Mildred Madison, longtime Detroit champion for voting rights and education, dies at 97

Mildred R. Madison, the longtime voting rights advocate, politician and education authority –who helped lead the ultimately successful campaign to have the Detroit City Council members elected by district, thus improving government accountability and responsibility – died on August 16, 2023 in Detroit.

She was 97 years old and had spent more than 70 of those years leading by example, demanding better from elected officials and persuading people to go to the polls and participate in their own destiny.

""A big part of what has made City government more responsive and accountable to Detroiters has been the change to electing council members by district," said Mayor Mike Duggan. "Mildred Madison was a driving force behind that change ,and we see the benefits of it every day.  She spent her life fighting for the rights of voters and made a tremendous impact that will last for generations to come."  

Madison, who was the longtime president of the League of Women Voters’ Detroit chapter, made international news at age 94 when she traveled 600 miles to vote in a presidential election. She was later interviewed by Oprah Winfrey, along with then presidential candidate Joe Biden on CNN.

"A true American hero who used her voice to uplift the importance of education and the protection of the franchise of voting in our country," said Detroit Council President Mary Sheffield.   "As a City, we were lucky to have Mrs. Madison do an abundance of her work right here in Detroit through her service with the League of Women Voters, which included the institution of council by districts. Mrs. Madison will be sorely missed, but her legacy will live on as an architect and defender of democracy in our Nation, and she will forever be a shining example for women in public service."

Mildred Renetta Thomas, the second of four daughters, was born on June 5, 1926 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Edgar Thomas, a physician, pharmacist, business owner, and Anna Perry Thomas, a musician, poet, playwright, business leader and a recognized authority on pre-school education.

Mildred and her sisters Lois, Winnie and Connie grew up in a household in which Mildred described her father as "fun" and her mother as "brilliant." She graduated from Howard University with a degree in marketing and accounting.  She also sang in the Howard University Choir and became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

It was at Howard that Mildred met her future husband Julian C. Madison, an engineering student and later co-founder of Madison-Madison International.

Mildred and Jay (as she called Julian) settled in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, where their four children - Julian Jr, Sharon, Carol and Roberta were born. Determined to redress the lack of educational opportunities for the Black children, she became president of the PTA and a leader in local, state and national positions in politics. She served on the Ohio State Board of Education, the Cleveland City Council and the Cleveland Board of Education of which she became the first woman president, embracing a lifetime of public service and helping children.

Mildred Madison

As a Cleveland school board member she was a firm advocate for paths to success for all young people including those with no interest in college. At the state level, she was very proud of her achievement in maintaining and visiting vocational schools where young people received top level training in professions from commercial baking to construction to entrepreneurship.

Mildred was a delegate to two Democratic National Conventions serving as a Whip and a member of the Rules and Platform Committees. Her political activities in the 60s, 70s and 80s put her at the sharp end of the challenges faced by women, Black people and Black women seeking to lead political change.

At one point when she was poised to run as an incumbent, the Democratic Party told her to step aside for a male candidate. She did so, then presented herself to voters as an independent. She won reelection handily.

To encourage more Black women to consider a life in public office, Mildred and her friend Doris Rankin founded the Ohio Black Women’s Leadership Caucus. She continued to encourage and mentor Black women interested in running for elected positions well into her 90s.

While raising four children, Mildred led fundraising workshops for volunteers from the United Way, the YWCA -- and of the March of Dimes of which she served as Cleveland president.

Madison breathed new life into the Cleveland League of Women Voters. She was so successful in this endeavor, the National League of Women Voters (who at the time organized and sponsored the national presidential debates) selected Cleveland as the venue for the only presidential debate between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

She happily worked with a Republican mayor to demonstrate her political mantra "No permanent enemies, no permanent friends, just permanent goals."

That mantra sustained Mildred when she tragically lost her husband and moved to Detroit, where her daughter, Sharon, lived.

Her new goal: leading the campaign for a ballot initiative to affect the way Detroit City Council members were elected. The former politician, in her 80s, took on a new career - serving as President of the Detroit

League of Women Voters. She decided to do what she had done in Cleveland, identify and encourage and train younger women who might take her place.

In Michigan she embraced the fight for voting rights and voter engagement. She spoke out against barriers to voting for senior citizens and regularly issued demands that Detroiters should vote to exercise their political and civil right to participate in government.

As a League vote challenger in 2003, she learned of intimidation at polling places and witnessed election staff being harassed. Mildred warned of the dangers to democracy by way of voter suppression and intimidation tactics. She combated anti-voting rights tactics with initiatives for voter education and registration for high school students.

Mildred was a tireless, lifelong advocate for participation in the political process and especially the civic duty to vote.

At 94, the account of her traveling by car 300 miles each way to vote in a presidential election made international news. She also was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey who had arranged for then-Democratic Candidate Joe Biden to appear with them. Mildred told the future president that her support for him was based not just on his experience and compassion but also because he selected her AKA Soror and fellow Howard University alumna, Kamala Harris, as his running mate.

Mildred Madison lived the ordinary life of an extraordinary woman who distinctly understood that advocacy for a just world begins locally, and she helped change the way cities operate.

"She was one of the smartest women I had ever met," said Rochelle Riley. "This wasn’t a hobby for her this was her life.

The devoted wife, loving mother and grandmother, is survived by her children: Dr Julian C Madison Jr. and his wife Riezl of Zion, Illinois; Sharon Madison and her husband, Michael Steinback of Detroit; and Carol and her husband, George Graham of London, England. Her youngest child, Roberta, predeceased her. She is also survived by her grandchildren: Robert J. Madison; Maria Madison and her husband, Thomas Zengel; Julian C Madison III; Philip Madison, John Graham; Julian Graham; Shammara Pop and her husband, Michael Pope, and their children, Selah and Savannah Pope and Cameron Steinback; brother-in-law, Robert P. Madison, and a host of nieces, nephews, many friends and colleagues.

The Funeral Service for Mildred Madison will be live-streamed at 11 a.m. August 25th HERE. 

The Celebration of Life Memorial Service for Mildred Madison will be held in Detroit at 1 p.m. Tuesday, August 29th at Plymouth United Church of Christ, 600 E. Warren Avenue Detroit,  48201. The Detroit service also will be live-streamed HERE.

Rochelle Riley, the Director of Arts and Culture for the City of Detroit, provided this report.