The 13th Congressional District has always been more than a collection of neighborhoods. It has been a living, breathing story of resilience, told through the voices of working families, elders on porches, young dreamers, and laborers whose sweat built this city. As a new election season rises over Detroit, two Black men stand ready to carry that story forward, offering visions shaped not by millionaire boardrooms, but by the real struggles that built this city’s soul. Donavan McKinney, a 32-year-old Democrat and current State Representative for Michigan’s 11th

The same neighborhood that once branded Yusef Bunchy Shakur a menace is now the place that calls him “doctor.” Because a community watched a man rebuild what disinvestment tried to erase. From the streets of Zone 8 to the seat of executive leadership, Dr. Shakur’s journey defies every statistic meant to define Black boys from Detroit. The Michigan Roundtable for Just Communities—founded during a time when folks wouldn’t even sit across a table with someone who didn’t worship like them—has named him its new executive director. For the

Detroit’s east side once ran on trust. Folks leaned on each other before any bank would give them a second look. That kind of community-first mindset is what built One Detroit Credit Union. Ninety years later, that foundation still matters. And now, with new leadership in place, the credit union is aligning its next chapter with the same principles that started it. Stephanie Peoples has been named Chief Operating Officer of One Detroit Credit Union. She brings more than 20 years of experience in financial services and a

Photos by Monica Morgan As a teenager attending Detroit Country Day School, Hiram E. Jackson once got into a fight after another student disparagingly said to him: “You can take them out of Highland Park, but you can’t take the Highland Park out of them.” But on Monday, April 7, 2025 – standing in front of hundreds of friends, family members, mentors, colleagues, elected officials, and other dignitaries at the Boys & Girls Club of Highland Park– Jackson said that hearing that exact phrase today would be a compliment

Forty-three-year-old Representative John James has entered Michigan’s 2026 gubernatorial race. His announcement arrived Monday morning by way of a social media post where he criticized Democratic leadership and aligned himself with former President Donald Trump. “It’s time to get Michigan’s government out of fantasyland and back to common sense,” he wrote. James currently represents Michigan’s 10th Congressional District. His district covers southern Macomb County and parts of Rochester Hills and Oakland County. He became the only Black member of Michigan’s congressional delegation when he won his seat in

Photos by Monica Morgan As a teenager attending Detroit Country Day School, Hiram E. Jackson once got into a fight after another student disparagingly said to him: “You can take them out of Highland Park, but you can’t take the Highland Park out of them.” But on Monday, April 7, 2025 – standing in front of hundreds of friends, family members, mentors, colleagues, elected officials, and other dignitaries at the Boys & Girls Club of Highland Park– Jackson said that hearing that exact phrase today would be a compliment

The walls of the Detroit Athletic Club have stood tall for over a century. Inside them, generations of Detroit’s business elite, power brokers, and policy shapers have gathered, but for far too long, those halls echoed a silence that’s all too familiar—no Black woman had ever been elected to its board of directors. That changed when Kelly Major Green etched her name into Detroit history. This moment didn’t come with fanfare or confetti. It came with quiet power, community intention, and the lived experience of a woman