(Photo Credit: Ann Arbor District Library, Image Rights held by The Ann Arbor News)
By Ryan Makuch
This Black History Month, AFC Ann Arbor wants to take time to shine a light on those involved in Black History within our community and our club. Each week, we will be featuring members of either the AFC Ann Arbor Family or the Ann Arbor-community in an attempt to celebrate the accomplishments of each of these men and women.
Larry Hunter passed away just a couple of short months ago, but the impact he left on the community thanks to his actions while living will keep him alive for years and years. Born in 1951, Hunter would move to Ann Arbor with his family while he was in junior high school and spent the majority of his life in either Ann Arbor or Ypsilanti. Hunter attended Ann Arbor Pioneer High School and was involved at an early age in social activism as a member of the Black Student Union.
Hunter continued to grow in political involvement during his high school years. As a member of several organizations outside of just the Black Student Union, he marched against housing discrimination in Ann Arbor and anti-police rallies, among many other marching campaigns.
At around this time, the Vietnam War was in full effect, and the war itself helped spur Hunter into joining the Black Panther Party. He said in his interview with the Ann Arbor District Library in 2018, “I did my research, finding all of my friends, and figuring out from Time magazine…and some other research that all they were doing was sending young black men in the front line. And I thought it was just wrong, just absolutely wrong. Seeing my friends come back, I said this is crazy.” Hunter became a conscientious objector and stood firm in his beliefs, refusing to concede to pressure from the federal government but also to people around him giving him the advice to lie to get out of service due to religious beliefs.
Hunter said, in that same interview, about joining the Black Panther Party, “Well, first it started for me reading Malcolm X, and my consciousness was arisen. But then I saw these folks from Oakland, California, and I started reading about what they believed in. And I said, oh, these are my kind of folks.” Hunter fit right into the ethos of the party and whether it was helping protect Wiley Brownless, principal of Community High School during the time of school integration, and his family, helping serve breakfast to kids in need, or engaging in literature through the party, Hunter was able to make the community a better place through his own knowledge and abilities.
In 1982, Hunter ran for public office for the first time and would defeat a three-time incumbent Ann Arbor City Council member, Earl Greene, in the primary, before winning the seat itself in April. Hunter was a powerful voice in advocating for social change and was a vital part on several different fronts as a councilperson. In his first term, just months after getting elected to his seat, he helped push the council into creating a Downtown Development Authority and also helped spur the council into creating a financing plan that would help combat urban decline in Ann Arbor.
He also was deeply involved in human rights issues and in 1985 he helped pass a resolution that would divest stock the city held in apartheid South Africa. As a councilperson, and before and after serving on the council, Hunter was dedicated to improving housing and advocating for affordable housing and would split party-lines to work to build that housing. In 1993, he announced that he would not seek another term, and instead supported Patricia Veeren-Dixon (now Byrd) who would become the first Black woman to earn a spot on Ann Arbor’s City Council.
Following this, Hunter moved to Washington D.C., earned a law degree, and supported lawsuits for fair housing, among many other things, in D.C. He has been described as a modern Renaissance man who loved books, policy, history, was a skilled handyman, a talented percussionist, and even a skilled baseball player who earned an offer from the Kansas City Royals as a youth to play in their minor leagues. Even just months before his death, he remained active in the Michigan political sphere, partaking in a Zoom discussion with State Representative Debbie Dingell. Hunter’s impact on Ann Arbor cannot be overstated and he was able to help change the entirety of Washtenaw County in a positive way.