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Volume 76 – Number 50
WHAT’S INSIDE New specialized surgery program (Page A-2) For metro Detroiters suffering from disfigurements due to head and neck cancers, facial trauma or tissue effects, a new specialized surgery program is now available from St. John.
Hatch Detroit finalists announced (Page B-1) The Comerica Hatch Detroit contest calls on Detroit’s best and brightest entrepreneurs for their take on what the city’s next best retail destination should be.
Echoes of 1960s activism (Page B-4) A new era of civil rights activism is very much evident, and much of it is based on the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s which is used as a foundation. Now, as then, courage is required, as is a willingness to risk personal loss.
A return to former glory (Page C-1) The Avenue of Fashion, located on Livernois on the city’s west side, is in the process of receiving a major makeover, thanks to the REVOLVE Detroit’s Art + Fashion on the Ave program. The impact is already being felt according to participants, visitors and those who live in the area.
‘I Am My Father’s Son’
FULL APOLOGY interview with Detroit EM Kevyn Orr KEVYN ORR, Detroit emergency manager, speaks out in the wake of controversial comments about Detroit in the Wall Street Journal that has drawn condemnation from many sectors, especially among prominent civic leaders. — Andre Smith photos When Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr told the Wall Street Journal that Detroit once was “dumb, lazy and rich,” all hell broke loose in Detroit, the city that put the world on wheels, where movements for social change Bankole began and where Thompson Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. first gave his immortal “I Have a Dream” speech. Orr’s interview with one of the world’s most influential publications was greeted with condemnation far and wide, from Detroit civic leaders to personalities in the media, as well as residents and workers. To render a full unabated atonement and to explain himself, Orr reached out to Bankole
my father’s son” as he sought to explain in detail about the remarks that in the eyes of his critics could define his tenure in Detroit. Excerpts. MICHIGAN CHRONICLE: Why all of a sudden the epiphany of apology?
DETROIT EMERGENCY MANAGER KEVYN ORR (right) and Bankole Thompson editor of the Michigan Chronicle, coversing after a probing and revelatory interview in Thompson’s office about comments in the Wall Street Journal that referred to Detroit as “dumb, lazy and rich.” Thompson, editor of the Michigan Chronicle, on his cell, the result of which led to a visit by Orr in what turned out to be a
The queen of ‘adult R&B’ (Page D-1) Millie Jackson has been a mainstay on the R&B music scene since the early 1970s. She is an R&B singer in the purest since — gritty, raw and full of fire. She is also famous for being raunchy, and her legion of fans love it.
penetrating, thought-provoking interview that made his positions clear with the emergency manager noting that, “I am
KEVYN ORR: Well, I talked to a lot of people. I took time in doing my due diligence in figuring out with friends and some of the city’s fathers and mothers, a group of ministers — my elders if you will — and they made it clear that my words were hurtful in a way that they were not intended to be or that I had realized would be. And that an apology was appropriate if for no other reason than to atone and help the healing process, but also to let people know who I really am. That’s not how I was raised.
See KEVYN
ORR page A-4
King’s Impact: 50 Years Later
Unemployment rate rises (Page C-3) Michigan’s seasonally adjusted unemployment in July edged upward by one-tenth of a percentage point to 8.8 percent, according to Michgan Department of Technology, Management & Budget.
August 21-27, 2013
A Black president, more elected officials, still more work to be done
By Bankole Thompson CHRONICLE SENIOR EDITOR
It was five decades ago on Aug. 28 that the premier civil rights conscience of America stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to ask America to make good on its promise of equality for African Americans.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Little did Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. know that 50 years after his historic dream speech about the need for content of character to supersede skin color, that there would be an African American president.
DOROTHY HEIGHT, head of the National Council of Negro Women for four decades, was on the platform when King gave the “I Have a Dream” speech after convincing the leadership to allow the young preacher from Atlanta to be the last speaker.
CLARENCE DAVIS, the distinguished and nationally renowned Black historian, is the head of the Washington, DC Office of Public Records who has argued that there are more battles to fight.
LIVING
WELL
And thus on Aug. 28, 2013, President Barack Obama will speak at the commemoration of the “Let Freedom Ring” rally at the Lincoln Memorial to honor King’s call for justice and equality. Former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter will also join the nation’s first Black president in what will be a somber reflection of how far America has come under the CONGRESSMAN JOHN LEWIS, civil dream of the drum major for jus- rights icon, getting ready to speak tice. at the 1963 March on Washington.
See MARCH page A-3
— Library of Congress photo
LivingWELL
Look inside this week’s Magazine insert and discover what people are talking about. Man Up!
Why Black men need to step up prevention efforts now Man Up!
Why Black men need to step
up prevention efforts now
Growing a Green Generation of Kids Going Back... our girls’ sake to learn from their elders – for What Black boys could stand
? Sick or Slick child is too sick for school How to tell if your
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Growing a Green Generation of Kids Going Back...
What Black boys could stand to learn from their elders – for our girls’ sake
Sick or Slick?
How to tell if your child is too sick for school