By Kathy Wray Coleman, Executive Publisher, Editor, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog
CLEVELAND,Ohio- Community activists, elected officials and others will picket on Thursday, Oct. 11 at 10: 30 am at E. 35th and Community College Ave. in Ward 5 in Cleveland over a billboard owned by Clear Channel in that area that the activists and some Black leaders say is voter intimidation and suppression that targets poor people, Blacks and other minorities by threatening voters in a key presidential election year with a felony conviction, 3 and a half years in prison, and a $10,000 fine.
Cleveland Ward 5 Councilwoman Phyllis Cleveland said that she will hold a press conference at 11:00 with community activists under the controversial billboard. State Sen. Nina Turner (D-25) and State Rep. Sandra Williams (D-11) are expected to join her, among others.
The billboard at issue, which is near the Cuyahoga Community College Metro Campus, is purportedly by a private corporation approved by Clear Channel, but community activists believe that the Tea Party and Republican Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney are aware of it since similar billboards are popping up in minority and poor communities all over the nation, including Milwaukee, WI. It is in the Central Neighborhood where Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson lives, one of the country's poorest communities, data show.
"It is beyond insensitivity and is voter intimidation," said State Rep. Bill Patmon (D-10), a Cleveland Democrat who argues that the billboards, also of which are up on the west side of Cleveland and in poor and minority communities in Lorain, Oh., may be unconstitutional.
Groups associated with the protest include Cleveland City Council members, Ohio state legislators, The Imperial Women, The Carl Stokes Brigade, Cleveland Jobs With Justice, Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor, Black on Black Crime, The Oppressed People's Nation, Organize Ohio, The Northeast Ohio Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, Peace in the Hood, The Family Connection Center, The Underground Railroad and the Cleveland Chapter of the New Black Panther Party.
Clear Channel is a national radio, media and advertising conglomerate with seven radio stations out of the greater Cleveland area alone, including WTAM, though the billboard is under the outdoor provision, which is separate from the radio stations but also under the company umbrella.
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