April 4th Foundation Events

Born in 1929, Rep. Conyers was raised in Detroit and educated in the city's public school system. After serving in the National Guard and the United States Army Corps of Engineers in the Korean War, he returned to Michigan where he earned both his Bachelor of Arts (1957) and Juris Doctor (1958) degrees at Wayne State University.

He is the recipient of many awards for leadership, including the Southern Christian Leadership Conference Award, which was presented to him by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He has also been awarded a number of honorary degrees from colleges and universities throughout the nation. He is married to the former Monica Esters. Mr. and Mrs. Conyers have two sons, John III and Carl Edward Representative John Conyers, Jr., a Detroit Democrat, was re-elected to the 14th Congressional District in November of 2006, to his 21st term in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The district covers all of Highland Park and Hamtramck, as well as large portions of Detroit and Dearborn. Due to the Congressional redistricting of 2000, Representative Conyers also now represents the Down River communities of Melvindale, Allen Park, Southgate, Riverview, Trenton, Gibraltar, and GrosseIle.

Having entered the House of Representatives in 1964, Mr. Conyers is the second most senior member in the House of Representatives. After serving as Chairman of the House Committee on Government Operations (now renamed Government Reform) from 1989 until 1994, Congressman Conyers was elected by his congressional colleagues to lead, as Chairman, the pivotal House Committee on the Judiciary. In addition to its oversight of the Department of Justice (including the FBI) and the Federal Courts, the Judiciary Committee has jurisdiction over copyright, civil rights, consumer protection, and constitutional issues. Congressman Conyers was also a member of the Judiciary Committee in its 1974 hearings on the Watergate impeachment scandal and played a prominent role in the recent impeachment process, giving him the distinction as the only Judiciary Committee Member to have served on both panels.

Congressman Conyers is also one of the 13 founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and is considered the Dean of that group. Formed in 1969, the CBC was founded to strengthen African-American law makers' ability to address the legislative concerns of Black and minority citizens.

In Mr. Conyers' 40 plus years in Congress, some of his major accomplishments include: the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, the Motor Voter Bill of 1993, the Martin Luther King Holiday Act of 1983, the Alcohol Warning Label Act of 1988, and the Jazz Preservation Act of 1987.  He was also the driving force behind the Help America Vote Act of 2002.