Detroit is Different

  • Latest episode: “Raised by Grandparents, Led by Purpose: James White’s Detroit Story”
  • Latest episode: “One Detroit, Real Detroit: Portia Powell on Banking with Heart”
  • Latest episode: “Black Mothers Deserve More: Leseliey Welch on Birth Justice in Detroit”

  • Latest episode: “Raised by Grandparents, Led by Purpose: James White’s Detroit Story”
  • Latest episode: “One Detroit, Real Detroit: Portia Powell on Banking with Heart”
  • Latest episode: “Black Mothers Deserve More: Leseliey Welch on Birth Justice in Detroit”

“My dad quietly made some very significant contributions… he brought Rosa Parks to Detroit for the first time.” In this powerful episode of Detroit is Different, Khary Frazier sits down with Jane Fran Morgan of JFM Consulting Group. As the conversation moves forward, she recounts how her academic wanderings—through sociology and vet science at Michigan State—led her to urban planning and community-driven data work. The heart of the episode pulses in her help brinbging to life the Neighborhood Vitality Index: a Detroit-born tool designed by residents, for residents—measuring safety, housing quality, upward mobility, and community pride. Advocating for neighborhood voices in policy conversations, Jane weaves together personal narrative and professional purpose, showing how data becomes power only when the people shape it. This interview is essential listening for anyone invested in the soul of Legacy Black Detroit—and in what it takes to heal and rebuild through culture, connection, and collective data-driven action.