Every year, family, friends and admirers of notable Detroiters make a case for street signs displaying their names, but only five applications make the cut.
Detroit City Council is slated to make those decisions on Tuesday, Nov. 10. Council will choose from 20 applicants, many of which rolled over from previous years.
There are three new nominations this year: Melvin Franklin, Luther “Badman” Keith and Tyrone Winfrey, Sr.
Blue secondary street signs serve as an honorary recognition and are placed above or below a street’s official sign. Installations will begin later this month.
The city initially received 22 applications, but at the Oct. 23 planning and economic development committee meeting, Lisa DiChiera, deputy director of the Historic Designation Advisory Board, said one withdrew. Another, Henry “Blaze” Marzette, a police officer turned drug dealer who controlled much of the trade in Detroit, was pulled from consideration by the committee at the October meeting. View the full list online or on the council’s Oct. 23 committee agenda. More information on nominations is available on the city’s website.
Applications that do not receive the votes can be rolled over and heard in the following years up to five times. However, District 4 Council Member Latisha Johnson is proposing a one-year moratorium on new applications in 2027 to provide the city a chance to amend the process for a more streamlined approach. Johnson said it is difficult to manage a heaping stack of applications, which includes new applicants and those rolled over from previous years.
If approved, the moratorium would prevent new applications in 2027 but council could continue with the existing rollover applications, Johnson said, who requested a resolution to be drafted. That request has been referred to the city’s planning and economic development committee for its meeting Thursday, Nov. 12. “I personally would like to see more of our residents being recognized for the work they do in the neighborhoods. It seems to have become a popularity contest,” Johnson said.
Historic Preservation Planner Janice Tillmon previously asked City Council to consider changes, including limiting applications and raising the cap on annual secondary street signs. Tillmon researched how other cities identify residents and found Detroit is the only one to allow rollover applications and has a low cap on the number of winners allowed.
Musician and founder of Motown group
Melvin Franklin was a founding member of legendary group The Temptations. Signed to Motown in 1961, The Temptations earned multiple Grammy awards and were inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.
Franklin’s granddaughter, Detroit resident Nakira Jordan, said she is proud to share Franklin’s legacy — and she wants Detroit to feel the same. Jordan highlighted the importance of celebrating and honoring “the people who made Motown’s legendary” right here at home.
“The world remembers his (Franklin’s) voice,” Jordan said. “Our family carries his name, and the street sign will help Detroit preserve his legacy.”
Franklin attended Northwestern High School and lived on Clairmount Avenue, where a sign honoring him is proposed. He and his family gathered neighbors and Motown artists in his home and cooked many meals for guests.
“Detroit gave the world a soundtrack,” said Franklin’s other granddaughter, Michigan state Rep. Morgan Foreman. “Our grandfather helped create that sound, and his legacy deserves to be remembered right here at home.”
Newspaper’s first Black sportswriter and activist
Luther Keith was an award-winning journalist for The Detroit News for 35 years and was the publication’s first Black sportswriter, state capitol reporter and editor, specifically an assistant city editor. Keith was also the founding director for Wayne State University’s Journalism Institute for Media Diversity and mentored Black journalists.
He founded ARISE Detroit! after leaving The Detroit News in 2005 and led the organization for 18 years, where he advocated for volunteerism, particularly during the annual Neighborhoods Day in early August when residents host scores of community events including. The nonprofit aims to address issues surrounding illiteracy, high school dropout rates, crime and youth violence, drug abuse and more.
Attorney Erin Keith, Keith’s daughter, told the planning committee of her father’s accomplishments and love for the city. To post her father’s sign at the intersection of Livernois Avenue and Eight Mile Road would be perfect, she said, as it is near Baker’s Keyboard Lounge, the venue Keith played the night before he died.
Keith was also a blues musician who wrote his own songs, produced albums and often performed at Baker’s Keyboard Lounge under the name Luther “Badman” Keith.
“He loved this city with all his heart, and I always jokingly said my father belonged to me and my mother and the family, but he really belonged to this city. And I continue to share him with everyone I know, everywhere I go.”
An advocate for education
Tyrone Winfrey Sr., was a longtime education and youth advocate who dedicated much of his life and career to helping young Detroiters go to college. In addition to years spent in admissions and counseling at Michigan State University and University of Michigan, Winfrey previously was a Detroit Board of Education board member and president. He later served as the first chief of staff and senior administrator for the Education Achievement Authority of Michigan, a state-run organization that runs poor performing schools in Detroit.
Winfrey was the husband of Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey, who spoke about her late husband’s legacy during the Oct. 23 meeting.
“Tyrone gave his life to the children of this city,” Janice Winfrey said. “His lifelong passion was to ensure that all of our children had an opportunity to higher education. Not just the ones from Cass Renaissance and King, but (that) all the children of the city of Detroit had an opportunity to higher education, and we’re just so grateful that you all thought enough of his work to recognize it.”
Tyrone Winfrey served as the director of community affairs at DPSCD from 2017 until he died in 2022. The Detroit Public Schools Community District awarded him with a Lifetime of Excellence Tribute in 2021.
He attended Hampton Elementary School, Cass Tech High School and later Wayne State University for graduate studies. The sign honoring his name would be posted near Indiana Avenue where he grew up in northwest Detroit.
Rollover nominees
There are 17 candidates for secondary street signs who were previously nominated. They are: George Clinton, Barbara Rose-Collins, George Cook, Jr., the Rev. Dr. Clarence Crews, Sr., Gabriel Fred Crutcher, Dr. Haifa Fakhouri, Ernest Harden, Jr., Ronald J. Hewitt, John Lee Hooker, Dick “Night Train” Lane, Daniel J. Loepp, the Rev. Dr. John Payne, Jalen Rose, John Sinclair, Tony Spina, Andrew Starks, Martha Jean “The Queen” Steinberg.
