Noted Detroit Activist Dies

"A hero of Detroit's leftist movement in the 1960s and '70s, Ravitz teamed with attorney Ken Cockrel Sr. to shred some of the most insidious forms of abuse by local police, courts and jails."

ARA notes with sadness the passing of Justin Ravitz announced in today's edition of the Detroit Free Press. Ravitz was an important player in the Detroit radical scene of the 1960s and '70s. He participated in and was a product of the social movement Detroit experienced at the time. This social movement, documented in the excellent Detroit I Do Mind Dying by Dan Georgakas and Marvin Surkin, gave rise to the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, the Detroit chapter of the Black Panther Party, the Motor City Labor League, and the proud period in The South End student newspaper when it actually fought for social justice instead of against it, and its masthead boldly declared, "One Class-Conscious Worker Is Worth 100 Students." Some may recall that these movements, and the League in particular, consistently aligned themselves with the struggle for the liberation of Palestine, and an infamous editorial in the South End in solidarity with that movement created an uproar that eventually led to the dismissal of John Watson as editor of the South End.

Ravitz was a part of this movement along with John Watson, General Baker, Ken Cockrel, Mike Hamlin, Luke Tripp, John Williams and Chuck Wooten. Mentors of this movement included Grace Lee Boggs, CLR James, and Martin Glaberman, all long-time Detroit activists. With his passing, a legacy that activists today can and should learn much from passes further from our vision. We honor his legacy by learning from the movements he was a part of and applying their lessons to our own work for a better world today.