2023 BMCC Speaker Lineup

Angela Davis

Social Equality Activist and Author

Wednesday, May 10th | 2:45 pm - 3:30 pm

Angela Davis was born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1944. Angela was exposed to both racism and activism at an early age. Birmingham was one of the most racially segregated cities in the country.

Angela’s neighborhood was nicknamed “Dynamite Hill” because the Ku Klux Klan often attacked the homes of Black residents with bombs. Speaking out about civil rights in Birmingham was incredibly dangerous. But Angela’s mother refused to stay silent. She participated in a communist-based Black civil rights organization.

As a high school junior, Angela participated in a program that paired Black students from the South with white families in the North. The goal was to integrate northern schools and connect more white Northerners to the Southern Black experience. Angela lived with a family in Greenwich Village, New York City. The school she attended was very progressive and reinforced the values instilled in Angela by her parents. She joined the school’s communist youth group.

Angela earned a scholarship to study French Literature at Brandeis University in Massachusetts. After graduation, she studied in Germany and completed a PhD in philosophy. Upon returning to the United States, she became involved in the civil rights movement. She believed racism and capitalism were dangers to American justice. Angela was drawn to the work of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Black Panther Party. While Angela was interested in their commitment to civil rights and Black Power, she did not fully agree with their policies. She was concerned about the divisions between male and female members. She felt that male leaders expected women to stay in the background and not lead.

Angela appreciated that the Communist Party was more welcoming to women and focused on ending capitalism. Although she willingly collaborated with Black Panther members, she took on a leadership role within a local chapter of the Communist Party.

In 1969, Angela became a professor of philosophy at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Governor of California Ronald Reagan learned about Angela’s political connections and pressured the university to fire her. Supported by many of her colleagues and students, Angela fought back. She took her case to court. The Supreme Court of California ruled Angela could not be banned for party affiliation. However, several months later, the university found another reason to fire her. They claimed that her comments in recent speeches were too politically incendiary.

Around the same time that Angela lost her job, she became involved in the Soledad Brothers Defense Committee. The Soledad Brothers were three Black inmates at Soledad Prison charged with the murder of a white prison guard. The committee sought to raise funds and awareness in support of the three accused men.

 

Interviewer: Kim Trent

As Deputy Director for Prosperity for the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO), Kim Trent is charged with guiding and building support for efforts to boost the economic mobility and security of Michigan citizens through public policy, strategic initiatives, programming and partnerships. Trent leads LEO’s prosperity division, which includes the Sixty by 30 initiative, the Michigan High Speed Internet Office (MI HI), the Michigan Women’s Commission, MI-STEM Council, Office of Global Michigan and Michigan Community Service Commission. Her portfolio of leadership duties also includes serving as the key staffer to the Michigan Poverty Task Force and Black Leadership Advisory Council and as the equity and inclusion officer for LEO.

A former newspaper reporter, Trent’s career has included leadership roles on the staffs of former Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow and former Michigan Governor Jennifer M. Granholm. In 2012, more than two million Michigan voters elected her to serve on the Wayne State University Board of Governors. She served on the body from 2013 until 2019.

She has had leadership roles with several nonprofit and civic organizations, including her current service as president of the Rosa Parks Scholarship Foundation. A fifth-generation Michigander, she lives in Detroit with her husband and son.

 

 

Jenny Schuetz

Tuesday, May 9th | 9:00 am - 9:45 am

Jenny Schuetz is a Senior Fellow at Brookings Metro, and is an expert in urban economics and housing policy. Dr. Schuetz has written numerous peer-reviewed journal articles on land use regulation, housing prices, urban amenities, and neighborhood change. Dr. Schuetz has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, the PBS NewsHour, The Indicator podcast, Vox, and Slate.

Dr. Schuetz is the author of Fixer Upper: How to Repair America's Broken Housing Systems.

Topics of recent research include: how statewide zoning reform could improve housing affordability; local strategies to help renters during the COVID-19 crisis; rethinking homeownership incentives to narrow the racial wealth gap; and how housing costs exacerbate economic and racial segregation.

Before joining Brookings, Dr. Schuetz served as a principal economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Dr. Schuetz was also an assistant professor at the University of Southern California and a post-doctoral fellow at NYU Furman. Dr. Schuetz is a nonresident senior fellow at GWU’s Center for Washington Area Studies and teaches in Georgetown’s urban planning program.

Dr. Schuetz earned a PhD in public policy from Harvard University, a master’s in city planning from M.I.T., and a B.A. with Highest Distinction in economics and political and social thought from the University of Virginia.