Bankole Thompson, whose conscientious and influential work around issues of poverty, inequality and democracy as a nationally acclaimed journalist, thought leader and a standard-bearer for economic justice issues, stands out as a salient contribution to the field of journalism and social change, has been named celebrity grand marshal for the City of Westland’s 2025 Parade.
The “Stronger Westland Parade,” starting at noon which will take place on Saturday, Sep. 27 in Michigan’s 9th largest city under Mayor Kevin Coleman, is part of a two-day multicultural festival beginning on Sep. 26 and organized by the city’s Community Engagement Department which is headed by Dr. C. Paschal Eze. The event dubbed “celebrating creativity, culture and community connections,” will take place at the Central City Park on 1901 N. Carlson Street in Westland.
A diverse community, Westland, according to the 2020 U.S. Census report has a population of more than 85,000, out of which 63 % are White, 23 % Black, 4 % Asian followed by much smaller percentages of other racial groups. The city’s poverty rate is said to be close to 15 %.
Thompson accepted the invitation to headline the parade because of the theme of the two-day festival and his belief in the creation of inclusive communities where everyone thrives. He has a long track record of championing issues of equity and in the past has convened leaders of institutions and stakeholders to discuss the critical need of promoting equity within their organizations to make lasting positive change.
For example, in early 2025, he was invited to address the entire leadership of the human resources department of DTE Energy, a Fortune 500 company at its downtown Detroit headquarters, where he delivered a sobering talk to some 150 human resource officials of the energy giant on the value and importance of inclusion as key to growth and innovation for major corporations in the nation. In his leadership talk, Thompson, dwelled on his many years as a frontline journalist and cultural critic who has spotlighted many of the issues relating to poverty and income inequality that are now at the forefront of the quest for economic justice.
“The centrality of the human spirit is to appreciate people of diverse backgrounds and to celebrate our shared history and multidimensional heritage,” Thompson said. “I’m glad to see that Westland officials understand that critical need and are willing to uplift the bonds of brotherhood and sisterhood in a community determined to embrace everyone. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that ‘we are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.’ That message should never be lost on any community that has an intentional approach to grow. That’s why I’m looking forward to the Westland Parade.”
Thompson is considered one of the most preeminent voices of courage and conscience in the media in the modern era. He is one of the first top Black editors to conduct series of exclusive sit-down interviews with President Barack Obama. For a decade he served as the top editor of the Michigan Chronicle, the state’s largest African American newspaper.
He is an opinion columnist at The Detroit News, where his column appears on Mondays and Thursdays. He writes about public leadership, socioeconomic and cultural issues. A member of the National Press Club of Washington D.C., where he’s hosted major forums on national issues, he is the host of the podcast, Bankole’s Nation and the founder and dean of the national and independent anti-poverty think tank, The PuLSE Institute.
His latest book, Fiery Conscience, about his decades of speaking truth to power was released in 2023 and received a definitive review by Forbes magazine. The book is also listed in the Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York, considered the premier repository on the global Black experience. A sought after leadership keynote speaker and an eminent journalist and public intellectual, Thompson, has appeared on CNN and other national outlets discussing issues affecting urban America.
A sought after leadership speaker, Thompson delivered the 20th keynote lecture in February of 2020 for Michigan State University’s Dr. William G. Anderson Slavery to Freedom Lecture Series, An American Odyssey, whose previous speakers have included civil rights heroes Harry Belafonte and Congressman John Lewis. In February of 2022, he delivered the keynote address for Brown University Black History Forum on Race and Democracy: Why Major Institutions Must Address the Fierce Urgency of Racial Justice,” during a forum where Brown President Christina Paxson delivered the welcome and closing remarks.
In 2022, he gave keynote lecture on Poverty and Income Inequality for Dillard University in New Orleans. He gave the 2011 keynote address for the Providence Rhode Island NAACP 59TH Annual. That year he was a speaker at the Federal Bench and Bar Conference for the Eastern District of Michigan, where he spoke alongside federal judges on the intersection between the media and the law. In 2012, he accepted the invitation of former Henry Ford Health System CEO Nancy Schlichting to serve as the keynote speaker for Martin Luther King Jr. Day at the health system.
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) Detroit Region, tapped Thompson in 2012 to serve as the keynote speaker for the AJC Annual Distinguished Leadership Dinner at the Townsend Hotel in Birmingham, where he addressed a cross-section of the top Jewish leadership community in Michigan. The AJC is considered the first global Jewish organization to engage with post-Holocaust Germany.
In January of 2018, Thompson, was awarded the Let Freedom Ring Journalism Award by civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition during a ceremony at the Huntington Place in downtown Detroit to mark the 50th anniversary death of Dr. King. He was honored for championing economic equality issues. In 2014, he received the Frederick Douglass Award from the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs, Inc founded in 1935, during their Founder’s Day Luncheon.
In 2015, the University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library wrote to Thompson officially requesting to establish the Bankole Thompson Papers, a comprehensive physical and digital collection to document his critical work for students and scholars and for posterity. The Bentley houses the papers of every governor.
