LIVING FOR CHANGE

"Hope That The Present Has Brought Us"

By Grace Lee Boggs

Michigan Citizen, July 29-Aug.4, 2007

I was very moved by the spirit of determination and self-determination rising up during the July 21 Detroit-City of Hope meeting to "Remember 1967" and to ask ourselves "Where Do We Go From Here?"

The meeting convened at the Joseph Walker Williams Community Center in the Virginia Park neighborhood where Detroit erupted in July 1967.

Moderating the discussion was Charles Simmons, a member of the League for Revolutionary Black Workers in the 1960s and now a journalism professor and activist in the west side neighborhood where he was raised.

The stories told by the panelists were so energizing that the multi-generational and multi-ethnic Detroiters who filled the hall burst into applause repeatedly and during the discussion period stood up to share their own stories, After the meeting ended, people lingered to talk with one another, especially about the school crisis and how to educate our children.

The first speaker was 50 year- old Julian Witherspoon, vice-president of the Virginia Park Citizens District Council, who was 10 and living on LaSalle and Linwood near the Shrine of the Black Madonna when the city exploded in 1967. His father, whom I had known in the 60s, had been shot in the 1943 race riot when blacks and whites battled one another but survived to become a community activist.

Mrs. Wiley, 86, then told the story of moving to the Virginia Park neighborhood in the early 1950s after she and other blacks had been removed by Urban Renewal from their downtown east side homes. In their new neighborhood they organized block clubs to demand that the merchants on 12th St. provide better goods and services. To improve their schools they struggled for and won the right to choose principals. In the early 1960s they forced Mayor Cavanagh to appoint Detroit's first Citizens District Council.

Weusi Olusola, 36, of Pioneers for Peace brought us "civilized greetings at an uncivilized time." After having been shot four times, he said, he was lucky to be still here and struggling to bring about change in our communities. Every day in this country we are losing 32 people to violence. Yet a lot of people are "still paralyzed in their minds." We have to "stop waiting for someone else to lead us and start organizing our own resources. We have a long way to go, but we are not powerless."

Ron Scott, a Black Panther in the 60s and now host of "For My People" and spokesperson for the Coalition Against Police Brutality, described the Coalition's new plans for bringing churches and other neighborhood organizations together to create peace/safety zones in our communities. He reminded us of the Black Panthers' community-building activities, e.g. their Breakfast for Children's program, and urged us to build on that legacy. Our children's education, he said, should be based on solving the problems of our communities and preparing them for Work in our communities, not for upward mobility out of our communities.

In my remarks I recalled that one of the roots of the 1967 uprising was the concern of young people that Hi-Tech and the exodus of plants from Detroit was turning them into "outsiders" by making their labor expendable. In the last 40 years untold millions of these "outsiders" have been criminalized and incarcerated because we have not created a new kind of economy that needs their participation.

In order to keep our sons, brothers, husbands, lovers out of prison, I said, we need to create new programs of Restorative Justice in our communities. We also need to get rid of the myth that there is something sacred about large scale production for the national and international market and begin creating small local enterprises that will provide Work for Detroiters, keep money in our communities, and also combat global warming by reducing the need for transporting goods from long distances.

As Weusi said,"We are the leaders we have been waiting for."

The program closed with Will Copeland performing his poem "As I grow older." We've been singing songs of healing since "Swing Low Chariot" Whether it's NAFTA, war on terror, or urban redevelopment I'm the little known Harriet, the voodoo in the voice box So grab a note and carry it, whatever makes your throat rock Coz most rap on radio is blankets filled with smallpox For grannys who don't call cops or call docs, May these small jots that's buried in a beat beneath all hearts Reach your thoughts.

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