Albert Cobo

Albert Eugene Cobo (October 2, 1893 – September 12, 1957) was an American politician who served as mayor of Detroit from 1950 until his death in 1957.

Early and personal life Albert Cobo was born in Detroit He married his childhood sweetheart, Ethel; the couple had two daughters, Jean and Elaine. After completing his studies, he sold his stores and went to work for Burroughs Corporation, working his way up to an executive position.

Career as mayor

Election Albert Cobo began his career as Detroit's mayor in 1949 after defeating Liberal Common Council member George Edwards. Edwards, an activist for the United Automobile Workers (UAW), public housing administrator and democratic proponent of the New Deal represented Cobo’s antithesis. Cobo embodied a Republican, corporate executive, real estate investor who adamantly focused his campaign on race and public housing. Cobo, a fiscal conservative, translated his past career as a utility company executive into politics through a strong mistrust of government, economic intervention and deep confidence in the unhindered operation of a free market. While his opponent George Edwards openly supported the provision of public housing for families in any neighborhood of Detroit, Cobo adamantly opposed so called "Negro invasions" thought to occur through public housing. Cobo justified his staunch opposition by rationalizing it as protecting the rights and consideration of people that move and invest in single-family areas. Twelve proposals for public housing in Detroit were under consideration when Cobo was elected mayor, and he adamantly opposed the construction of all but four sites—all in city centers with a large black population. Cobo’s stance on public housing was applauded by real estate groups, Roman Ceglowski (president of the Detroit Civic League), and Orville Tengalia (president of the Southwest Detroit Improvement League). Only 8,155 public housing units were constructed between 1937 and 1955. Jeffries, Brewster, and Douglass Homes, high-density complexes constructed in the inner city, represented the three largest projects. On a ranking of largest cities based on their ratio of low-rent starts to housing starts Detroit was ranked 18th out of 25. In 1951, Cobo appointed Alan E. MacNichol, president of the Federated Civic Association of Northwest Detroit, to the City Plan Commission. Cobo continued enhancing private influence through an advisory committee that consulted on city zoning and consisted of Ross Christile of Gratiot from Chalmers Property Owners Association and Alan C. Laird of the Park Drive-Ravendale Improvement Association. Cobo vigorously opposed public housing because he opposed subsidies for poor people in favor of more private developer’s ownership of property.

Arguably, Cobo’s most controversial action represented the appointment of John Laub as head of the Commission of Community Relations (CCR). The Detroit Common Council authorized the restructuring of the Mayor’s Interracial Committee (MIC) into the CCR. The restructuring occurred in response to MIC’s vilification by white Detroiters for its advocacy for civil rights and desegregation of public housing and opposition to restrictive covenants and discrimination. Laub was the president of the pro-Cobo Northwest Civic Federation and a high school coach and counselor. Cobo rejected Beulah Whitby, because of her opposition to segregated public housing, and John Field, the director of the Toledo Human Relations Board. However, those opposed vocally resisted. William Louks, on behalf of the Detroit Real Estate Board believed that “proponents of the Schoolcraft Gardens sought to inject the century-worn strategy of pitting class against class or race against class or race and to promote the socialistic theory of cooperative society.”

Later life Cobo ran on the Republican ticket in 1956 for governor of Michigan, but was handily beaten by G. Mennen Williams, his first loss after ten successful citywide campaigns. He did not seek a fourth term as mayor in 1957.

Legacy Cobo was mayor at the apex of the city's population of about 1.8 million in 1950. He died of a heart attack on September 12, 1957, just months before his last term in office would have ended. Cobo Center (formerly Cobo Hall) was built and named in his honor. However, on August 27, 2019, the facility was renamed the TCF Center. Cobo is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit.