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Please add profiles of those who were born, lived or died in Flint, Michigan.
Flint is the county seat of Genesee County and lies on the Flint River.
Official Website
The region was home to several Ojibwe tribes at the start of the 19th century, with a particularly significant community established near present-day Montrose. The Flint River had several convenient fords which became points of contention among rival tribes, as attested by the presence of arrowheads and burial mounds near it. Some of the city currently resides atop ancient Ojibwe burial grounds.
Flint was founded as a village by fur trader Jacob Smith in 1819 and became a major lumbering area on the historic Saginaw Trail during the 19th century. From the late 19th century to the mid 20th century, the city was a leading manufacturer of carriages and later automobiles, earning it the nickname "Vehicle City". General Motors (GM) was founded in Flint in 1908, and the city grew into an automobile manufacturing powerhouse for GM's Buick and Chevrolet divisions after World War II up until the early 1980s recession. Flint was also the home of the Flint Sit-Down Strike of 1936–37 that played a vital role in the formation of the United Automobile Workers.
Since the late 1960s, Flint has faced several crises. The city sank into a deep economic depression after GM significantly downsized its workforce in the area from a 1978 high of 80,000 to under 8,000 by 2010. From 1960 to 2010, the population of the city nearly halved from 196,940 to 102,434. In the mid-2000s, Flint became known for its high crime rates and has repeatedly been ranked among the most dangerous cities in the United States. The city was under a state of financial emergency from 2002–2004 and again from 2011–2015. Since 2014, the city has faced a major public health emergency due to lead contamination in the local water supply that has affected thousands of residents, as well as an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease due to tainted water.
Flint is the subject of the Sufjan Stevens song "Flint (For the Unemployed and Underpaid)" featured on his album Michigan.
Cemeteries
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