[4] His mother is a descendant of freed slave Thomas W. Cross, was reared on a family farm in Blanchard, Michigan and is related to Merze Tate, the first African American woman to attend the University of Oxford and to earn a Ph.D. in government and international relations from Radcliffe College.

Miles graduated from Harvard Law School at age 23 and was a member of its Class of 1991 along with Barack Obama, Julius Genachowski, and Kenneth Mehlman.

[7][10] After Harvard, Miles returned home to Grand Rapids in 1991 and joined Varnum Riddering Schmidt & Howlett, a 150-attorney law firm, as an associate.

[7] In the late 1990s, he chaired the Inner-City Christian Federation Board of Directors, a faith-based non-profit which builds and creates affordable housing ownership opportunities.

[17][18][19] He won the August 3rd Democratic primary against former Kent County Commissioner Paul Mayhue by a 2-1 margin.

[20][21] He offered specific policy proposals to help small and emerging business job creation, improve education, make college affordable, and reduce the federal budget deficit.

He proposed a five percent pay cut for members of Congress each year the federal budget is not balanced.

[citation needed] On September 28, 2017, Miles announced he was seeking the Democratic nomination for Michigan Attorney General.

[28] On April 15, 2018, Miles was unable to secure the Democratic nomination for this office, losing to Dana Nessel.