Tales from the Reuther Library

Tales from the Reuther Library


Rise Up Detroit: Stories from the African American Struggle for Power

July 25, 2019

Dr. Peter Blackmer discusses the launch of Rise Up Detroit (www.riseupdetroit.org), a website documenting the stories of activists in the Civil Rights and Black Power movements in Detroit. The website uses extensive oral history interviews and extensive archival resources from the Walter P. Reuther Library and other archives in the region to teach audiences of all ages about social justice issues through the history of the African American struggle for power. Rise Up Detroit is the second website created as part of “The North: Civil Rights and Beyond in Urban America,” an online educational tool conceived of and produced by lawyer and civil rights activist Junius Williams, Esq. Blackmer is the lead researcher for the Rise Up North project and a Racial Equity Research Fellow at Wayne State University’s Detroit Equity Action Lab. Related Resources Rise Up Detroit Rise Up Newark Related Collections Robert “Buddy” Battle III and Marion Battle Papers James and Grace Lee Boggs Papers Helen Bowers Papers Civil Rights Congress of Michigan Records Kenneth V. and Sheila M. Cockrel Papers Detroit Commission on Community Relations (DCCR) / Human Rights Department Records Detroit Revolutionary Movements Records NAACP Detroit Branch Records New Detroit, Inc. Records Ernest Smith Papers Episode Credits Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English Interviewer: Dan Golodner Interviewee: Peter Blackmer Sound: Troy Eller English With support from the Reuther Podcast Collective: Bart Bealmear, Elizabeth Clemens, Meghan Courtney, Troy Eller English, Dan Golodner, and Paul Neirink