Civil rights & activism · 1913–2005
Rosa Parkscivil rights activistThe Montgomery bus-boycott icon who lived in Detroit for nearly fifty years, worked for Congressman John Conyers and is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery.DETROIT / A living lexicon / ¼
Famous Detroiters
People who were born here, moved here or built their careers in Detroit: musicians, carmakers, athletes, writers, inventors, civil-rights leaders and a few notorious names. With their dates, their Detroit story and the places where they lived, worked and played, closed ones included.
- 1,940 famous people
- 515 Detroit places
- 22 fields
Hungarian ties 22 Detroiters with Hungarian ties →
Origin and citizenship
Field
Connection
Born in
A–Z (family name)
33 people
Clear filtersCivil rights & activism · 1913–2005Rosa Parkscivil rights activistThe Montgomery bus-boycott icon who lived in Detroit for nearly fifty years, worked for Congressman John Conyers and is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery.
City history · 1902–1974Charles Lindberghaviator, military officer, authorThe pilot of the first solo nonstop New York–Paris flight (1927) was born in his grandfather's house on West Forest Avenue; his mother was a Detroit chemistry teacher.
City history · 1768–1813TecumsehShawnee chief and war leaderShawnee leader whose warriors, allied with Isaac Brock, forced the American surrender of Fort Detroit in August 1812.
Notorious figures · 1873–1901Leon Czolgoszanarchist, assassin of President William McKinleyDetroit-born wireworker and anarchist who shot President William McKinley in Buffalo in 1901; his birth in the city is his main tie to Detroit.
Politics · 1782–1866Lewis Cassterritorial governor, U.S. senator, secretary of stateGovernor of Michigan Territory from Detroit for 18 years and 1848 Democratic presidential nominee; Cass Avenue and Cass Tech bear his name, and he rests at Elmwood.Jeralean TalleysupercentenarianGeorgia-born Inkster resident who at 116 was the world's oldest verified living person in 2015, after 80 years in the Detroit suburb.
Eddie SlovikU.S. Army privateDetroit-born private who became the only American soldier executed for desertion since the Civil War; his remains were brought home to Woodmere Cemetery in 1987.
City history · 1753–1825William Hullarmy officer, first governor of Michigan TerritoryFirst governor of Michigan Territory who, as a general, surrendered Fort Detroit to the British without a battle in August 1812.
Military · 1782–1841Alexander MacombCommanding General of the US ArmyDetroit-born general, hero of the Battle of Plattsburgh in 1814 and commanding general of the US Army from 1828 to 1841; Macomb County is named after him.
Politics · 1811–1843Stevens T. Masonterritorial secretary, first governor of MichiganThe 'Boy Governor' who ran Michigan Territory from Detroit at 19, led it to statehood in 1837 as its first governor and now lies under his statue in Capitol Park.
Politics · 1780–1861William Woodbridgeterritorial secretary, governor of Michigan, U.S. senatorLewis Cass's lifelong friend who came to Detroit in 1814 as territorial secretary and became Michigan's second governor; his farm became the site of Tiger Stadium, and the Woodbridge neighborhood bears his name.
Politics · 1811–1891Henry Hastings Sibleyfur trader, first governor of Minnesota, army officerSon of Detroit's first mayor, raised in the frontier town, who became a fur trader, Minnesota's first governor and the commander in the 1862 Dakota War.
Religion · 1767–1832
Gabriel RichardCatholic priest, educator, territorial delegate to CongressFrench priest of Sainte-Anne's who wrote Detroit's motto after the fire of 1805, co-founded the University of Michigan and printed Michigan's first newspaper.
Religion · 1833–1918John Samuel Foleythird Catholic Bishop of Detroit (1888–1918)Baltimore-born priest who served as Bishop of Detroit for 30 years, the longest tenure in its history, as the auto boom tripled the city's Catholic population.
Politics · 1769–1846Solomon Sibleylawyer, first mayor of Detroit, territorial judgePioneer lawyer who arrived in 1797, wrote Detroit's first city charter and in 1806 became its first mayor, later serving as territorial delegate and chief justice.Ossian Sweetphysician, defendant in the 1925–1926 Sweet trialsBlack Detroit physician whose 1925 defense of his new home against a white mob led to the landmark Sweet trials, won by Clarence Darrow.
City history · born 1963Heather Ann Thompsonhistorian, authorPulitzer-winning historian of the Attica uprising who grew up in Detroit's North Rosedale Park, graduated from Cass Tech and wrote Whose Detroit?
Politics · 1782–1854John R. Williamsmerchant, first elected mayor of DetroitDetroit-born merchant who wrote the 1824 city charter, served as the first elected mayor and co-founded the paper that became the Detroit Free Press; John R Street is named after him.
Law · 1774–1827Augustus B. Woodwardfirst chief justice of Michigan Territory, city plannerFirst chief justice of Michigan Territory who drew up Detroit's radial street plan after the fire of 1805; Woodward Avenue bears his name.
City history · 1853–1932Clarence M. Burtonlawyer, businessman, historian and collectorDetroit title lawyer and historian whose private archive became the Burton Historical Collection, the backbone of Detroit history research.
Politics · 1773–1813Elijah Brushlawyer, mayor of Detroit, territorial treasurerEarly Detroit lawyer and second mayor (1806) whose ribbon farm beside the town became Brush Park; Brush Street carries his family name.
Politics · 1786–1859Jonathan Kearsleyarmy officer, federal land official, mayor of DetroitWar of 1812 veteran who lost a leg at Chippawa, came to Detroit in 1819 as the federal receiver of public money and was twice mayor (1826 and 1829).Charles H. Wrightobstetrician-gynecologist, museum founderDetroit obstetrician who founded the museum of African American history that now bears his name, one of the largest of its kind in the world.Esther Gordy EdwardsMotown executive, founder of the Motown MuseumBerry Gordy's eldest sister, a Motown executive who organized the Motortown Revue and in 1985 turned Hitsville U.S.A. into the Motown Museum.
Politics · 1800–1883Charles C. Trowbridgeexplorer, ethnographer, banker, mayor of DetroitExplorer and early ethnographer of Michigan's Native peoples who became a leading Detroit banker, briefly served as mayor in 1834 and built what is likely the city's oldest surviving house.George DeBaptisteUnderground Railroad conductor, entrepreneurBarber, caterer and steamboat owner who led Detroit's Underground Railroad from 1846, ferrying freedom seekers across the river to Canada.
City history · 1786–1866Lisette Denison Forthformerly enslaved landowner and philanthropistBorn enslaved near Detroit, she won her freedom, became one of the region's first Black property owners and left her savings to build a church on Grosse Ile.
Politics · 1786–1826Henry I. Huntmerchant, mayor of DetroitEarly Detroit merchant and officeholder who became mayor in 1826 and died in office that September; uncle of the Civil War artillery chief of the same name.
Civil rights & activism · 1817–1890William Lambertabolitionist, Underground Railroad leaderFree-born tailor and abolitionist who for half a century helped lead Detroit's Underground Railroad and its Black community.Fannie M. Richardsteacher, desegregation pioneerDetroit's first Black public school teacher, who fought school segregation, started Michigan's first kindergarten program and taught in the city for decades.Berry Gordy Sr.businessman, patriarch of the Gordy family"Pops" Gordy, the Georgia-born businessman who moved his family to Detroit in 1922 and whose children built Motown.Marsha Musicwriter, essayist, spoken-word artist, oral historianSelf-described 'primordial Detroiter', daughter of a pre-Motown record producer, whose essays and monologues preserve the music and neighborhoods of Black Detroit.Sunnie Wilsonnightclub and hotel owner, promoterParadise Valley businessman and one of its first unofficial mayors, who ran the giant Forest Club and the Mark Twain Hotel and was Joe Louis's close friend and partner.The lexicon keeps growing. Every entry lists its sources at the bottom. Dates were checked against Wikidata and Wikipedia. The texts are our own. Famous people's places among the sights ↗