Those who know me well enough know that I don’t wait for February to celebrate my blackness, but in honor of Black History Month, I thought it only right to make mention of just a few African Americans who have helped shaped the city of Detroit. Lately much has been made of the many implants, and programs, like Challenge Detroit and others, filled with people who have come here to “save the city”, and who are making significant changes within the D, which is great. I’m glad that people not originally from here are beginning to take an interest in what’s going on, and trying to revitalize Detroit, I just wish those people would recognize the fact that there have been residents working to improve the city and the quality of life for its citizens long before anyone outside of Detroit even cared, or thought that it was trendy to do so, and were not just standing idly by waiting to be saved.
1. Coleman A. Young
Courtesy of NNDB.com
If I didn’t know any better, by listening to mainstream media and suburbanites I may believe that the downfall of Detroit began in 1973 with the election of the city’s first black mayor, but those who have been here for any length of time know that is actually not the case. This New York Times article, written on the occasion of Young’s death, gives a little history of the climate of the city when Young took office, and tells of both the challenges and victories experienced by the man who Detroit residents called mayor for a record breaking 20 years.
2. Erma Henderson
Erma Henderson was Detroit’s first black city councilwoman, and is considered by some to be “the most powerful black woman in the city’s history”. She served on the council for 16 years, and was president for 12. Henderson was a civil rights advocate, and in 1975 she organized the Michigan Statewide Coalition Against Redlining, which facilitated legislation being passed to prevent discriminatory lending and insurance practices. Upon her passing, Former Detroit mayor Dave Bing was quoted as saying, “Throughout her life she was an advocate for African Americans, and all Detroiters, as she fought for equality in the criminal justice system, challenged the practice of redlining, and worked to break down the walls erected by segregation.”
3. Judge Damon Keith
A living legend, and Detroit native, Senior Judge Damon Keith has served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth District since 1977. He is an alum of Howard University Law School (J.D. 1949) (Go Bison!) and went on to receive an advanced law degree (LL.M.) from Wayne State University Law School in 1956. Keith is known as, “a courageous defender of the constitutional and civil rights of all people” and is most famously cited for his decisions against President Nixon engaging in warrantless wiretaps, and more recently against the Bush administration’s practice of conducting secret deportation meetings in the name of combating terrorism. In 2011, the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights was founded at Wayne State University Law School “to promote research and community outreach related to civil rights and racial justice”.