Site aims at preserving Detroit’s civil rights history

Detroit – An activist and a researcher are launching a website aimed at preserving the stories of Detroit’s civil rights movement.

The online historical and educational resource is called Rise Up Detroit. It represents the efforts of Junius Williams, founder of Rise Up North, and Peter Blackmer, a project researcher and research fellow at Wayne State University’s Detroit Equity Action Lab.

Rise Up Detroit is scheduled to officially launch with a kickoff event May 14 at Wayne State’s David Adamany Undergraduate Library. The program is expected to include a discussion with civil rights veterans and experts.

The university says in a release Rise Up North was created to share “black freedom struggles” in the major urban centers of the northern U.S. The Detroit effort follows one in Newark, New Jersey, where the project began.