By Steven Malik Shelton Special to The Michigan Citizen Gary White has beaten the odds and proven the doomsayers and naysayers wrong. He was not supposed to make it out the vicious grip of addiction to heroin and crack cocaine. He was supposed to die in some forlorn alley or to subsist as an urban zombie, existing solely on the prospect of another fix or another “high.” When you meet him, it is hard to imag ...

By Charles E. Simmons Special to The Michigan Citizen The KSBC Church was 75 years old this year. When the congregation moved to this site in 1955 it was the first African American church in Detroit to be located on a major street. It became the major community gathering place in this area, known as Northwest Goldberg. The many youth activities herein those days included roller skating, teen dances and a yo ...

By Heidi Ausgood The Michigan Citizen Lewis College of Business, Michigan’s only historically black college, not only continues to change lives in a relatively short period of time, but also serves as a generational bridge within the community. It’s a learning environment in which a matured student is not only welcomed but valued. According to Carl A. King, Director of Admissions, a mature student has a sta ...

Each week “The Way We Were” will feature a photograph from our collective past. Send us your favorite images of friends and family at cabarets, family reunions, school dances or just hanging out. Tell us as much about the photo as you can, names or places. The photos are history — our story. Email all images to editor@michigancitizen.com, mail with self-addressed stamped envelope or visit The Michigan Citiz ...

By Mark Moss Special to the NNPA from the Carolina Peacemaker WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (NNPA) – Renown poet and author Maya Angelou called upon the audience at Mt. Zion Baptist Church to never forget the sacrifices made by the ancestors of African Americans. Describing the abject conditions of a slave ship – “lying spoon fashion…in each other’s excrement and urine” – Angelou added, “Imagine it. We forget it too ...

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – A growing number of companies will have to disclose their past ties to slavery if they want to do business with government units around the nation.Wachovia is the latest firm to acknowledge its past links to slavery. To do business with the city of Chicago, under the 2003 Slavery Era Disclosure Ordinance, it has to disclose whether it had directly or indirectly profited from the 19th cen ...

Annabelle and Fred Herrada of Detroit celebrate their granddaughter’s third birthday, October 12, 1981. ...

Staff report Thirty years ago few people in the city of Detroit had heard about African-Centered Education. However, a growing movement was emerging in churches, schools, and living rooms. Parents and teachers of consciousness wanted something more for the children in the city. There was a desire to reach the essence of who our children are and bridge the gap of the void of African American culture in the t ...

Eleven-year-old Shelton Ray Cochan, III walked away with a $1000 prize in the NBA Live Playstation Tournament for kids and adults. Beating out everyone in his age group and the adults, Cochan not only won the grand prize but the chance for his school to receive a donation from Northern High School graduate and NBA player Derrick Coleman. 100 Yrs. Entertainment sponsored the event along with Coleman, who als ...

By Steven Malik Shelton Special to The Michigan Citizen The Black community and family have historically provided protection as well as physical and spiritual nourishment for Black people in America. Throughout the ordeal of slavery and the economic fluctuations and social upheaval of modern times, it has proven itself as an institution of Black life. Today, pundits give a dire assessment of this most endur ...