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Tarred and feathered.....in 1971

 Luan Goodman, 2nd cousin once removed of mine, daughter of Aloysius and Irene Kuhl Goodman, married a man by the name of R. Wiley Brownlee during a time that he was employed in France.  I have not been able to find a marriage record for this couple but their marriage information has been passed down through family interviews.  This blog post is concerned with Wiley Brownlee.

Richard Wiley Brownlee was born August 5, 1928 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  He was a well educated man, receiving a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan in 1951.  After completing a master's degree from Michigan State University he accepted a teaching position in Newfoundland with Pepperrill Air Force Base, later transferring to administration in Spain and France.  While in France he married Luan. He returned to the US to pursue a Ph.D. at MSU.  

In 1970 he accepted a high school principalship in Willow Run Community Schools.  Willow Run is located 35 miles west of Detroit.  There is a long history of racial polarization in this community which helped to lead to the events of April 3, 1971.  On this evening, the school board met to consider its options for honoring the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King.  This was 3 years after the assassination.  Dr. Brownlee was in favor of formally recognizing Dr. King, but not everyone in the community agreed and the school board was divided.  

On his way home after the meeting, five armed men in hoods forced Dr. Brownlee over to the side of the road and put a shotgun to his head.  Later they applied hot tar and feathers to his body from his head to his feet.  The crime was eventually linked to Robert Miles, the Grand Dragon of the Michigan KKK and 4 other men. 

After the incident Dr. Brownlee returned to school for help where a student captured this picture of him. 

He returned to school the next day as if nothing had happened. He continued to argue that the entire community, black and white, should honor the sacrifice made by Dr. King.  Dr. Brownlee's viewpoint was unacceptable to the majority of the Willow Run School Board and he was fired.  It wasn't until the year 2000 that all 50 states officially observed Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  

Robert Miles, convicted of this crime, and also of bombing ten school buses in Pontiac, Michigan, was sentenced to nine years in prison.  The school buses he bombed were to be used for desegregation of the schools in Pontiac.  

Luan and Wiley must have been divorced as Wiley remarried in 1977.  His obituary follows.

It feels like not much has changed when witnessing the events that are occurring all over the US today.  It makes one feel a little hopeless, wondering if racial equality will ever be a part of our everyday lives.  


                          

Left: Obituary, Lansing State Journal, 4 JAN 2004, page 19, col. 1; Right: Ann Arbor News, 6 JAN 2004 (accessed at Ann Arbor District Library, 28 SEP 2020)

References

Local Educator Brownlee Dies at 75

My Boss Was Tarred and Feathered by the KKK

Image of Brownlee After the Attack

Willow Run High School



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