Ferndale, an inner-ring suburb popular with Detroit students, is taking bold steps to desegregate its schools.
Urban Affairs
In-depth reporting on Michigan’s largest city and surrounding communities, including deep dives into the big changes afoot in Detroit, its schools, neighborhoods, institutions and city hall.
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Hatch contest leans toward white winners in majority black Detroit
The $50,000 Hatch Detroit competition has helped startups launch creative businesses in the thriving central city. But winning entries for entrepreneurs of color in Detroit’s neighborhoods have proven more elusive.
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The Detroit Historical Museum wants your story from the summer of ‘67
The museum is collecting oral histories from Detroit and suburban residents who lived through the chaos and pain of the disturbances that took place in Detroit that summer as its 50th anniversary nears.
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For Detroit’s new school board, state still wields the power
Detroit’s school board will have power limits unlike other districts across Michigan. Some fear that those restrictions will scare off strong candidate
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Detroit pension funds under pressure to reach ‘Grand Bargain’ goals
Early payments to city retirement funds from the state and the Detroit Institute of Arts were heavily discounted, which means the troubled pensions must produce even bigger returns over two decades.
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DJC Poll: Black and white optimism on Detroit-area race relations
Yet the Detroit Journalism Cooperative survey on racial attitudes also shows that bias infiltrates the daily lives of blacks in the region a way that many whites can’t imagine.
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Metro Detroit racial divide is widest over police
The Detroit Journalism Cooperative survey found significant optimism over racial attitudes in general. But blacks and whites have vastly different experiences — and opinions — concerning law enforcement.
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Real talk about race
We asked leaders around metro Detroit to talk frankly about racial attitudes in their lives and communities. These five answered the bell.
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Monica Lewis-Patrick
Monica Lewis-Patrick, 50, president and CEO of We the People of Detroit, is African American and has lived in Detroit for the past decade. The group advocates for water rights, workers’ rights and housing rights, among other issues, and opposes the state’s controversial emergency manager law. Her family has lived in Detroit since 1952. Her […]
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Adonis Flores
Adonis Flores, 28, is an immigrants rights organizer with Michigan United and a resident of Detroit. He said generations of his relatives found work in America under the Bracero Program, which allowed Mexican workers to come to America to help alleviate the labor shortage that occurred during World War II. Flores was born in Guanajuato, […]