Activists blast planned 'Black Bottom Saints' gift to Duggan

An author's offer to recognize Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan as an honorary "Black Bottom Saint" has sparked backlash from residents who say he doesn't deserve it.

“We will continue to demand that Alice Randall withdraws her offer,” Detroit City Charter Commissioner Nicole Small said Monday at a gathering with about 50 others near University Prep Science and Math Elementary School. “Now she’s trying to say that 'oh, it’s going to be a private gift.' No longer was it private when you made it on a public platform during Black History Month.”

Small said Duggan was unworthy and accused him of using unaffordable bills to “strip water service from tens of thousands Detroit families” and of kicking “tens of thousands out of their homes with illegally high property tax bills.” She also said that under Duggan’s leadership, the city “mounted an ill-conceived court action to penalize people protesting police violence” following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

Small, a vocal opponent of Duggan, said she is running for an at-large position on the Detroit City Council. Also in attendance during the press conference was Detroit mayoral candidate Anthony Adams.

The furor came after Randall said she had commissioned New York artist Jimmy James Greene to do a collage portrait of Duggan as a personal gift.

Randall told Duggan about the portrait during a virtual presentation late last month in which she announced that images of icons with Detroit ties would be featured in a set of playing cards called “Black Bottom Saints,” named after her latest book. Some members of the community initially thought Duggan was to be included in the playing cards for sale, but that is not the case.

Randall did not immediately respond Monday to a request for comment. John Roach, a spokesman for Duggan, referred questions to Rochelle Riley, the city’s arts, culture and entrepreneurship director.

“The city is not going to respond to false information being spread by anyone anywhere in Detroit," Riley said. "All I suggest is that people make sure the things they’re being told are true and I hope everyone reads this book, which is a love letter to Detroit and the magical, beautiful neighborhood that was taken from it years go.”

Randall’s book, “Black Bottom Saints,” released in August, is set in the legendary, predominantly African American neighborhood that was demolished for urban "renewal" and the construction of the Chrysler Freeway in the 1960s.

“The City of Detroit is thrilled that a Detroit native whose family lived in Black Bottom wants to have a deck of cards featuring characters for her work of fiction called 'Black Bottom Saints' produced and sold in Detroit with part of the proceeds going to the city,” Riley said. “We encourage all Detroiters everywhere to see this type of action and emulate it. This deck of cards has no living people in it, except Artis Lane, the famous sculptor who now lives in Detroit and whose work sits in the Oval Office of the White House.”

Small singled out Riley for criticism, saying: “Just simply because you are Black in skin and you’re collecting a paycheck from the mayor does not qualify you as the expert to dictate what we should and should not tolerate in our community.” 

Riley declined to respond to Small's statement about her.

Adams said the group that gathered Monday is tired of being disrespected.

“What we hear today is the absence of love and support for the people who actually live in our community,” he said. “What we hear today is the voice of the people who are determined to change the trajectory of the City of Detroit to restore the faith of the people who live in the community and to fight for what is right. No longer will we continue to accept the disrespect that is being heaped upon us."

Baxter Jones, who said he grew up in Black Bottom, said Randall should have spoken to others with ties to the neighborhood before deciding to give a gift to Duggan using the Black Bottom name.

“He should not have any association with this area,” he said. “He’s not from here. He doesn’t even have people who are from here. … I have not heard anything from him saying he has roots here."

He added: "My question is, what did this man do to make this author think that he was deserving on some of the things she was bestowing upon other people that’s in her Black Bottom Saints?"

Jones said the individuals in Randall’s book had some connection to Black Bottom. 

“It’s kind of a fictional thing, but it’s based on something realistic,” Jones said, arguing that Duggan should decline the portrait.

“To me, if I knew you want to give me a gift or do something for me and I knew I wasn’t deserving of it, I would say to you thanks, but no thanks," he said. "Out of my own respect. He had a choice to do that, to say, you know what, I appreciate you feeling however you feel about me, but I don’t think this is the right award or thing that you should do, given this area, you know, and what it means to people.”

cwilliams@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @CWilliams_DN