By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Freedom Road, the Michigan State Bar Association's 30th "Legal Milestone," celebrates Cass County Quakers' role resisting slavery in the August 1847 Kentucky raid.
A bronze plaque unveiled Tuesday morning in the auditorium of the Dale A. Lyons Building at Southwestern Michigan College by State Bar President Nancy J. Diehl and former Detroit mayor Dennis W. Archer, who grew up in Cassopolis, will be permanently installed on the south side of the 1899 courthouse.
The building is close to the original courthouse, since demolished, where Kentucky raiders and their captives surrendered to court authorities 158 summers ago.
Diehl introduced members of the Bar's Public Outreach Committee: local historians Barbara and Grafton Cook, lawyer and author David Chardavoyne, County Administrator Terry Proctor, Calvin Township Supervisor Skip Dyes, SMC Board of Trustees Chairman Dr. Fred L. Mathews, SMC President Dr. David M. Mathews, Museum Director Ann Thompson and MGTV, which recorded the ceremony.
Diehl pointed out numerous other dignitaries in the audience, including Judges Michael Dodge, Susan Dobrich, Mabel Johnson Mayfield, Al Butzbaugh, a former State Bar president and retired Court of Appeals Judge Harold Hood, Prosecutor Victor Fitz, Sheriff Joseph Underwood, Dowagiac Police Chief Tom Atkinson, Vandalia Village President Beverly Young, state AARP Michigan President Dr. George Rowan and state AARP Director Steve Gools.
Diehl noted the Kentucky raid "caused a great deal of friction between the North and South over the issue of slavery."