Civil rights & activism / Politics
Ismael Ahmed
1947–2026 · community organizer, labor activist, state official
Co-founder and longtime executive director of ACCESS in Dearborn, the largest Arab American human services organization in the United States, and later Michigan's human services director.
- Born
Brooklyn, New York- Died
- Also known as
- Ismael N. Ahmed
- Detroit years
- 1953–2026
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Born in Brooklyn to a Lebanese mother and an Egyptian father, Ahmed moved to Detroit with his family at the age of six. He worked in auto plants and was active in the United Auto Workers, which helped him pay his way through the University of Michigan–Dearborn. In the early 1970s he co-founded the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS), which began as a volunteer storefront in Dearborn's South End. As its executive director from 1983 he built it into the country's largest Arab American social service agency and oversaw the creation of the Arab American National Museum, opened in 2005. For years he hosted the world-music radio show This Island Earth on Detroit's WDET. Governor Jennifer Granholm named him director of the Michigan Department of Human Services in 2007. He died in 2026.
Highlights
- Co-founded ACCESS in Dearborn in the early 1970s
- Executive director of ACCESS from 1983
- Oversaw the Arab American National Museum's creation (opened 2005)
- Director of the Michigan Department of Human Services, 2007–2011
- Hosted the radio show This Island Earth on WDET
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 3
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Founded · 1970s–2007
ACCESS (Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services)
Dearborn's Arab American social service agency, founded in a South End storefront; Ahmed co-founded it and ran it from 1983.
Founded · 1990s–2007
Arab American National Museum
The first museum devoted to Arab American history and culture, created as a division of ACCESS under Ahmed's leadership.
Worked here · 1980s–2000s
WDET 101.9 FM
Detroit's public radio station, where Ahmed hosted This Island Earth.