Nationally Acclaimed Journalist Bankole Thompson to Keynote Palm Leaf Club's Michigan Women’s Leadership Luncheon May 11

DETROIT, MICHIGAN, UNITED STATES, May 4, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- For information about how to attend the Palm Leaf Women’s Leadership Luncheon contact Valerie Eaglin (734 645 2448) and Paulette Dozier (734 697 3808).

The Ypsilanti-based Palm Leaf Club, one of the oldest and revered African American women civic organizations in Michigan, will host a Women’s Leadership Luncheon on the eve of Mother’s Day this year to lift up the remarkable and sometimes underreported contributions Black women have made in advancing society. The luncheon which is being held under the theme “Celebrating Women of Conscience,” will take place on Saturday, May 11, from 11:30AM to 1PM at the Washtenaw Golf Club, 2955 Packard Street, Ypsilanti, MI 48197.

The luncheon keynote speaker is Bankole Thompson, the nationally acclaimed Detroit journalist, author and thought leader. Thompson is a twice-a-week opinion columnist at The Detroit News, where his column on the presidency, public leadership, social and economic issues appear on Mondays and Thursdays in the newspaper. He is the dean of the national anti-poverty think tank, The PuLSE Institute, which was founded several years ago based on his influential work on race, poverty and democracy.

Following the luncheon, there will be a book signing featuring "Fiery Conscience," Bankole Thompson’s latest book, which is a body of work motivated by the nation’s uprisings surrounding George Floyd’s untimely murder, and which documents his decades of speaking truth to power. The book received a definitive review on April 2 in Forbes magazine, the top business magazine for major captains of industry, and has also been listed officially as a research and reference material in the Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York, the world’s leading repository on the Black experience.

"I'm looking forward to this luncheon to join in the beautiful and elegant celebration and recognition of what Black women have always meant throughout the great pipelines of history: resilience and courage to take on the seemingly impossible," Thompson said in a statement. "Any definition of economic empowerment in the Black community is incomplete if its fails to recognize the contributions of Black women who bring innovation, inspiration, originality and creativity to get the job done in our communities. In fact, the foundation of every society rests on these women who don't get the credit they deserve for being the architects of our society. That is why Palm Leaf Club's initiative to lift up gallant women and those who are following in their footsteps is so timely and important."

Considered the most courageous Black opinion journalist in Michigan, Bankole Thompson, writes and speaks with the force of history on issues affecting marginalized and underserved communities, and is known as a fierce defender for those whose voices are ignored in the mainstream. He has appeared on national outlets including CNN discussing issues important to urban America.

Because of his work as a standard-bearer on racial and economic justice issues, Thompson, was tapped in August of 2023 by veteran civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Bernard LaFayette Jr., one of the last remaining top lieutenants of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to join the National Board of the Atlanta-based Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the signature civil rights organization, co-founded by Dr King, who served as its first President, and which played a major role during the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. LaFayette, who chairs SCLC National Board, has long followed and admires Thompson’s work and considers him a force to reckon with in the modern struggle for equality.

Thompson was one of the first Black journalists in the nation to conduct a series of exclusive sit-down interviews with former President Barack Obama and wrote a pair of books on Obama. Thompson was the former longtime top editor and intellectual voice of the Michigan Chronicle, the state’s African American newspaper, which he helmed for a decade.

In 2020, Thompson was among a group of individuals who were strongly pressing for an African American woman to be on the Democratic presidential ticket, and as a result he was invited by CNN to respond to the selection of Vice President Kamala Harris as the first Black woman VP candidate.

A sought after speaker, Thompson, has keynoted and addressed many diverse and leading organizations around the country including the Ivy League school Brown University’s 2022 Black History Month Celebration, Michigan State University’s 20th Annual Slavery to Freedom: An American Odyssey Lecture Series, the Rhode Island NAACP Freedom Fund Dinner, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s 50th Anniversary Celebration, American Jewish Committee Distinguished Leadership Dinner, Federal Bench and Bar Conference for the Eastern District of Michigan, University of Iowa, Dillard University etc.

In January of 2018, civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition honored Thompson with the Let Freedom Ring Journalism Award at a ceremony in downtown Detroit marking the 50th anniversary death of Dr. King. He was awarded for being Detroit’s preeminent voice of conscience and courage and for pushing economic equality issues in the tradition of Dr. King.

In 2014, Thompson, received the Frederick Douglass Award from the National Negro Business and Professional Women’s Club Inc at the group’s Founder’s Day Luncheon, during which he was celebrated for being a staunch advocate for issues crucial to the advancement of Black women, and for using his voice and pen like Douglass to speak truth to power.

For information about how to attend the Palm Leaf Women’s Leadership Luncheon contact Valerie Eaglin (734 645 2448) and Paulette Dozier (734 697 3808).

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