DETROIT – Inside UAW Local 600, the walls themselves serve as a timeline.
The halls are lined with mages and tributes to skilled trade workers whose labor and sacrifice helped build Detroit’s identity.
It’s a history Detroit’s new Deputy Mayor Brian White says he doesn’t just know—he carries.
“Our responsibility is to leave this world better than we found it,” White said.
That principle, he explains, wasn’t learned from a textbook.
It was taught through family, community, and the kind of up-close mentorship that turned Detroit’s biggest names into familiar faces.
White says his roots in service trace back generations. His great-grandfather, Shelton Tappes, was a historic figure within UAW Local 600—a labor organizer recognized as the first and only African American at the table helping negotiate the union’s first anti-discrimination clause, included in the first contract between Ford and the UAW.
White remembers hearing, early in life, what it took for Tappes and others to create opportunities that didn’t exist before.
“He told me at a very young age about all the sacrifices he made, so that I could arrive at this moment,” White said.
For White, Detroit history isn’t distant. It’s personal.
One of his most striking connections is to Rosa Parks, the civil rights icon whose birthday (Feb. 4) is recognized during Black History Month.
White says Parks wasn’t just a legendary figure in his family story.
“Right here is where Rosa Parks used to pull up. And before I knew her as Rosa Parks, I just knew her as my Aunt Rosa,” White said, while pointing to a parking spot outside his family’s former home in Detroit’s Boston Edison neighborhood.
White adds that his great-grandmother was best friends with Rosa Parks and a good friend of Coretta Scott King—relationships that brought prominent civil rights organizers into the family’s home.
White says the list of visitors who stayed at his grandparents’ house reads like a who’s-who of Black leadership and culture.
“The likes of Coleman Young, Quincy Jones, Reverend Jackson, Dr. King, Coretta Scott King. They all used to stay here at my grandparents’ house when they were in town,” White said.
From those conversations and visits, White says he learned what leadership looks like when it centers on people, service, and long-term impact.
Those lessons, White says, now guide him in his role as Deputy Mayor and key advisor to Mayor Mary Sheffield, the first woman elected Mayor of Detroit.
“For me, it’s all about impact,” White said. “Luckily, I serve the first woman mayor who is about action and improving the quality of life for every Detroiter.”
White also points to the NAACP Detroit Branch as another foundation of his civic identity. He says he worked as a young organizer, while his family continues to serve in leadership roles—his mother as President of the state conference and his cousin as President of a local chapter.
When asked what he hopes people understand about him, White returned to one theme: family.
“Absolutely,” he said. “I’m just grateful again for this opportunity. I wanted to do it today, because one, it was Rosa Parks’ birthday. And, also, my wife’s birthday. So, if I’m going to be highlighted, I just also want to include those who are important to me.”
White says he’s energized by the work Mayor Mary Sheffield and the administration are doing, and he wants Detroiters to stay tuned.
He said residents can expect additional major announcements in the coming weeks, which he believes will have a positive impact across the city.