The statue of late Dearborn Mayor Orville Hubbard, which was removed from Dearborn City Hall in September after about 26 years, isn't disappearing from the city.
Ali Harb of the Arab American News reports the statue of the legendary late mayor, who was a big proponent of racial segregation, will be placed in front of the Dearborn Historical Museum. Hubbard was mayor from 1942-78.
Residents and civil rights organizations had been pushing to have it removed, but Jack Tate, the curator of the Dearborn Historical Museum, told the Arab American News that the statue was moved from the former city hall simply because it was no longer city property.
The Dearborn municipal government sold City Hall to Artspace and moved to a new administrative center farther west on Michigan Avenue, the paper reported, and the building is being converted to lofts and studios for artists.
"We knew it was going to be moved a year ago," he told The Arab American News.
Tate said the media coverage of relocating the statue was "way overblown."
David Good, a former Detroit News editor, Hubbard's biographer, and a member of the Dearborn Historical Commission, told the paper that the mayor's office recommended the new location and the commission approved it unanimously.
