50 years after historic Detroit election, Erma Henderson's legacy lives on

On Tuesday, Election Day, the Rev. Dr. JoAnn Watson will open the doors of her church early to the surrounding neighborhood.

And once those doors are open, Watson hopes the people will keep rolling in — all morning, all through the afternoon, and into the early evening — because West Side Unity Church, 4727 Joy Road, will be a polling place serving voters in precinct 447.

“I always get excited on Election Day,” proclaimed Watson, who is the senior pastor at West Side Unity Church. The smile on Watson’s face, the twinkle in her eye and her repeated use of “sugar pie” as she warmly addressed the three people that delivered voting equipment to her church on Thursday, were definitely outward signs of Watson’s excitement as Election Day nears.

Watson certainly has a deeper connection to elections than most, given that she was a Detroit City Council member for 10 years from 2003-13. But it was the election victory of another former council member, the Hon. Erma L. Henderson, 50 years ago that continues to inspire Watson today.

“What a blessing it was for the women in Detroit,” said the 71-year-old Watson, as she recalled Henderson’s 1972 victory in a special runoff election, which made her the first Black woman to serve on Detroit’s City Council in the process. “I finally felt represented on the City Council, and we had so much pride and so much love for Mother Henderson. The City Council was called the Common Council then, but there was nothing common about Mother Henderson.”

An ad that appeared in the Sunday, Nov. 5, 1972, edition of the Detroit Free Press supports Watson’s statement about Henderson’s uniqueness as a community servant, even before she was elected to public office. Along with a long list of endorsers of Henderson’s candidacy for the council, which consisted of the Free Press, The Detroit News, the Michigan Chronicle, the UAW, the AFL-CIO and more; including five seated council members at the time, Nicholas Hood Sr., Mel Ravitz, Carl Levin, Ernest Brown and David Eberhard; the ad, sponsored by Women United To Elect Erma Henderson, also listed an extensive list of community initiatives and organizations that Henderson was a major part of, including the Equal Justice Council, Interfaith Action Council, Michigan Council on Crime and Delinquency and Wayne County Community College, just to name a few.

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“When you talk about powerful Black women in the city, her name was on the lips of everyone, long before she was elected to the City Council,” said Watson about Henderson, who in 1957 managed the campaign of William T. Patrick Jr., when he became the first Black member of the Detroit Common Council. “You knew you were in the presence of greatness whenever you were around her, but she was sweet and kind; Mother Henderson never waved people away.”

Watson was able to witness all of the qualities she described up close, beginning with Henderson’s surprise visit to Watson’s workplace in 1979.

“I was the executive director of the (Downtown Detroit) YWCA and I looked up from my desk one day and there was Mother Henderson,” said Watson, whose YWCA offices stood on the corner of Witherell and Montcalm streets, the same area where Comerica Park stands today. “Talk about being on a high; my mouth dropped and my heart leapt. Then I got up and gave her a hug. Mother Henderson said: ‘Dear, I’m here for business.’ But before saying a word, Mother Henderson smiled and dropped her head. She was so humble and there she was because the Women’s Conference of Concerns needed a new place to hold regular meetings. It was our honor to provide that space.”

That encounter in Watson’s YWCA office would be the beginning of a 30-year relationship during which Watson became known as “Baby” and “Daughter” to Henderson, as they often worked together on projects that impacted the lives of Detroiters. While Watson, a proud product of MacCulloch Elementary School, Durfee Middle School and Central High School (Class of 1968) cherishes being “intimately mentored” by the 17-year member of the Detroit City Council (including 12 years as Council president), she says many Detroiters who never met the political icon are benefiting from Henderson’s tireless work as well. Watson identified Neighborhood City Halls, Detroit Police Mini Stations, the YWCA Interim House and the fight against redlining as existing institutions and issues that have Henderson’s “fingerprints” all over them. And in the case of redlining, Watson explains that other politicians and activists have received a baton passed to them by Henderson, even if they may not be fully aware of her previous contributions.

“Mother Henderson wanted to stop the plague of redlining that was providing such a great disadvantage to Detroiters in terms of the insurance rates they were forced to pay,” said Watson, a former executive director of the Detroit Branch NAACP. “She lobbied and spoke in Lansing against it, and though she wasn’t able to resolve it, that was one of her critical issues. And the work going on now addressing redlining is really building on her efforts.”

Watson also credited Henderson for providing a platform that helped to produce a wave of influential women in Detroit and beyond, which brought the discussion back to the organization that linked her to Henderson in the beginning — the Women’s Conference of Concerns.

“Mother Henderson’s Women’s Conference of Concerns; there has never been another organization like that,” Watson said. “There was a health division; a division committed to senior citizens; a division committed to youth; education; every conceivable subject or topic you can think of was somehow covered by that organization. All of the women were empowered, and one of the women, Dr. Bernadine Denning, became Director of Revenue Sharing for the United States of America under President Jimmy Carter.

“Within the Women’s Conference of Concerns, there were women from Detroit, but also women who were from the surrounding communities and cities; there was even an international division, and all of the women were very proud to be connected to Mother Henderson’s organization. That’s why she was beloved, honored, respected and absolutely admired by people across the board. Mother Henderson prepared women to be leaders and brought people together.”

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There also was a spirit of togetherness late Wednesday afternoon at the riverfront park (8800 E. Jefferson) named after Henderson. On an unseasonably warm day, in the area of the park closer to Jefferson Avenue than the Detroit River, about 30 people were engaged in activities, including basketball, horseshoes and swinging and climbing for a small group of kids in the playground area. Among the people at the park, fresh off of coaching an Eastside Raiders flag football team (5- and 6-year-olds) to a recent championship, was 30-year-old Lavance Drayton Jr. When asked whether he knew he was at a park named after an important former Detroit City Councilmember — and posthumously still Council President Emeritus — Drayton fired back: “For sure; respect!” And then he went on to share what the park meant to him.

“I’ve been coming to Erma Henderson Park since I was 11 years old,” Drayton said while seated on a park bench near the playground equipment. “I moved into the neighborhood in 2001, the day after my birthday, and I’ve been coming here ever since. Most of the guys down here, we’re like a family. It’s more than just a park to us; it’s November and we’re still coming up to the park because it’s like home for us — a second home. I was raised up here and my son (Lavance Drayton III, 5 years old) is being raised up here and other people’s kids are raised up here; and they call my son their brother or their cousin. This is legendary.”

When told the next day about the scene at the park and Drayton’s story, Watson’s joyful expression resembled the look she had when the election equipment was delivered to her church earlier that morning.

“I love it! Mother Henderson’s spirit is over that space,” Watson said in a tone very similar to her trademarked "Wake Up, Detroit!" greeting that is a staple of morning radio and TV programs Watson has hosted in the city.

And along with respecting Henderson’s name and areas named after her in the city, Watson, who also is an English and journalism professor for Wayne County Community College District, confessed that there is one additional thing that she hopes Detroiters will do to honor Henderson on Election Day.

Watson said: “When I reflect on the sacred legacy of the Honorable Erma L. Henderson (1917-2009), who arrived in Detroit before she was 2 years old and devoted so much of her life in Detroit to advocacy on behalf of those most vulnerable, we must honor her life and her sacrifice with our vote!”

Scott Talley is a native Detroiter, a proud product of Detroit Public Schools and lifelong lover of Detroit culture in all of its diverse forms. In his second tour with the Free Press, which he grew up reading as a child, he is excited and humbled to cover the city’s neighborhoods and the many interesting people who define its various communities. Contact him at: stalley@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @STalleyfreep. Read more of Scott's stories at www.freep.com/mosaic/detroit-is/.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Erma Henderson, first Black woman to serve on Detroit City Council, was ‘beloved’