Race and Justice Reporting Initiative

Our mini-grants support media coverage on racial justice issues in Detroit.

The Detroit Equity Action Lab (DEAL) launched its Race and Justice Reporting Initiative, led by our Race and Justice Journalism Fellow Martina Guzmán, to support independent journalists of color with mini-grants to cover racial justice issues and their impact on Detroit's Black, immigrant, and low-income communities. Areas of focus for this initiative include environmental justice, equitable development, and more to be determined.

This is a unique opportunity for print, radio, and video journalists to receive funding to help cover reporting expenses, mentoring and coaching, and assistance with placement of their work to news media outlets.

The goals of this initiative are to:

Inform the general public on pressing race and justice issues in Detroit by increasing the number of race and justice stories that appear in local, state and national news outlets.
Increase the ability of independent journalists to report on issues of racial equity.
Develop more trust between journalists and communities of color.

Explore our Reporting Initiative cohorts, partnerships, and events/workshops below.

Reporting Initiative Cohorts

Spring 2019 Cohort: Environmental Justice in Detroit

The inaugural cohort of our Race and Justice Reporting Initiative will cover stories on environmental justice in Detroit that demonstrate how industrial pollution, high water and energy costs, large burdens of toxic pollution, and climate change disproportionately impact communities of color or low-income.

Meet our Spring 2019 cohort.

Learn why we chose to focus on environmental justice.

Summer 2019 Cohort: Inequitable Development in Detroit

The second cohort of our Race and Justice Reporting Initiative will cover stories on inequitable development in Detroit that demonstrate the unequal distribution of land and housing and a lack of community benefits, such as employment and skill training, which perpetuate the racial inequality of social and economic benefits of development.

Meet our Summer 2019 cohort.

Learn why we chose to focus on inequitable development.

Fall 2019 Cohort: Arts and Culture in Detroit

The third cohort of our Race and Justice Reporting Initiative will cover stories on arts and culture in Detroit that demonstrate how artists and creators of color are responding to the social injustices faced by their communities.

Meet our Fall 2019 cohort.

Learn why we chose to focus on arts and culture.

Reporting Initiative Partnerships

Supporting Black, Indigenous, and POC (BIPOC) freelance journalists

We are pleased to partner with Detroit media outlets to support independent journalists of color to cover racial justice issues and their impact on Detroit’s Black, immigrant, and low-income communities. We aim to foster connections with journalists of color and deepen our community-centered coverage. With DEAL, media outlets in the program will offer journalists competitive rates, resources, and mentorship.

Coming Soon: Detroit Climate & Environment Reporting Fellow

Through our Race and Justice Reporting Initiative, we're partnering with the Energy News Network and Planet Detroit in search of a Detroit Climate & Environment Reporting Fellow.

The stories and narratives that most impact the lives of under-resourced communities and communities of color are too often not told in traditional media, especially when it comes to the environment.

The Detroit Climate & Environment Reporting Fellow will receive a $3,000 per month stipend for six months to produce stories about the energy and the environment in Detroit. They will receive direct support from editors and mentors within the partner organizations and the larger community, including assistance with framing stories, sourcing, editing, policy, and data expertise. See details.

The application closed Feb. 7.

ANNOUNCING: Detroit Energy & Environment Reporting Fellow

We are excited to introduce our first Energy and Environment Reporting Fellow: Rukiya Colvin, a lifelong resident of east Detroit! Learn more.

We partnered with Planet Detroit and the Energy News Network in a joint imperative to recruit, uplift, and mentor Black, Indigenous, and other journalists of color through our Detroit Energy and Environment Reporting Fellowship program.

The Detroit Energy & Environment Reporting Fellow will receive a $3,000 per month stipend for six months to produce stories, with direct support from editors and mentors within the partner organizations and the larger community. Learn more.

Detroit Metro Times: Stories on metro Detroit’s Arab community

We've partnered with the Detroit Metro Times to seek stories on metro Detroit’s Arab community.

We’re interested in stories that go beyond the surface and disrupt common narratives — and especially interested in human interest stories that help us understand Arab culture. We want stories that take the reader deep into the community and tell us things we don’t know.

Journalists are offered competitive rates, resources, and mentorship. Our hope is to contribute to the cultivation of a strong stable of local journalists of color. Learn more.

Planet Detroit: Stories on environment + health from BIPOC journalists

BIPOC writers were invited to submit pitches for stories that centered around environmental health issues facing Detroit’s communities of color. Learn more.

Detour Detroit: Mental health stories from BIPOC journalists

BIPOC writers were invited to submit pitches for stories that shine a spotlight on mental health issues in Detroit’s marginalized communities. Learn more.

Supporting High School Journalism in Detroit

We are also thrilled to be supporting Detroit high school students, through our Race and Justice Reporting Initiative.

We are supporting the Detroit Writing Room's journalism camp and Coaching Detroit Forward's photography camp this summer (2021).

Learn more:

Detroit Writing Room 2021 Summer Journalism Camp

Coaching Detroit Forward Photography Camp

Mishigamiing Journalism Project: Improving Indigenous news representation

Our partnership with the Mishigamiing Journalism Project is focused on improving Indigenous news representation in Michigan. This partnership supports the work of Indigenous reporters, makes coverage of Indigenous issues and tribal affairs in Michigan more thorough, just, and meaningful, and empowers Indigenous people to report in their own communities and beyond.

Through our partnership, you will see the work of these four Indigenous women — Sierra Clark, Suzy Cook, Meghanlata Gupta, and Katy Bresette — published on Planet Detroit and Detour Detroit, bringing their stories to Detroit and Southeast Michigan readers.

Read the latest stories from our partnerships ⬇

‘My beloved community’: How Arabs are creating space in Detroit’s art sceneNour Ballout wants everyone to feel at home. Their unassuming duplex stands down the street from the Motown Museum, a row of houses that Black...

Is Detroit's Community Benefits Ordinance living up to its promise? - DETOURCritics say the Detroit Community Benefits Ordinance isn't living up to its promise to give residents a voice in neighborhood development.

In Islandview, older residents living in crumbling homes look for lifeboats - DETOURAs the east side Detroit neighborhood changes, longtime residents deliver food to their neighbors, raise money for roof repairs, organize a protest over substandard housing and want the city to know: “We’re still here.”

'Held hostage by pollution': Residents of Southwest Detroit hold out hope for truck route ordinance before councilwoman leaves office | Planet Detroit

Detroit's Community Benefits Ordinance promised residents a voice in redevelopment projects. Many say their concerns remain unheard. | Planet Detroit

Getting the lead out of Detroit’s soil | Planet DetroitReading Time: 7 minutes Lead is pervasive in soils across Detroit. These groups are working on helping Detroiters who want to farm and garden find ways to do so safely.

Egyptian illustrator Deena Mohamed discusses graphic novels, translation, and pressure to represent Arab community at Dearborn’s Green Brain ComicsFor many writers and artists from marginalized groups, the pressure to always represent their community is exhausting. The categorization of their work as “African American...

The lost houses of Clarkdale Street | DETOURDalia Reyes watched the home on Clarkdale Street in Detroit slip out of her family’s grasp and into foreclosure.

How women in Detroit’s Bangladeshi communities cope with mental health stigma -- and fight it | DETOURFor members of Detroit’s Bangladeshi and Bengali communities, even talking about mental health can be a challenge.

These Detroit spaces offer mental health services that center Black women’s healing | DETOURThe SASHA Center and BLOOM Transformation Center are two spaces in Detroit that center Black women's healing and mental health.

Meet the food activist, chef, and urban farmer helping to keep Indigenous food practices alive in DetroitI first meet Kirsten Kirby Shoote on the shores of Lake Michigan on a warm, sunny day. Her hands are closed around something, silhouetted against...

Tribal communities in Michigan struggle to get justice for missing and murdered Indigenous people | DETOURNangonhs-Ba Massey's death is part of an ongoing epidemic of violence against Indigenous women.

OPINION: Give thanks, but don't celebrate myths this Thanksgiving | Planet DetroitReading Time: 3 minutes America wasn’t handed over gently by Indigenous peoples for European colonizers to create a great nation dedicated to Christianity and the pursuit of freedom (for them). Indigenous people never conceded to colonialism, that notion needs to be left behind.

Indigenizing the News: Coming home through traditional foods | Planet DetroitReading Time: 8 minutes This is the first in a two-part series on the foodways of Indigenous Michiganders in partnership with Indigenizing the News, the Traverse City Record Eagle, and the Mishigamiing Journalism Project, a grant-funded effort that provides journalism fellowships to emerging Indigenous journalists. This reprint is made possible with generous support from the Detroit Equity Action Lab. ...

Profiles in the fight for environmental justice: Dr. Tony Reames | Planet DetroitReading Time: 4 minutes Reames focuses much of his scholarship and research on the field of energy justice. As the nation explores long-denied justice for people of color, he sees the potential for new opportunities. Dr. Tony Reames said his passion for the environment and how it impacts marginalized people was formed in his youth. “I always say I ...

Profiles in the fight for environmental justice: Shimekia Nichols | Planet DetroitReading Time: 11 minutes Detroit resident Shimekia Nichols has learned that critical questions are the first steps toward attaining democracy in a sector long dominated by convention. Most of us pay our electricity bill without much question. We do so without inquiring what exactly we’re paying for; without asking to be apprised of frequent rate hikes; without demanding a ...

Detroit Black Farmers Land Fund selects 30 farmers for cash grants to buy land | Planet DetroitReading Time: 3 minutes Brenda Sharpe of Detroit has had a personal garden for years, but for the last two she has grown a community garden on lots adjacent to her westside home with hopes of expanding into an urban farm. Red tape with the city has delayed her from moving forward with that aspiration, but thanks to the Detroit Black Farmer Land Fund, she will be able to get the help she needs.

Profiles in the fight for environmental justice: Jeremy Orr | Planet DetroitReading Time: 5 minutes Jeremy Orr was working on a paper mill cleanup project as a community activist and organizer when he realized two things: that a person’s environment dictates their physical wellbeing and health, and that a lack of representation in decisions on the environment affecting Black and brown people was pervasive. When Jeremy Orr was in college, ...

Reporting Initiative Events & Workshops

"Meet the Editors" Event

Black & POC journalists get connected to local media editors

After months of working directly with journalists from Detroit Equity Action Lab's Race and Justice Reporting Initiative and meeting with freelance journalists from across Southeast Michigan, one issue stood out: Black journalists and journalists of color feel disconnected from the local media ecosystem.

Our Race and Justice Reporting Initiative hosted a "Meet the Editors" event in December at the Room Project in Detroit. For this event, Race and Justice Journalism Fellow Martina Guzmán invited editors from nine media outlets to meet with journalists of color at various stages of their career.

A room of 29 journalists had a chance to hear from editors (Detroit Free Press, The Detroit News, Tostada, Bridge Magazine, Curbed Detroit, Metro Times, Hour Detroit magazine, Planet Detroit, and Yes! Magazine) about what kinds of stories they are interested in, current pay scales for stories, freelance work opportunities and how to pitch stories to editors. This broke barriers for journalists who feel challenged reaching out to or developing relationships with editors.

Virtual Webinar

Photojournalism cell phone training for BIPOC freelancers

Freelancers have become a crucial part of the news ecosystem, as thousands of newspapers have closed and many others operate with exceedingly smaller staffs. Embedded in their communities, freelance journalists are finding important and compelling stories to tell, all while building trust between communities and legacy media. Yet when it comes to editorial support and photography to accompany their stories, freelancers are on their own.

The Detroit Equity Action Lab's (DEAL) Race and Justice Reporting Initiative is designed to support Black and POC freelance journalists in developing skills they need to continue their important work. Our first training webinar, held April 2020, taught participants all about cell phone reporting and taking photos with visual impact.

Training participant Nargis Rahman used the tips from our webinar course to shoot images (see above) with her cell phone. Her photos were published with her personal essay on Ramadan for Yes! Magazine.

We examined the cell phone camera as a tool in communicating experiences, emphasizing how to find and take photographs that convey information. Participants learned basic principles of what constitutes an "important" image in terms of journalistic value through composition and quality.

Support for our Race and Justice Reporting Initiative is made possible by the Detroit Equity Action Lab (DEAL), an initiative of the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights at Wayne State University Law School; John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; Ford Foundation; and Community Foundation For Southeast Michigan.