My Father's House: An Ode to Americas Longest-Serving Black Congressman [Hardcover]

In this moving work, a powerful father-son memoir and clear-eyed assessment, the son of iconic African American Congressman John Conyers Jr. shines a spotlight on his father and his political legacy, and reveals how, as his son, he eventually learned to leverage his own voice in a world that his father helped create.

A respectful, thoughtful, yet clear-eyed reframing of a national heros personal and political odyssey,My Fathers Houseis John Conyers III's love letter to his father and a record of his own journey. Conyers reveals a towering figure in modern American political history and an ordinary family man; a leader whose work in Washington necessitated his many absences as a father from a son coming of age in Detroit during a pivotal time in African American history.

John Conyers III introduces us to John James Conyers, Jr. the legislator, who changed lives and made history, and of his equity-focused work on issues like social justice that remains to be done. We meet Conyers the politician and mentor who worked with and counselled a network of powerbrokersoften from the family home on Seven Mile Road in the Motor Cityincluding President Bill Clinton, Congressmen Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Charlie Rangel, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, feminist Gloria Steinem, entertainer-activists Harry Belafonte, Berry Gordy, Stevie Wonder, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Chris Tucker and a slew of other players in Washington, DC, and across the nation.

A resonant political, historical, and family story,My Fathers Houseexplores how John James Conyers, Jr., a co-founder of the Congressional Black Caucus, was at once a man of deep and abiding spiritual faith, human talents, and human weaknesses. As he places his father among this land's greatest lawmakers, he also demystifies and grounds the Civil Rights giants of that era, reminding us of their noble yet deeply flawed humanity. This exploration of John James ConlÃV