Any top 10 list is somewhat arbitrary — just as the 125-year mark
is an arbitrary milestone to celebrate. With that in mind, though,
there’s little doubt that the following stories represent much of
what has been most important to the newspaper and the community
in a long and far-ranging history:
1
Sit-Down
Strike of 1936-37:
For 44 days, workers occupied General Motors plants in Flint and
elsewhere.
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Journal
artist Ken Dolan witnessed the Beecher tornado and drew this
cover for a special edition a few weeks after the deadly storm.
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2
Beecher tornado of
1953: The June 8 storm killed 116 people, injured 900
and destroyed at least 300 homes.
3
Billy
Durant, the birth of the auto industry and the creation of GM:
Durant’s vision and salesmanship, and a confluence of talent, money,
infrastructure, labor and innovation, brought Flint the business
that would define it and carry it through the 20th century.
4
Kayla Rolland:
The 6-year-old’s death last year from a classmate’s gunshot at her
Beecher elementary school became a community’s heartache and world
news.
5
Hard
times in the 1980s:
GM job losses and plant closings
ravaged Flint amid a nationwide recession.
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Floyd
J. McCree
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6
Floyd J. McCree becomes
mayor: The Flint
City Council in 1966 picked McCree, a councilman,
to serve as the city’s first black mayor just as civil
rights and freedom from housing discrimination were becoming fever-pitch
issues.
7
‘Roger & Me’:
Michael Moore’s 1989 movie about downsizing put a scathing picture
of Flint and GM before the world’s eyes.
8
Charles Stewart Mott
and the Mott Foundation: Auto industry pioneer Mott also
served on the General Motors board, as Flint mayor and in 1926 established
his community-boosting foundation.
9
Buick leaves Flint:
Buick in 1999 moved its headquarters from Flint to Detroit and shut
down the Buick City Assembly Center — ending Buick production in
Flint.
10
Community education:
Frank J. Manley, head of physical education for Flint schools, drew
the attention of the nation in the 1930s by opening school resources
— pools, gyms, classrooms — to men, women and families after school
hours and during summers.
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