DETROIT – Ike McKinnon has made his mark on the city of Detroit in so many different ways. He served as the city's police chief and deputy mayor and spent 26 years as a university professor at the University of Detroit Mercy.
He retired at the age of 75. He said more work needs to be done outside the classroom, so that's where he is headed. Karen Drew went one on one with him to find out more about his plan to help Detroit's young men.
"If we get young men, young African-American men, to think about, 'What can I do best in my life?' Whether it's education, or something, or whatever it is, you know, and if they start thinking differently, maybe this will have a profound impact upon the violence that we have."
At 75-years-old McKinnon has a lot of wisdom to share.
"I said, 'Let me go out and do something with the experience that I have to help change the mindset of young men.'"
He said it was a conversation as a young police officer with then-mayor Jerome Cavanagh inside the Manoogian Mansion that changed his life.
"He said, 'So, what are you going to do with your life?' I said, 'Well, hopefully I'll retire as a sergeant or a police officer or a lieutenant for the police department.' He said 'No, no, think about the future.'"
"I said, 'What do you mean?' And he said this in 1968, he said, 'Ike, you know, one day, you could become chief of police in the city of Detroit.'
"But he said, 'Ike, look, the world is changing. And as the world changes, here's where you should go. Go get your college education.' I hadn't thought about that. I said, 'OK, sir.'
"Monday I went out and signed up for college, and 11 years later, I had my Ph.D."
With that education, doors opened for McKinnon, promotions were achieved and life became better. That is the lesson he wants to teach young African-American men in Detroit.
"I know there are more tempting things for you to do in life but, I haven't seen a retired dope dealer."
"They're impacted by so many things in their lives, and so, drugs is the major thing. And so we agreed, and what I did was I then called for a meeting with I think all of the school principals in Detroit."
"So, sure, there's going to be a lot of one on one. But, also, there's going to be churches, there's going to be schools."
McKinnon explained why he's taking on such a big task.
"You know it's a sense of, you know, we're doing something to help rather than to criticize and do nothing."