- Another great show coming up on "American Black Journal," a national summit that promotes and celebrates black men in leadership is coming to Detroit, and we get all of the details, plus the nonprofit organization Brilliant Detroit launches a citywide literacy campaign to encourage children to read over their summer vacation, don't go away, "American Black Journal" starts right now.

- [Narrator] From Delta faucets to Behr paint, Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco, serving Michigan communities since 1929.

Support also provided by the Cynthia & Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit Public TV.

- [Narrator] The DTE Foundation proudly supports 50 years (gentle music) of "American Black Journal" in covering African American history, culture, and politics.

The DTE Foundation and "American Black Journal" partners in presenting African-American perspectives about our communities and in our world.

- [Narrator] Also brought to you by Nissan Foundation and viewers like you, thank you.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to "American Black Journal."

I'm your host, Stephen Henderson.

The Michigan Diversity Council is presenting its annual National Black Men in Leadership Summit this month at Huntington Place in Detroit.

This year's theme is the legacy of black leadership and excellence.

The event brings together black male professionals from a variety of industries and provides them with the knowledge and tools for professional, personal, and community growth.

I learned more about the summit from the organization's executive director, Darlene King Turner.

Tell us about this year's National Black Men in Leadership Summit.

The theme is "The Legacy of Black Leadership and Excellence."

Tell me what people will experience and learn if they can.

- Yeah, yeah, absolutely, thank you so much.

You know, our black men in leadership, this is our third year of having this summit, this year, due to the overwhelming request, it is going to be two days.

And our focus and our goal is to really help shed a light on the fact that when we think about black leaders in this country, they represent 3.2%.

And that is from a C-suite perspective, from a senior leadership perspective.

But when we think about CEOs that represent the black community in this country as a whole, for Fortune 500 companies, they represent less than 1%.

And so our goal is really to educate corporations and communities, whether you're for-profit or nonprofit, on the importance of black leadership, on the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the importance of belonging and the contributions that our community makes and has made and is making and will make in this country.

So often, black males have not been uplifted in the conversation about their contributions as philanthropists and fathers and coaches and leaders in this country.

And so our goal is to really be able to educate those on why is it important, what are their challenges and their struggles, for climbing the corporate and social ladder from that perspective or even becoming their own business owners and entrepreneurs in this country and having access to equity and the ability to be able to do so.

So that's the focus and the goal of our summit this year.

- Yeah, so, you know, during the pandemic, you saw a lot of corporations, you saw a lot of other institutions kind of acknowledge that diversity and inclusion and equity were not being served appropriately in those sectors, and they promised to do better.

Now we're three years later, I think a lot of us are looking around and saying, "Well, the rhetoric is better, "the narrative is better, but the outcomes, "we're still waiting to see that turn in a significant way."

And I wonder what it will, you know, what it will take, is it just patience, is it time, or do we still need these kind of fundamental changes in the way that other people see this issue to make sure that African-Americans, and particularly African-American men, get more opportunity?

- Yeah, you know that that's a great point because you're absolutely right.

You know, we didn't hear about equity in the way that we hear about it now until the murder of George Floyd in 2020 and the reckoning on race in this country as a whole, not just the United States, but globally, right?

There was an entire reckoning on race for people of color, not just black people, but Latinos and immigrants and migrants and so on and so forth.

And so when we think about, you know, the conversations around diversity, equity, and inclusion and belonging and how this shift needs to be made, and you're absolutely correct, there have been some shifts, right?

But when we think about the legacy and the history of this country in 400 years of oppression in this country around equity for whether that's black men, whether that's, you know, those that are native and indigenous and all the things that have happened and have been taken away from them, it is not going to happen overnight, right?

- Yeah.

- Because we have such a huge gap when it comes to equity in this country.

I will say that there have been some really amazing intentional efforts from some really huge organizations, even some really small organizations, right, around being intentional to shift those dynamics, being intentional about creating greater opportunities to access for capital and access for workforce development and just opportunities for growth and advancement.

And so I don't want people to think that it is not happening, because it is happening.

It may look as if it's not, but when you are dealing with something that has been taking place over hundreds and hundreds of years, it is not gonna change in the blink up an eye, right?

- Yeah.

It is going to take some time, it is gonna take some patience, but more or less, it's gonna take the collective of the whole, right, to say that we see this as an important and sustainable business case to the growth and the sustainability of our communities and our corporations as a whole to ensure that we have the voices internally to look like what our external clients and partners and communities actually look like.

- Yeah, yeah, you know, I think also the pressure on black men right now seems outsized compared to the time during the pandemic or before.

You know, and I'll go back to, you know, the election of Barack Obama as the first African American president.

I said, when that happened, that my fear was that we would pay this incredible price in backlash.

- Yeah.

- From people seeing a black man at that pinnacle point of leadership in our society and the fear that they would have about what that meant.

I think it's come true in a way that I wouldn't even have anticipated when I said it.

- Yeah, yeah, you're absolutely right.

It has come true, right?

And society saw it as, you know, President Barack Obama, you know, a black male has taken seat in the highest office in the land, so we're done, right?

You know, it's over, we need to do nothing else, right?

And that has been an enormous hurdle for black men in this country of saying, "Hey, he represents," you know, "He represented and still represents the community," but there is a community, right, of black men.

There is a community of black leaders and philanthropists, and they do it with a level of excellence because of the obstacles that they've had to overcome, that if they did not do it with a level of excellence, then they would not be in the positions that they're in.

And so how do we begin to remove the biases that exist and recognize that there are biases, right?

How do we move the micro and macroaggressions?

How do we remove the lack of opportunity and access to literally be able to create some equity?

Because equality is not equity.

And many people are confused with that concept that, you know, "It's equality and equity are the same thing."

And it's like, "No, they're far different from one another," right?

And so it still is about education and really looking at the business case and offering those opportunities and creating those resources to support our black men in this country for growth and for advancement.

- Yeah, yeah.

Tell me about some of the headline names.

- Yeah, we got some names.

- We got big ones?

- Yeah, we got some big ones, we do, we do.

So we have Dr. Eddie Glaude Jr. who is just, you know, a philanthropist, he's a philosopher, he's a CNN commentator, he's a professor, he is a huge leader in the black community and for the black voice and for black men.

And he is the epitome of when we talk about black excellence and leadership in this country and advocating for black men and black community, and we need that, right?

And so we are excited to have him open up our conference on Day 1, which is August the 17th at Huntington Place right here in downtown Detroit.

And then Day 2, I am so excited about him as well.

And it is Dr. Marvin Carr, and he is a native of Detroit, which many may not be aware of, but he is the director of the Equity Foundation for Walmart.

Walmart being one of the largest retailers in our country.

Dr. Carr is making some enormous strides in our community relative to returning citizens and ensuring that they have a second chance and an opportunity on Walmart Equity Foundation is supporting that and supporting communities of color and the advancement of young black men, not just starting at the corporate level, but moving back beyond college and moving into the grade school areas as well.

So we are really in for an amazing treat to learn exactly how can other corporations follow some of the footprints of Walmart because they have made some missteps along the way in history, past history, as we know, but they are trying to correct that as much as possible and to really learn what have they done and what are they doing.

And so people can really understand how to create equitable initiatives and programs to be able to support black men in black community.

That's not equality, right, from that perspective.

And so we are just really excited about both of our keynote speakers for these two days of learning and collaboration and networking and connectivity as we support black men across the country, not just here in Michigan, as a whole.

- The nonprofit Brilliant Detroit is working to stem the learning loss that often comes when children are out of school for the summer.

The organization has launched a citywide literacy campaign called Detroit Reads at its community hubs.

Families can participate in reading activities, field trips, and pop-up events.

Here's my conversation with Brilliant Detroit CEO, Cindy Eggleton, and one of the campaigns national partners, Adeola Whitney, who is the CEO of Reading Partners.

Adeola Whitney and Cindy Eggleton, welcome to "American Black Journal."

- Thank you.

- Yeah, it's great to have both of you here.

So this is a problem that I think parents face all the time.

What do you do with your kids during the summer that doesn't contribute to them losing the ground that they gained in school the year before?

Of course, that becomes more acute when we're talking about children who come from impoverished backgrounds.

Of course, children of color are overrepresented in those categories.

And so something like Detroit Reads really aims at, you know, the weak spots that we deal with in our community.

Cindy, I'll start with you talking about why this is important and why now.

- Yeah, so this is probably one of the most important things we can do is a organization but is a city.

It's really critical that Detroiters have the same and/or just excellent information, resources, and learning around summer reading loss.

And it's more than that, Stephen, I just wanna say that the Detroit Reads is about a celebration of literacy.

It is about Detroiters coming together across the city along three paths in which you're gonna talk to one of our favorite partners here on tutoring, that's filling a gap for sure.

One is, how do we build a level of reading, right?

How do we make sure that books are in kids' hands, and that it's a family affair, that families are equipped with everything they need, and that we're celebrating things within that, we have Men's Read Day, we have Black Storytellers, we have all kinds of things that make reading and literacy fun.

And then we have the fundamentals, which is tutoring, which is critically important for summer reading loss.

You hit it, this is important.

It's critically important during the summer, because in particular, children of color don't have the same resources, they can fall behind.

And this is a chance to both not fall further behind but also to potentially catch up.

So we lean in heavily.

Detroit Reads is in 14 locations across the city.

We're serving every district.

And it is a moment for Brilliant Detroit, where we can now see citywide action, movement, and of course, with the residents and neighborhoods.

- Yeah, yeah.

Adeola, your organization is playing a pretty key role here, you know, with the infrastructure of helping to not only teach kids to read, but you know, like that spark for them about what reading means.

I think I'll never forget with my own children that transition from the kind of rote idea of putting letters together to words and phrases and ideas and expression.

And when you see that happen, there is almost nothing, almost nothing else like it.

- You're absolutely right, Stephen.

I was saying before we started this conversation that one of my colleagues got an opportunity to work with a kindergartner in Detroit who's learning to read, and she was teaching her about compound words.

So that impacted her day, the adult, the tutor's day, all day.

And to the example that you brought about your own children, you're absolutely right, kids go from kindergarten to third grade or preschool to third grade to learning to read.

And then by third grade, the beginning of fourth grade, they're reading to learn, right?

And so, everything that we do, not only during the school year, but especially during the summer, only is going to help, you know, support children on their literacy journey.

And when we're talking about young children who may have finished elementary school, you know, this past late spring, not quite at grade level, you know, the summer for them is even more important.

- Yeah.

- And even more urgent.

And so, ensuring that we're not creating a further slide for them, there's this notion of, that's called the Summer Slide.

We wanna do everything that we can.

And so to be able to partner with this incredible organization, Brilliant Detroit, and certainly with Cindy and her amazing team was just music to our ears.

We're so excited to expand our program into the great city of Detroit and to continue to find ways to be a partner and resource.

- Yeah, yeah.

Cindy, for viewers who aren't familiar, tell us a little more about Brilliant Detroit.

I, of course, you and I know each other, and we know each other's organizations.

(laughing) But talk about how it started and how you got to this point, this kind of work.

You know, there's always that journey that organizations take.

- Yeah, you're kind of filling in for me when I was gonna say the journey of, long story short, Brilliant Detroit exists to create what we call kids success neighborhoods, neighborhoods where kids and families have everything they need in the middle of the neighborhood.

Stephen, that's how you and I are connected 'cause we have similar visions on things that we both do.

And we started this in 2016.

And in reality, there are many statistics that add up to that, we need to do more, and we need to do things differently.

We firmly believe that people, residents, neighborhoods should have the agency of what they want for their kids and their families.

And we've been able to show that it works because of that.

So our platform is education, health, and family support.

It's belly to eight.

We serve kids, we serve adults, we serve families.

And we've seen three reading levels grow with different partners, we work with 160 partners.

We've also seen significant and very significant improvement on education, health, and family support.

The secret sauce is people and neighborhoods that want what is best for their kids.

And we just provide and walk alongside to make sure that's happening.

- Yeah, yeah.

Adeola, your organization is a national organization, lots of different places.

Talk about, I mean, to Detroit and how key that is.

- Absolutely, yes.

So we've been in existence now since '99, so about 23, 24 years old.

And we're in 12 metropolitan areas across the country, but we were not yet in Detroit, Michigan, up until this opportunity of us being able to partner with Brilliant Detroit.

This means the world.

I mean, the data doesn't lie.

And I think it's really critically important for us to go where we are needed.

And as a national nonprofit, what's really important to me and to all of the colleagues that I work with on a daily basis is that we do this work with our communities, not to them or for them.

And I think the best way of us entering a space like Detroit, Michigan, had to be with an organization that understands the communities, that has been doing work, that has a strong brand, that has shown, you know, significant levels of success, and that is Cindy and her team at Brilliant Detroit.

And so, the moment, you know, my first conversation with Cindy and hearing her talk about the mission of Brilliant Detroit, the years that they've been in existence, the successes that they've seen and why they do this work, it was a match made in nonprofit heaven.

It was like, "Okay, this is exactly the type of partner "we strive to partner with," and mainly also because this literacy crisis is a huge one, the challenges that families and young people are facing, not just because of the pandemic, they existed long before, the pandemic only exacerbated them.

As a, you know, literacy nonprofit that's been around for 24 years, we know that we do no good to anyone when organizations purport to be the panacea, we're not the panacea, we have one resource, and there are areas where we are not experts and organizations like Brilliant Detroit are.

And if there are ways that our resources can provide support to their families, we, you know, we wanna sign up and help.

And so we are just thrilled.

And Stephen, while this is just something we've started for this summer, I think through conversations I've had with Cindy, our hope is to continue to partner along after the summer.

And so yeah, we hope that we're here to stay and can continue to find ways to support the amazing young people in Detroit.

- Yeah, yeah.

- If I may, just for a second here, I just wanna lift up what it takes, and we all know this, it's head, heart, and shoulder's work.

- Yes.

- I used to say it's head and heart, it was magic for us together, but also Reading Partners just went into action after we talked, when we said look at these groups aren't able to provide tutoring.

There's a shortage of volunteers, what can we do?

And they came back and said, "Basically, we can do anything, "and we're ready to do it in a couple of weeks," which was incredible.

It takes sometimes moving mountains, because who's at the center of the work are the kids that deserve better and more.

- Yeah, and they need it, they need it so desperately.

That's 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.

We're gonna leave you now with a performance by the Jit Masters from Detroit Performs Live From Marygrove.

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

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] From Delta faucets to Behr paint, Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco, serving Michigan communities since 1929.

Support also provided by the Cynthia & Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit Public TV.

- [Narrator] The DTE Foundation proudly supports 50 years of "American Black Journal" (gentle music) in covering African-American history, culture, and politics.

The DTE Foundation and "American Black Journal" partners in presenting African-American perspectives about our communities and in our world.

- [Narrator] Also brought to you by Nissan Foundation and viewers like you, thank you.

(gentle music)