Grosse Pointe Woods student Roy Bishop III is flanked by his parents, Latoya Bishop and Roy Bishop II, as well as Grosse Pointe Woods Mayor Arthur Bryant as the youngest member of the Bishop family is recognized for serving as junior mayor for the day
By: K. Michelle Moran | Grosse Pointe Times | Published August 5, 2025
GROSSE POINTE WOODS — He may only be 11, but Roy Bishop III, of Grosse Pointe Woods, is already following in the public service footsteps of his parents.
During a July 21 Woods City Council meeting, Mayor Arthur Bryant presented Bishop with a certificate of gratitude and appreciation for serving as junior mayor for the day on June 19.
Bryant said he was “very happy” to give Bishop the certificate.
“He was chosen to be our junior mayor,” Bryant said of the competitive process. “Everything went very well.”
In his junior mayor role, Bishop gave a speech about Juneteenth during a Juneteenth event for the Grosse Pointes and Harper Woods June 19 at Wayne County Community College District’s Mary Ellen Stempfle University Center in Harper Woods.
“It was amazing,” Bishop said. “I loved the opportunity and experience to speak out. It was pretty awesome.”
Juneteenth, usually celebrated on June 19, marks the end of slavery in the United States. It commemorates June 19, 1865, the date enslaved people of African descent in Galveston, Texas, learned that slavery had been abolished, according to the U.S. National Park Service website. Although slavery was abolished in the rebellious states when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, slaveholders in Texas didn’t inform the people they held in bondage, and because of the distance of Texas from the other slave-holding states, the military wasn’t able to enforce the presidential order until almost 2 1/2 years later. This date became the federal holiday Juneteenth National Independence Day in 2021.
Bishop’s proud parents were on hand to see their youngest child receive his certificate. His dad is Grosse Pointe Public School System Deputy Superintendent Roy Bishop II and his mom is Latoya Bishop, deputy treasurer of Grosse Pointe Woods.
“I was very happy,” Latoya Bishop said after the presentation. “It was well deserved. He works hard. He’s a great kid.”
Her husband echoed those sentiments.
“I’m just excited to see him grow into himself and for him to continue to advocate for what’s right in this world,” Roy Bishop II said.