Mural by Christopher Mapp

The February 20th and 27th sessions of Detroit 2020: People, Power and Politics will be held at the newly opened General Baker Institute located at 15798 Livernois Ave. (Just north of M-10/Lodge Fwy). This Thursday’s session is entitled, “Radical Politics in the Postwar Era” and will include remarks and discussion with Detroiters, including: Angela Dillard (UM Political Science professor), Steve Babson (Labor historian), and - invited - Jamon Jordan (Detroit historian). The session on February 27th is entitled, “Black Power and Politics in Detroit,” and speakers include: Marian Kramer and Maureen Taylor of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, Charles Simmons of Hush House, and Wayne Curtis of Feedom Freedom. 

The General Baker Institute (GBI) - named in honor of the late, great Detroit organizer and activist, General Gordon Baker, Jr. (1941-2014) - has been sponsoring educational programming for several years about Detroit’s rich legacies of black liberation and labor movement struggles and their connections to contemporary community organizing. The GBI will house the Institute as well as become the new home for the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization and other community-based organizing efforts. In addition, when fully-outfitted, the GBI will include an activist-library, print-shop, and both small/large group meeting spaces. 


For more information about the General Baker Institute check out their Facebook Page, or contact Carolyn Baker at: ccwbaker@gmail.com.