Michigan has elected Abdul El-Sayed, the first Muslim U.S. senator in American history. This is an extraordinary moment. But anyone seeking to understand how it happened must begin with the people who made it possible, especially Black Detroit, whose organizing, relationships and determination helped secure this victory.
The other side did not merely hope Black Michigan would stay home. They weaponized tensions between Black and Arab Americans to make that happen. They counted on resentment, cynicism, and the possibility that legitimate frustrations in Black neighborhoods could be manipulated into political disengagement.
That calculation failed because Detroiters knew what was at stake and refused to surrender their power to someone else’s political
strategy. Black Detroit turned out, turned up and made its power count. Everyone who celebrates Sen.-elect El-Sayed's victory should remember those who made it possible.
Detroit's Black voters know the price of disunity
Those frustrations deserve to be heard. For generations, African Americans have watched immigrant communities open businesses in neighborhoods where Black families were denied capital, ownership and opportunity. Too often, prosperity has been extracted from Black communities without adequate reinvestment. There have been painful encounters, unequal relationships and failures of solidarity. Arab American communities must reckon with these histories, and that accountability must continue long after an election is won.
No community should be reduced to the worst of its relationships, and no grievance should be used as a tool by political forces seeking to divide people facing common struggles.
Detroit’s Black voters know that the price of disunity is paid in underfunded schools, unaffordable health care, insecure housing and diminished democratic power. They also know how much collective strength it takes to change those conditions.
We write from two distinct yet intertwined histories. One of us is an African American Muslim shaped by three generations of a movement whose roots trace back to Detroit in 1930. The other is a Palestinian American whose family arrived on Chicago’s South Side as refugees of the 1948 "Nakba," and whose faith and organizing were profoundly shaped by that African American Muslim experience.
Detroit, along with neighboring Dearborn, holds a special place in the national geography of Black Muslim and Arab American life. Our experience has taught us that solidarity requires sustained relationships, an honest reckoning with our differences, and a commitment to one another’s liberation.
Instead of mistrust, solidarity must endure beyond election night
Detroit is central to that inheritance. From its early Black Muslim communities and Elijah Muhammad’s leadership to the civic and spiritual teachings of Imam W. Deen Mohammed, African American Muslims built institutions that nurtured dignity, self-determination, discipline and service. Their contributions belong within the larger story of the Black freedom struggle, alongside churches, labor organizers, neighborhood associations and artists who have kept Detroit’s conscience alive.
That tradition was evident at Fellowship Chapel on Oct. 28. In a city where politicians hoped mistrust would prevail, Black faith leadership opened the doors and brought people together. The Rev. Wendell Anthony and Dream of Detroit helped convene pastors, Imam Makram El-Amin, Minister Troy Muhammad and Rabbi Alana Alpert of Detroit Jews for Justice. Their presence demonstrated a commitment to defending our neighbors’ dignity and the right to vote across religious lines, even amid profound disagreements over the crises of our time.
The gathering also drew strength from a broader network of African American Muslim institutions, including Dream of Detroit, Community Life Forward, the Inner-City Muslim Action Network, and others whose work spans cities and generations. They connect the daily labor of building neighborhoods, supporting families and developing leaders with the larger work of civic engagement.
These relationships are forged through countless phone calls, organizing meetings, shared meals and years of showing up when no cameras are present.
Detroit also understands that a movement needs rhythm as well as resolve. At Fellowship Chapel, artists, faith leaders and organizers brought an energy that no political advertisement can manufacture. From Detroit’s Motown legacy and the city's current African American and Muslim poet laureate jessica Care moore to the music of Grammy-winning Arrested Development, Black artists have helped generations find the language of struggle and possibility.
The challenge is to turn that energy into organized power that endures beyond election night.
What Black voters now expect from Sen.-elect El-Sayed
And here is what victory demands now. We cannot praise Black Detroit on election night and then forget it when the cameras leave. Black churches cannot be treated as convenient stages; Black Muslim leadership cannot be summoned only when bridges need repair; and African American neighborhoods cannot be expected to deliver votes without an enduring commitment to their schools, housing, economic opportunity and safety.
That responsibility falls to Sen.-elect El-Sayed and to all of us who celebrate this historic result. Listen to Black Detroit when its concerns complicate the political script. Invest in the organizers and institutions that carried this work forward. Build honest partnerships between Black and Arab communities, and make room for difficult conversations that build lasting trust.
Solidarity must be visible in budgets, policies, business practices and the daily life of a city.
That work must outlast the election cycle, with measurable commitments to the neighborhoods that provided the moral authority and organizing muscle behind this moment.
We have witnessed a victory that will be remembered nationally because a Muslim American has crossed a historic threshold. Yet history will miss its deeper meaning if it remembers only the candidate and overlooks the communities that refused to be divided.
Saafir Rabb II is chairman of Community Life Forward (CLF). Rami Nashashibi, a MacArthur Foundation fellow, is founder and executive director of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Black voters helped El-Sayed make history. Don't forget it | Opinion
