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Bill
Clinton
among
those
honoring
US Rep.
Conyers
at
funeral
apnews.com
DETROIT
-
Elected
officials,
religious
leaders,
music
stars
and
Detroit
sports
heroes
gathered
Monday
at a
church
to
remember
longtime
U.S.
Rep.
John
Conyers.
Former
President
Bill
Clinton,
civil
rights
leader
the Rev.
Jesse
Jackson
and
Democratic
Michigan
Gov.
Gretchen
Whitmer
were
among
the
speakers
at
Conyers’
funeral
at
Greater
Grace
Temple
in
Detroit.
They
were
joined
by
several
current
and
former
members
of
Congress.
“I’d
like to
thank
the
people
of
Detroit
for
electing
him 27
times,”
Clinton
said of
Conyers,
who died
Oct. 27
at his
Detroit
home two
years
after
resigning
from
Congress.
“I’d
like to
thank
you for
giving
him the
space
and
support
not just
to
represent
his
district
but to
represent
people
across
the
country
and even
around
the
world on
the
things
we
should
all care
about.”
“He
was out
there
banging
the drum
against
apartheid
in South
Africa
long
before
it was a
widely
popular
cause,”
Clinton
added.
“He
always
supported
the
people
of Haiti
even
when he
couldn’t
support
their
government.
He
worked
for all
of our
cities
and jobs
and
employment
and
opportunity
and
peace
and
justice
everywhere.
Not
every
district
gives
their
elected
representative
the
elbow
room to
do all
those
things.”
Known as
the dean
of the
Congressional
Black
Caucus,
which he
helped
found,
Conyers
became
one of
only six
black
House
members
when he
won his
first
election
by just
108
votes in
1964.
The race
was the
beginning
of more
than 50
years of
election
dominance:
Conyers
regularly
won
elections
with
more
than 80%
of the
vote.
After a
15-year
fight,
he won
passage
of
legislation
declaring
the Rev.
Martin
Luther
King
Jr.‘s
birthday
a
national
holiday,
first
celebrated
in 1986.
He
regularly
introduced
a bill
starting
in 1989
to study
the harm
caused
by
slavery
and the
possibility
of
reparations
for
slaves’
descendants.
That
bill
never
got past
a House
subcommittee.
“John is
a
champion,”
Jackson
said
Monday.
“He is a
full-blown
hall of
famer.”
The
Congressman
retired
in 2017
citing
health
issues.
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