â â§â§â§â§ >> just ahead on american blackjournal, it's one of the most comprehensive projects everundertaken to assess blighted properties in detroit.we'll talk about the findings of the detroitblight removal task force. plus, 98-year-old detroitactivist grace lee boggs is the subject of anew pbs documentary. we'll have a preview andlearn about a new detroit
school that bears her name.stay with us. at dte, we believe we have agreater responsibility, that being part of acommunity means being involved in the fabric of that communityof the investing time, resources in the communities we serve.a proud sponsor of american black journal.â§â§ â§â§>> welcome to american black journal.i'm stephen henderson. recently, the detroit blightremoval task force revealed
its plan and recommendationsto get rid of blight in the city of detroit.the comprehensive plan is titled, "every neighborhoodhas a future, and it doesn't include blight."it's based on eight months of research and data collection,which included surveying every structure and vacantlot in the city of detroit. we're talking about a139-square mile area with 380,000 real estate parcels.based on its findings, the task force believes that allblight in detroit can be
removed in five years or less.joining us today is the co-chair of the detroit blight removaltask force, dr. glenda price, president of the detroitpublic schools foundation. welcome to americanblack journal. >> thank you.glad to be with you. >> just the numbers inthat little intro there are mind scrambling.1399 square miles. 380,000 real estate parcels.everybody who has been to detroit knows the widespreadwith blight we have and yet
you think five years youcan get rid of all of it? >> absolutely.because we have recommended a strategy where by therelook like multiple phases to this project and there will be aconcentration of remove y'all in particular geographies soif you're demolishing certain properties, renovating others,cleaning up blight in vacant lots, you're going to be able totackle the community and get it done in a very efficient way.>> yeah. five years, though isa pretty tight window.
it's taken us 30 years,right, to get to this point. >> we never had this levelof determination or a plan like this before.>> and cooperation. many people have cometo the table to insure that this is going to happen.>> yeah. talk about what it took toget all of this data together and put it in a book.i know there were hundreds and hundreds of peopleinvolved in going out and looking ought all of these.>> absolutely.
when we began our work as a taskforce, we realized that there were lots of estimates aboutthe level of blight within the community and add it becameclear to us early on that we really needed some hard data andso the decision was made to contract with technologies anddata driven detroit to do a parcel by parcel survey of thecity so every single parcel was surveyed and there were morethan 150 surveyors that were on the street where their littlecameras and pads and they looked at the condition ofevery structure and every lot.
when i say the condition,of course this was an external survey.they did not go inside but we now have a database that tellsus where the blight is, what is the extent that have blight andaround that, you could infact then develop the plan.>> right. right.and so the plan talks about you know, targeting sort of areaswhere -- the plan does not talk about specific targeted areas.what the plan does is to help those making thosedecisions about which
house us to come down.the plan makes recommendations for strategy, for how toapproach the decision making, to look the at the tipping pointneighborhoods as just one example and a tipping pointneighborhood is a neighborhood where there are blightindicators and you want that neighborhood not to tipcompletely into a blighted structure so you might wantto invest there first to indeed revitalize a community.>> yeah. the title of the report,every neighborhood has a future
and it doesn't include blight aplay on the slogan the mayor used during the campaign and iused to snipe at him a little bit when he said that.i felt like it's a little bit like overpromising.every neighborhood has a future but i've come tothink that have differently. not the same future but thatit doesn't here have in doesn't include blight.>> once the blight is removed, then that neighborhood hasthe ability to determine in a variety of ways howit will be revitalized.
in some neighbors theremay in fact be new houses. in other neighborhoods, it'sgoing to be green space. and in other neighborhoods theremight be light industry. but and our recommendation isthat a system of input by individuals who remain in thoseneighborhoods, that they be brought into the process to talkabout what is their own future. >> what do they want to do forthemselves and where they live. and removing the blight isreally the first step. >> that's the first step.exactly right.
>> i have spent some timerecently over in the area that john hants is working on theeast side and they're just planting trees right now butthey're also removing all of the brush and the trash and all ofthese things off the lots and when you take all that away,it's amazing what you find in these neighborhoods.>> totally different impression and image of not only thecurrently neighborhood but what is possible.>> what could be there. >> what could be there.you can think differently
about it and i jokingly said tosomeone, you know, we have a lot of people who take trips to ohioto go to the amusement park. wouldn't it be fun if we hadone right here in detroit, build our own amusement park?i mean, it was a joke when i said it but i think whatthat says is that everything is on the table.>> yeah, we can do anything. >> question do anything but wehave to start by removing the burnt out structures, cleaningthe lots that have been dumped on and once that happens, theother thing we have to do is
make certain that the neighborsin those neighborhoods take control of their neighborhoodand prevent the dumping that has occurred in the past and nolonger allow individuals to come into their community andrecreate the kind of blight that has happened in the past.>> right. right.maintenance of this effort would seem to be a big part of it.you can tear down a house and you do that once and it is gone.but taking care of a lot so that it doesn't become overgrownor that people don't dump
there is sort ofongoing and constant challenge. >> it is and one of ourrecommendations is that there would be a planting ofappropriate grasses and greenery that would diminishor minimize the overgrowth that could indeed take place.but the dumping is a people issue, not a natural issue.>> right. right.how does it dovetail with detroit future city, the bigblue print that we have? >> well, and that blue print isaround what i define
as the second phase.what next? what comes into thoseneighborhoods once the blight is removed?and so, in our work, we indeed looked at the future cityplan and realized there is absolutely no conflict.what we believe we're doing again is phase one, removing theblight so that the future city plan can infact be implemented.>> take root. >> exactly.>> if i live in bright more or southwest, how soon would inotice the results of
this plan taking place?>> well, i can't speak to those specific neighborhoods but i cansay that the work of demolition and deconstruction and theremoval of -- deconstruction and the removal of debris and lotshas begun and people are already noticing and people are thankingus in our work and of course we take the thanks though wedidn't do it but going forward, it's the detroit land bank thatis going to be making those decisions aboutwhere and how fast. and of course how fastwill depend to some
degree on financing.the first three years of financing we believe is secured.that's pending of course the bankruptcy.>> talking about price tag, ballpark?>> for the total cost? $850 million.>> almost a billion dollars. >> yes.and if you put into that then the large industrialsights, it's over a billion. >> that is what i wasgoing to ask you. 30 second left but this ismostly about residential.
>> this is mostly aboutresidential and small commercials.>> we have a big problem in detroit with industriallarge and small. >> exactly.that is a different issue. and thankfully, the city isbeginning to address it. but this particularreport does not deal with that. >> okay.well, there's a great work. about time we got to this point.>> yes. development it make you feelgood?
we're moving forward.>> we're headed in the right direction.thanks for being here. >> thank you.>> just ahead on american black journal, for seven decades,grace lee boggs has been a leader in the civil rights,labor and black power movements. now, she's the inspirationfor a documentary and a new detroit school.that's next, right after this look at some important momentsin detroit's black history. >> i'm ken colemanwith a look back.
this week in 1996, thefirst black woman in michigan to become a certifiedpublic accountant died at the age of 48.in 1975 at the age of 36, dr. arthur jefferson becamethe first black man to serve as detroit public schoolssuperintendent and in 1922, keith was born in detroit,a celebrated court of appeals judge.significant events taken from the book on the day africanamerican live in detroit. >> the michigan women's hall offame in lansing is currently
honoring six women who displayedtremendous courage during the civil rights movement.longtime detroit activist, writer and philosopher grace leeboggs is one of the inductees. she's also the subject of a pbsdocumentary that airs on this station tomorrow night at 10:00.it's called "american revolutionary: the evolution ofgrace lee boggs." here's a sneak peek.>> i feel so sorry for people who are not living in detroit.â§â§ â§â§>> people always striving for
size, to be a giant and this isa symbol of how giants fall. >> keep recognizing that realityis changing, that your ideas have to change.don't get stuck in old ideas. >> has made more contributionsto the black struggle than most about black people have.>> how did you become a philosopher?>> i'll go back 70 years. i'm not sure why i am who i am.i think it does have something to do with the fact that i wasborn female and chinese. >> folks didn't think aboutgrace as a chinese american.
she was grace.you know, she was just one of us.>> i think the light bulb goes on often in conversationswith people and we don't pay attention to it.>> i would find it very difficult to take.that talk was not cheap. god, yes, she made all kinds ofpeople cry, myself included. >> grace, how would you describewhere we stand now? >> one of the difficulties whenyou're coming out of oppression is that you geta concept of the messiah.
you have to get to that pointthat we are the leaders. we are the children.i don't know what the next american revolution will be likebut we might be able to imagine it if youimagination is rich enough. >> last year, a charter schoolnamed after grace and her late husband, james, opened ondetroit's east side. students at the boggs school aretaught to become critical thinkers who are committed tomaking detroit a better place. two members of theschool's board of
directors are here today.please welcome board president dr. lumas helaire, who isdirector of the "gear up" program at the university ofmichigan, and board member alice jennings, a civil rights lawyerand longtime friend of grace and jimmy boggs.thanks for joining us on american black journal.>> thank you. >> so the school sounds like agreat place and a place that is going to maybe produce the nextgrace lee boggs, right? is that the point?>> that is the point
of the school.with the student though, first of all, i have to say thatthe students are beautiful. they are curious, imaginativeand they come to us that way after school.and so we really do believe that in the students that come to ourschool, we're building leaders that can leaddetroit into the future that we know detroit can be.we're very excited about the students that come to us.they come from different parts of the city and 50%of the students come
from the neighborhoodthat we're in currently. >> is that right?and the exact neighborhood is where?>> on the east side of detroit so near gratiot and mack.>> a pretty hard hit part of the city.>> yeah. >> yeah.>> so it's a pretty hard hit -- i assume you're talkingabout in terms of economics? >> yeah, a part of the citywhere someone like grace lee boggs, that her workwould have been centered.
>> right.that's part of the reason for the location of the school.when we looked at schools, we looked at the eastside of detroit. we initially looked atallen view village but we couldn't find a building.we wanted to make sure we looked at a space where there wasn'tmany schools close in the area doing the work we were doing sowe were intentional about being on the east side ofdetroit and being in a community that didn't have asmany resources as other places.
>> sure.sure. i think if you say the namegrace lee boggs around detroit, many most people have some ideaabout who you're talking about but you often think they don'treally know what the work she did and used to do means andsort of i think there's a lot of context missing.>> ies. grace lee boggs as well asher late husband james boggs, for grace, she's beeninvolved now nor 60 years. tomorrow she turns99 years young.
she's still with usand still on the case. so, grace has historically indetroit meant a lot to the african american communityand all people, really. starting in the 1950s,grace was involved with some of the leading civil rightsthinkers of her time, reverend clay, franklin.she was involved with the 1963 march down woodward.where martin luther king gave the first i have a dream speech.she was an organizer there. she has organized aroundeducation, violence with save
our sons and daughters.she and jimmy helped create detroit summer which becamesimilar to the civil rights movement where we're nowcelebrating 50 years of freedom summer but we had detroitsummers for many years and that brought people infrom all over the country. >> right.>> julia putnam is the first person who signed upfor detroit summer. and she is now theprincipal of the school. >> there's a direct connectionwith the nurturement that
occurred with grace's leadershipand jimmy's leadership and so many of the folks withthe school have had connections. >> yeah.yeah. you know, i wonder at theschool, what kinds of things are you talking to the kidsabout that are civil rights issues today?i mean it's very different now than it was 30 or 40 years ago.but of course there are still very big issues.what are the kind of things that kids today might think ofcivil rights challenges?
>> so i think one of the thingsto remember is that the students are, the school is k4.very little kids. talking about social justiceand rights issues may sound different than it would soundwith adults or adolescents. i think one of the things ithink about at the school at this level, we speak to kidsabout what it means to connects with one another.so, building community among the students, so not necessarilyspeaking directly about social justice and social rights issuesbut introducing them to the
notion of thinking about what isour role and responsibility to one another and to community.the curriculum for the school is placed education.all of the learning for all the disciplines for math, science,ecology is connected to leashing about the community andfiguring out how can we contribute to the community.for example, students can go around, walk around thecommunity and do an asset map, something they'vebeen working toward. you go around the community andyou basically as you learn about
maps and topography, you learnabout what are the different places an different typesof institutions we have in our community.that later on sets up a decision of what otherthings would you like to see? what should we have.>> how do we get those things. >> not speaking about socialjustice and social activist rights issues from astandpoint of deficit but from them thinkingcreatively and critically around what is possible.>> right.
right.and building that individual character at that young agewhich gives them that self-confidence an identitythat makes you want to stand up for yourself and for others.>> definitely. >> one of the principalsof the boggs school is that we are solutionary.the t-shirt say that on the back of it.for instance, a child, a young child that seesinequality walking through the neighborhood.some homes are nice.
they are homes in theneighborhood that are completely blighted, thereare homes where people live that don't have water.that maybe don't have heat. being involved in knowingthat those children bring that to the classroom.and they want to have discussions like my cousinswater got cut off and they're living with us.why is that? why can't people have water?why isn't it a human right? and so this is, eventhough they're young,
they are very astute.in fact they may see inequality a lot faster than older folks.so ink that is part of the mission but also we knowthat they won't be jimmy boggs or grace lee boggs.they'll be what their times, their community require of them.to move it forward. >> right.right. >> and the term is revolutionaryhumanism and grace's position, when you think of revolution,sometimes you think of destruction but in the termsof revolutionary humanism
or revolutionnary love ofcommunity, the beloved community, all of theseconcepts are seeped into the framework there.>> right. right.in the film clip we watched, you say grace boggs talking aboutthe election of president obama in 2009 and how you know wealways seem to be looking for some sort of messiah and thatincreasingly we really need to be the captains, theleaders of our own movement. that's got to be a verydifficult thing sort of
come to terms with withlittle kids, right? >> you know, you would haveto say i'm not sure. i would think it would beeasier for kids to come to terms with it.i think the notion that there can only be one is somethingtaught to kids rather than something theycome up with on their own. when you think about buildingcommunity and even when they look at the leaders of theschool, you know, the founders of the school, the principals,executive, director, community
director, they are being broughtup in a tradition that is all about theirs, not just one, butthat we all have responsibility and share collectively andwhen you see them interact and support one easts, there isno diffusive responsibility. if one student needsattention, several run over. julia's husband tells thestory of they were outdoing activities with the kids.one of the kids tripped and fell and all of a sudden therewas a rush of bodies over to this one child.they thought what are they
doing and they all werehelping this one child up. they're being brought up inthat tradition that grace has bred in her work that itis about all community members showing up together.>> absolutely. >> you said she'sgoing to be 99. that is a remarkablerun for anybody. what would you say -- wouldyou say the school is the most important part of herlegacy around town? >> grace and i have haddiscussions about this and i
just -- it's funny you shouldraise this but just two weeks ago, i said grace thelegacy of james and grace lee boggs may be over on mitchellstreet because the seeding that is happening there, the lovethat is being given and grown is going to manifest itself maybe10 years from now, 20 years from now and no matter what they do,even if they go to another city, we have grace lee boggs thinkersall over the world now and so, these children are really notthat it's a laboratory or anything like that, but it becertainly is a place, a place
based where children can thrownlove other people and to care about their community.>> a great thought to leave the interview on.thank you guys for being here. >> thank you.>> good luck at the school. >> thanks.>> that's our program for today. thanks for watching.you can get more information about our guests atamericanblackjournal.org. and, as always, connect withus on facebook and twitter. see you next time onamerican black journal.
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