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| Oct. 30 - Nov. 5, 2019
Roots.
michiganchronicle.com
Domestic Violence Survivor Kelly Mays.
Michigan Domestic Violence Shelters Receive $400,000 From DTE Energy Foundation By Branden Hunter The YWCA of Metropolitan Detroit Interim House, the state’s largest approved domestic violence shelter, along with 43 other shelters across Michigan received grants totaling $400,000 from the DTE Energy Foundation. The money will be allocated by the number of beds each shelter has and can be used for everything from day-to-day operations, to helping provide programming or support services for survivors of domestic violence as they try to establish lives away from their abusers. YWCA of Metropolitan Detroit Interim House
shelters having been isolated both socially and financially, leaving them without a safety net. The grants will help provide critical services from finding employment and permanent housing to opening a bank account. Equally important, these programs help survivors navigate what can be a very complex criminal justice system.” Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious, preventable public health problem that affects millions of Americans. The term “intimate partner violence” describes physical violence, sexual violence, stalking, or psychological harm by a current or former partner or spouse. This type of violence can occur among heterosexual or same-sex couples and does not require sexual intimacy. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, intimate partner violence affects about 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men, leading to stalking, physical violence, rape, and even homicide by a current or former partner or spouse. In Michigan, more than 2,600 survivors may require some form of assistance on a given day.
YWCA of Metropolitan Detroit CEO Emma Peterson.
DTE Electric President Trevor Lauer. has 67 beds and will receive the largest grant. The minimum amount awarded will be $5,000. DTE Energy Foundation President Lynette Dowler, DTE Electric President and board member of the DTE Foundation Trevor Lauer and Michigan Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist announced the gift at the YWCA of Metropolitan Detroit Interim House during National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
Michigan Lt Governor Garlin Gilchrist.
“These grants will help thousands of people fleeing from violence, including more than 5,000 children, with both emergency housing and support services to help rebuild their lives,” said Lauer. “Survivors often arrive at
YWCA of Metropolitan Detroit Interim House executive director, Emma Peterson, deals with stories of domestic violence on a daily basis. Her center has 20 women and 42 children, and said the money will be put to good use there. “We provide a number of services here at YWCA of Metropolitan Detroit Interim House and the money will be used to expand those services, in terms of providing transportation for women who may not have the means and any of our other client services,” said Peterson. “The types of services that our clients need today are different from what they needed years ago, and we want to make sure we address our clients as a whole.”
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“The Rape of Recy Taylor” Documentary Debuts in Detroit Film Highlights Role Rosa Parks’ involvement in the 1944 Taylor gang rape case By Branden Hunter Rosa Parks’ impact on the Civil Rights Movement began well before December 1, 1955, when she refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala. bus, acting as a catalyst for the Montgomery Bus Boycott and casting her into the spotlight as one of the faces of the Civil Rights Movement. Eleven years prior to her brave stance, she was a field secretary for the NAACP and was sent to investigate the gang rape of sharecropper Recy Taylor in Abbeville, Ala. On September 3, 1944, Taylor, then 24, was walking home from church when a green Chevrolet filled with white men pulled up alongside her. She was kidnapped, driven into the woods, and brutally raped by seven white men who threatened to kill her if she told. Parks interviewed Taylor and sent her report to the NAACP. However, law enforcement officials refused to arrest
those responsible for the kidnapping and rape. Incensed, Parks teamed up with Taylor and the two co-founded the Alabama Committee for Equal Justice, with the goal of assisting black women reclaim their bodies against sexual violence and interracial rape.
Parks aided in her defense, and the history of racial violence, particularly against women, in the postwar South. The screening will be held on Wednesday, October 30, from 6-10 p.m. at the Wayne State University Law School Spencer M. Partrich Auditorium.
In honor of Parks and Taylor’s heroism, and Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October, the SASHA Center and the Rosa Parks Scholarship Foundation have partnered for a special screening of the documentary film, “The Rape of Recy Taylor” – the film inspired by the book, “At the Dark End of the Street” by author Danielle McGuire. The film looks at the 1944 gang rape of Taylor, how
Tickets for the event are $20 for general admission and $40 for general admission with a signed copy of “At the Dark End of the Street.” Proceeds from the event will benefit both the Rosa Parks Scholarship Foundation and SASHA Center. “We wanted to team up for Domestic Violence Awareness Month to both highlight the work of the SASHA Center
and the vulnerability of women of color in situations like sexual violence and domestic assault,” said McGuire, who wrote her book in 2010. “We also wanted to highlight Rosa Parks’ history as an anti-rape activist throughout her life. That becomes clear in this documentary and through the Recy Taylor story.” Following the film that will be screened for the first time in Detroit, a panel of local advocates will discuss its impact. The panel will include Kalimah Johnson, executive director, SASHA Center; Kym Worthy, Wayne County prosecutor; Kim Trent, board president, Rosa Parks Scholarship Foundation; Danielle McGuire; and Omari Barksdale, male group facilitator, SASHA Center. One of the rapists, Hugo Wilson, confessed to the rape and named six other men involved: Dillard York, Billy Howerton, Herbert Lovett, Luther Lee, Joe Culpepper and Robert Gamble. None of
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