- Just ahead on "American Black Journal:" Wayne State University has two days of events planned in recognition of the Martin Luther King Junior holiday.

We'll get all the details, plus we'll hear from their special guest, Santita Jackson, daughter of the Reverend Jesse Jackson.

Also coming up: United Way for Southeastern Michigan provides funding to local groups to help eliminate racial inequities.

Stay right there.

"American Black Journal" starts now.

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Thank you.

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

I'm Trudy Gallant-Stokes sitting in for Stephen Henderson.

The Martin Luther King Junior holiday is Monday, January 15th, and Detroit's Wayne State University is gearing up for a two-day tribute to Dr. King.

The university is holding a panel discussion on Thursday, January 11th, and an arts, culture, and music program on Friday, January 12th.

The special guest is Santita Jackson, a political analyst, a TV and radio host, vocalist, and daughter of the Reverend Jesse Jackson.

I spoke with her and Wayne State University's Director of Community Affairs, Stacie Clayton, about this year's event and Dr. King's legacy.

Welcome, Santita Jackson and Stacie Clayton.

It's such a pleasure to have you on "American Black Journal."

- Thank you.

- I feel like I'm talking to old friends.

- You are.

- Awesome, very good.

Well, it's that time of year again where such important programming goes on at the beginning of the year and hopefully motivates us all throughout the year.

So Wayne State, I think that's very nice that they have two events going on and not necessarily on the holidays so everybody can attend.

So, Stacie, do you wanna give the overall picture and then we can talk to Santita about the activities she'll be involved in?

- Thank you for the opportunity, Trudy.

So glad to see you both.

Yes.

Wayne State University will be hosting our tribute to Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Thursday, January 11th, in the evening at 5:00 PM.

We are going to have a panel discussion and then, on Friday, January 12th at 10:00 AM, we will have our formal program.

Our theme for 2024 is "Arts, Culture, and Music of the Movement" and our event on Thursday, which will be a panel discussion, will look specifically at Detroit's role with the Civil Rights Movement from a labor, religious, political, and music perspective, of course.

And then on Friday our larger program will be "Arts, Culture, and Music of the Movement," where we will have singing, dancing, spoken word, poetry celebrating Dr. King and we are so delighted that on both days Santita Jackson will be joining us as our special guest and we look forward to hearing from her some of the lessons that she learned from her father, her mother, and Dr. King, which are still relevant today.

- And Santita, you are such a multi-dimensional renaissance woman.

Just touch on some of the things that you've been involved in I know, from music to talk shows to obviously activism.

- Obviously, that's a high compliment to be called a Renaissance woman.

I worked for Roberta Flack.

I sang with her for several years.

She brought me a Steinway piano when I was seven because she felt that I had some musical gifts that needed to be developed, but I was always torn between that and the academic.

I needed to get a full scholarship to college.

Because of the death threats that my father lived under, I never thought he'd be alive to pay the tuition like so many of his peers and so I was on that track.

But then I was... Just a few highlights: I sang the National Anthem.

I was privileged to do that on Dr. King's birthday for the Clinton inauguration in 1997.

Worked for Roberta Flack and many other notables down through the years, but then I got pulled into television and radio.

So I've been a Fox political analyst.

Ironically enough, and you could appreciate this, Trudy, Roger Ailes hired me, never wanted me to change my politics.

He said, "But this will be more of a challenge because of your politics, to be able to relate to this audience.

If they like you as much as I do," he said, "you'll have a huge future in the business."

And he was such a wonderful influence upon my life.

And so then now I'm doing writing.

I'm one of the founding writers of "TheGrio" and I'm beginning to write some memoirs now and I've just been, the Lord has just pulled me in a lot of... You know what?

I had to develop the spirit of yes.

Whatever God has asked me to do, now I'm not reluctant.

So if I'm being asked to speak, if I'm being asked to sing, if I'm being asked to write, if I'm just being asked to share, I try to do that now because I think that God has given me enough experiences and if God gives me the opportunity, I just take it.

- You were a little girl when Dr. King was living.

Do you have any- - Yes, I was.

- Remembrances from him and his relationship with your father, the Reverend Jesse Jackson.

- I do.

You know, it's so funny.

I was talkin' with my father about that just a few days ago and I remember my father, he said, "You know, I'm not gonna leave you a lot of money.

I didn't make a lot or the money that I made, I gave to the movement.

So what I'm gonna try to do is leave you a good enough name for you to be able to hold your head high and make a living and I hope to leave you some rich experiences."

And so as a little girl, particularly before I got involved in piano lessons and ballet and the like, my father would take me away often with him on weekends or just on a day trip.

He would always do that and then he'd find someone to braid my hair, to get it right.

And I remember one morning being bundled up and put in the car with him and we flew to Atlanta so that he could meet with Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King and my feet couldn't even touch the end of the seat.

- Wow.

- And his voice was so resonant, "Santita."

But he was my brother Jonathan, the Congressman's, godfather and so he was very, very sweet as a father of little children would be, 'cause his daughter Bernice and I are just a few months apart, and I remember when he died.

I was a few months shy of my fifth birthday.

It was shocking because it started a cavalcade of deaths of people that I knew and I was speaking with a friend of mine about it and you start grieving perpetually because so many people, so many people you know go.

But in my maturity now, I see so many people deposited so much in me, including Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King and Mrs. King and Reverend and Mrs. Abernathy and Reverend James Bevel and Diane Nash Bevel and Jose Williams and Reverend Wyatt T. Walker.

All of these historical figures are now just the people I knew.

They were great people but they were also great human beings.

But they were also very human and I hope that I'm gonna be able to share that.

- We're thrilled that you'll be able to bring all that wisdom and all those reflections to Detroit because Detroit has had a major role in civil rights as well.

- Well, Detroit is one of our homes.

Indeed, one of my father's fathers in the ministry, the man who delivered his ordination sermon, was Reverend C.L.

Franklin and through his relationship with my father he was able to really develop so much as a minister and of course he got to know and not just got to know...

I mean the Franklins and the Jacksons are family really and that is how that started.

That is how that started through our pastor, the Reverend Clay Evans, who's now also gone on to glory.

Detroit is home for us with the Winans and everybody else, come on now, Joel Ferguson.

You know I'm not a stranger to Detroit.

- Not at all.

So Stacie, I'm sure that had to do with bringing all of these activities together and you can't do it too many times because every year I would think you have a new reflection.

So what went behind the two day event and the different focuses on the two days?

- So our theme for the two days came from, as you recall, 2023 was the "50th Anniversary of Hip Hop" and as I was talking with my sister and we were talking about the influence that hip hop has on our culture, it got me to thinking about not only the influence that music can have on the historical moments that are happening at the time, but then also how those historical moments can influence the music and we had just finished our MLK tribute for 2023.

So of course I'm thinking about 2024 and I have to give credit to my sister for this because she said, "What about music and the movement?"

And I said, "That's great, but let's expand that and take a little further."

So we included arts, poetry, dancing, and also the role that Hollywood played with the civil rights movement and that's how that came about and 2024 will actually be the 24th year that Wayne State has done the tribute for Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King.

It was started by the late Dr. Arthur L. Johnson, who was a former president of the Detroit NAACP and a senior vice president at Wayne State University.

He also was a classmate of Dr. King's at Morehouse and one of the things he wanted to do here in Detroit at Wayne State was to honor Dr. King with a wonderful program that not only was for our students, but that also was open and free to the public and the community at large.

- So what is your goal?

What do you want people to walk away feeling after this event?

And Santita, I'll ask you that first 'cause I'm sure you do these kinds of things all across the country and I know you also have a talk show as well.

But what is your goal, particularly I would think, with young people?

What do you wanna instill in them?

- Well, to keep it informal and to keep it informative.

Young people, you have to meet them eye to eye.

The studies show that when you speak to children, and I'm certainly not speaking to children, but I'm speaking to young people, you have to kneel down and speak to them eye to eye and that is what I'd like to do this weekend.

I've been so gratified in these conversations that I've had with Stacy over the past few months because I think that we'll have a chance to do that.

I think that the audience will be small enough and will be informal enough for me to share stories.

I think that people can relate to that.

I think speeches are wonderful.

They're great.

They're inspiring.

But there's something about hearing about the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King.

- One of the things that we wanna have people take away from our Wayne State tribute to Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King is one of Dr. King's simplest lessons and that is: "The time is always right to do the right thing."

I'm going to paraphrase Dr. King, but he said, "Committing ourselves to humanity and service not only makes us better individuals, but it also contributes to a greater nation and a finer world" and if people can leave with that as their goal, I think we'll have accomplished our goal for the tribute.

- This year in particular, with it being an election year, 2024, I think that this has even more importance, this kind of event.

- Yes, it does.

As you're aware here in Michigan, we have some new voting laws that take place that are taking effect in January.

We have an upcoming presidential election and I'm very proud to say that Wayne State, in October of 2023, we were named as one of the top 15 voter-friendly campuses in the country.

We're the only campus in Michigan to be named and so we have a 90% voter registration and in the 2020 election we had a 73.5% voter turnout and, while those numbers are good, there's still more work that can be done and that's why we're so excited because Santita will be doing part of her conversation talking about the importance of voting and I heard someone say not too long ago that, "Well, it doesn't really matter who the president is" and I had to tell them, "Oh, it does matter who the president is because, even if he or she only serves for one term, they're the ones who are doing the nominations for our federal judges, Court of Appeals judges, and Supreme Court justices."

- Absolutely.

- Those are lifelong appointments and those laws will govern our lives or govern how we live our lives and the laws for the rest of our lives.

- Great, and Santita, give us that last bit of inspiration.

- Well, in addition to establishing the beloved community, the mission statement of the Southern Leadership Conference was to save the soul of America and, if you wanna save the soul of America, every man, woman, and child has to be equal.

The crown jewel of the civil rights movement is being done.

Wayne State, Stacie has told us, is one of the top schools in the country for voter engagement, for voter registration.

So Wayne State is an example and I'm honored to be there 'cause you really embody what Dr. King was doing, getting people to vote, ensuring that we all have a voice, that we are not just on the menu, but we're at the table, and that's what your vote means.

So thank you Wayne State for all that you're doing for voter engagement.

Thank you Stacie.

Thank you Trudy for the work that you're doing, for carrying on Dr. King's mission.

- Thank you so much, Santita Jackson.

Please give our love and respect to your parents, to Reverend Jackson- - Thank you.

- And your mom, wonderful people and just icons in our community.

Stacie, thank you for pulling this all together and I know it's gonna be a great two days of events.

- It is, and anyone who wants to RSVP for the event, because we have limited seating they're asking people to RSVP, please go to communityoutreach.wayne.edu/MLK, communityoutreach.wayne.edu/MLK.

- Thanks again and stay involved.

- Thank you.

- Much love, God bless you.

- United Way for Southeastern Michigan has announced the 2024 recipients of its Racial Equity Fund.

The 28 local organizations are receiving grants to help address racial and systemic inequities in the region.

All of the organizations have black, indigenous, and people of color leadership and focus on a variety of community issues.

Here's my conversation with United Way's president and CEO, Dr. Darienne Hudson.

Everybody knows what United Way is, but it just seems like you continue to grow and just encompass more and more things as you become involved in the community.

So you have some new things to share with us now.

- So excited to jump right in and talk about the work that we've been doing with our Racial Equity Fund.

We are now in our third year and we've been able to invest $3 million back into our community.

These are all organizations that are BIPOC led, so they're led by blacks, indigenous people, and people of color and all of these organizations are focused on addressing racial inequities, historic inequities, systemic inequities in our region and trying to make sure that now over 57,000 people are getting the help that they need and getting connected to the resources that they need.

- That is very exciting and we know that that's kind of the last frontier in terms of supporting businesses.

We've worked on voting rights and other rights over the years, but we have to make progress in that area.

- We do.

There is quite a bit of research now when you look at philanthropy and how organizations that are led by people of color are invested in and we just continue to be behind and so we felt that it was our responsibility if we're serious about talking about issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion to make this type of investment into our community and so we're able to give grants of all sizes.

They range from $10,000 to $50,000 annually and, again, not only are they getting those resources, but we're able to provide them what we call capacity-building support in partnership with Resilia.

So they're getting coaching and mentoring, learning better operations for their nonprofits.

So it really is full circle support.

- So let's talk about maybe some of those businesses, maybe some you're, and I know that's hard.

It's like picking your favorite child, but maybe some examples you're most excited about because I think you just finished a round where you awarded some of these.

- We did.

So Caleb's Kids is one that I always want to lift.

We talk so much about mental health, about what our young people are experiencing, the fact that we've seen such a drastic increase in suicides in our community and Caleb's Kids is committed to helping our most troubled youth and helping them find a pathway forward that allows them to get out of that ideology of wanting to harm themselves and we've been partners with Caleb's Kids for a long time, so we're proud of that investment.

We also work with Accent Pontiac and, again, an organization that is committed to that full continuum of support, specifically focusing on mental health.

We had an intense focus on mental health issues this year with our investments in the community.

But we serve four counties now and this gives us the opportunity to partner with a number of organizations, again, large and small, to be able to support our most vulnerable populations.

- Yes, and I should clarify, I was calling them businesses, but really nonprofit organizations that are providing great service to the community and sometimes you find organizations say, "Well, maybe I'm too small to apply or maybe I shouldn't be involved."

But it sounded like you have such a wide variety of the types of services that you can help provide to these organizations.

Go into a little more detail as to what kind of assistance they can receive.

- Sure.

Well, it starts with the application process.

So we've partnered with Detroit Future City now for almost five years and they have something called a Centering Community Voice toolkit and it actually helps us with the grant process.

We have a committee made of individuals outside of United Way.

They come from a universities, other nonprofits, businesses, community organizations that come together to actually help us build our application process.

They help us review those applications.

They work with the nonprofits as they are applying for these resources and once they receive the resources, not only are they getting that capacity building and helping with their operations, with their finances, deliver their programs, but we want them to be able to go beyond United Way.

We're just one organization.

We want them to be able to apply for grants from foundations, from national partners, from getting state resources and federal resources as well.

- And how are you able to see the impact that they've made?

How do you go back and reflect and see how things worked out?

- So we have a team in-house led by Tanya Dare.

She's our Chief Diversity and Development Officer and also Andre Ebron, who is our senior director for our DEI work.

And they are partnered elbow to elbow on the ground with these organizations and so each organization has a set of metrics.

A large part of that is the number of people that are served.

But again, it could be counseling services.

It could be receiving food, receiving housing support, and so we look at each organization as its own entity, look at how many people are served, and then the effectiveness of these investments.

We do have some partners who've received funds every year.

We have people who not only are receiving Racial Equity Funds, but they also, again, they're able to apply for other resources around the region to help them meet their goals.

- So I know that 2023 obviously is behind us now and you've made those grants, but we're coming into a new cycle, correct?

- Yes, so of the past three years, we have been investing in Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties to be able to provide those resources.

We are newly merged with Washtenaw County as of October 1st and so we are now able to provide resources.

We are investing $200,000 of our racial equity funding in Washtenaw County only and so, again, this is for 501c3 organizations that are BIPOC-led and that are trying to do that work of addressing these historic inequities and those grants are available in the next few weeks and we're really excited about the opportunity that it's going to present.

- So talk about Washtenaw County.

I don't know.

What's different or the same about that area because, for so many years, you'd hear about the Tri-County area, but obviously population is shifting?

- Yes and this merger, as it happened, we are mission-aligned organizations and you've heard United Way talk about the 21 day equity challenge.

That actually started in Washtenaw County with their United Way.

So they've been talking about equity for quite some time.

We have an ALICE Report.

Alice is an acronym that stands for Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained and Employed, and it's an assessment of our working families and their abilities to be able to meet their most basic needs.

The state average is 39% of our families living below that threshold and the same is true for what was our Tri-County region.

Now, as we come together, in Washtenaw County alone, Trudy, two years ago they had 30% of their families that were living below that threshold.

Just two years later in 2021, that data went up to 40% of their families living below the threshold.

- So the need is there?

- The need is very great.

- So now we're getting into, like you said, the timeline where you're wrapping up for applications for 2024.

So what do you tell people and what do you suggest, and I dunno, how much time should they allow to be able to figure out how to go through that application process?

- So we've been working.

This is a special round of funding outside of our normal cycle.

So it was $200,000 for the Racial Equity Fund and additional $225,000 for the basic needs grants that we always offer in the spring and this is specifically for Washtenaw County.

We've actually been working in the community since our merger on October 1st to help them understand our systems, to make sure that they already had a portal set up, their logins, all of those things set up.

So once the grants became available to them, and I can't remember the exact date, I'm sorry, but it is within the next week and a half, they will be able to actually go right in.

They already have all of their information set up.

They've been working with our team to make the grant process as smooth as possible.

We cannot guarantee funding, but we do wanna ensure that we've done our part to make sure that people are prepared, they feel that they have the information and the resources necessary.

We've also had four town halls with local community partners in Washtenaw alone, just to help them prepare for these resources that are available and for those of you that are listening and wondering, "What about everyone else?"

We are still going to have our basic needs funding available, our Equity in Education dollars, that will be available in our wraparound services available in the spring.

- So first of all, Washtenaw County folks, don't be shy, go ahead and give it a try.

Get to that portal and see what the expectations are and go ahead and apply.

- That's right.

- It's worth, even if it doesn't work out this year, maybe you'll learn something and it'll work out next year.

Dr. Hudson, thank you so much.

Thank you to United Way for continuing to always embrace the community and I'm sure everything's right at the website.

Is that a website you wanna mention right quick?

- Yes, UnitedWaySEM.org.

- Very important.

Thanks again and have a wonderful 2024.

- Thank you.

I wish you the same, Trudy.

- Thank you.

That's going to do it for us this week.

You can find out more about our guests at americanblackjournal.org.

Plus, connect with us anytime on social media.

Take care and we'll see you next time.

- [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 #2] The DTE Foundation proudly supports 50 years 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.

(gentle piano music)