Denzel McCampbell on Detroit’s Fight for Equity

“Poverty is a choice to allow that to go on in the city,” says Denzel McCampbell, and that fire fuels this Detroit is Different conversation. In this episode, Khary Frazier sits down with McCampbell—four generations deep in Detroit, raised in the Pershing neighborhood rooted in union jobs and Alabama migration stories—to unpack his run for City Council in District 7. From his mother’s firsthand memories of Selma’s Jim Crow violence to his father’s UAW legacy, McCampbell threads together personal history and public service. He breaks down what it means to organize against environmental racism where factories sit next to family homes, why “our solutions are in our neighborhoods,” and how expanding voting rights and fighting disinformation are extensions of Detroit’s long struggle for self-determination. This isn’t just campaign talk; it’s a vision of Detroit’s past and future colliding—one that calls back to Mayor Coleman Young’s political movement while looking ahead to what equitable development and true public safety could mean for Black Detroit today. Whether you lived through Eyes on the Prize on PBS or you’re just waking up to how policies shape your block, this is a powerful sit-down that roots politics in people and legacy.