On Saturday, June 22, a group of students will be holding a die-in from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at the Spirit of Detroit (2 Woodward Ave.), calling on Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and President Biden to take action on climate change. The heat, they said in a press release, disproportionately impacts low-income and BIPOC communities in the city and beyond.
"There was a dead body found a few blocks from my house, passed away from the heat. Everyone was acting like it was normal, but I knew that person was someone’s mother … and that it could be mine next,” said Mi’Kah West, a 17-year-old Detroit high school organizer, in a statement. “So we have to do something about it, and we have to do it fast. We need to take action so that no kid has to worry about their loved ones dying from these catastrophic heat conditions.”
West and the rest of the protesters hope that Biden will declare a national state of emergency and that Duggan will increase the accessibility of cooling centers. They say he should remove requirements for photo ID so that unhoused Detroiters can gain entry.
