My Father's House: An Ode to America’s Longest-Serving Black Congressman – A Son's Memoir of Civil Rights and Political Legacy in Detroit and Washington

by John Conyers III

In this moving work, part clear-eyed assessment, part memoir, the son of iconic African American Congressman John Conyers Jr. shines a spotlight on his father and his political legacy, and reveals how, as his son, he eventually learned to leverage his own voice in a world that his father helped create.

A respectful, thoughtful, yet clear-eyed reframing of a national hero’s personal and political odyssey, My Father’s House is John Conyers III's love letter to his father and a record of his own journey. Conyers reveals a towering figure in modern American political history and an ordinary family man; a leader whose work in Washington necessitated his many absences as a father from a son coming of age in Detroit.

John Conyers III introduces us to John James Conyers, Jr. the legislator, who changed lives and made history, and of his equity-focused work that remains to be done. We meet Conyers the politician and mentor who worked with and counselled a network of powerbrokers—often from the family home on Seven Mile Road in the Motor City—including President Bill Clinton, Congressmen Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Charlie Rangel, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, feminist Gloria Steinem, entertainer-activists Harry Belafonte, Berry Gordy, Stevie Wonder, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Chris Tucker, Vivica Fox, and a slew of other players in Washington, DC, and across the nation.

A resonant political, historical, and family story, My Father’s House explores how John James Conyers, Jr., was at once a man of deep and abiding spiritual faith, human talents, and human weaknesses. As he places his father among this land's greatest lawmakers, he also demystifies and grounds the Civil Rights giants of that era, reminding us of their noble yet deeply flawed humanity. This exploration of John James Conyers, Jr., told through John Conyers III's eyes and experiences, is essential to a thorough understanding of modern U.S. politics and the cultures and human lives it continues to shape.

My Father’s House includes a black-and-white photo insert.

Genres: Memoir, Audiobook, Historical

272 pages, Hardcover

Published May 13, 2025

Reviews

[Books Amongst Friends · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book: 4/5
Audiobook/ Narration: 3/5

[Relena_reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really expected this to be a book about John Conyers, Jr., through the lens of his being a parent. In portions, it was. In other portions, it was very much about the life that John Conyers III has lived well outside his relationship his dad. Digressions into his business failures, relationship troubles, and other foibles pulled me away from what I thought I was going to be learning. Despite attempts to hook these back into lessons that he took away from his relationship with his father, the book simply wasn't long enough to pull together all the strings. There were some real moments of insight, but I didn't learn what I thought I would from this text.

Conyers' self-narration did allow him to shape the emotional resonance of his story, but at the times were he was most defensive, this didn't help him.

Audiobook ARC supplied by NetGalley.

[Nick Boyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too much of Detroit’s narrative is told by white folks who don’t even live in the city. I went into this book expecting a history of Rep. Conyers, and while the author delivers on that, he intertwines Rep Conyers’ story with the Congressman’s unfinished work to represent Black Detroit. If you want to understand not just Rep. Conyers’ legacy, but also Detroit politics as told by a Detroiter.