Encyclopedia Of Detroit
Gribbs, Roman
Roman Gribbs served in a number of public roles throughout his life, most notably serving as the 65th Mayor of Detroit. Born on December 29, 1925 and raised on a farm near Capac, Michigan, Gribbs graduated from high school and went on to serve in the U.S. Army from 1944 to 1948. After returning to Detroit, Gribbs attended the University of Detroit where he received a degree in economics and accounting in 1952, and a law degree in 1954. From there, Gribbs was an instructor at the university from 1955 to 1957.
In 1957, Gribbs became an assistant prosecutor, a position he held until 1964, after which he entered private practice. In 1966, Gribbs ran and lost for a seat as a Recorder’s Court judge. In 1968, Gribbs was appointed sheriff of Wayne County, winning a full four-year term. Subsequently, Gribbs was elected Mayor of Detroit in 1969, beating African-American candidate Richard Austin in a close race.
The mayoral election served as a reflection of a changing Detroit. After two decades of “white flight” to the suburbs the African-American percentage of the vote was on the rise. Moreover, the election took place just two years after the historic and bloody 1967 Detroit Uprising. Noting his position as a White mayor of a growing Black city, Gribbs pledged to appoint more African-Americans to his administration. He went on to appoint the first Black deputy mayor, the first to head the public works agency, and the first to head the Department of Street Railways.
His term, however, was not to be without controversy. In 1971 Gribbs launched “Stop The Robberies-Enjoy Safe Streets (STRESS),” an elite Detroit police unit that would make use of undercover decoys to root out drugs and crime in Detroit. The unit’s aggressive tactics led to accusations of police brutality. It was particularly active in African-American neighborhoods of the city, and by its end in 1974 would result in 20 deaths, 17 of whom were Black.
Outside of crime, Gribbs also focused on revitalizing the city’s economy. During his term his administration would undertake efforts to improve the Eastern Market district. Along with this he encouraged the founding of Detroit Renaissance, a nonprofit group formed by wealthy Detroiters such as Max Fisher and Henry Ford II. Formed to rebuild Detroit after the events of 1967, Gribbs and the Detroit Renaissance would break ground on the Renaissance Center. Gribbs was also an advocate of a constitutional amendment to make possession of handguns illegal. He served only one term, declining to run for a second.
After leaving the mayor’s office, Gribbs returned to private practice and became a circuit court judge in 1975. He was elected to the Michigan Court of Appeals in 1982, and served until his retirement in 2001.
Gribbs was an elected member on the Board of Directors of the Piast Institute, a research center devoted to Polish American Affairs. He died of complications related to cancer on April 5, 2016.
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