“I have only just a minute. Only sixty seconds in it. Forced upon me, can’t refuse it. Didn’t seek it, didn’t choose it. But it’s up to me to use it. I must suffer if I lose it. Give account if I abuse it. Just a tiny little minute, but eternity is in it.”
Governor Wes Moore recited those words from Dr. Benjamin E. Mays as he stood before the crowd at Detroit’s 70th Annual Fight For Freedom Fund Dinner. His voice carried the urgency of a leader who knows change doesn’t happen by hoping or waiting. Moore called on every person in that room to use their minute, to act now, to do the work needed to bend policy, culture, and power toward justice.
Held June 29 at Huntington Place, the dinner gathered Detroit’s elders, young leaders, and freedom fighters under one roof to honor the past, confront the present, and chart a path forward. Rev. Dr. Wendell Anthony didn’t waste time naming the stakes. “This is a most critical time in our nation’s history,” he said. “We all stand at the crossroads of whether we will go forward as Americans together or fall victims to anarchy and demagoguery at the highest levels individually.”
Moore, Maryland’s first Black governor and only the third in U.S. history, brought data and truth to the podium. He reminded Detroit why policy is where the fight lives. Maryland now has the lowest unemployment rate in the country. His administration invested $1.3 billion in Maryland’s HBCUs. He granted 175,000 clemencies for cannabis convictions, delivered $80 million in state contracts to Black-owned businesses, and launched ‘Just Communities’ on Juneteenth from the birthplace of Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass. That initiative moves $400 million into 419 communities harmed by systemic neglect and bad policy.
“I come from a family that’s not used to writing the laws but one that is used to the consequences of them,” Moore said. He connected Detroit’s history—urban renewal that bulldozed Black neighborhoods, redlining that drained generational wealth, the scars left by the construction of I-375—to a larger national legacy of inequality born from deliberate policy choices. “Inequality is a policy choice. Just as bad policies have gotten us into this, better policies must lead us out. The work of repairing must address bad systems,” Moore told the crowd.
Moore said racism is not just an act committed by individuals—it is a system. “Wisdom is knowing when patience is a virtue and when patience is a detriment,” he said. He told the room this is not a season for waiting. “This is not the season of no and slow, this is the season of yes and now,” he said.
He spoke of the fight for representation, the power of collective will. During his first run, Moore polled at only 1%. More people said they wouldn’t vote at all than pledged support for him. Yet he rose, earning more votes than any gubernatorial candidate in Maryland history. “These moments are fleeting but the impact is everlasting,” he said.
That call echoed through a night full of Detroit’s best. Roland Martin accepted the William Monroe Trotter Freedom and Justice Award, promising the crowd, “We gone fight til hell freezes off and when it does we’re gonna fight on the ice.”
Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright Jr. received the James Weldon Johnson Lifetime Achievement Award. Despite two strokes, Wright came down from Chicago to join the night. His decades of ministry and commitment to Black liberation remained steady, a moral compass for those still fighting.
Alice G. Thompson received the Ida B. Wells Freedom and Justice Award for decades of work supporting Detroit’s children and families through BFDI Educational Services, Inc. Courtney Smith, founder of the Detroit Phoenix Center, and Yousef Almadrahi of Specialty Medical Center Inc. were honored with the Great Expectations Award for their work supporting youth facing homelessness, trauma, and health disparities.
Rev. Anthony underscored the meaning of the night. “Our Keynote Speaker and Awardees are befitting of being a part of the lineup for our 70th Annual Fight For Freedom Fund Dinner,” he said. “Everyone must get in this battle to preserve freedoms that we have fought for over 200 years to maintain. This is why we want to remind everyone according to our theme, ‘The Power Is Within The People.’”
That theme rang through every detail. Attendees turning 70 in 2025 were recognized, a nod to those who held the line in Detroit’s long fight for justice. Youth artists ages 14 to 25 were invited to submit legacy table sign designs. Young dancers were invited to perform. The Detroit Branch made clear the struggle belongs to every generation and that culture—art, music, movement—remains a foundation of organizing.
Moore pointed out Detroit’s history of urban redlining, urban renewal, and community displacement, linking it to policy choices that demand reversal. “We cannot understand the history of Detroit without urban redlining. Without understanding the creation of I-375 and the communities that it destroys,” Moore said.
The dinner offered no illusions of easy victory. Every speaker, every honoree named the truth: delay is where the devil lives. Power doesn’t shift on its own. Detroit’s legacy as a home of freedom fighters isn’t just about history—it is about what comes next.
Moore closed with scripture. “Behold I am doing a new thing. Now it springs forth do you not receive it. I will make a way in the wilderness and the desert,” he said.
The 70th Annual Fight For Freedom Fund Dinner wasn’t a celebration for its own sake. It was a gathering of witnesses and builders, voices and hands ready to craft a different future. Moore’s charge left no room for complacency. “We don’t know how long we got so while we sit in these seats do something with it. Delay is where the devil lives,” he said.
Detroit took those words and held them close. From the elders to the youth performers, from the sponsors who understand economic equity as a political act to the artists sketching legacy into every corner of the night, this city showed it knows exactly how to use every minute. That is the legacy of the NAACP, the power of the Black press, and the pulse that drives Detroit forward.
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