Albert Cobo was born in Detroit on October 2, 1893. He married his childhood sweetheart, Ethel; the couple had two daughters, Jean and Elaine. Cobo opened and ran two candy stores in Detroit, while attending night school to study business administration and accounting at the Detroit Business Institute. After completing his studies, he sold his stores and went to work for Burroughs Corporation, working his way up to an executive position. In 1933, the city of Detroit was in a financial crisis, and Burroughs "loaned" Cobo to the city. However, he never returned to work for Burroughs, and ran for and was elected Detroit City Treasurer in 1935. Cobo served as City Treasurer of Detroit for seven terms before first running for the mayor's office in 1949. He won, and was elected twice more, in 1951 and 1953. A major aspect of Cobo's campaign and subsequent terms in office involved upholding racial restrictive covenants in housing. While his opponent George Edwards openly supported the provision of housing for black families in any neighborhood of Detroit, Cobo campaigned against the "Negro Invasion" of white neighborhoods. Twelve proposals for public housing in Detroit were under consideration when Cobo was elected mayor, and he adamantly opposed the construction of all but four sites, all in city centers with a large black population. By slowing and stopping the construction process for public housing and placing single-family home developerHarry J. Durbin in charge of the Detroit Housing Commission, Cobo significantly limited the housing options for black families in 1950s Detroit. Cobo served as president of the American Municipal Association and a trustee of the United States Conference of Mayors. Cobo was mayor at the apex of the city's population of about 1.8 million in 1950. He died in his office in 1957. Cobo ran on the Republican ticket in 1956 for governor of Michigan, but was handily beaten by G. Mennen Williams, his first loss after ten successful citywide campaigns. He did not seek a fourth term as mayor in 1957. Cobo died of a heart attack on September 12, 1957, just months before his last term in office would have ended. Cobo Center was built and named in his honor. However, on August 27, 2019, the facility was renamed TCF Center. Cobo is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery.
