Serving Metropolitan Detroit Since 1944
Serving Metropolitan Detroit Since 1944
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A prisoner strike began on August 21 to commemorate the legendary prisoner and Black Panther Party leader George L. Jackson who was killed by prison guards on that date in 1971, and is scheduled to last until September 9, which is the date of the historic Attica prison rebellion of the same year. Prisoners in several states across America as well as in Canada are refusing to work, boycotting prison commissaries, participating in hunger strikes and sit-ins to bring attention to the inhumane...
On September 26th, Detroit Council Pro Tem, Mary Sheffield, hosted an environmental forum at Sacred Heart Church on Detroit's east side. Sheffield organized the event to give residents the opportunity to pose their questions and concerns to a panel of representatives from the regions industrial and government agencies. Included among them were Mike Marr, CEO of Detroit Renewable Energy; Zavia Ferguson of Detroit Water and Sewage Department; Tracy Kecskemeti of Michigan Department of...
Amid concerns of high levels of lead and copper found in many area schools, the Detroit Public School Community District (DPSCD) has ordered water to be turned off at all its schools. The district made the decision after schools showed harmful levels of lead and other toxins in the drinking water. To date 57 DPSCD schools have been discovered to have dangerous levels of copper and lead in their water. This development is particularly alarming in the aftermath of the poisoning of water in Flint...
Detroit has historically been a Mecca for Black business. The city is also renowned for great writers, ministers, artists, athletes, musicians, scholars and, of course fighters. And no other record company has approached the vibrancy, popularity and genius of Detroit's legendary Motown. There are few cities that can approach the legacy of industrialization, achievement and ingenuity that remains a part of Detroit. In the 1800's it served as a beacon of freedom and hope for countless enslaved...
A prisoner strike began on August 21 to commemorate the legendary prisoner and Black Panther Party leader George L. Jackson who was killed by prison guards on that date in 1971, and is scheduled to last until September 9, which is the date of the historic Attica prison rebellion of the same year. Prisoners in several states across America as well as in Canada are refusing to work, boycotting prison commissaries, participating in hunger strikes and sit-ins to bring attention to the inhumane...
Several years ago, police raided a Detroit high school. 49 students were arrested for loitering and detained at the police station. And in an incident that made international news, a Black five-year-old girl in Florida was handcuffed by police in her kindergarten class, placed in the back of a squad car and driven to the station because she reportedly had a temper tantrum. In Detroit, as well as in many urban centers across America, the sight of police, guards, metal detectors, surveillance...
During the Great Depression of the 1930's a Black couple, Orsel and Minnie McGhee, rented a home in a White neighborhood at 4626 Seabaldt street on Detroit's west side. Their move would result in litigation that would be appealed all the way to the United States Supreme Court. During many decades in the nation's history White communities across America established racial covenants in housing deeds. These racial and religious restrictions primarily targeted Blacks and Jews to be excluded from...
There are regular outbursts of violence across Detroit and America as a whole, and this violence is often described as random, purposeless and senseless. It seems that as soon as we are over the shock wave of one incident of bloodshed and mayhem, there is another outbreak to hold us in its torrid, crimson grasp. There are mountains of coverage devoted to excavating and shedding light on every detail of the violent act itself; from the number of bullets fired, or the kinds of stab wounds, or the...
At first glance, If not for the presence of the sign designating the house a historic site, there is little to distinguish it from the rows of dilapidated buildings that surround it. The one and a half story structure is the place where in 1925, Black doctor Ossian Sweet along with his friends and family were set upon by a mob of hundreds of Whites who did not want Blacks living among them. The Whites, crazed with racial fears and hatreds, assaulted the Sweet home with bricks and stones while...
The United States has the shameful distinction of having one of the highest rates of juvenile detention and incarceration in the world. Numerous studies and testimonies reveal that institutions of juvenile imprisonment are no better than adult facilities and, in some ways, they are worse. Assaults and abuses by inmates and staff are rampant, and violence is utilized as the most persuasive currency and most viable solution to problems and challenges in America's places of youth detention....
This year South Africa, as well as many nations around the globe, celebrate the 100th anniversary of the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela, a towering figure of tenacity and dignity who overcame tremendous odds to become the leader of his nation and an inspirational figure that supersedes all boundaries. Born in a small village in the southeastern region of South Africa on July 18, 1918, he would go on to lead a resistance movement against racial apartheid and endure 27 years of brutal...
It was a rainy day in Detroit when I went to meet Kenneth Holloway, better known as the Candle man, at an eastside restaurant. I've known Candle man for about ten years. We met when we were involved in activities protesting the second Detroit-Canada bridge. We traveled to Lansing together and testified before the state legislature. I'd lost contact with him and only recently learned that his only daughter, Ashley Holloway, had been murdered by a man brandishing a hand gun in 2016. I retrieved...
The city of Flint has the highest levels of lead in children in Michigan, according to a 2016 Data Report from Michigan's Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. High levels of lead were also detected in children in the cities of Detroit and Highland Park. Once contaminated a child loses the capacity to absorb iron, a mineral crucial to brain, nerve, and brain development. Lead also interferes with regular brain functions and is linked to problems with hearing, sight, and learning. It can...
Detroit resident Debbie Williams will always remember that day 26 years ago. It shadows her every movement and it burns her with the unfathomable anguish of a mother that has her children inexplicably snatched from her grasp. It began with a call to the Michigan Department of Human Services Child Protective Services with allegations of child abuse. William's eldest son, Joseph (who was 14 at the time) made up stories about how she'd physically abused him. He fabricated these stories because he...
In the wake of high unemployment, unresponsive city services, and an urban fog of crime and vice, Detroit residency requirements need to be reexamined. According to statistics, between 60 to 80 percent of public safety workers live outside of city limits, a situation created when residency requirements which were once in force, were struck down by the Michigan legislature in 1999. "Unofficially, the abolishment of residency requirements was set up for the city of Detroit," said community...
When Coleman Alexander Young campaigned for mayor of Detroit in 1973 and was elected in 1974, there was a strong sense of anticipation, pride and destiny among the city's Black population. Many older Detroiter's referred to young by his first name and told stories of how they grew up together in Detroit's legendary Black Bottom area before it was destroyed by urban renewal and gentrification. One thing for sure, Coleman Young was no ordinary politician. It was not just that he was charismatic;...
According to U.S. Census Bureau Reports, the nation's racial and ethnic minorities will outnumber those of its White population by the year 2042. Implicit in this prediction is that a non-White American majority population is ominous and undesirable and would usher in an era of incompetence and savagery. The fear of a dark or non-White majority has its genesis in two basis beliefs. One is that non-Whites will overwhelm and dominate a country that's been (from its birth) a nation of White...
Violence in Detroit (as in the rest of the nation and the world) has many threads. And we do ourselves a disservice when we are so thunderstruck by the volcanic eruptions of violence that we fail to identify and to confront the myriad fibers that hold it together and provide it with its life blood. Sadly, when the subject of violence is broached it is usually examined and defined within the realm of street or urban conflicts and upheaval, and as if such phenomenon, although terrifying, is to be...
In April of 2005, Black motorist Walter Scott was pulled over by a South Carolina policeman for a broken taillight. As he waited for officer Michael Slater to run a warrant check on him, Scott likely fearing that he had a failure to pay child support warrant out on him, tried to flee. Officer Slater responded by firing multiple rounds into Scott’s back resulting in his death. Going after poor fathers and issuing arrest warrants and imposing jail sentences if they are unable to pay, is a c...
When Maureen Taylor was a child, her parents took the family on a trip across the country where she witnessed abject poverty in many of the areas she passed through. This experience and her confusion that such dismal conditions could exist in a nation that was supposed to be based on the principles of freedom, justice and equality, led her to become a fearless fighter for the rights of the poor, the despised, and the ignored. Taylor has served as chair of the Michigan Welfare Rights...
The Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits the state to inflict cruel and unusual punishment, and the courts from setting excessive bail and fines. This is necessary because the American judicial system is based on the premise that defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court of law. And since poor people are the most vulnerable and the least likely to be able to pay to be released on bail, the Eighth Amendment is a protection from jails being turned...
Nestle food conglomerate is the largest food company in the world, with over 450 manufacturing centers in 80 countries. Headquartered in Switzerland its facilities span six continents. Nestle has also been exposed and criticized, perhaps, more than any other corporation in the world. And its water bottling industry has Michigan environmentalists and concerned citizens outraged and seeking justice for what they perceive as blatant theft of the state's most precious and indispensable resource. Rec...
The environment we live in can contribute to our taking either a negative path or a positive one. Yusef Bunchy Shakur took his experience growing up on the mean streets of Detroit's west side, and in the dungeons of Michigan's prison system, and forged it into a catalyst to become a community activist and a college graduate. Born Joseph Lee Ruffin and raised in the section of Detroit known as "Zone 8" for its 48208-zip code, he rarely had any contact with his father. And his mother burdened...
It is ironic that the two branches of the system that have the power to ensnare the innocent - police agencies and the judicial system - are also some of the most secretive, imperious, and hostile to outside scrutiny. Sadly, they are also unlikely to receive indictment and punishment if they abuse their authority. I got a glimpse into this terrible phenomenon when I interviewed Walter Swift in 2008. Swift was wrongfully convicted in November of 1984 for the rape and robbery of a woman in...
The King Solomon Missionary Baptist Church is in a depressed and desolate area on Detroit's west side. It is fitting that it is so, for the healthy have no need of a physician; it is the infirmed in body and spirit that are in need. Pastor Charles Williams II is the leader of King Solomon Baptist Church, and he is dedicated to meeting those needs. Williams was born in Detroit and raised in Birmingham Alabama, and though he can live just about anywhere he wants, he has chosen Detroit because he...
