Not since the Detroit rebellion of 1967 or perhaps the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a year later in 1968, has Michigan and Detroit in particular, experienced such a year of collective trauma in the lives of all its citizens.
Even those tragic events pale in comparison to the death and carnage the state and city were put through by the out-of-control COVID-19 pandemic which we are still grappling with. Or the daily shock and assaults from living under the presidency of a literal autocrat who is profoundly racist, incompetent, with no respect for the law and whose obsession with our state and governor were particularly cruel and possibly deadly.
The proof is the fact that according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services by the end of the year COVID-19; a disease unknown to the U.S. before January of this year, became the No. 3 cause of death in Michigan, behind heart disease and cancer.
Making matters worse is that it did not have to get this bad. Due to the sheer incompetence and later cruel indifference to all the deaths by Republican President Donald Trump, the disease spread wildly out of control as he selfishly sought to play down its seriousness so as not to jeopardize his re-election chances.
And yet, at the same time when looking back on 2020, it was also a year of triumph where Detroiters played a critical role in the U.S. Presidential Election by providing the margin of victory in Michigan to bring down the most dangerous incumbent president in modern U.S. history.
The state also passed a long-overdue criminal justice reform measure that makes it easier for people who have committed certain felonies and misdemeanors to have their record expunged.
And there was the passage of Proposal N, a $250 million bond sale to renovate or demolish 16,000 vacant homes in neighborhoods and grow Detroit-based demolition and rehab companies.
And there was Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s successful defense of the public health against a relentless assault from President Trump, the leadership of the state Republican Party, and white hate and militia groups who support them, for her aggressive lockdown policies to fight against the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Not far behind her was Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s heroic defense of Michigan citizens’ right to vote freely against a massive, nationwide effort by the Trump campaign and Republican Party to suppress the votes of African Americans, Hispanics, and young people to steal the U.S. Presidential election. And Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel deserves credit too for her aggressive defense of election integrity and no-nonsense pursuit of people engaged in deceptive voter suppression tactics via illegal robocalls aimed at the Black community.
Indeed, there was such so much “news” made over the year that it is almost easy to forget the historical vice-presidential selection of U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris as the running mate for President-elect Joe Biden. Harris is the first African American vice president; female or male, and the first graduate of an HBCU to attain the position.
Or the impeachment and Senate acquittal of President Trump. The impeachment was initiated on December 18, 2019, when the House of Representatives approved articles of impeachment on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The Senate acquitted Trump of these charges on February 5, 2020
Trump’s impeachment followed the revelation that he tried to pressure the President of Ukraine to falsely accuse Democratic Presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, of corruption to harm Biden’s reputation in advance of the November 2020 Presidential Election. The president refused to release a desperately needed $400 million in funds allocated by Congress to Ukraine; a U.S. ally, for their defense – Ukraine is in the middle of a hot war with Russia – if their President Volodymyr Zelensky, did not do as Trump demanded.
Zelensky resisted, and Trump’s blackmail was exposed. However, the Senate voted almost entirely along party lines to acquit Trump. Still, he became only the second U.S. President formally impeached to be put on trial in U.S. history. President Richard M. Nixon was facing impeachment when he resigned from office in Aug. 1974.
All these events, of course, occurred amid the backdrop of the rise in activity and profile of the Black Lives Matter movement. Its resurgence came on a wave of high-profile brutal extrajudicial murders and shootings including the killing of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, George Floyd in Minneapolis, and the shooting of Jacob Blake, an African American man in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He was an unarmed man shot four times in the back by a Kenosha police officer after leaving his girlfriend’s house following a domestic dispute and while leaning into his SUV. He is expected to survive but is paralyzed from the waist down.
The police shooting was followed by nationwide protests, including in Detroit and around Michigan, as part of the Black Lives Matter movement. It also was another catalyst for the growing Defund the Police movement which sought to reallocate money spent on policing into social programs, crisis intervention efforts, and community building and poverty alleviating projects as more constructive and effective alternative crime control efforts.
Still, even with all those major news events occurring in Detroit and Michigan on an almost daily basis, the story of the year without a doubt is the devastating impact the pandemic has had on our city and state.
Nationwide, by the end of 2020, there have been more than 19 million cases and more than 324,805 deaths caused by the disease. In Michigan, the state was closing in on almost 500,000 cases of Covid-19 with nearly 12,000 state resident’s dead in less than a single year due to the disease.
And for most of that time, the brunt of the disease was felt by Black Michiganders in the metro Detroit region and disproportionately by Black communities in urban areas further outstate.
Indeed, in an article in Bridge Magazine by Mike Wilkinson he noted that at one point during the pandemic Black Michiganders accounted for nearly 40 percent of all COVID-19 deaths in the state although they only constitute about 14 percent of the population. https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-health-watch/nearly-12k-deaths-covid-be-no-3-cause-death-michigan-2020
By comparison, heart disease kills, on average, nearly 500 Michiganders a week and cancer another 400. In some weeks, COVID-19 killed more than 900 state residents.
By the end of the year, African Americans accounted for 25 percent of all COVID-19 deaths statewide. White residents made up 64 percent although they are about 75 percent of the population.
Yes, there were notable, meaningful, triumphs in 2020 that all Michiganders should take pride in. But nothing will ever erase the trauma from the memories of all those who died so unnecessarily from a horrible disease that altered all our lives forever.
In this year of loss, we would be remiss if we did not note the passing of any of our country’s most beloved figures. Among them, civil rights icons and Congressmen John Lewis (D-GA) and Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-MD). Also, David Dinkins, who made history as New York City’s first Black mayor. Dinkins’ death, occurred just over a month after his wife Joyce’s death.
Basketball legend Kobe Bryant and his 13-years-old daughter, Gigi, Black Panther star, Chadwick Boseman, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Jeopardy! Host Alex Trebek, actors Sean Connery, and Tommy ‘Tiny’ Lister, best known for his roles in The Dark Knight and the Friday film series. And country legend Charlie Pride a pioneer for Black musicians who died at the age of 86 due to complications from COVID-19. Also, John ‘Ecstasy’ Fletcher of hip-hop trio Whodini and Rafer Johnson the famed Olympian who won gold and helped subdue Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin in 1968, Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson, and his teammate Lou Brock. And sadly, 14-year-old Ben Watkins, a fan-favorite contestant on MasterChef Junior. He died late fall after struggling with a rare form of cancer for a year and a half. He was 14. The teen’s death comes three years after both his parents were killed in a domestic violence incident in 2017.
Locally, Michigan and Detroit experienced profound loss and sadness this year as well. Among those who left us too soon, were Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon due to complications from COVID-19, Wayne County Commission Jewel Ware, the legendary businessman, and funeral home director, O’Neil Swanson, former State Sen. Morris Hood III, Community Leader Marlowe Stoudamire, Otis Knapp Lee, retired Detroit restaurateur and owner of the Midtown deli called Mr. Fofo’s and who catered the late federal Judge Damon J. Keith’s Soul Food Luncheon for more than 30 years. And Fred Westbrook Jr., the recently retired president of Detroit’s bus drivers union due to COVID-19 was among far too many of our fellow Detroiters and Michiganders taken away from us by this disease far too soon.