This past weekend, we finally got to see something that over the last six months has lived in a thousand planning calls, conversations with major and shared spreadsheets for months come to life: Freedom Tour 2026.

Over four days, students didn’t just hear about civil rights history — they stood in it. We started the conference portion with Detroit historian Jamon Jordan tracing the city’s foundations, then moved through interactive workshops on policing, voting rights, housing and redlining, data justice, and restorative practice, with speakers who’ve spent decades doing this work: Mark Fancher, Kyle Zawacki, Tepfirah Rushdan, Dr. Tim Robinson, Dr. Richard Benson II, Dr. A’Lynne Boles Dukes, Tawana Petty, Curtis Renee, and more. Then we mapped the city itself via bus routes from the Grosse Pointe wall to the Dr. Ossian Sweet House, the Boggs Center, Birwood Wall, and countless other where the sites were history come to life for the students.

I am still sitting with how much it meant to watch it actually happen. A few things I keep coming back to:

• History held by the people who lived near it. So many of our speakers weren’t just experts on Detroit — they’re doing the work in Detroit right now, in city government, in courtrooms, in community organizations. Their passion matters just as much as their expertise, and it showed the students a blueprint for leadership.
• The city as classroom. There’s a difference between reading about the 1943 uprising and standing at the site where it happened. Learning about restrictive covenants takes on new meaning when standing outside the Dr. Ossian Sweet House where a mob formed.
• What it takes to pull this off. None of this happens without partners who show up fully — Wayne State University, and the ACLU of Michigan that treated this like their own program.

Mostly, I’m just grateful. Grateful to Salma for building this with me. Grateful to every speaker who gave students their time and their story. Grateful to the students themselves, who showed up curious and left (we hope) a little more rooted in this city’s history and their own role in what comes next.

Salma Hamamy (Executive Director, Michigan Coalition for Human Rights) and I (Policy Specialist for the City of Detroit) co-organized this program in partnership with Jamon Jordan (City of Detroit’s historian) the the City of Detroit’s Civil Rights, Inclusion & Opportunity (CRIO) Department, Wayne State University, ACLU, and more people and organizations than I can recount. Want to know more about Freedom Tour or bring a version of this program to your state’s students or organization? Get in touch!

Khurram Imam is the Director of Zaki Impact Consulting, where he helps governments, nonprofits, and foundations design strategies and programs that are equitable, measurable, and built to last. His work sits at the intersection of public health, workforce development, and community systems. Connect with him on LinkedIn or explore his services at khurramimam.com/services.