Statue of former Dearborn Mayor Orville Hubbard taken down

A statue of Orville Hubbard, the former mayor of Dearborn known for his racist views, has been taken down, according to civil rights advocates and city officials.

The statue no longer stands outside the Dearborn Historical Museum, where it stood for a few years after it had been removed from outside the city's old City Hall in 2015. 

For more than 30 years, Hubbard's statue of him smiling and waving his hand was a fixture in Dearborn, a reminder of its history of exclusion of minorities, especially African Americans. Hubbard served as mayor in Dearborn from 1942 to '78, the longest serving mayor in the city's history.

Dearborn Mayor Jack O'Reilly did not immediately return a voice mail seeking comment.

City spokeswoman Mary Laundroche said in a statement: "The statue had been a divisive symbol rather than a unifying one. The fact that the Hubbard family was able to move it out of Dearborn now — something they had wanted to do since 2015, when the statue was removed from the former City Hall campus — is a positive development for our community. It will allow our message to be better heard that Dearborn is committed to being a welcoming place for people of goodwill from all backgrounds."

In a Facebook post, Dearborn City Council President Susan Dabaja said the Hubbard family "will place it at his gravesite."

Hubbard used racial slurs and pushed Dearborn to exclude black residents. He said that mixing of the races leads to the downfall of civilizations. He made derogatory remarks against African Americans, Arab Americans, Polish Americans, Italians, Irish Catholics, Jews and others.

Hubbard had a “deep-rooted dislike of many non-WASP groups,” according to the 1989 book "Orvie: The Dictator of Dearborn."

Using the term previously used to describe Arab Americans, Hubbard once said that "some people, the Syrians, are even worse than the n-----s."

Three Dearborn City Councilwoman confirmed the statue was taken down, praising the removal of it, according to posts on Facebook. 

"I'm very happy that the statue was removed," said Dearborn attorney Majed Moughni, who was outside the museum speaking with two Dearborn City Councilwomen. "It doesn't belong in our inclusive community."

Dearborn's population today is less than half of European descent, according to U.S. Census figures. The city is now more than 46% Arab American, 4% African American and 4% Latino, according to 2019 Census data.

The statue was erected in 1989 and could be seen by drivers along Michigan Avenue. In 2015, it moved to a location outside the Dearborn Historical Museum on Garrison and Brady in the western part of the city. In August 2017, it was moved again after complaints it was in too prominent of a location, to the side of the McFadden Ross House, further out of sight.

After the white nationalist rally in 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia, there were renewed calls to remove the statue.

Hubbard's slogan of "Keep Dearborn Clean" was seen by critics as referring to keeping minorities out of the city. 

His late daughter, former Dearborn City Councilwoman Nancy Hubbard, defended him in 2015, telling the Free Press: "I don't think my father was a racist at all. He treated the black man with just as much respect as he did the white man. My father was a very positive man. He wanted everything to be special in Dearborn and it was."

But others said he left a negative legacy that needs to change.

"He was a beloved mayor, but a very controversial mayor," Dearborn City Councilwoman Leslie Herrick said outside the museum in a video taken and posted by Moughni.

Dearborn City Councilwoman Erin Byrnes, also in the video, said the statue was removed between 5:30 and 7 p.m. Friday. 

"Our understand is that Orville Hubbard's family came and took it," Byrnes said. "We don't know yet where it will wind up or where it will be long-term."

Hubbard "espoused racist views, he was a proponent of segregation," Byrnes said. "Those are not views that the Dearborn community holds. We are diverse, we are inclusive. ... The statue does not represent who we are."

In recent days, there has been a renewed call to take down the statue amid protests over the death of George Floyd. A rally was planned for Sunday outside the statue, which will be taking place, Byrnes said.

Byrnes said that a few days ago, someone had placed a 'Black Lives Matter' T-shirt on the statue.

"Hubbard doesn't represent what Dearborn is today," said Abed Ayoub, a Dearborn native who's the national legal and policy director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, a civil rights group that has been advocating for years for the statue to be removed. "With all that's happening in the world, now is the time to do this. Dearborn is a welcoming community of people Hubbard would have turned away and looked down upon." 

Contact Niraj Warikoo: nwarikoo@freepress.com or 313-223-4792. Twitter @nwarikoo