Orville L. Hubbard

In 1948, Hubbard led a campaign to defeat a referendum to build a low-income housing project in Dearborn on the ground it could turn into a "black slum." Cards opposing the referendum urged Dearborn residents to "keep the Negroes out of Dearborn."[1]

In 1956, Hubbard received national publicity after telling an Alabama newspaper that he favored "complete segregation" of the races.[1]

During the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, the federal government put Hubbard on trial for conspiracy to violate human rights in an incident involving mob vandalism to the home of a man rumored to have sold the home to an African-American. Hubbard was acquitted of the charges.[1]

For many years, Hubbard was unabashed in his comments about segregation. He once told a reporter from the Montgomery Advertiser: "They can't get in here. We watch it. Every time we hear of a Negro moving—for instance, we had one last year—in a response quicker than to a fire. That's generally known. It's known among our own people and it's known among the Negroes here."[15] He also boasted that one of his tactics to discourage blacks who had just moved into Dearborn was by providing police and fire protection that was "a little too good"—wake-up visits every hour or so through the night in response to trouble calls.

Hubbard's other statements on race include the following:

• He once examined the bullet-riddled body of a black man and called it an open-and-shut case of suicide.[1]
• Hubbard was once quoted as saying, "I'm not a racist, but I just hate those black bastards."[1]
• During the 1967 Detroit riots, Hubbard ordered Dearborn police to "shoot looters on sight."[1]
• "I favor segregation," he told The New York Times in 1968. With integration, Hubbard said, "you wind up with a mongrel race."[16]

Hubbard's racial views were not limited to African-Americans. He was known to complain that "the Jews own this country," that the Irish "are even more corrupt than the Dagos," and as Middle Easterners began moving into Dearborn that "the Syrians are even worse than the niggers."[1]

After the civil rights prosecution by the federal government, and investigations by the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, Hubbard was more cautious in his public comments. In an interview with The Detroit News in the early 1970s, Hubbard claimed: "I don't keep the niggers out of Dearborn. I don't keep anybody out of Dearborn. I haven't done anything to encourage 'em. I don't do anything to discourage 'em." In that interview, Hubbard also contended that his "Keep Dearborn Clean" slogan had nothing to do with racial segregation and was based on his efforts to keep Dearborn city politics free of corruption. He asserted: "Our first slogan said, 'Keep Dearborn Clean from Vice, Graft and Corruption.' That's exactly what it means."[1] Even then, however, he noted his alarm that Dearborn was "a little postage-stamp community" that was "surrounded now," and that "eventually they'll overrun the place."[1]

In 1967, Hubbard led an effort to purchase an eight-story, 88-unit apartment building with canal views in Clearwater, Florida. Though similar proposals had been rejected by Dearborn voters, Hubbard won City Council approval for acquisition of the project, which was renamed "Dearborn Towers." The City paid $1.1 million for the property, which was made available for rental at reduced rates to Dearborn's senior citizens.[17][18] The complex, a one-mile (1.6 km) walk from the beach, included a heated pool, organized poker nights and other activities. The project was billed in the 1960s as the first attempt by a U.S. city to own property outside the state. In 2007, Dearborn voters authorized selling the property (then valued at over $8 million) to help overcome a city budget deficit.[17][18]

During the Hubbard administration, the City of Dearborn also built Camp Dearborn on 626 acres (2.53 km²) in Milford Township, Michigan. Opened on July 4, 1948, Camp Dearborn was Hubbard's pet project, and he was involved in its design. Hubbard dubbed the camp "the citizen's country club."[13]

During his tenure as Dearborn mayor, Hubbard made several unsuccessful proposals, including a proposal to incorporate several other Wayne County suburbs into a super-suburb of Dearborn and a proposal for the City of Dearborn to purchase and operate Detroit's Ambassador Bridge and Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.[19]

A statue of Orville Hubbard at Dearborn City Hall

A statue of Hubbard erected in 1989 in front of City Hall[26] is a subject of controversy. A Michigan Historical marker near the statue refers to Hubbard as "an effective administrator" who "made Dearborn known for punctual trash collection," but omits any discussion of his segregationist policies.[27] Some groups had urged the City to remove the statue.[28][29] In his book, Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong, James W. Loewen listed the Hubbard statue as one of the Top 20 historical monuments ripe for "toppling," along with the obelisk celebrating the White League in New Orleans and "The Good Darky" statue at the Rural Life Museum in Baton Rouge.[30]

The City removed the statue from its longtime location outside City Hall on September 29, 2015 and placed it at the Dearborn Historical Museum.[31] It was again moved, after complaints it was in too prominent of a location, to the side of the McFadden Ross House, further out of sight.[26] On June 5, 2020, the statue was removed from the outside of the museum and may have been moved to Union City, Hubbard's hometown.[32] Dearborn City Council President Susan Dabaja posted on Facebook that the Hubbard family "will place it at his gravesite."[26]

In 2005, Senator Carl Levin spoke at the funeral of Rosa Parks, making the following comments about Hubbard: "The South had Orval Faubus; Michigan had Orville Hubbard. Orville Hubbard vowed to keep Dearborn clean, which some like to interpret as keep Dearborn white, despite Hubbard's dedication to a well kept city and strict City Ordinances in regards to property maintenance and the Dearborn Public Schools annual 'Clean Up, Paint Up, Fix Up Parade.'"[33] Levin's comments drew an angry response from Hubbard's family. A letter published in the Detroit Free Press from Hubbard's granddaughter, Susan L. Hubbard, referred to Levin's comments as "mean-spirited ramblings of an arrogant, Washington politician."

In 2006, Hubbard was the subject of a musical play, Orvie! The musical was written by David L. Good, a former Detroit News reporter and editor, who is the author of a biography of Hubbard, and the composer Bob Milne.[12][34] Hubbard's daughter, Nancy Hubbard, then the president pro tem of the Dearborn City Council, described the play as "a put-down, like a joke," that distorted her father's contributions.[35] She said her father was a popular mayor who shoveled snow, picked up trash and sent constituents birthday cards and post cards from his travels. "He did everything for this community—the libraries, civic center, the pools. He put Dearborn on the map."[35] The play, while rehearsed, was never produced.[36]