Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick is a Detroit political icon

When Detroiters talk about the people who stood tall for them in Washington, Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick’s name should ring as clearly as any bell in our city’s long political history.

Her passing invites not only remembrance, but reflection on what her life’s work represented — for Detroit, for Michigan, and for the generations of Black women who followed her into the halls of power.

Kilpatrick died Oct. 7, at the age of 80 , from complications of Alzheimer’s disease.

Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick did not begin her journey as a political insider. She started as a teacher — an educator who saw promise in young people and possibility in communities often told to expect less. That grounding in the classroom shaped her politics: She was always instructing, always preparing, always pushing othe