LATE ADOPTED - JUNE 22, 2004

Agenda Item No. 28



Introduced by the:



INGHAM COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

RESOLUTION HONORING WILBUR HOWARD



RESOLUTION #04-204



WHEREAS, Wilbur Howard, a Lansing native and the youngest of four children, graduated from Sexton High School and went on to receive a bachelor's degree in social work from Michigan State University in 1955; and



WHEREAS, during the mid-1960s, he was the first black man to run for the Saginaw school board; and



WHEREAS, Wilbur Howard worked with the Michigan Department of Corrections Probation Bureau from 1956-65 and then joined the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, where he worked for 27 years; and



WHEREAS, in 1969, he moved back to Lansing and served as the Michigan Department of Civil Rights Case Supervisor and Deputy Director before retiring in 1992; and



WHEREAS, dedication to his roots and pride in them led Wilbur Howard in a lifelong quest for civil rights and helping African Americans discover their pasts; and



WHEREAS, he spent more than 15 years studying his family's origin and traveling as far as North Carolina to find records; and



WHEREAS, African American genealogy was a passion of Wilbur's, which led him to forming the Lansing Area African American Genealogy Society in 2001 - - only the second of its kind in the state.



THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Ingham County Board of Commissioners hereby honors and celebrates the life of Wilbur Howard for the many contributions he has made to the citizens of Ingham County.



SS\ Celentino, Dedden, De Leon, Grebner, Hertel, Holman, Lynch, Minter, Nevin, Schafer, Schor, Severino, Stid, Swope, Thomas, Weatherwax-Grant