Joe Louis is generally regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time, a breaker of racial barriers, and national hero. He dominated prize fighting and forced America to re-examine its segregationist policies and attitudes. Memorials to Louis can be found throughout the City of Detroit.

Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, AL bus in 1955 helped initiate the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. Her actions inspired the leaders of the local Black community to organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott which lasted more than a year—during which Parks not coincidentally lost her job—and ended only when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional.

Coleman A. Young was the first African-American mayor of Detroit and has been described as the "single most influential person in Detroit's modern history.” Young promoted downtown redevelopment with major projects like the Joe Louis Arena and the Renaissance Center. Facing intense manufacturing flight, Young worked to keep major plants in the city, most notably General Motors' Poletown project and Chrysler's Jefferson North assembly.

Aretha Franklin, universally acclaimed as the “Queen of Soul,” brought the righteous fervor of gospel music to secular songs that were about much more than romance. Her songs “Respect” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" became anthems of movements for social change, demanding equality and freedom–and nothing less–and serving as a harbinger of feminism. She was the first woman inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, in 1987, its second year. She sang at the inauguration of Barack Obama in 2009, at pre-inauguration concerts for Jimmy Carter in 1977 and Bill Clinton in 1993, and at both the Democratic National Convention and a memorial service for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.

Gamaliel Race and Power Alum Club