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From Michigan to Minnesota: Detroit native runs far from his roots

By Kathleen Gray
Detroit Free Press
Posted on Sunday September 17, 2006

He’d be the first Muslim in Congress

Detroit native Keith Ellison is poised to add the title “first” to his resume: First black congressman from Minnesota; first Muslim in Congress.

But he’s not thinking about those achievements, because first he has to win the general election on Nov. 7.

“I’m trying to focus on points of commonality, not my unique profile,” said Ellison, 43, a few days after he overcame tough challenges from three other Democrats to win Tuesday’s primary election. “I don’t think it’s insignificant. I just haven’t taken the time to wonder about it yet.”

Ellison is a heavy favorite. The fifth Congressional district in Minnesota, which covers north Minneapolis and the city’s inner ring suburbs, leans heavily Democratic.

His rapid rise in politics comes as no surprise to family.

“When he was a state rep, I told him he should think about Congress,” said his brother Brian Ellison, a Southfield resident and pastor of Baptist Church of the New Covenant in Detroit. “Did we think he was going to ascend to this point? Yes, but this quickly, probably not.”

The third of five sons of Leonard, a now-retired psychiatrist, and Clida Ellison, he was taught from an early age that he should think independently, go to college and be a success. Of the five Ellison boys, four became lawyers, one a doctor.

At University of Detroit High School, where he graduated in 1981, Ellison was active in sports and the student Senate.

“He was very outspoken in terms of his opinions and they were very strong opinions, but he was able to back them up,” said William Doss, a U-D classmate and physician in Virginia. “He was a typical lawyer even back then. He was very passionate.”

Sometimes that passion turned into anger, even tussles, said Brian Ellison.

“He had a real sense of righteousness and justice,” he said. “Maybe even getting into a fistfight every once at while when we were at Hampton Elementary,” which is now Barbara Jordan Elementary in Detroit.

Keith Ellison said that by the time he got to U-D, he outgrew the tendency to throw down with the help of his football coach Lou Offer. Ellison was a defensive back.

“He was one of the people who helped me find a sense of purpose in my life,” Ellison said of Offer.

Ellison took a turn when he went to Wayne State University. Frustrated by racism and social injustice, he turned away from his Catholic upbringing and became a Muslim. After getting a degree in economics, he left the state in 1987 to get a law degree from the University of Minnesota.

Ellison started a law practice in Minneapolis, served as the executive director of the Legal Rights Center and won a seat in the state House in 2002.

In 1994, he worked with members of the Nation of Islam, the controversial group led by Louis Farrakhan, to help organize the Million Man March in Minnesota. The decision has haunted him in the campaign.

His Democratic opponents and Republican challenger Alan Fine have condemned him for the association.

Ellison said the issue is a red herring.

“I have no association with Louis Farrakhan. I worked on the Million Man March, and that’s all. It’s a smear tactic,” he said. “When people are getting a message from military personnel that their loved one has been killed, how on earth do we find the time to denigrate each other?”

But it’s a tactic that likely will continue, said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute in Washington D.C., which supported and contributed to Ellison’s campaign.

“The most important message that America can send to Muslims around the world right now is how fairly we treat this victory,” he said. “I know that we’re an open and inclusive society, and his opponents just don’t get it.”

After law school, Ellison concentrated on starting a family with his high school sweetheart, Kim Brookins, whom he met while he was a lifeguard at the Northwest Activities Center in Detroit. They have four children, and the couple’s parents still live three blocks apart on Detroit’s northwest side.

“He’s matured and grown up quite a bit,” said Ellison’s father-in-law, Harvey Brookins. “He’s become more accepting of other people and their cultures.”

It doesn’t matter that his politics and religion aren’t always in sync with his family.

Brian Ellison, for example, is a conservative Republican and Baptist preacher. Keith Ellison is a liberal Democrat.

But Brian Ellison has campaigned for his brother and will fly to Minnesota to help him celebrate an election victory.

“Before anything else, we’re brothers,” said Brian Ellison. “Out of respect for one another, we have never talked religion. We’ve talked politics, and he thinks I’m absolutely crazy.”

Keith Ellison said he loves attending services at his brother’s church to see how his congregation embraces their preacher.

“I love him to death,” he said. “When I’m spending time with him, more than anyone else, I know he has my back 100%.”

Contact KATHLEEN GRAY at 313-223-4407 or gray@freepress.com.