Electoral Case Studies - Riverwise Magazine

The Lost Four Million of Southeastern High School

Building Black futures by knowing what keeps us safe

One Detroiter Looks Back

Detroit's Right to Counsel Victory Shows the Power of the People

The Lost Four Million of Southeastern High School

By: Nashae Johnson, Johnathan Cook, Bennington Aho, Dominic Harris, Shamiah Woods, Xylon Holmes, Isaiah Bell, Javeon Jenkins, and Kayla Jemison

In 2019 Fiat Chrysler Automobiles or FCA – now part of Stellantis– was approved to expand its plant on Detroit’s eastside. The expansion involved enough funds and land to trigger the Community Benefits Ordinance in Detroit and the process of creating a Neighborhood Advisory Council. Although the plant is now directly adjacent to Southeastern High School – during the CBO process there were conversations with the school administration, but there was never an effort to reach out to Southeastern High School students…. read more

Building Black futures by knowing what keeps us safe

Rae Baker, Pete Blackmer, Alex Lu, Rebecca Smith

Since Project Green Light was piloted in Detroit in 2016, continued acts of police violence across the nation have fueled the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement and calls to defund the police. Though urgency and attention toward challenging police surveillance in Detroit has waxed and waned, Detroiters have continuously organized against the expansion of surveillance in the city.

Younger generations of Detroiters have built upon the legacies of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements to demand an end to police violence by investing time and energy into their neighborhoods and communities, and developing alternative forms of public safety. Like their activist elders, Detroiters have adopted a range of approaches to organizing for community safety, including policy advocacy, direct action protest, mutual aid efforts, and community-based alternatives to policing and conflict resolution….. read more

One Detroiter Looks Back: The Long Struggle for Cleaner Air

by kim d. hunter

Work to shut down the Detroit trash incinerator- at one point, the largest in the world- began even before the monstrosity was built. Three decades, and at least three campaigns later, Detroiters managed to end the fiasco of burning garbage and breathing toxins in exchange for profit from dirty energy. Many things changed over that 30-year period- elected leaders, appointed decision makers, the money – made by burning garbage and, most importantly (in my view), who got involved, how many got involved and the strategies they used to sway elected officials, appointed decision makers and corporate actors.

Clearly, an effort that takes more than a generation to reach its goal involves many people and multiple phases. There’s likely no way to figure out how many people were involved, and I am bound to miss naming some key players, but it’s fair to say there were basically three different phases. …read more

Detroit's Right to Counsel Victory Shows the Power of the People

by Tonya Meyers Phillips for The Detroit Right To Council Coalition

Political power. The Right to Counsel Movement is an inspiring and continuing story of how the Detroit Right to Counsel Coalition and ordinary Detroiters activated our collective power and won one of the most significant rights in Detroit’s history, a right to legal counsel for low-income Detroiters facing eviction.

The first Declaration of Rights in our Michigan Constitution states, “All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for their equal benefit, security and protection”. The Detroit Right to Counsel Ordinance is a win for all who believe in democracy and people-centered policies. It is a win for all who believe housing is a human right. It is an inspiration for transparent, inclusive, and systemic problem-solving. Our movement acknowledges the root of Detroit’s eviction crisis as a by-product of racialized and inequitable systems. Thus, we advocated for the Right to Counsel as a systemic solution- a change in the law….read more