
The Rev. Charles Hill, pastor of Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit and a major figure in the American labor movement.
Black History Month 2025 highlights “African Americans and Labor”
FEBRUARY 2025—The founders of this special nationwide emphasis—The Association of for the Study of African American Life and History—is calling on all Americans to learn more this February about the many roles African-Americans played in the movement to protect and empower American workers. One way you can do that right now is by watching two videos—just a total of 10 minutes—about the role of the Rev. Charles Hill, the prophetic leader who brought together the influence of the African-American church and the power of the emerging labor movement for justice and inclusion.
These videos were produced by the Making Tracks nonprofit in Detroit, which is part of the larger MotorCities National Heritage Area.
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Care to learn more?
THIS WEEK, JOE GRIMM, founding director of the Michigan State University School of Journalism Bias Busters, has also written a column … (describe and link to what Joe writes) …
A HELPFUL GATEWAY TO FEDERALLY FUNDED RESOURCES—from the National Park Services to the Smithsonian—is hosted collectively by BlackHistoryMonth.gov where you’ll find easy links to a half dozen other major repositories of information, images and other historical records.
PLUS, NEARLY 20 MORE DOCUMENTARY VIDEOS focusing on Detroit’s connections between African Americans and the labor movement are indexed on this page within the Making Tracks website.

Click on the cover to visit the book’s Amazon page. (This is just one of many books we publish about peacemaking and overcoming our legacy of racism.)
Since 2007, our online magazine and our parent, Front Edge Publishing, have produced fair, accurate and balanced news about religious, cultural and racial diversity. We have published a series of books by international peacemaker Daniel L. Buttry that include inspiring stories of men and women (and even some children) who risked standing up for justice on behalf of their neighbors, despite bigotry.
We publish Friendship & Faith, a collection of true stories from women who courageously crossed boundaries of religion, culture and race to discover new friends on the other side of their often difficult journeys.
The Black Knight is the memoir of the oldest living African American graduate of West Point.
The work of Dr. Anni Reinking explores complex issues of multi-racial families as described in her wise and inspiring, Not Just Black and White. That link takes you to our 2019 coverage of the launch of Anni’s book. Then, in 2020, Anni followed up in our magazine by writing a two-part series for us: First, she wrote, “Dr. Anni Reinking reminds us it’s ‘Not Just Black and White’.” Then, she added a sidebar headlined: “Dr. Anni Reinking on ‘What can I do now?’” That story includes a list of practical ideas for readers.
Perhaps our most ambitious series of all is co-produced with the Michigan State University School of Journalism Bias Busters. That series includes a number of books about racial diversity, including one on African Americans and one on the Black Church.
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