Women have been at the forefront of civil rights and human rights movements throughout history. Yet, their stories are left untold and forgotten.

Dr. Keisha N. Blain is a historian, speaker, advocate, and social justice activist who is a best-selling author. She is a professor of Africana studies at Brown University.  Her most recent book “Without Fear: Black Women and the Making of Human Rights” takes a historical look back at various civil rights movements and the Black women behind the scenes who created global change. 

Dr. Blain spoke at Wayne State University as part of the university’s annual Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration. She joined The Metro to talk about the women who helped progress human rights, often leading to systemic change.

 

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

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The post The Metro: Dr. Keisha Blain highlights the Black women of civil rights and human rights movements appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.

During President Trump’s second term, immigration enforcement has become more dangerous and more visible. 

Detention has expanded rapidly. Last year was the deadliest year in more than two decades. Federal records show people have continued to die in custody in the opening days of this year.

There have also been multiple fatal shootings at the hands of on-duty and off-duty ICE agents in recent months. 

In Minneapolis, an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good. That killing prompted lawsuits from Minnesota and its largest cities. There were also resignations inside the Justice Department after leadership declined to open a customary civil rights investigation.

Other people have also been killed by ICE agents, including Silverio Villegos González near Chicago and Keith Porter Jr. in California. Those deaths, though, did not trigger the same national response.

In Detroit, City Council Member Gabriela Santiago-Romero is pushing the city to act. She represents Southwest Detroit and chairs the City Council’s Public Health and Safety Committee. She’s asking whether Detroit can legally restrict ICE activity on city property and in sensitive areas, such as schools and hospitals. 

Santiago-Romero joined Robyn Vincent on The Metro to discuss how cities can respond when federal immigration enforcement becomes more aggressive, and how local governments weigh responsibility, risk, and trust.

 

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Trusted, accurate, up-to-date.

WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.

Donate today »

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The post The Metro: Santiago-Romero presses Detroit to define limits on ICE activity appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.

These are divisive times. Some people are questioning their long-held political beliefs. Others are experiencing a political awakening for the first time. Many are asking, “What can we actually do?” It is tempting to focus only on surface level strategies, policies, and quick wins. But every political campaign, every demand, and every new institution fundamentally […]

The post What we value is what we build appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.

The mosque reported broken windows, wall damage, and graffiti.

The post Michigan Muslim group pushes hate crime investigation after Warren mosque vandalized appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.

The Warren Police Department is refusing to release public records to Metro Times, including video footage that shows cops allegedly beating a man with a mental health emergency. Christopher Gibson, 26, was “brutally battered, tasered and threatened with a barking K-9” by Warren cops while detained in December 2022, according to a recent lawsuit filed […]

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A longtime Detroit resident and father of five U.S. citizen children was released from immigration detention on Wednesday after a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration unlawfully denied him due process. Juan Manuel Lopez-Campos, who has lived in the U.S. for 26 years and has no criminal record, was arrested during a traffic stop […]

The post Detroit father of 5 released from ICE detention after federal court order appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.

Tracy Carlisle had escaped a crime scene by crashing through a picture window. His own blood now left a trail from an address where two people already lay wounded. Carlisle went to the west side Detroit home of a jeweler to settle a $3,200 score, but he never even fired his pistol. Instead only the […]

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A majority of Michiganders want the U.S. to help secure food, water, and medical supplies for people in Gaza, where Israeli attacks since October 2023 have killed more than 62,000 and led to mass starvation, a new poll shows. The survey, released Thursday by the progressive advocacy group Progress Michigan, found that 69% of Michigan […]

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A Jewish children’s author and public school teacher has filed a lawsuit accusing Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit and Lake Orion Community Schools of violating her civil rights and misusing taxpayer dollars by forcing her to teach religion under a state-funded program intended for secular instruction. The case, brought by Lisa Rose in Oakland […]

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An 18-year-old Highland Park man was charged with homicide and a hate crime Monday in connection with the brutal death of a transgender woman whose body was found behind a laundromat in Detroit. Malique Javon Fails is accused of fatally assaulting Christina Hayes, 28, of Taylor, on June 21 before robbing her of cash and […]

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