As the World Turns …
Monday, December 21st, 2009
Sheila Murphy Cockrel.
Cockrel is a relic of Detroit’s past. She is the only white member of the city council and, when her term ends in late December, she could well be its last. Even though she is personally popular, she is leaving the council partly because she is tired of the scandals that have rocked the city lately. Her departure is a significant moment in the history of Detroit, the largest majority-black city in America. In the 1950s, when Detroit’s population reached its 2 million peak, nearly 1.6 million white people lived here. In 1990, though whites were still represented in several major elected posts, they comprised only about 20% of the population. Now, whites make up barely 8% of the city’s estimated 912,000 residents.Â
It use to be news when the first blacks were elected to local office.Â
 Now in Detroit it is news when they aren’t.
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