Flint, MI—Hundreds of Flint residents packed the House of Prayer Missionary Church to honor the legacy of the late Flint City Councilman Eric Mays during his funeral on Saturday, March 23, 2024.
While Mays was known around the world for his quips and speeches at Flint City Council meetings that went viral on social media, he was known to friends and family in Flint as passionate, dependable and intelligent. His constituents in Flint’s 1st Ward applauded him for tirelessly standing up for them and always offering help to those in need.
Flint Beat spoke with some of his longtime friends and constituents as they mourned his loss in the lead-up to his funeral.
Cynthia Haynes | Flint Resident
“He was [a] pillar of the community. One of the old-school grassroots. No seriously, he was grassroots. You don’t find grassroots no more, not these days, because everybody’s bought and sold. That’s one thing with Mr. Mays, you could not buy him, and he was never, ever gonna be for sale.”
Haynes met Mays when she was 25 years old, she said. She and Mays had been working together on a something for the community, but she wasn’t able to make it because her car wouldn’t start.
“I needed a starter, and I had called Mr. Mays, and I said, ‘Mr. Mays, I can’t get out there because I don’t have a starter. Mr. Mays brought me $50 to get [a] starter for my car. This is the truth that a lot of people don’t know about him. It wasn’t that he just fought for the people. If he had it, you had it. He was very generous.
“It’s not always political. You really can’t be political all the time. You have to be a community person. He’s a human being first. It’s not about being political, it’s about being a human being. He could recognize and affiliate with anybody in the 1st Ward. Anything that we have been through, he’s been through it, too.”
Jacquelyn Grace Lee – Flint resident
“I’ve been knowing Eric Mays since I was probably between seven and nine. As I grew up, him and my mother were best friends. They used to go to the casino, no offense to anybody, but Mr. Mays, he was a cool guy. He liked to go to the casino every now and then. And as I had gotten older, I would try to go with him, but of course, they never let me go with them.
“Around 2018, my grandsons were in foster care, and I was trying to take custody of them. He told me what to do, how to get them out of the house they were in and into another one. He was very talented.
“Two years ago, I said, ‘Eric, every time I bid on a house, I can’t get one from the [Genesee County Land Bank].’ I called Eric up. We get the Land Bank house. This was what last year in May. All these years I’d been trying to bid on it, and it’s the first time I get it.
“Eric was an all-around kind of guy. I mean, in a way, you could say he was like a father because when I was a little kid, I could hug him. As an adult, I can talk to him about my problems. I can say, ‘Hey, Eric, this is what’s happening in my life.’ And he always listened. When he became a councilperson, and Flint was having that water problem, he said, ‘No, it’s like putting a bandaid on the bleeding scar. That is not enough money for Flint.’ That’s how Eric was, though. He cared about everything Flint was going through.”
Mildred West-Godard – Flint resident
“Eric grew up with my older brothers. They were the best partners fishing, cracking jokes. Out there playing basketball. Sometimes they’d throw a football, but it was always basketball.”
“I went through probation for a part of my life. He was there for me. My children got removed from me. Only thing he would tell me was, ‘If you got faith in God, believe he’s gonna make it alright.’
Mays was like her older brother, she said. They always messed with each other just like siblings, but he was always there for her when she needed someone.
“If he saw me, and I was looking sad, he would say something to make me laugh. Then, the rest of my day would be great. People just laugh at us when they see us because we stand out in public. I’d just be like, ‘Well, guess what? I ain’t talking to you today.’ And he looked down like, ‘I can’t even see you. Where you at?’ Oh so now he’s cracking the short jokes?”
Vanessa Clifton – Flint resident
“He could sing. He could really, really sing, and that was surprising to some people. I wasn’t from his ward, but he’s one of the few people down there that cared about the people. That’s what I respected. He was real loud, but he just needed to be heard. It’s going to be a really huge loss for not just his ward, but for the community.”
“He went against the grain, and he didn’t fall in line with the stupid stuff, you know, all the politics and stuff like that. His focus was take care of the people. Just take care of the people and leave all that stuff.”
“My husband was just saying when he was driving over here, you have your civil rights leaders. You have your Malcolm X, you have your Martin Luther King. He was like that. He was a staple, and he stood up for the community. He had a voice, and a lot of us leaned into that voice because we may not have been able to say nothing.”
