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Michigan Chronicle Vol. 85 – No. 24 | February 16-22, 2022

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Black Life Expectancy Continues to Decline By Kimberly Hayes Taylor Life Expectancy Declined in Black Neighborhoods, study says The new report claims residents of Black-majority communities live four years less than the national average since the pandemic began. Life expectancy for people who live in Black-majority neighborhoods declined by at least four years in 2020—largely due to COVID-19, a recent study by the Brookings Institution says. The report also indicates for that neighborhoods with at least a 10 percent Black population, life expectancy declined by 4.1 years, neighborhoods of less than 1 percent Black population have a higher life expectancy by about one year, with the national average of 78.7 years. COVID-19 reportedly has killed Black people at double the rate of whites, but health inequities didn’t begin when the coronavirus spread across the United States. Experts say it only illuminated the stark racial health disparities that already existed for African Americans. Doctors, public health officials, health researchers, activists and policy makers are grappling with how to address the social determinants of health that are believed to be driving the unequal death toll of Black people, further decreasing the years they can expect to live. Those determinants include factors such as food insecurity, transportation issues, living conditions, cultural beliefs and habits due to race and ethnicity that influence patients’ lives long before they enter the health care system. Lead study author Andre M. Perry said experts continually cite that Black people are dying at higher rates from COVID due to “preexisting” health conditions, but that analysis side steps “the preexisting conditions of structural racism” that force people into social situations that also reduce the quality of life and longevity. “We know that wealth and income predict life expectancy, as well,” Perry, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. “So, if we’re really going to improve the quality of life of Black people in this country, we have to acknowledge the structures that erode wealth and opportunities for African Americans and how they play themselves out in worse health outcomes and certainly lower life [expectancy].” When compared to their white counterparts, African Americans generally are at higher risk for conditions such as heart disease, kidney disease, stroke, cancer, influenza and HIV/AIDS, according to the Office of Minority Health, a division of the U.S. Department of

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Detroit's Role In Black History By Megan Kirk Detroit’s relationship with slavery, for many, is unknown. However, the city played a pivotal role in the fight for freedom. With its close proximity to a free foreign land, Detroit was a key stopping point for the Underground Railroad. Through faith, education and camaraderie, slaves were able to cross the Detroit River into Canada, thus obtaining permanent freedom. The city’s history is typically composed of stories of automobiles, music and financial struggles, but its roots extend far beyond the more “modern” parts of Detroit’s 320-yearold story. Established July 24, 1701, Detroit’s foundation is as rooted in slavery as the cotton fields of Georgia or in the sugarcane of Louisiana. “One thing that people don’t necessarily know is that Detroit was home to enslaved people into the 1830’s. The city had an enslaved population. It wasn’t large like the South, but over the 1700s into the 1800s it wasn’t tiny. At one point, 25 percent of Detroit households owned someone,” said Billy Wall-Winkle, field curator for the Detroit Historical Society. Unlike the South, Detroit did not have plantations, but slaves were used for domestic work. Typically trained as shopkeepers and house servants, slavery in the city, in some ways was less severe. A unique aspect Detroit offered unlike any other was its closeness to Canada.

Just across the Detroit River, slavery was frowned upon as Canadian provinces and territories began to implement their own laws to abolish slavery. Ontario, in particular, passed an act in 1793 to end slavery. American slave owners were also forbidden to cross waters to apprehend runaways. “One of the major reasons why Detroit is so significant in the Underground Railroad is its close proximity to a foreign nation, to another country. A country that ended slavery before the United States and it’s a country where the United States Fugitive Slave Law did not apply,” said Jamon Jordan, Detroit historian and founder of Black Scroll Network History and Tours. The Underground Railroad was comprised of freed Blacks and others who assisted in ushering slaves to free land. Many white abolitionists were credited for helping to free slaves. Yet, little is known about the Black figures who acted as conductors or stationmasters, ran safe houses and were agents on the freedom train. Detroit was no different. William Lambert, a key fixture in Detroit’s Underground Railroad, was just one of the conductors on the city’s train to freedom. The successful businessman played many roles, including helping to fund freedom. George DeBaptiste, a free Black man who owned a steamboat helping slaves cross the river, is credited for establishing two secret societies, Colored Vigilant Committee and The Order of the Men of Oppression, that functioned alongside the Underground Railroad. “When we talk about the Underground Railroad, the focus is on white abolitionists and they are important and they are to be understood and studied, but they are not the foundation. The leadership,

the organizers, the main planners of what goes on [in] the Underground Railroad; the main people doing that are freed black people,” said Jordan. These, along with many others, used Detroit’s resources to obtain freedom and to help others do the same. Historical markers are still present in current-day Detroit and serve as reminders of the fight for freedom. Several churches were pivotal on the road to heaven, a term slaves used to refer to Canada. Serving as the headquarters and heartbeat of the Underground Railroad was Second Baptist church. Bethel A.M.E Church and St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, all standing today, also served as safe houses along the Underground Railroad. “You’ve got Black churches -- faith and freedom go hand-in-hand for Black people in the 1800s -- these are the same thing. So, Black people starting churches are the same Black people who are helping people escape slavery,” said Jordan. The well-documented escape of Thornton and Lucie Blackburn is tucked in Detroit’s history. Fleeing from Kentucky to escape Lucie being sold into the south as a ‘’fancy girl,” the couple made it into Ohio and then Detroit. The Blackburns were arrested after Thornton was spotted by a white man he formerly worked with in Kentucky. Tried under the Fugitive Slave Act and sentenced to a life of servitude, two women broke into Lucie’s jail cell and used the city’s Underground Railroad to help her reach the Promised Land. “Tabitha Lightfoot and Caroline French, they went to visit her in jail, the sheriff let them in and when they went to leave, Tabitha Lightfoot changed her clothes with Lucie Blackburn and they

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Mayor Announces Program to Reduce Basement Backups in Flood Prone Neighborhoods Mayor Mike Duggan and Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) Director Gary Brown announced the Basement Backup Protection Program, an up to $15 million initiative to assist residential homeowners in protecting their property during rainstorms by installing a backwater valve and/or sump pump. Homeowner occupants and landlords in 11 identified neighborhoods are eligible to apply today for the program, which is being paid for with a portion of the city’s share of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds. “Last year’s massive rainstorm overwhelmed the sewer system, and in turn identified two areas we need to work on together,” said Mayor Duggan. “First, how can we make the sewer system more climate resilient and secondly, in the near term how can we help homeowners in flood prone areas protect their property. The Detroit Future Fund has created that opportunity for Detroiters right now.” In response to increasingly frequent and severe weather events experienced last summer, DWSD Director Brown, spoke with the Mayor, as well as with other cities and

tion,” said Brown. Who is eligible?

experts. DWSD began designing a program that provides protection to residential homeowners in Detroit neighborhoods that have historically experienced basement backups during large rain events. “The Basement Backup Protection Program builds on the successes we’ve seen with programs in Windsor, New Jersey and Washington, DC and refines it for what we believe will work in Detroit. Rather than a reimbursement-based subsidy program where homeowners get their own plumber, our program provides the complete services from plumber selection to inspection to installa-

Owners of occupied single-family houses, two-family flats and duplexes are eligible to apply if they are in the identified neighborhoods. The pilot, or Phase 1, will launch this spring. This phase will be in the Aviation Sub and Victoria Park neighborhoods, which were the hardest hit with basement backups and flooding during the June 25-26, 2021 rain event, as well as other rainstorms. Phase 2, which will begin this summer, will be in Barton-McFarland, Chadsey Condon, Cornerstone Village, East English Village, Garden View, Jefferson Chalmers, Morningside, Moross-Morang and Warrendale. These neighborhoods were identified based on DWSD service requests for basement backups and claims. Basement Backup Protection Program Map for Phases 1 and 2 The city is prepared to pay up to $6,000

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