Rev. Horace Sheffield III’s friendship with Ismael Ahmed goes back five decades to the early 1980s.
The two met when they spoke out in outrage over the killing of Vincent Chin in 1982, a Detroit-area Chinese American who was beaten to death with a baseball bat. Sheffield and Ahmed deepened their relationship a few years later when they came together for another cause: boycotting a Dearborn ordinance barring non-residents from visiting the city’s parks, which many found discriminatory against Black Detroiters.
The Detroit activist and pastor said Ahmed not only advocated for the Arab American community but for other groups, as well.
“He agreed…that the best way for us to succeed in our own individual battles was for us to fight together across the whole front, and I loved him for that,” Sheffield said. “He was just a remarkable guy. We tend to think of leaders who raise their voices and pound on tables. He (Ahmed) was kind of a quiet, yet forceful, indomitable force.”
Ahmed, a beloved community activist in metro Detroit known for co-founding the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) and multicultural music festival Concert of Colors, died Jan. 31, according to the nonprofit. He was 78.
“Ismael was a dear friend to so many, with a long and distinguished career dedicated to public service and community,” ACCESS President and CEO Maha Freij said in a statement posted on Facebook. “He helped shape ACCESS in its earliest days, played a key role in its growth and served as a longtime executive director.”
Ahmed also served as director of the Michigan Health and Human Services under Gov. Jennifer Granholm in the late 2000s. Ahmed’s love for arts and culture led him to co-found the Arab American Museum in Dearborn, which opened in 2005. In addition, he hosted a long-running world music show on WDET-FM called “This Island Earth,” where Ahmed called his listeners “planetary citizens.”
In 2021, President Joe Biden nominated him for a seat on the National Council on the Arts. The National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) released a statement Monday, with Chairperson Mary Anne Carter saying Ahmed dedicated his life to public service and to building communities through arts, culture, and civic engagement.
“He believed deeply in the power of music to bring people together across differences,” she said. “We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family, colleagues, and the many communities he served. He brought thoughtfulness, generosity, and a strong sense of purpose to his service on the National Council on the Arts, and he will be remembered with great respect and gratitude.”
The last time Sheffield spoke to Ahmed was shortly after the primary election in August, when his daughter Mary Sheffield became the frontrunner for the November general election. She would go on to win the race and become Detroit’s first woman mayor.
“He was just really excited and reminiscing about my dad and all the things that they had done together and seeing my daughter emerge as possibly the next mayor,” Sheffield said. “He had a sense that she was going to win.”
A life of giving back to others
Ahmed was born in Brooklyn, New York to an Egyptian father and a Lebanese mother. When he was still a child, Ahmed and his family moved to southwest Detroit and later, Dearborn. His parents would eventually divorce, with Ahmed’s mother remarrying an autoworker from Yemen.
In the 1960s, Ahmed was drafted by the Army and served a tour of duty in South Korea while his brother was sent to Vietnam, where he was exposed to and eventually died from Agent Orange poisoning. The experience led both men to become anti-war activists.
After his time in Korea, Ahmed did stints at sea as a merchant marine and later became a union activist while working on the assembly line at several auto plants. While still a student at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, he helped found ACCESS in 1971 with a group of volunteers. Located in a storefront in the south end of Dearborn, the nonprofit organization worked to assist new Arab immigrants with services while adapting to life in the United States. In 1983, Ahmed was appointed the executive director of ACCESS. During his long tenure, Ahmed grew ACCESS into an organization with 11 locations and more than 120 economic, health and educational programs serving metro Detroit.
Ahmed’s love for music led to the creation of Concert of Colors in 1993. Originally, the festival was only going to be a one-day event at the Aretha Franklin Amphitheater, then known as Chene Park. But by the end of the decade, 10,000 people were attending the festival every year and in 2001, Concert of Colors expanded to three days. In recent years, the festival has been attended by more than 30,000 people and has become one of the largest world music festivals in the country, according to its website.
Last year’s theme for the festival was “Get up, stand up for your rights.” Ahmed told BridgeDetroit at the time that “artivisim” was about creatives using their cultural power to address social issues.
“Concert of Colors has always been focused on the question of equity and diversity and the rights of regular people, and this is a period where a lot of that is under attack,” Ahmed said. “I think culture is underestimated, both in its ability to bring people together and to stand up for what’s important in our lives. It’s not the only way, but it’s certainly an important way.”
Ahmed was appointed director of the MDHHS in 2007, becoming the first and only Arab American to hold one of the state’s most significant cabinet roles, said ACCESS. During his four years in the position, Ahmed oversaw 10,000 employees and managed a $4 billion-plus budget.
Ahmed eventually went back to his alma mater, serving as an associate provost for integrated learning and community partnerships at UM-Dearborn. In 2009, he was awarded an honorary Doctors of Laws degree from the college for his life of service to others.
Ahmed is survived by his wife, Margaret, their children and grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made to the Concert of Colors.