Mongo was born January 15, 1954, in Detroit, Michigan and was raised in Royal Oak Township, where he attended Oak Park Public Schools. While a Junior at Oak Park High School, Mongo served as managing editor of The Eagle American, the high school newspaper. He was the first African-American student to hold the position. During his Senior year, Mongo help lead Oak Park High School to their first state championship in track, where he earned All State Honors.
Following undergraduate graduation, Mongo joined the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves. He received a certificate in Photo Journalism from the Defense Information School in 1978.
Media career
From 1978 until 1983, Mongo worked as a reporter for the Colorado Springs Sun, Frederick News-Post, the South Haven Daily Tribune and the Michigan Chronicle newspapers. He has appeared on the CNBC television program American Greed, as well as CNN's . Mongo has been featured as an expert in Detroit politics by newspapers and publications throughout the United States, including: The Weekly Standard, The New York Times, The Washington Post and GQ. He has contributed as a columnist to The Detroit News, The Michigan Chronicle, The Michigan Citizen, and Deadline Detroit and has been a regular guest on 92.3 FM, Fox 2 News "Let It Rip," WDIV "Flash Point" and The Detroit News web program "Hold the Onions". Two of Mongo's newspaper ads "Lynching is Still Legal in America" and "Sometimes a handshake and an acknowledgment makes a difference" sparked nationwide controversy in 2005 and 2006. Mongo is spotlighted in chapter thirteen of Tim Skubick's book, See Dick and Jen Run. In the book, Skubick highlights Mongo's involvement in the 2006 race for Michigan Governor. He is also featured in Charlie LeDuff's, book, , in a chapter titled "Mongo".
Political career
Adolph Mongo organized his first protest in 1968, at the age of fourteen. When the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, the administrators at Clinton Junior High School refused to allow students to leave school early, to attend services at a church. Mongo led a walkout by black students in protest. During his senior year in high school, Mongo ran a last minutewrite-in campaign for Student Mayor of Oak Park. He won, making him the first African-American student to hold that office. From 1984 until 1991, Mongo served as Deputy Director of Public Information under the late Detroit Mayor Coleman A. Young. In 1998, Mongo led a protest against the Detroit Medical Center, when a nursing supervisor at Sinai Hospital posted a sign outside a 74-year-old patient's room demanding that African-American's, including medical personnel, be excluded from entering his room. The supervisor was later fired. In 2005, Mongo's attack ads were credited for Kwame Kilpatrick's upset win over Freman Hendrix. In 2007, Mongo was instrumental in forcing the release of three students wrongly accused of killing a Taylor, Michigan woman. He organized several protests that culminated in Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy dropping the charges. The real killers were later arrested and convicted to long prison sentences. In April 2011, Mongo led a boycott against the Detroit NAACP's 56th Annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner and called for NAACP President Rev. Wendell Anthony to resign his position. Mongo's complaint surrounded the "Great Expectations" Award Anthony gave Kid Rock, a native metro Detroiter, who has been known to fly the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia. Mongo stated "Rev. Anthony is making it OK for people like Kid Rock to fly the... flag." Mongo continued, "That flag stands for hate, racism and bigotry." In 2016, Mongo ran State Senator Coleman Young II's campaign for Mayor of Detroit, against incumbent Mike Duggan. In 2018, he was the campaign manager for Coleman Young II's campaign for the Democratic nomination in Michigan's 13th Congressional District. The seat was vacant, due to the resignation of John Conyers.
