past due, records show.
Lynching -- an execution without a trial -- is a still-sensitive subject with special significance to blacks.
According to the Tuskegee Institute, at least 3,446 blacks were lynched between 1882 and 1968. At least 1,297 whites, many of them immigrants, were also lynched in the same period, the school reported.
In June, the U.S. Senate formally apologized for its failure to enact proposed laws to stop the slayings as far back as 105 years ago. The House on several occasions passed legislation intended to criminalize lynchings because some states refused to prosecute whites for killing blacks.
The Senate's apology was spurred in part by Sen. George Allen, R-Va., who drew heavy criticism for posting a small noose outside his law office door and displaying a Confederate flag in his home. Allen reportedly co-sponsored the apology after he reviewed the book, "Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America."
Even though both candidates for mayor of Detroit are black, race has remained a steady undercurrent in the campaign.
Kilpatrick has exhorted voters to reject Hendrix as a candidate overly willing to cooperate with the suburbs at the city's expense.
With census figures showing Metro Detroit as the most segregated urban area, rhetoric pitting city versus suburb is often tinged with racial overtones.
It is not the first time the Kilpatrick campaign has been accused of insensitivity. The day Kilpatrick formally kicked off his campaign, the mayor's father compared the negative media attention his son had received to lies that spawned the Holocaust.
"They had a big lie in Europe," Bernard Kilpatrick said at the rally. "A guy by the name of (Hermann) Goering said that the Jews were responsible for all the misery that the Germans were having. One lie. And that lie caught on," he said. "And before it was all over, 6 million of them died."
The next day, Bernard Kilpatrick apologized.
You can reach Ronald J. Hansen at (313) 222-2019 or rhansen@detnews.com.
Copyright © 2005
The Detroit News.
Use of this site indicates your agreement to the Terms of Service (updated 12/19/2002).