MACKINAC 2007: Improving race relations up to leaders, author says

Source: Crain's Detroit Business
By: Sheena Harrison
Published: June 01, 2007 5:28PM

MACKINAC ISLAND — Detroit has had a long history of racism and segregation that will continue to burden the region’s future if business and community leaders don’t step up to promote understanding between communities, said Kevin Boyle, a Detroit native and author of Arc of Justice.

The book, which was distributed to all Mackinac Policy Conference attendees, details the history of racial divisions in Detroit based on the murder trial of Ossian Sweet, a black physician who faced murder charges in 1925 for defending his Detroit home against a mob intent on keeping a neighborhood all white.

During a speech at the conference Friday afternoon, Boyle said Detroit’s early segregation history led up to the Detroit riots of 1967 — an event he said still plays into the region’s race relations.

Promoting racial understanding in metro Detroit means people must make a conscious effort to move forward from the past, Boyle said.

“We Detroiters continue to carry the heavy weight of our segregationist past, and it is an awesome burden,” he said. “We can shrug it off, but only if we’re willing to try.”

A panel of business leaders agreed that area leaders need to follow through on race-relations discussions by taking action in their community.

“We need to get beyond some of the rhetoric and break down barriers,” said Reginald Turner, member of law firm Clark Hill plc in Detroit.

“It is every one of our responsibilities to contribute to having a healthy community,” said Sandra Pierce, president and CEO of Charter One Bank in Michigan and Indiana.

Anthony Earley Jr., CEO of DTE Energy Co., said he believes the One D initiative is a step in the right direction because it includes multiple partners and aims to improve race relations as one of its goals.

“This integration of various factors is one of the reasons I believe One D has it right,” Earley said.