John Conyers, Longest Serving African American Congressman, Dies At 90

The longest-running African American congressman passed away Sunday. John Conyers represented Michigan from 1965 until 2017 died at the age of 90. He was elected to Congress during a time when America was embroiled in the Civil Rights struggle. He served an unprecedented 50 years in Congress.

Conyers was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and was known as a purveyor of liberal causes, especially from where he sat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. At one point in time, he was the chairman of the committee. Conyers was born in Detroit in 1929 during a time of racial turmoil in the United States. He was the personified change that the African American people were seeking.

Before politics, Conyers served in the United States Army Reserve between the years of 1948 and 1957. He was an active participant in the Korean War. After several years of exemplary service in the United States military, he went on to pursue an education. He got two degrees from Wayne State University and then entered politics.

In 1983 John Conyers authored and introduced the original bill to make Jan. 3 a federal holiday to commemorate the life of Martin Luther King Jr. And in 1994, Conyers worked on the Violence Against Women Act. He became the very first African-American to serve as the chair of the House Judiciary Committee in 2007.

The end of his career was marred with scandal as the Michigan Democrat faced an investigation by the House Ethics Committee into multiple allegations of sexual harassment. He elected to resign his seat in 2017. There was no specific resolution to the investigation but Nancy Pelosi, at the time the House Minority Leader, urged him to leave his position because she said the allegations against him were "serious" and "credible."

In 2009, Conyers' wife was also sentenced to prison after she took bribes from the company called Synagro Technologies totaling more than $6,000 paid to her to influence the passage of a contract with the city of Detroit.