DETROIT (WXYZ) — This weekend will mark the 60th commemorative Freedom Walk, honoring the march of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Detroit 6 decades ago.
There are multiple events leading up to the walk, the first starting today.
I headed to Wayne County Community College for the Freedom Summit, a discussion of issues impacting the Black community.
Today in Detroit was a celebration of the impact of Dr. King and his Freedom Walk 60 years ago.
“90 percent of the homeowners that we talked to should’ve been eligible for tax exemption,” says Gilbert Family Foundation Executive Director Laura Granemann.
The NAACP hosted the Freedom Summit, inviting city leaders to talk about the hurdles faced and solutions for the Black community, including housing and how to close the homeownership gap.
“These homeowners are at risk of tax foreclosure for property taxes they shouldn’t have had to pay in the first place. That allowed us to create a program that specifically addresses the back taxes,” Granemann says.
“I am so excited for this event. Obviously, I was not here in 63 for the original march, but I've had the luxury of being raised by my grandparents and hearing about that. And, so, I'm excited to see all of the folks that are going to come back to the city in celebration of that historic walk,” says Freedom Summit panel moderator Kimarie Yowell. “I think the biggest takeaway from the panel was the collective efforts that are taking place within the city between different entities. I think there's a tremendous opportunity for more folks within the city to actually know what the resources are that are available to them.”
Folks like attendee Christina Hall.
“You know, gentrification, it doesn't have to be, you know, just like a, you know, people with money thing and everything like that. But it can be an all-inclusive thing. I really like that because, you know, it's like you go downtown nowadays and you don't really see, you know, so many people that look like they from Detroit or whatever the case is,” says Hall. “And I really like what the other lady said, too, where she says that a lot of people, especially here in Detroit, they associate poor with Black. And that is true. You know, that is definitely true. For whatever reason, you know, we maybe go to the suburbs a little bit and I might think that your poor is like, why? Because I'm from Detroit or because I'm Black.”
The summit also focused on policing.
“We haven’t always gotten it right with policing. In fact, we’ve consistently not gotten it right, so we have to celebrate the good work of police but be completely transparent when we don’t get it right,” says Detroit Police Chief James White.
