Measure to rename Detroit’s Hart Plaza after Martin Luther King Jr. introduced

Detroit City Council Member Mary Waters has proposed a resolution that rename Hart Plaza in downtown Detroit after the late Martin Luther King Jr. The measure was referred to the Neighborhood and Community Services Standing Committee on Tuesday with no further action.

In the resolution, Waters, a former state House member, cited King’s commitment to civil rights and the 1963 “Walk to Freedom” march and rally in Detroit where he first delivered his seminal “I Have a Dream” speech. King’s “dedication to the advancement of all, welcoming to all, and working towards a future free from crime, violence, and poverty,” a portion of the resolution reads.

On this day in 1976: Phil Hart, the ‘Conscience of the U.S. Senate,’ dies at 64

A seven-foot statue of King, the late civil rights leader, was unveiled at Hart Plaza in June. 

The plaza was named after Phil Hart, a former U.S. senator from Michigan in 1978. The Democrat, who supported the 1964 Civil Right Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act, died in 1976. 

Local law gives City Council, Detroit’s legislative body, the authority to name streets and public buildings and property. 

For example, the council in 1978 named Joe Louis Arena after the former world heavyweight champion and longtime Detroit resident. The members also renamed Chene Park Amphitheater after the late Aretha Franklin in 2019. City Council over the last several years have produced street renaming for noted city residents and the late South African President Nelson Mandela. 

Sam Riddle, representing the Michigan National Action Network, said that he and the organization are “dramatically opposed” to removing Phil Hart’s name at Hart Plaza.

In 2010, Riddle, a political consultant, was sentenced to 37 months for his role in conspiring to bribe Southfield City Councilman William Lattimore in connection with the Southfield City Council’s approval of the relocation of a pawn shop and other related offenses. Waters, a co-defendant in the matter, was sentenced to one year of probation for her role in the Southfield conspiracy.