Kwame Kilpatrick facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Kwame Kilpatrick
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Kilpatrick in 2006
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| 72nd Mayor of Detroit | |
| In office January 1, 2002 – September 18, 2008 |
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| Preceded by | Dennis Archer |
| Succeeded by | Kenneth Cockrel Jr. |
| Member of the Michigan House of Representatives from the 9th district |
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| In office January 1, 1997 – January 1, 2002 |
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| Preceded by | Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick |
| Succeeded by | Fred Durhal Jr. |
| Personal details | |
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Kwame Malik Kilpatrick
June 8, 1970 Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouses |
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| Children | 4 |
| Alma mater | Florida A&M University (BS) Michigan State University (JD) |
| Profession | Politician, author, teacher |
Kwame Malik Kilpatrick (born June 8, 1970) is an American politician, convicted fraudster and racketeer, who previously served as the 72nd mayor of Detroit – from 2002 to 2008. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously represented the 9th district in the Michigan House of Representatives from 1997 to 2002. Kilpatrick resigned as mayor in September 2008 after being convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice. He was sentenced to four months in jail and was released on probation after serving 99 days.
In May 2010, Kilpatrick was sentenced to eighteen months to five years in state prison for violating his probation, and served time at the Oaks Correctional Facility in northwest Michigan. In March 2013, he was convicted on 24 federal felony counts, including mail fraud, wire fraud, and racketeering. In October 2013, Kilpatrick was sentenced to 28 years in federal prison, and was incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution in El Reno, Oklahoma. In January 2021, after serving 76 months of his 336-month sentence, President Donald Trump commuted his sentence.
Contents
Early life, education and family
Kwame Malik Kilpatrick was born June 8, 1970, to Bernard Kilpatrick and Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick. His parents divorced in 1981. Kilpatrick attended Detroit's Cass Technical High School and graduated from Florida A&M University with a Bachelor of Science degree in political science in 1992. He played football under Ken Riley. On September 9, 1995, he married Carlita Poles in Detroit. They have 3 children together, Jalil, Jonas, and Jelani. In 1999 he received a Juris Doctor degree from the Detroit College of Law (now the Michigan State University College of Law). He has a sister Ayanna and a half-sister, Diarra.
Kilpatrick's mother Carolyn was a career politician, representing Detroit in Michigan House of Representatives from 1979 to 1996 and serving in the United States House of Representatives for Michigan's 13th congressional district from 1996 to 2010. She was not re-elected to office because she lost her primary election in August 2010 to State Senator Hansen Clarke. NPR and CBS News both noted that throughout her re-election campaign, Carolyn was dogged by questions about her son Kwame following his tenure as mayor of Detroit.
Kilpatrick's father Bernard was a semi-professional basketball player and politician. He was elected to the Wayne County Commission, served as head of Wayne County Health and Human Services Department from 1989 to 2002, and as chief of staff to former Wayne County Executive Edward H. McNamara. Later he operated a Detroit consulting firm called Maestro Associates.
Kilpatrick filed for divorce from Carlita in 2018. In July 2021 he married Laticia Maria McGee at Historic Little Rock Missionary Baptist Church in Detroit.
Michigan state representative
Kilpatrick was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in 1996 after his mother vacated her Detroit-based seat to mount a successful bid for Congress. Kilpatrick's campaign staff consisted of high school classmates Derrick Miller and Christine Beatty, who became his legislative aide. According to Kilpatrick, the campaign was run on a budget of $10,000 and did not receive endorsements from trade unions, congressional districts, or the Democratic establishment.
Kilpatrick was elected minority floor leader for the Michigan Democratic Party, serving in that position 1998 to 2000. He was subsequently elected as house minority leader in 2001, the first African-American to hold that position. Later in 2001, Kilpatrick ran for mayor of Detroit, hiring Berg/Muirhead Associates for his campaign. They were retained as his public relations firm upon his election.
Mayor of Detroit 2002-2008
First term
On New Year’s Day 2002, Kilpatrick became the youngest mayor of Detroit when he took office at age 31.
During his first term, Kilpatrick was criticized for using city funds to lease a Lincoln Navigator for use by his family and using his city-issued credit card to charge thousands of dollars' worth of spa massages, extravagant dining, and expensive wines. Kilpatrick paid back $9,000 of the $210,000 credit card charges. Meanwhile, Kilpatrick closed the century-old Belle Isle Zoo and Belle Isle Aquarium because of the city's budget problems. The City Council overrode his funding veto for the zoo and gave it a budget of $700,000.
In 2005, Time magazine named Kilpatrick as one of the worst mayors in America.
Special administratorship
Since the 1970s, a federal judge had made the mayor of Detroit the special administrator of the Detroit Water Department because of severe pollution issues. When serious questions about water department contracts came to light in late 2005, Judge Feikens ended Kilpatrick's special administratorship in his capacity as mayor. In January 2006, The Detroit News reported that, "Kilpatrick used his special administrator authority to bypass the water board and City Council on three controversial contracts." These included a $131 million radio system for the city's police and fire departments, as well as a no-bid PR contract to a close personal aide. But Judge Feikens praised the mayor's work as steward of the department, referring questions on the contracts to the special master in charge of that investigation.
2005 re-election campaign
At a campaign rally in May 2005, Kilpatrick's father Bernard adamantly argued that allegations that the Mayor had held a party at the Manoogian Mansion were a lie, likening such statements to the false scapegoating of Jewish people by the Nazis. Bernard later apologized. In October 2005, a third-party group supporting Kilpatrick, named The Citizens for Honest Government, generated controversy by its print advertisement that compared media criticism of the mayor to lynch mobs.
Kilpatrick and his opponent Freman Hendrix, both Democrats, each initially claimed victory. However, as the votes were tallied, it became clear that Kilpatrick had come back from his stretch of unpopularity to win a second term in office. Three months previously, most commentators declared his political career over after he was the first incumbent mayor of Detroit to come in second in a primary. Pre-election opinion polls predicted a large win for Hendrix; however, Kilpatrick won with 53% of the vote.
Second term
In July 2006, Kilpatrick was hospitalized and diagnosed with diverticulitis while in Houston, Texas. His personal physician indicated that Kilpatrick's condition may have been caused by a high-protein weight-loss diet. That month, Detroit's City Council had voted unanimously to approve Kilpatrick's tax plan, with which he intended to offer homeowners some relief from the city's high property tax rates. The cuts ranged from 18% to 35%, depending on the property's value.
Audit reports
The city of Detroit was fourteen months late in filing its 2005–2006 audit. In March 2008, officials estimated the audit would cost an additional $2.4 million because of new auditing requirements that were not addressed by the city. The 2006–2007 fiscal year audit due on December 31, 2007, was expected to be eleven months late.
The state treasury chose to withhold $35 million of its monthly revenue sharing to the city and required Detroit to receive approval before selling bonds to raise money. Kilpatrick told the City Council that he would take partial blame for the late audits because he laid off too many accountants, but he also blamed the firm hired to replace them.
Events leading to resignation
2008 State of the City address
In March 2008, Kilpatrick delivered his seventh "State of the City" address to the city of Detroit. The speech marked a turning point in his career. The majority of the 70-minute speech focused on positive changes occurring throughout Detroit and future plans. Kilpatrick specifically noted increased police surveillance, new policing technologies, and initiatives to rebuild blighted neighborhoods. He received repeated standing ovations from the invitation-only audience.
Toward the end of the speech, Kilpatrick deviated from the transcript given to the media and posted on his official website to address the scandals and controversies surrounding his years in office, saying that the media had focused on those controversies only to increase their viewership, and that their focus had led to racist attacks against him and his family.
Kilpatrick's comments generated many negative responses. Michigan Governor and fellow Democrat Jennifer Granholm issued a statement in which she condemned the use of the N-word in any context. Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox stated on WJR talk radio that he thought that using the N-word was "reprehensible", saying, "I thought his statements were race-baiting on par with David Duke and George Wallace, all to save his political career. I'm not a Detroiter, but last night crossed the line ... those statements not only hurt Detroit, [but] as long as the mayor is there, he will be a drag on the whole region." Cox said that whether Kilpatrick is criminally charged or not, he should resign as mayor. Former Kilpatrick political adviser Sam Riddle labeled the address a race-baiting speech. "It's an act of desperation to use the N-word," said Riddle. "He's attempting to regain his base of support by playing the race card. He's gone to that well one too many times."
Recall campaign
The Wayne County Election Committee approved a recall petition to remove Kilpatrick as mayor based, in part, on the accusation that Kilpatrick misled the City Council into approving the settlement. The recall petition was filed by Douglas Johnson, a city council candidate. Kilpatrick appealed to the commission to reconsider its decision on the grounds that Johnson was not a resident of Detroit. Johnson also requested that Jennifer Granholm use her power as Governor to remove Kilpatrick from office.
On March 12, 2008, at the request of the Mayor's office, Wayne County Election Commission rescinded its earlier approval for the recall. The Mayor's office argued that there was not any evidence that the organizer, Douglas Johnson, actually resided within the city limits of Detroit. Johnson stated that his group would refile using another person whose residency would not be an issue. On March 27, 2008, a second recall petition was filed against Kilpatrick by Angelo Brown. Brown stated in his filing that Kilpatrick is too preoccupied with his legal problems to be effective. Kilpatrick's spokesman James Canning again dismissed this latest recall by saying: "It's Mr. Brown's right to file a petition, but it's just another effort by a political hopeful to grab headlines."
On May 14 the Detroit City Council voted to request that the governor of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm, remove Kilpatrick from office.
Memoir
Kilpatrick co-wrote a memoir about his life and political experiences titled Surrendered: The Rise, Fall, & Revelation of Kwame Kilpatrick. The book was originally scheduled for release on August 2, 2011, a date that would have just barely preceded his scheduled release from a Michigan prison. However, the publisher delayed the release to August 9, almost a week after Kilpatrick was paroled. Kilpatrick appeared at public events in Michigan and elsewhere to promote his book.
The public prosecutor in Wayne County, Michigan has asked the state courts to order the book's publisher, Tennessee-based Creative Publishing Consultants Inc., to remit Kilpatrick's share on the book's proceeds for payment toward Kilpatrick's criminal restitution and his cost of incarceration. On November 16, 2011, the publisher's attorney failed to appear at a hearing on the matter in Wayne County Circuit Court. A bench warrant was issued for the attorney, Jack Gritton, and was forwarded to authorities in Tennessee, where Gritton's practice is based.
Post-release activities
Since release, Kilpatrick has worked as an "ordained minister, motivational speaker, consultant, and certified character coach". In April 2023, Kilpatrick was a guest speaker at the "Black Agenda Movement" conference, organized by YouTuber Michelle R. Kulczyk (Meechi X).
Electoral history
- 2005 Race for Mayor (Detroit)
- Kwame Kilpatrick (D) (incumbent), 53%
- Freman Hendrix (D), 47%
- 2005 Race for Mayor (Detroit) (Primary Election)
- Freman Hendrix (D), 45%
- Kwame Kilpatrick (D) (incumbent), 34%
- Sharon McPhail (D), 12%
- Hansen Clarke (D), 8%
- 2001 Race for Mayor (Detroit)
- Kwame Kilpatrick (D), 54%
- Gil Hill (D), 46%
Affiliations
Kilpatrick is a member of the Democratic Party.
He was a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, a bi-partisan anti-gun group with a stated goal of "making the public safer by getting illegal guns off the streets." The Coalition was co-chaired by Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston and Michael Bloomberg of New York City. Following Kilpatrick's conviction in 2013 on federal charges, his membership status in the organization was initially not clear. As of September 2010, there had been no announcement of his resignation from Mayors Against Illegal Guns; however, by December 2012, he was no longer listed as a member.
See also
In Spanish: Kwame Kilpatrick para niños
- Barbara L. McQuade, U.S. attorney who obtained a large number of indictments against Kilpatrick.
- Louis Miriani, former mayor of Detroit
- Richard Reading, former mayor of Detroit
- List of 2010s American state and local politicians convicted of crimes
