Detroit woman showers Detroit infants with love
L.A. Reid
Famed producer-writer tells all See page D-1
See page B-1
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michiganchronicle.com
Volume 79 – Number 28
U.S. Conference of Mayors stands with Flint Mayor Weaver
WHAT’S INSIDE Assisting urban schools (Page A-3) Michigan citizens are surprisingly supportive of using state resources to support Detroit Public Schools. Democrats tend to be more supportive that Republicans — which is not surprising.
Michigan Chronicle Reports
Wayne Health Center (Page B-1) Wayne County Executive Warren C. Evans partners with health care providers to open new Wayne Health Center
Small business equals big clout in Detroit
By Keith A. Owens Senior Editor
C. Grangston Bullard (Page C-1) Black designer reinvents fashion from frames to fur.
Pancakes & Politics straight talk (Page C-6)
The narrative for quite some time when it comes to Detroit is that there are very few jobs to be had, and that the majority of businesses that are truly successful in this city right now are not those owned by African Americans. And when you look at the dominant headlines concerning Detroit’s revitalization, the focus is overwhelmingly on Detroit’s downtown and what’s wonderful in Midtown — neither of which is exactly recognized as the blackest parts of a more than 80 percent black town. The latest restaurants, the hottest nightspots, all seem to be concentrated in one relatively small geographical area. Black folks are being systematically sidelined in a rigged game while the white guys get to play first string on an open field designed by them for them. That’s the more popular narrative, anyway. City Council President Pro Tem George Cushingberry, however, begs to differ. Strongly. It’s not that there aren’t enough successful black businesses in Detroit, but rather that nobody seems to care. “Conservatively in Detroit we have over
U.S. Conference of Mayors CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran and former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin stood in solidarity with Flint Mayor Karen Weaver during a recent press conference at Flint City Hall where she called for federal and state assistance. As part of the Conference’s support, Cochran also released a new bipartisan letter to Congress and the White House from more than 150 mayors around the country urging resources for Flint in the aftermath of the water crisis. As the democratically elected mayor of Flint, Karen Weaver has the full faith and confidence of her colleagues from around the country. On their second visit to Flint, Cochran, Franklin, and a team of experts are providing support to Mayor
10,000 black businesses,” he said, while sitting in the dining room of one of many of his favorite local establishments, The Crab House, a relatively new black-owned restaurant near 7 Mile and Evergreen that opened in 2009. Indeed, a Huffington Post story published nearly two years ago in July of 2014 said much the same thing, focusing on the fact that it is actually black businesses in Detroit that are powering the revitalization, even though you’d never know it by most of the news coverage. “Stories that claim entrepreneurs are building, revitalizing and even saving Detroit focus primarily on white professionals, often younger and new transplants to the city, a trend thats palpable and frustrating for locals. When journalists and readers criticized the Times for leaving blacks out of its Corktown story, the paper’s public editor addressed the lack of diversity in a follow-up, and the writer said she regretted not including a black-owned business. (A more recent Times story takes a wider-ranging view.) “It’s not difficult to find a black business owner to speak with, though. There are more than 32,000 in the city, according to U.S. Census
See SMALL
BUSINESS page A-4
This year’s first Pancakes & Politics forum quickly evolved into a direct and honest assessment of what is precisely the problem with Detroit Public Schools and what can and must be done about it.
Flint Mayor Karen Weaver – Andre Smith photo
Weaver as she implements her plan to recover Flint’s infrastructure, public health, and economy. The Flint water crisis has been a top priority for The U.S. Conference of Mayors since the Conference’s January Winter Meeting in Washington, DC, where newly elected Flint Mayor Karen Weaver spoke about the challenges in her city. Immediately following the USCM Winter Meeting in January, Conference of Mayors President and Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake asked that former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, a national expert on water investmen, and USCM CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran co-led a mission to Flint in early February. The Conference of Mayors also supported Mayor Weaver as she testified before Congress, and Mayor Weaver recently attended USCM’s Winter Leadership Meeting where nearly 45 mayors stood in support of her efforts to solve a serious health crisis that has both shortterm and long-term impacts for Flint residents.
LL Cool J raps again (Page D-1) He is one of the greatest stars of rap, but has since become better known as a highly skilled actor and a polished, genial host of awards shows. Can LL Cool J find renewed acceptance as a rapper? He believes he can and, at age 48, is working on a new album.
March 23-29, 2016
Left to right: Crab House co-owners Eric and Damon English, Chronicle Senior Editor Keith Owens, and V. Lonnie Peek.
The U.S. Conference of Mayors is the official nonpartisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. There are nearly 1400 such cities in the country today, and each city is represented in the Conference by its chief elected official, the mayor.
NORTHERN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT REVOLT TURNS 50
Historic event led to seismic change at DPS By Ken Coleman As resolute as he was 50 springs ago, Charles Colding leans forward from the couch in his Medical Center-area apartment, stares me in the eyes and declares: “We had to get rid of Art Carty. He was a fascist on wheels. He was a nasty person and he had no respect for the students. So that was our first objective, to get rid of him — and we did get rid of him.” His hair is bountiful with gray strands. His eyes are shielded by bifocal lenses. His body has aged and he's somewhat weary. Colding presents a stack of daily newspaper clippings that are as thick as the Holy Bible and recalls with great detail his heroism, a set of events that touched off a student walkout. One that helped to marshal in dramatic academic and administrative change at the 295,000-school district, one of the largest in the nation. “It was pretty bad,” Colding recalled in a
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Charles Colding at the former Northern High School in Detroit.