- Coming up.

We've got another great edition of American Black Journal for you.

We're gonna take a look at the events that are planned for our newest federal holiday, Juneteenth.

Plus a group of Black leaders in Michigan develop a list of recommendations, to close racial equity gaps in the state.

And we're gonna hear from the author of a new novel about being Black and gay in Detroit, don't go away.

American Black Journal starts now.

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(upbeat music) - Welcome to American Black Journal.

I'm Steven Henderson.

The date that marks the official end of slavery in the United States is now a federal holiday.

And there are events planned all across America to celebrate and educate people about the history of Juneteenth.

Here in Detroit and Charles H. Wright Museum of African American history has a weekend of activity scheduled.

Plus the museum will participate in a virtual program with several other national Black museums.

Here's my conversation with the Wright's President, Neil Barclay.

So Juneteenth is a federal holiday.

I think it's a really important milestone.

There are some people who are concerned.

I think that it kind of waters down our own kind of internal cultural celebration of it.

I imagine that for you kinda drilling down on that.

Preserving it as this internal celebration, of this really important date, is kind of the focus of what you're doing at the museum.

- Yeah, I think that's right.

I think it's critically important for us to understand how certain occasions points in history are particularly significant to African-Americans and to the African-American community.

And to lift those kinda up.

Despite what other folks may think about it's perceived relevance or what have you.

But certainly for our community, it's an important day.

And having been made at a federal holiday last year perhaps an even more important one, for us to make sure that folks know why that is.

You know, what the significance of it is.

- Yeah.

So what will people experience at the museum?

- So, you know, we for the last several years have been trying to get this point out to our colleagues in the museum field particularly African American museum field.

And we started out with just a few of us wanting to do something together to celebrate this now holiday.

And so we gathered together and we put together a kind of video presentation.

Where each of our cities contribute something about how Juneteenth was particularly resident in our communities, right?

And so over the years, this is a third year.

We're now up to nine this year, of other museums who are doing this and on I guess it is on Juneteenth at one o'clock this will air on our website and also on DP TV's website this sort of hour long presentation.

This is a montage of five or so minutes from each of the cities talking about Juneteenth and what it might, what it means to them.

- Yeah.

And so what does that mean for us here in Detroit?

What's what's the - Well, here in Detroit, we'll see, you know we'll show that video, people will have it that we'll have access to it at one o'clock on the 19th.

As well as at three o'clock here in the museum and online.

So people who are in the museum will be able to see that in our theater but our celebration is actually starting the day before.

So we are doing a underground railroad treasure hunt.

Actually in Greek town that will happen on the 18th from 10 to four.

Different sites of historical significance particularly as it relates to freedom of theme of this particular holiday will be highlighted, in this treasure hunt where folks will be able to discover certain places in the city that are particularly important to African Americans.

It's sponsored with, in it conducted with the Michigan Underground Railroad Exploratory Collective which is one of our affiliates.

We then on the 19th, we have a member of our community partners that same day.

In the museum will be really focusing on things like the partners included Trade Chapter, for example.

The League of Women Voters or The Craft Insurance Company which ensures a lot of our homes and other properties here.

Museums store features unique and classical imagery, et cetera.

And then we're gonna do a concert called Spirit Soar, which basically translates all of this to music.

- Yeah.

- Where we'll have a musical presentation of different kinds of music where freedom and the same as is the subject.

- I kind of feel like we still have a lot of education to do - We do.

- of African American people and the rest of the population about what this commemorates and why it matters.

I think there's still a lot of confusion about that.

- Sure, you know, it is the occasion, I guess it's the story.

It marks a day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, right?

1865 to take control of the state, ensure that all enslaved people were freed.

However, this was months after the emancipation proclamation had happened.

So these soldiers were just really finding out about this months later.

And you know, in our internet world or social media world, where you could find out about anything instantaneously, that idea of people having been free for some time according to the law, but not actually knowing about it.

Something that may not seem as what significant, important or a big deal to us living today.

But back then, it was huge, that they would find out about this and really an occasion for celebration, right?

But it had gotten to them and gotten to their communities, right?

- And it's a reminder of, I think not taking for granted the idea of freedom even when it seems you've won, or it seems- - Right.

- You've reached that point.

There's always more work to do.

- There absolutely is, and I think our present moment is really highlighting that, isn't it?

You know, the things that are happening in our country now really demonstrate how much freedom is something that we must fight for, you know, to preserve every day, right?

And otherwise they are taken away as we were seeing in the political process and climate that we find ourselves in.

- Yeah.

What are the other museums that are participating in this national?

- Well, I know you were gonna ask me that, and I don't have the list in front of me, unfortunately.

- OK. - But I do know that the DuSable in Chicago, the museum in Seattle.

My former home, the August Wilson Center in Pittsburgh.

The National Civil Rights Museum are among them.

I don't have the complete list though.

- Yeah, yeah.

And that's a, I mean, that's significant too.

This idea of kind of linking arms on this first year of the federal holiday to say these are the places that will lead the celebration, but also wanna shape the narrative about how this is important.

- I think it's important too in each of those cities, you know their public television stations will also be airing this sort of hour long presentation.

So that we reach, you know really literally thousands of people around the country.

And it's a way, I think that African American museums are increasingly starting to think about themselves as vehicles beyond our walls.

Where we can make a difference, make an influence, on topics that we really care about.

So.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Initiative, I think - Yeah, we've only got about 30 seconds left, but I wanna talk about the state of the museum after the pandemic.

I know this has been a rough, rough ride, (Neil coughs) - but it seems like we're in, you know, we're in good shape.

You guys - It's going really well.

We're starting to attract some really world class talent which is great.

You know, this museum is not an easy animal to wrestle to the crowd as it where, to work with.

That has been exciting.

We've been doing very well in terms of fundraising, having been named one of Ford's Foundations, America's Cultural Treasures, an initial 20 group has really brought a lot of attention to the museum.

And, you know, some other large gifts that we received over the past few months has made it possible for us to really think now about really returning the Wright museum to the iconic status that it had in the field, right?

And that's been really great to be able to do and also very challenging in the sense of what other possibilities there are.

There are many possibilities for us.

And so we're really excited about trying to figure it out what will be the lasting legacy of this great institution.

- Yeah.

Okay, Neil Barkley, always great to have you here and we'll see you on Juneteenth.

- Yep, great to be here.

Thanks so much.

- And you can watch the national presentation of we the people on June 19th at one pm at pbsbooks.org and on Facebook live.

We turn now to Michigan's black readership advisory council.

That group was convened in 2020 by Governor Whitmer following the murder of George Floyd.

The group just released 11 policy recommendations to make Michigan a stronger and more inclusive state.

I spoke with one of the members, Kim Trent about the group's findings and the proposals for the governor.

In 2020 when the governor announced this group, I can remember people being pretty excited, and really interested in what would happen.

Of course, two years later, I think a lot of people have just kind of forgotten that this happened and that you all have been working for two years on all of this.

So catch us up.

What did you discover over that two year period?

And talk about these recommendations that you're making to the governor.

- Well, it's not even been two years yet.

It's been about a year and a half.

So we, in that year and a half, we have 16 members who came from all over the state of Michigan from a variety of backgrounds, former elected officials former journalists, we have all kinds of people at the table.

And what we wanted to do, you know of course we could have had a hundred different issues that we talked about, but we narrowed it down to 11.

We have four committees: education, community safety and justice, business leadership, and health.

So all of those are really incredibly important issues.

They're, you know a million subset issues that we could have talked about but we think that we got the right mix for our first report.

Now comes the work of working with our legislators, working with stakeholders to ensure that some of these recommendations at least get a conversation.

I mean, the, the sad reality is some of these issues that we think are really important don't even get a conversation in our state capital.

So we wanna leverage whatever influence that we have as leaders in the state of Michigan to at least have conversations happening.

- Yeah, and of course we'll post links to your works on our webpage.

But if you could pull out a couple of things that you think are kind of high line suggestions for the governor, things that it make a huge difference if we could do 'em, what would they be?

- Oh, okay.

So that's, you know, and I have to narrow those 11 down to a few, but I'm happy to do it.

I think that one that we really thought about a lot certainly in the wake of the George Floyd murder, and, you know, he's just emblematic.

He's just one of far too many people who saw their lives end because of violence on behalf of the police.

So what we have called for, with our community safety and justice committee is that there be a real deliberate effort.

To have the Michigan commission on law enforcement standards work with the attorney general and with law enforcement to really do a deep dive into statistics.

I mean, what we saw happening what we saw that happen in Grand Rapids recently, I know that the Michigan civil rights commission has already kind of taken a look at, even before this happened at complaints about the Grand Rapids Police Department.

How do we use our voices to talk about the need to have, to use data cause data if you don't use data is not, is irrelevant.

So use the data that we have, collect better data and leverage it so that we have better policing in our community.

So I think that's one that has a lot of impact.

We have 10 billion dollars that's coming to our state for infrastructure improvement, you know really trying to ensure that business black business owners participate.

You know, there are federal mandates that there have to be there has to be participation of disadvantaged business organizations.

How is the state going to ensure that we have we see that participation?

So that the tax dollars that we put into, also come back to our business leaders here in the state of Michigan.

And then as a black woman, I can say and this is, you know, it it may sound trivial to some people, but The Crown Act which was introduced by representative Sarah Anthony to ensure that black women are not discriminated against because of the texture of their hair.

Because they choose their hair in a way that's to use it to wear their hair in a way that's culturally significant to them.

You know, that is something that many states, 12 states I think right now, we're at 12 states now across the the country have already taken action to ensure that there is not discrimination in education set educational settings or at the workplace.

And Michigan has been reluctant to take that step.

So those are just three, but there are many proposals among the 11 that I think could really be powerful tools to help improve the lives of African Americans in our state.

- Was, was there anything that you in your work and a lot of it was of course, research into, into the many different ways that this gap shows up.

Was there anything you found that was surprising or was this pretty much, you know, I mean as African Americans, I think we live with this stuff all the time.

But was there anything that that, that shocked you or surprised you?

- Shock?

I would say no.

You know, I, anytime you dig into statistics about how black people are living anywhere in America I think you, you would be disappointed.

It's probably the best word to describe it.

You know, I think that when we talk about how maybe health dollars are expended in our state.

Ensuring that we have, you know, people of color who particularly with mental health.

We know that, you know there has been disparate treatment for mental health for behavioral health problems in our state.

When, when African Americans have behavioral health challenges or crises, they end up in prison far too often.

So, you know, when we looked at how we could be more strategic about ensuring that we're getting those services.

I think that that was something that, you know it continues to be disappointing.

That we are not getting, and, and I'm really happy to see that Governor Whitmer is trying to be very strategic about putting dollars in for mental health and being aware of the equity gaps that exist for that.

But the fact that it took a, a pandemic and the resulting mental health crises that have emerged from that pandemic for state government to be responsive in a meaningful way is disappointing.

But we're also really happy that there is movement in that direction.

And we're very happy about that.

- Earlier, you mentioned the legislature and the the need to have some legislative action around some of these proposals.

That's always pretty tough here in Michigan, right now.

Give us a sense of, of whether you're hopeful that that legislators are open to these ideas and whether they will actually do something.

- I mean, obviously that's always the big question, right?

So I think that one of the things, one of the proposals we have is supporting, lifting the, or or having a cap on the APR that could be charged by payday lenders.

You know, we would love for the legislature to take action on this.

We also know that it's very unlikely that they will but there is a ballot proposal that will likely be on the ballot for Michigan Anders to decide.

So we'll get involved on that front.

And I think increasingly you're gonna see people going if the legislature will not take action on things that matter to our community, I think you're gonna start seeing more ballot proposals.

You're gonna start seeing people really demanding.

And so I think that's how we see our role to lift up these issues to make.

For example, we talked about one of our proposals is to ban no knock warrants.

And I'm happy to say that the city of Pontiac city council passed the resolution in support of the legislation that has just been sitting there with no action and they credit it to the black report.

So those are the kind of that's the kind of movement that we wanna see.

We have a long way to go.

We know that, you know getting things through the legislature is a challenge.

We'll probably continue to be a challenge in the near future, but we, we wanna be really innovative and aggressive and figure out other strategies.

If that approach doesn't work.

- Finally today, the new novel Boys Come First explores the lives of three black gay friends from Detroit.

The author is Aaron Foley, a native Detroiter and the senior editor for community initiatives at PBS news hour.

American black journals, AJ Walker sat down with Foley to talk about his new venture into writing fiction.

- [Aaron] A city like Detroit is a city full of character.

With writing about Detroit, you have an opportunity to talk especially about black Detroiters, black men westerners.

Types of characters you don't always see in literature all the time.

- [Narrator] Author Aaron Foley has penned his third book.

This one is his first novel and it's particularly special to him.

- I like to think of it as a love letter to Detroit.

I try to pour as much of the city the east side, the west side, all of that into it.

- [Narrator] Not only does Aaron Foley's book Boys Come First show the character of Detroit, It covers controversial topics.

- I also really wanted to talk about sort of the intersectionality between blackness and queerness as I go to bookstores and and look for stories and, and things like that.

I read a lot, but I don't read a lot about what is it like to be black and queer at the same time.

- [AJ Walker] How does it feel to be reading from your own book?

- It's very weird.

I do not like it.

(Aaron Laughs) I mean, I do like it.

I like it.

It's just very awkward because it's just like sometimes as a writer you try to take yourself out of yourself, right.

And try to put yourself in the in the voice and shoes of a character.

And so I'm reading, almost reading like somebody else's words.

And it's just like, wait a minute.

Did I write this or not?

- [Narrator] He hopes his own identity as being black and gay can give a first hand perspective that can provide valuable insight and an authentic experience for readers.

- There's an idea that we may not be quote unquote as masculine as the, as the next man.

and how sometimes you know, there's the expectation to code switch and not really live in, you know, live in our true selves.

- [Narrator] He writes from the perspective of a community that has been often ostracized.

which is something he feels is important to achieving equality in marginalized communities.

- How important is it to have real authentic representation?

Because to me, I feel like for so long there has been a white male dominated industry in the media.

And these people select our representation but that's not really true representation if it's not coming from people within that culture.

- When we look at queer media, generally the face is a white male.

When we look at the face of movements, like it gets better or who are some of the bigger power players like on Broadway, on stage, on screen and, and whatnot even love interest quite often, you know, black characters or people of color period are missing in those stories.

I felt it was really important to have three characters.

As in this book who are fully formed, confident gay black men who love who they are, deserve to be loved out loud and represent themselves to the fullest.

- [Narrator] Foley makes it a point to note that his book is not all about the trials and tribulations of the black gay, urban community.

- It's also, you know, important to recognize joy.

I mean, there is joy that comes with being black.

There is joy that comes from being gay and being confident in loving yourself and loving the people around you.

- [Narrator] He also makes it a point not to focus on Detroit's Rocky past as some books and other media have previously done.

- Books about like abandoned neighborhoods and crime being rampant and everything after the bankruptcy and things like that.

We absolutely should be talking about that but I want people to also understand that like people make their homes here.

There are people who stay.

There are people who continue to love this place and extract love from Detroit, give love to Detroit.

- [Narrator] Foley says he's written a smart and in depth book, that will take readers on a journey into Detroit and into a world they may not have been comfortable, to brave in real life or in fiction.

- That is gonna do it for us this week.

You can find out more about our guests at americanblackjournal.org and you can always connect with us on Facebook and on Twitter.

Take care, and we'll see you next time.