“It’s easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”
Frederick Douglass, a social reformer, orator and writer said those words decades ago, words which still ring true today.
Detroit has as much invested in social justice as any other southern city in America.
From the Underground Railroad to the 1967 riots, Detroit’s history is rich in stories about the struggle for social justice. In recent years, Millennials, Gen Z’ers (born in the mid-to-late 1990s), in addition to organizations have emerged to carry on the legacy of racial justice and healing in the city and beyond. Looking back, we can see how far the movement has progressed and how far it still has to go.
Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland and Michael Brown are among too many names that have sparked national outrage in African-American communities. Because of high-profile cases, Americans got a front-row seat to the complexities of race, police relations and overaggressive violent groups. Nearly three years ago, the death of George Floyd sparked a movement among African Americans in the city and across the country to speak out and help put an end to murder by police officers. However, the fight for reform began long before Floyd and continues to this day.
Protests in the city lasted five days in 2020 as a result of Floyd’s murder. The streets of Detroit were flooded with organizations and individuals speaking out against police brutality in America, but particularly within Detroit city limits, allowing hundreds of young people to make their voices heard. Detroit, no stranger to conflict, was once again on the front lines of the fight for social justice.
From the first days of Black bodies arriving in America to the present, changes in laws governing Africans and their descendants have had a ripple effect on laws governing the nation. True reform requires more than a legal push; it must be implemented through practice and legislation.
“I think that we are certainly not where we should be when we look at from whence we came, and that’s going on 403 years since the first enslaved African touched the shores of America,” said Edith Lee-Payne, an advocate and activist for social and racial and other related matters for decades. “The Civil Rights Movement, of course, was a very pivotal time that helped us get the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act, but it’s more than just passing legislation. It has to be enforced; it has to be applied.”
In comparison to iconic leaders and movements of the past, black leadership is at an impasse. Organizing the new era of the movement appears bleak in the absence of direction and a selfless individual.
The theme for this year’s 2023 Black History Month is, “Black Resistance in The Past, Present and Future.”
The Association for the Study of African American Life and History reports that Black resistance has “taken many forms throughout history.”
“During these uncertain times in which the very nature of the ways in which Black history can be legally taught are in peril, the festival provides an opportunity to explore various aspects of Black life and history,” the organization noted.
“As the late Congressman John Lewis advised, ‘Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.’”
Is the passion still there today to get into “good trouble?” Does the cry for justice still ring out? Some say yes, but it is not as obvious.
Khalil-Lullah Whittaker Ballentine, 17, told the Michigan Chronicle that from his perspective, young people like himself are in the fight still, it is just not as easy to mobilize – but the passion and interest is still there.
He adds that it’s important for young people who might feel disillusioned and disheartened by the continued news of post-Floyd murders of Black people to remember where they came from and connect with their roots to know where they are going.
“My mother intentionally raised me in African-centered environments, whether that was attending a ceremony held by the African Diaspora Ancestor Commemoration Institute, visiting the Charles Wright Museum for the African World Festival, or through being around Nsoroma Institute and D-Town Farm,” he said. “It’s through these experiences that I have become the person I am and look to become.”
Megan Kirk contributed to this report.
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