313 Legends

Donald Goines was born to a Catholic, middle-class Black family in Detroit in the early 20th century.

A man of humble beginnings, he discovered his love of writing early while watching the comings and goings at the laundry his parents ran – an upbringing that would lead to him having a major impact on Black Street literature in his adult years.

His work isn’t glamorous.

They’re stories of survival, betrayal, addiction, and above all else…the resilience of the human spirit.

Erika Erickson is a native of Canton Township who graduated from Wayne State University before transitioning into broadcast journalism at WJBK-Fox 2, where she covered everything from breaking news to groundbreaking human-interest stories.

Her reporting is empathetic, human, and deeply rooted in her own lived experiences, which provide her with a degree of empathy she carries with her into all the stories she reports on.

Chuck Stokes may be a native of Cleveland, but that doesn’t make the impact he’s had on Detroit any less important.

From civic activism to newsroom commentary, he has helped shape how Detroiters view themselves on one of the state of Michigan’s longest-running public affairs programs (Spotlight on the News) and is a frequent guest and panelist on statewide shows such as PBS’s “Off the Record.”

Native Detroit author and journalist Bill McGraw has spent decades shedding light on Detroit’s hidden stories and creating new platforms for civic reporting.

He doesn’t just cover Detroit news.

He lives inside it, unearthing that which others have forgotten.

For over three decades, he served as a city-desk reporter, deputy metro editor, sportswriter, columnist, and foreign correspondent at the Detroit Free Press, as well as a freelancer.

He also worked as a teacher, educating a new generation of journalists while helping to build new media forms with a strong foundation in Detroit.

Highly acclaimed in his field, his work has appeared in esteemed national publications such as the Washington Post, Newsweek, and The New York Times.

Karen Dumas is a proud Detroit native whose career spans broadcast media, city government, entrepreneurship, and public relations.

Known as a fearless leader who is never afraid of holding those in power accountable, Dumas started her professional life early when she served as Press Secretary for Highland Park and Director of Public Information at the young age of 24.

From there, she launched her own communications firm, Images & Ideas, Inc., which specialized in branding, media relations, and strategic messaging.

The firm helped pad out her public profile, leading to her being appointed Chief of Communications & External Affairs for Detroit under Mayor Dave Bing.

It was a role that put Dumas right at the forefront of community messaging, external stakeholder engagement, and public relations in an era rife with controversy.

Acting as a visible bridge between city hall officials and everyday Detroiters, Dumas stood strong even in the face of immense blowback, putting in hard work to combat immense criticism and lawsuits before eventually returning to her private practice.

Legendary author, Charlie LeDuff, was born in Virginia but raised in Livonia, Michigan.

A man with a complex lineage (part Native American / Sault Ste. Marie Chippewa, part French), he has never been afraid of crossing boundary lines and speaking truth to power.

He doesn’t just cover the news.

He dives into it headfirst, dragging Detroit’s forgotten stories back to the forefront even in the face of immense public scrutiny.

If you were to turn on a television in Detroit in the early 1960s, you would have seen something unprecedented in American broadcast history: a black woman delivering the weather.

That woman was Trudy Haynes, and her presence was revolutionary.

She wasn’t merely reading temperatures and forecasts – she was rewriting the rules of who belonged on television – and doing so with professionalism, poise, and undeniable charisma.

Tawana “Honeycomb” Petty is a Detroit-born mother and community organizer best known for her work in surveillance reform, youth advocacy, data justice, and cultural practice.

Deeply creative, she utilizes her writing, poetry, civic leadership skills, and organizing to challenge mainstream narratives around surveillance, data extraction, digital equity, and expression.

Two of her biggest accomplishments include:
· Actively challenging Detroit’s “Project Green Light” surveillance program, exposing how facial recognition and video surveillance disproportionately impact Black communities more than any other
· The Our Data Bodies project, which supports communities in resisting harmful data collection practices.

Petty is a trusted leader in her community who has served as National Organizing Director for Data for Black Lives, Director of Policy & Advocacy for the Algorithmic Justice League, and as Data Justice Director for the Detroit Community Technology Project.

Beloved Detroit WDIV-Local 4 anchor Rhonda Walker was born in Detroit and spent a large part of her youth in Lansing before going on to earn a degree in Communications from Michigan State University.

From there, she got her start in journalism as an anchor for WJBK-Fox 2 Detroit before continuing on to WDIV-Local 4 in 2003, a position she still holds today.

Born in Japan to military parents, Desiree Cooper is a Detroit-based journalist whose body of work spans everything from literature to media and law, all with razor-sharp insight and the deep empathy that only comes along with lived experience.

She isn’t just a reporter of stories; she is a translator of power, one capable of shining a light on structural power and human consequence in equal measure – often through the lens of womanhood, motherhood, and what it means to be Black in a city like Detroit.

Although born and raised in Southern California, author Angela Flournoy has deep ties to her father’s birthplace of Detroit, which she regularly visited during her childhood.

These visits and the city’s unique cultural footprint had a significant impact on her early life, which would later be a major influence on her work.

As a young adult, she attended the University of Southern California and later attended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she focused on her love of fiction, writing, and social awareness.

Michigan native Anna Clark was born on the west side of the state and raised in St. Joseph.

Best known for her piercing investigative writing on America’s fallen civic infrastructure in cities like Detroit and Flint, Anna is one of Michigan’s most heralded narrative journalists and non-fiction storytellers – a master of unearthing fault lines and speaking truth to power.

Detroit native Brittany Rhodes is an educator who created a subscription box and programming service called Black Girl MATHgic to help Black girls build greater confidence with math, reduce their anxiety in the classroom, and progress in STEM fields.

The groundwork for her mission was laid early.

Her mother was also an educator, and Brittany went on to attend Spelman College, where she acquired a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics before later completing her MBA at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business.

There, she got involved in the community by tutoring younger students in mathematics, realizing that a lack of foundational skills would lead to anxiety and have a negative effect on their academics.