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photo by steed media service
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U.S. Congressman, D-Mich
The first ever African American
chairman of the House Judiciary Committee stood outside the Detroit
Automotive Symposium, a towering pillar of African American
consciousness, and provided a sobering and somber assessment of
domestic auto manufacturing — especially as its ramifications impact an
economically depressed state of Michigan.
“What Jesse Jackson
is doing at this conference this year is particularly sensitive. It’s
just different from other years, because this industry is in inner
turmoil,” says U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., outside the Detroit
Yacht Club. “The industry is trying to catch up with all its
competitors around the world. This thing has accelerated to a global
dimension much more rapidly than any of us who knew it was coming,
could have foreseen.”
The congressman from Detroit joins U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.
(Harlem), who is the first African American chairman of the House Ways
and Means Committee, as minority leaders of colossally important
committees.
“We [in the Judiciary Committee] have the most awesome jurisdiction in
the Congress. We’re responsible for determining the oversight and the
operations of the Constitution and the 27 Articles to the Constitution,
and any proposals for any new constitutional amendments,” he says.
“We’re trying to make this system work.”
After Democrats regained control of Congress after 12 years, Conyers
says the campaign to make the American judicial system fair and equal
is a challenging, arduous task. “It keeps us busy. We’ve been greatly
concerned with issues like [the] politicization of the Department of
Justice.” – terry shropshire
View the entire interview live on www.rollingout.com/tv.
