08/19/2026
As a third grader in a Pennsylvania coal mining town, Shea Howell became an activist. Taught to read and write by her grandfather, she was taken aback when the teacher slapped her hand while she—left-handed—was writing. "She told me it was the work of the devil."
Her belief that people should be able to live their lives fully, on their own terms, without dehumanization and degradation has guided her work, first with the Poor People's Campaign and National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, to community organizing in 1980s Detroit amid severe unemployment, violence, and drug addiction. Since 2020, Shea organizes in Detroit communities around clean water access as a human right, education justice, food justice, police surveillance, and supporting the next generation of activists through The Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership.
“People in authority don’t always know what they’re doing.” —Shea Howell
Join Shea Howell, Suzanne Pharr, and Loretta Ross for the statewide virtual conversation Courage in the Face of Fear: Social Justice Elders on the Importance of Speaking Out. Tomorrow, August 20. 5-7pm PT / 6-8pm MT. Don't miss this event--RSVP in bio
Credit & read more: https://na2.hubs.ly/H07hQ5Q0
