Dearborn ex-mayor Orville Hubbard statue removed

DEARBORN - A controversial statue that divided the community is now being removed in the city of Dearborn after 26 years. The monument honored long-time mayor Orville Hubbard, but critics questioned the tribute calling Hubbard a racist.

"As a child I remember being told to be careful in Dearborn police jumping on people of color," says Bishop Walter Straghill of the Western Wayne NAACP.

A piece of Dearborn's history was removed from its city hall park location Tuesday.

A monument of the city's former Mayor, Orville Hubbard, taken away by city workers.

Some say Mayor Hubbard helped build a racist climate in Dearborn.

"Hubbard openly used N word and wanted to keep Dearborn clean, which effectively meant White," says Atty Fatina Abdrabboh of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Abdrabboh says she joined the fight to get the Hubbard monument removed.

Atty Abdrabboh wrote an Op-Ed in a local newspaper earlier this year calling for the removal of what she believes are symbols of racism.

"The idea was to urge Dearborn to meet the needs of African Americans and Middle Easterns in its midst," says Abdrabboh,

Officials with The City of Dearborn say they are relocating the Hubbard Monument because they no longer own the property at City Hall Park on which it stood.

As city crews clean up the area where the monument once stood city officials say the monument will now be housed at the city's historical museum.

"I think it's a privilege to get a statue, his total story is his life and time as mayor of Dearborn and any great individual has good points and bad points," says Michael Jack Tate, Acting Curator of the Dearborn Historical Museum.

For those who fought to have the monument removed, they believe as long racism exists in Dearborn the fight continues.

"It's down and I am glad to be part of solution and not the problem," says Straghill.