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Born in 1970, Kwame Kilpatrick graduated from Florida A & M in 1992 and took the oath as Detroit mayor in 2002. He was forced to resign in 2008 and was jailed later that year, then imprisoned for 15 months for lying to a judge about his finances. Kilpatrick experienced a tumultuous life even before he was indicted by a federal grand jury and, on Monday, convicted of racketeering, extortion and other major crimes by a U.S. District Court jury. Here are some highlights.
Mayor class
The first time Kilpatrick took public administration at Florida A&M University, he got a D.
Meeting the parents, buzzed
Kilpatrick was stoned out of his mind on marijuana when he first met Carlita’s parents while at college. “The house looked like a Cheech & Chong movie scene by the time Carlita stopped by with her father,” Kilpatrick wrote in his autobiography. On the stereo: “The Chronic,” a bawdy song by Dr. Dre.
God is his co-pilot
Kilpatrick believes God had a plan putting Carlita and him together. As mayor, he once said, “I believe I’m on assignment from God.”
Carlita’s dad: Cheap or prescient?
His father-in-law gave him only $500 for their wedding.
A man with a future
When he was 30 and serving in what had been his mother’s seat in the Michigan House of Representatives, Kilpatrick was named one of 100 Democrats in the nation to watch, and he addressed the Democratic National Convention.
His idol: Coleman Young
Kilpatrick said he wanted to be mayor since he was 5, when his mother introduced him to Mayor Coleman Young.
Blame it on Big Goofy
His father was the first one who suggested Kilpatrick run for mayor.
Mother knows best
Kilpatrick told a radio station in 2003 that he wore Nike and FUBU outfits until “my mother kind of slapped me and said, 'Hey, put on a suit.'”
An amazing coincidence
While deciding whether to run for mayor the first time, Kilpatrick - then 30 - said he went to his basement and sought wisdom by reading a Bible. Of all passages, he has said, he opened the book to 2 Samuel, in which David is depicted taking control of Judah - at age 30.
Catchy jingle
His slogan during his first campaign: “Our Future: Right Here, Right Now”
Inspiring Chris Rock
In 2003, Chris Rock was star and director of a movie, “Head of State,” loosely based on Kilpatrick. Rock said he first saw Kilpatrick on CSPAN and thought he was the agent for a basketball player until he heard him speak, and was impressed.
Kwame in academia
In a 2006 book "Deconstructing Tyrone: A New Look at Black Masculinity in the Hip-Hop Generation," authors Natalie Hopkinson and Natalie Y. Moore wrote of Kilpatrick: "He is a symbol of both the coming generation of black leadership and the city of Detroit itself: postmodern, postindustrial, and so black it's postblack. Like hip-hop, he's flashy, fresh, a finger-to-the-establishment. Like hip-hop, he is, at his worst, arrogant, unfocused and undisciplined."
Rock star
As mayor, Kilpatrick cruised the city in a black Escalade, escorted by police. He wore cutting-edge suits with bold accessories and wide-brimmed hats. Some of his cuffs were embroidered with the word "MAYOR.” He also liked to ride a Harley.
Kwame Time
He sometimes ditched his bodyguards and ventured out alone. Asked why he did that, Kilpatrick said: “I roll down the windows and have time with Kwame in Detroit.”
At his best
In May 2004, he traveled to Howell, to what had been the home base for the Michigan KKK and discussed the 1967 riot and race. “We’ve got to be able to recover from it so we can have intelligent discussions about how we drive our economies,” Kilpatrick said, as the crowd rose in a standing ovation.
What Navigator?
After denying for weeks that he had leased an expensive, red Lincoln Navigator with city funds for his wife, Kilpatrick said: “There were some screw-ups in communication.”
Three things that happened on the wild afternoon in 2005, when Kilpatrick announced he was running for a second term:
1) His father, Bernard Kilpatrick, compared the way the media treats his son to the “big lie” of Nazi Germany.
2) His mother, Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, screamed in a speech: "Don't lay down, stand up. Don't be quiet, speak up," she said. "Don't let too many people talk about y'all's boy."
3) Kwame Kilpatrick told his nemesis, Steve Wilson of WXYZ-TV: “Quit buying prostitutes, fat ass."
Mea culpa
Kicking off his re-election campaign in 2005, he ran an ad in which he said, “Detroiters, I’ve made some mistakes,” a reference to the lies about the Navigator and his misuse of city credit cards. He added: “But I have never disrespected the office of mayor, or Detroit’s citizens.” Later, he said, “I have been an imperfect servant.”
Time’s bogeyman of the year
In April 2005, Time magazine named Kilpatrick one of the nation’s worst big-city mayors.
More champagne, s’il vous plait
During his first 33 months in office, Kilpatrick spent $210,000 on a city-issued credit card. Purchases included spa massages, Moet & Chandon champagne and lavish meals.
Too sexy for his mansion
Asked by Jack Lessenberry in Hour magazine in 2003 about rumors of orgies at the Manoogian Mansion, Kilpatrick, speaking five years before the text-message scandal would surface, said: “I think the reason that it comes out is that we are sexy. I think this is a sex administration because of the youth.”
Watch what I do, not what I say
In 2003, Deputy Chief Gary Brown accused Kilpatrick in a lawsuit of firing him as head of internal affairs because he was looking into allegations of a party at the Manoogian Mansion. Kilpatrick held an unusual news conference on the steps of the mansion and denied Brown’s claims. The mayor mentioned God and his devotion to his family. The night before, the text messages would show, he and Christine Beatty spent the night in a Washington hotel.
God’s guy
After the city awarded Brown and another cop, Harold Nelthrope, $6.5 million, and after the Navigator and credit card problems of his first term, Kilpatrick told listeners on WJLB-FM that people began assuming he was immoral once he was elected at 31.
“All of a sudden, you just get corrupt, ignorant, stupid, lazy and promiscuous,” he said. “And I just think that this is a reality check – not just on Kwame Kilpatrick, because you know, I’m God’s guy, I’m going to be all right. I think this is for all black men right now in the city of Detroit.”
Unusual runner-up
In the 2005 primary, Kilpatrick finished second, behind Freman Hendrix, becoming the first Detroit mayor since Edward Jeffries in 1947 to place second in a primary.
Kilpatrick v. Hendrix
Kilpatrick on debating Hendrix during the runoff: “I relished opportunities to not only outsmart so-called socially acceptable negroes whenever I had the opportunity, but to also leave them appearing cognitively deficient.”
Come again?
The theme of his 2006 inauguration: “Detroit Love.”
Sexting
Poster by an unknown Detroit artist, 2006.
Jim Schaefer and M.L. Elrick of the Free Press sealed Kilpatrick’s fate in January 2008 when they broke the story of the text messages, which showed he had perjured himself at the whistle-blower trial, which ended up costing Detroit more than $9 million. The first text message seen by the outside world was from Kilpatrick to Beatty. “I’m madly in love with you.” He was less romantic at other times, once texting another girlfriend, “My dick needs to be sucked. It’s been a while. I missed your ass today at Belle Isle.”
And then she kissed me
Kilpatrick wrote in his autobiography that he and Beatty got romantic for the first time just before the first inauguration, in a third-floor office at Washington Boulevard and Larned, looking out on “the dazzling Christmas lights” at Cobo Center. “We turned to each other and hugged. And then we kissed. And then, we looked at each other. ‘What the hell are we doing?’ we said.”
Text-message apology
Kilpatrick and Carlita appeared on TV from a church in early 2008 to address the still-emerging text-message scandal. Kilpatrick held hands with his wife and apologized repeatedly to her, to residents, supporters, opponents and his three sons for what he called "the embarrassment and disappointment" of the previous days. Carlita looked into the camera and said: “Our marriage is not perfect.”
Prediction gone wrong
As he fought calls to resign, Kilpatrick said: “I think we’re going to be completely vindicated politically, completely vindicated legally.”
State of the Mayor, 2008
"In the past 30 days, I've been called a nigger more than any time in my entire life," Kilpatrick said at the end of his State of the City speech in March 2008. His supporters stood and applauded, but reaction outside the auditorium was largely negative.
Sayonara
He ended his resignation speech in September 2008 with this line: "I want to tell you, Detroit, that you done set me up for a comeback."
Plunging to he bottom
While serving his 99-day sentence alone in a VIP cell at the Wayne County Jail in 2008, Kilpatrick suffered a harrowing psychological crisis on the night Barack Obama was elected the nation’s first black president. “My demons, those bastards, rubbed fear, rage and doubt across my back like jesters, self-pity and deceit a funky lotion,” he wrote in his autobiography. He added, modestly: “How poetic. Detroit’s biggest political figure, prostrate on a jail cell floor as Barack Obama wins the presidency.”
He won’t have this problem in prison
Kilpatrick was known to defend himself by repeating the allegations against him, saying, ‘they say I took bribes, but I had nothing to do with contracts. They say I hid money but I answered all the questions truthfully.’ He would go for a minute or so, denying, denying, denying.
Then he would pause.
"You know," he would say, "my only problem is pussy."
The victim
Earlier this year, when Kilpatrick got into trouble with the Michigan Department of Correction for receiving checks without reporting them to parole authorities, he said: “The rules are different for me."
Sources: "Surrendered: The Rise, Fall & Revelation of Kwame Kilpatrick;" "The Kwame Sutra;" Detroit Free Press; Detroit News; New York Times
