ALA 470 Project: Amplifying Awareness and Inspiring Action in Detroit

This article fulfilled a requirement for ALA 470: Organizing for Global Social Justice. In ALA 470, second- and third-year members of GSP learn about transformative community organizing and complete a Community Organizing Group Project.

Our group of organizers is composed of Global Scholars at the University of Michigan. The background of this event stemmed from our dedication to addressing systemic inequalities, particularly those affecting marginalized communities. We bring our unique perspectives as GSP students, particularly our education in dialogue facilitation and global social justice. We used this background to design an engaging learning opportunity for the greater GSP community that would either expose them to new ideas and communities or bring a sense of connection to students who already belong to said communities. Together, we focused on amplifying awareness and inspiring action through education and community engagement.

To deepen our understanding of these issues and foster global social change, we visited the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and the Detroit People’s Food Co-op. 

Visiting the museum aligned with our goal of providing GSP members a meaningful learning experience about African-American struggles and triumphs in Detroit, outside of the traditional University of Michigan setting that teaches about history and culture. The mission statement of the museum is “The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History opens minds and changes lives through the exploration and celebration of African American history and culture.” For example, one of the exhibitions, “And Still We Rise,” demonstrated the resilience of African Americans, as well as the tragedy of the transatlantic slave trade and its consequences.

Then, we visited the Detroit People’s Food Co-op. The mission and purpose of the co-op is “to provide improved access to healthy food and food education to Detroit residents. Meeting the needs of the community is achieved through the democratic control of the co-op by its members/owners.” As a locally-owned food cooperative, the business seeks to provide food to the community at a lower cost while sourcing goods from the local area. In addition to the learning provided by the museum, the co-op’s focus on food accessibility offered an “on the ground” example of community-driven solutions to inequalities like food deserts. Both visits informed our project’s commitment to equity and justice.

The key takeaways from our experience are emphasized by the Charles H. Wright Museum and the Detroit People’s Food Co-op’s main purposes. There is a significant history of oppression towards African Americans and one of the best ways to help out a local community is making sure that everyone’s basic needs are met. The Charles H. Wright Museum showed us the timeline of slavery to other forms of oppression, as well as the people who fought against these over the course of several centuries. The Detroit People’s Food Co-op emphasizes that one of the essential components to ensuring a local community’s prosperity is creating a stable source of fresh produce and other foods at an affordable price.

Our hope going forward is that more awareness can be spread about both the history of oppression of African Americans as well as the necessity of creating a sustainable environment for people to live in today. If we ignore these, communities will continue to suffer oppressive systems potentially that deny them their basic human rights.

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