Photo: Old News collection, 1971Robert Harris (b October 5, 1930, d. July 9, 2005) served as a Democrat in the office of Mayor of Ann Arbor from April 1969 to April 1973. He was mayor during the 1969 Battle of Ann Arbor, when hippies and police fought on South University Avenue.

More information

• The Battle of Ann Arbor: June 16-20, 1969, Ann Arbor Chronicle, June 2009

Harris was only the second Democrat to hold the office of mayor in Ann Arbor in nearly forty years. Soon after the riots, a Republican-led group called Concerned Citizens of Ann Arbor started its own recall campaign against the mayor and the Democrats on city council. Although none of these succeeded (neither did the recall of Sheriff Harvey), Republicans would win back the mayorship four years later, in part by playing off the Democrats’ supposed over-tolerance of hippie-led disturbances such as those on South University.

• Robert J. Harris, Wikipedia
• Obituary: Robert J. Harris, University Record, July 2005
• "Prof. Harris Re-Elected Mayor of Ann Arbor," 15 L. Quadrangle Notes 2 (Spring, 1971).
• "On Robert J. Harris," 48 L. Quadrangle Notes 78-79 (Fall, 2005).
• Robert J. Harris, Old News archive, Ann Arbor News clippings file