Influential Black Women’s Group Form Alliance for Political Candidates

Kim Trent

By Kim Trent    

The friendship of 19th century Detroiters Caroline French and Rutha Blackburn stands as an enduring testament to the potential of Black women to transform the world when they unite for a common cause. Now 21st-century Black women have adopted Caroline French’s name for a coalition that is focused on leveraging the political power of Black women in metro Detroit.     

In 1831, spouses Thornton and Rutha Blackburn escaped slavery in Kentucky and landed in Detroit, where they found a small but vibrant community of free Black men and women who had unleashed the mental shackles of enslavement. However, an acquaintance of Susan Brown, the woman who had held Thornton Blackburn in slavery, saw him in Detroit and eventually reported to his former owner that he was settled in the famous Underground Railroad stop. Ms. Brown dispatched slave catchers to Detroit to retrieve her human “property” and return Thorton, along with Rutha, back to Kentucky.   

In 1833, the Blackburns were arrested and charged under the Slave Fugitive Act of 1793 and Sheriff John Wilson held them in a jail that once stood on the current site of the Skillman branch of the Detroit Public Library in downtown Detroit. Shortly before the Blackburns were to begin their journey back to Kentucky, Rutha Blackburn’s friend Caroline French asked Sheriff Wilson if she could visit her at the jail. Sheriff Wilson agreed to allow Ms. French and another friend to visit with Ms. Blackburn, motivated by his desire to avoid a possible rebellion by the Black residents. The visit, however, was an elaborate plan for Ms. French and Ms. Blackburn to switch clothes, allowing a disguised Rutha Blackburn to slip out of the jail and escape to Canada. Days later, Black Detroiters also spirited Thornton Blackburn away from the prison, leading to the Blackburn Riots, which has been described as Detroit’s first race rebellion. Thorton and Rutha Blackburn reunited in Canada and the couple eventually settled in Toronto, where Mr. Blackburn’s cab business allowed them to build a home and settle into happy and productive lives.   

The risk that Caroline French took to help her friend cannot be overstated. Her subterfuge enraged both the slave catchers who had been contracted to return the Blackburns to Kentucky as well as Sheriff Wilson who was surprised by the “shrewdness” demonstrated by Ms. French. But while she was threatened with being sent to Kentucky as a replacement for Rutha Blackburn, French ultimately did not face legal consequences for her act of bravery.    

It is in the spirit of Caroline French that a group of prominent Black women in Detroit and its surrounding areas, came together to establish a power building initiative designed to elect Black women to public office and leverage their influence in a demonstration of what can be achieved on behalf of all people when Black women lead.    

The group of approximately 50 members include many of the city’s leading Black women in business, the nonprofit sector, government, and community activism. Members include equity and inclusion strategist, Sommer Woods, investment manager, Gail Perry Mason, Detroit Public Schools Community District school board member, Sonya Mays, and longtime business and community leader, Shirley Stancatto, among others.    

First convened by political strategist Jessica McCall, the Caroline French Club has been meeting since early February to discuss how they would like to mobilize as a coalition. “Many of the women in the Caroline French Club have had the opportunity to work together in the past, but rarely in this capacity,” said Jessica McCall. “We’ve long recognized our individual influence and with everything that has happened, especially over the past 24 months, we knew that now was the time to harness our power.”   

After several conversations, the Caroline French Club assessed that they had the greatest opportunity to mobilize in the race for the 13th Congressional District. “It’s a crowded field,” said French Club member, Sonya Mays, “and that’s why we believe our support is needed in the 13th. Michigan’s Congressional Delegation should have Black representation and we believe that person should be a Black woman.”   

McCall, who is a strategist with DC-based public affairs firm, The Raben Group, and previously worked for Michigan’s former governor, Jennifer Granholm, said Black women lead from a place of “we” over “me;” that’s something that, until now, she believes has been missing in our public discourse. “The Blackburns went on to live a beautiful life in Toronto, in part because of Caroline French’s sacrifice. That’s what Caroline’s story teaches us, the great things that can happen when you look out for someone else. That’s what we’re here to do.”