By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor, associate publisher
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Former Cleveland school board member and activist Gerald C. Henley of Cleveland has died. He was 76.
Henley is survived by his wife Annaliesa and four adult children.
Funeral services will be in Knoxville, Tennessee, his native town.
Activist Donna Walker Brown said Cleveland activists will celebrate Henley's life at an open-to-the-public event on Thurs., Feb. 13 at 6:30 pm at Black on Black Crime headquarters, 15416 Kipling Ave. in Cleveland.
Henley was a board member when the elected school board was demolished to pave the way for an appointed school board under mayoral control, a controversial state law pushed by Republican state lawmakers that took effect in 1998 when the desegregation court order was eliminated. His criticism, however, continued at school board meetings and he and activist Walker Brown once sued the predominantly Black school district relative to prospective school closures that they say targeted poor Black school children and their families.
"Henley was a warrior," said Walker Brown. "We sometimes argued over community issues but we could count on him when we needed him."
Activist Alfred Porter Jr. of Black on Black Crime Inc. said Henley "cared about Cleveland's public school children and was not afraid to speak out on community issues, " and that he fought with activists in their fight against educational inequalities regarding Black children, murder and other violence against women, and police brutality and police murders in the Black community.
Feb 2025: A Black History Moment From ClevelandUrbanNews.Com: Barack Obama is the first Black president, and Michelle Obama the country's first Black first lady....Kamala Harris is the first Black vice president of America and Lloyd Austin...
By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, associate publisher. Coleman is a Black Cleveland activist, community organizer and digital and social media journalist who trained at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio for 17 years. Tel: (216) 659-0473 Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com
CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM-CLEVELAND, Ohio- February 2025 is Black History Month, so let's talk a little bit about Black history. Do we really know the true history of the plight of African Americans and their African ancestors?
We know without reservation that former president Barack Obama is the first Black president of the United States of America and Michelle Obama is the first Black first lady. And we know that Former Vice President Kamala Harris is the first Black vice president in the U.S., Loyd Austin is the nation's first Black secretary of defense and Ketanji Brown Jackson,a Biden appointee, is the first Black female U.S. Supreme Court justice.
Closer to home, we recognize and remember some of the true greats that have touched the lives of Clevelanders. They include the late Carl B. Stokes, the first Black mayor of a major American city, whom Cleveland voters elected in 1967. Stokes later held the post under former president Bill Clinton of U.S. Ambassador to Seychelles and was a Cleveland Municipal Court judge. His older brother, the late Louis Stokes, was the first Black congressman from Ohio and led the 11th congressional district until his retirement in 1998.
The late Stephanie Tubbs Jones, of Cleveland, was the first Black Cuyahoga County prosecutor. She followed Stokes to Congress and was the first Black woman in Congress from Ohio. But how much do we really know about Black history, particularly since eurocentric-curricula dominate teaching in elementary and secondary schools across the country, and in our institutions of higher learning?
History reveals that Black people were enslaved initially by Black people in Africa and then sold to be brought to America for further slavery to work our fields and to perform other subservient measures. But remember that it was White men who brought our ancestors to America in chains.
The aftermath of those chains still plagues the Black community in various ways, including through high unemployment, disproportionate incarcerations of Black men and women, and underfunded public school districts that serve majority Black and poor children, among other systemic problems.
Blacks have long contributed to the greatness of America.
The very first Black killed in a major American war was a Black man named Crispus Attucks, who died in the Revolutionary War. Hundreds of Black soldiers were among the casualties at Bunker Hill.
Blacks were at one time, if not even now in some situations, counted as 3/5 of a person. And while the slavery of Blacks is not mentioned in the Constitution, it is implicated under the fourth Amendment, which demands equal protection under the law for members of a protected class like Black people, and women.
President Abraham Lincoln’s executive order of the Emancipation Proclamation did not start the American Civil War, but it help to end it. President Lincoln was a Republican, as was Civil Rights activist and historian Frederick Douglas.
Jim Crow laws kept Blacks traditionally enslaved and the Ku Klux Klan was started in part because racist Whites wanted to keep former slaves in line and were angry that slavery had ended in the official sense. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s served to stop the Jim Crow laws. King gave his life to better America, and the national holiday named in his honor, a holiday celebrated on the third Monday in January of each year, is well deserved.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson, with some saying he did so solely under threat of an override veto. Still, Johnson pushed the federal act through Congress, with help from Dr. King, and a host of others including Civil Rights advocates and protesters, who were routinely beaten by police and brutally murdered.
What will children in our schools be taught this month about Black history? Will it be that Michael Jackson was a great man? How do we define greatness? Do we forgive flaws? Yes we can. Pop singer Michael Jackson knew his craft, and was truly a great musician loved worldwide.
Legendary singer Nat King Cole, boxing legend Muhammad Ali, poet Maya Angelou, Malcolm X, pop icon Michael Jackson, and the Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr. are also among Black notables, as are the following:
-Native Clevelander Garrett A. Morgan invented the traffic light and gas mask
-George Crum was the inventor of the potato chip
-Frederick McKinley Jones invented the refrigeration unit for trucks
-Dr. Patricia Bath invented laser eye surgery for cataract removal
-Thomas L. Jennings invented dry-cleaning products
-Hiram Revels (R-MS) was the first Black in Congress as a U.S. senator
Cleveland City Council, Mayor Bibb introduce equal pay ordinance for Cleveland businesses..."Pay equity is not just a woman's issue but a family issue," said Councilwoman Howse Jones... By Clevelandurbannews.com, Ohio's Black digital news leader
By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor, associate publisher
CLEVELAND, Ohio-Cleveland City Council and Mayor Justin Bibb introduced a proposed ordinance at the council meeting on Monday that prohibits Cleveland businesses with 15 or more employees from inquiring, screening or relying on the salary history of an applicant in deciding on potential employment.
The legislation would also require that prospective employers provide the salary range of the position. Any person may file a complaint alleging that a violation has occurred with the Fair Employment Wage Board within 180 days of the alleged violation.
The proposed equal pay ordinance comes as newly elected President Donald Trump issues executive orders taking down DEI programs and tampering with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which has angered progressive Democrats and prominent Civil Rights groups, including the National NAACP and its president and CEO Derrick Johnson. He has promised a vigorous response, according to a press release.
At least 22 states and dozens of other cities, including Cincinnati, Columbus, and Toledo in Ohio, have successfully implemented similar legislation, leading to more equitable compensation practices, proponents say.
Prohibiting employers from asking about a job applicant's salary history is designed to help ensure that worker compensation is based on the qualifications, experience, and responsibilities of the position rather than the applicant's identity or background. (Ord. No. 104-2025), Council President Blaine Griffin said in a press release on Monday.
Ward 7 Councilwoman Stephanie Howse Jones, who heads the city's Black Women's Commission, added that "pay equity is not just a woman's issue but a family issue."
Cleveland is a largely Black major American city with a population of roughly 372,000, according to the 2020 U.S. Census. It, no doubt, has historical significance, including the election in 1967 of the late Carl B. Stokes, the first Black mayor of Cleveland and of a major American city.
The equal pay legislation was officially introduced at Monday’s council meeting by Mayor Justin Bibb and council members Jasmin Santana of Ward 14; Charles Slife of Ward 17, and Howse-Jones, also a former state lawmaker.. They say the legislation will prohibit wage discrimination, increase transparency on pay rates, and establish a city-wide task force to strategize on closing a pay-wage gap that disproportionately impacts the city's Black and Hispanic communities, poor people, single women with children, and women in general.
According to the Center for American Progress, a nonpartisan research institute, women’s wages across broad racial and ethnic categories among full-time, year-round workers, Hispanic women experience the largest pay gap, having earned just 57 cents for every $1 earned by White, non-Hispanic men in 2020. Black women also experience wide pay gaps, with data on Black women alone revealing that—despite consistently having some of the highest labor force participation rates—they earned just 64 cents for every $1 earned by White, non-Hispanic men in 2020. This number dips slightly to 63 cents, reflecting a slightly larger wage gap when data on multiracial Black women—meaning Black women who also identify with another racial category—are included in the analysis.
Cleveland City Council, Mayor Bibb introduce equal pay ordinance for Cleveland businesses..."Pay equity is not just a woman's issue but a family issue," said Councilwoman Howse Jones... By Clevelandurbannews.com, Ohio's Black digital news leader
CLEVELAND, Ohio-Cleveland City Council and Mayor Justin Bibb introduced a proposed ordinance at the council meeting on Monday that prohibits Cleveland businesses with 15 or more employees from inquiring, screening or relying on the salary history of an applicant in deciding whether to employ such applicant.
The legislation would also require that prospective employers provide the salary range of the position. Any person may file a complaint alleging that a violation has occurred with the Fair Employment Wage Board within 180 days of the alleged violation.
The proposed equal pay ordinance comes as newly elected President Donald Trump issues executive orders taking down DEI programs and tampering with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which has angered progressive Democrats and prominent Civil Rights groups, including the National NAACP and its president and CEO Derrick Johnson. He has promised a vigorous response, according to a press release.
At least 22 states and dozens of other cities, including Cincinnati, Columbus, and Toledo in Ohio, have successfully implemented similar legislation, leading to more equitable compensation practices, proponents say.
Prohibiting employers from asking about a job applicant's salary history is designed to help ensure that worker compensation is based on the qualifications, experience, and responsibilities of the position rather than the applicant's identity or background. (Ord. No. 104-2025), Council President Blaine Griffin said in a press release on Monday.
Ward 7 Councilwoman Stephanie Howse Jones, who heads the city's Black Women's Commission, added that "pay equity is not just a woman's issue but a family issue."
Cleveland is a largely Black major American city with a population of roughly 372,000, according to the 2020 U.S. Census. It, no doubt, has historical significance, including the election in 1967 of the late Carl B. Stokes, the first Black mayor of Cleveland and of a major American city.
The equal pay legislation was officially introduced at Monday’s council meeting by Mayor Justin Bibb and council members Jasmin Santana of Ward 14; Charles Slife of Ward 17, and Howse-Jones, also a former state lawmaker.. They say the legislation will prohibit wage discrimination, increase transparency on pay rates, and establish a city-wide task force to strategize on closing a pay-wage gap that disproportionately impacts the city's Black and Hispanic communities, poor people, single women with children, and women in general.
According to the Center for American Progress, a nonpartisan research institute, women’s wages across broad racial and ethnic categories among full-time, year-round workers, Hispanic women experience the largest pay gap, having earned just 57 cents for every $1 earned by White, non-Hispanic men in 2020. Black women also experience wide pay gaps, with data on Black women alone revealing that—despite consistently having some of the highest labor force participation rates—they earned just 64 cents for every $1 earned by White, non-Hispanic men in 2020. This number dips slightly to 63 cents, reflecting a slightly larger wage gap when data on multiracial Black women—meaning Black women who also identify with another racial category—are included in the analysis.
Ohio Congresswoman Shontel Brown responds to Trump's inauguration events, saying Democrats conducted a peaceful transfer of power, unlike Trump in 2020...Talks about Civil and voting rights under a Trump administration...By Clevelandurbannews.com
By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor, associate publisher
Washington, DC – A Warrensville Hts Democrat whose 11th congressional district includes Cleveland and most of the eastern suburbs of Cuyahoga County, Ohio Congresswoman Shontel Brown on Monday responded to the Jan. 20 inauguration events in Washington, D.C. The events coincided with a national holiday remembering the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., an annual holiday observed each year on the third Monday in January.
President-elect Donald Trump, a Republican and real estate mogul who served a controversial first term but lost reelection in 2020 to President Joe Biden, took the oath of office for a second term Monday, after defeating Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris in the November general election where he won both the popular vote and the electoral college.
As the Dems seek to regroup from the tragic election lost, Republicans are elated and now control the White House and both chambers of Congress. Meanwhile, Trump is aggressively moving forward with his agenda, which is ripe with unconditional pardons of Capitol rioters, controversial cabinet picks, massive deportations of immigrants, and rambling executive orders designed to override some 80 of Biden's policies.
Brown said in a statement that the Democrats, under the leadership of outgoing President Joe Biden, were diplomatic and did not attempt to stop a peaceful transfer of power as Trump did relative to his 2020 election loss to Biden. It culminated in a Jan 6, 2021 Capitol riot and was followed by a criminal charge of election diversion against Trump, a federal case that has since been dismissed.
On Monday, Trump issued pardons to some 1,500 protesters, some of whom were prosecuted and imprisoned for just being at the scene of the 2021 riot, although several others, led by the militia groups the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, were charged and convicted of violent crimes against Capitol police.
One of three Black women in Congress from Ohio, Congresswoman Brown released the following statement to
"I know a lot of the people I represent are worried about what this new administration might do — and honestly, I am too. For a grandmother in Cleveland, Social Security isn't just a check — it's what ensures a secure retirement. For kids in Euclid, Head Start programs aren't a luxury — they're pathways to success. For parents in Bedford and Warrensville Heights, Medicaid and SNAP aren't waste — they're lifelines that help families make ends meet."
The congresswoman concluded her remarks by saying "On this day honouring the great Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., let us remember that voting and civil rights are not mistakes to undo—they are the backbone of a fair and just society."
Whether Trump will continue to seek to unravel the gains of Dr. King during the civil rights movement, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which have been consistently under attack by a U.S. Supreme Court stacked with three conservative Trump appointees, remains to be seen.
THE BELOW ARTICLE INCLUDES ARCHIVES FROM OUR PREVIOUS ONE-ON-ONE INTERVIEW WITH RALPH DAVID ABERNATHY III
CLEVELAND, Ohio-Jan 20, 2025 is here, a national holiday in observance of the late iconic Civil Rights leader the Rev. Dr. .Martin Luther King Jr. We pause to remember the struggles that Blacks in America continue to face as a whole on almost a daily basis, struggles across the continuum that remain in spite of some gains during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Had Dr King not been assassinated, it would be his 96th birthday on Jan 15.
The late Ralph David Abernathy III (pictured), whose famed father, the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy Sr., marched along side of the Dr. King during the Civil Rights Movement and led the Southern Christian Leadership Conference after King was assassinated, visited Cleveland, Ohio on Nov. 4, 2012 to stomp for Barack Obama's reelection to the presidency and he interviewed one-on-one with clevelandurbannews.com and kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog
“My father and Uncle Martin [King] were like twins, and they even dressed alike sometimes, and Uncle Martin died in his arms.” said Abernathy III, an evangelist and motivational speaker who grew up in Montgomery, AL. and served a decade in the Georgia State Legislature as an Atlanta state representative and then a state senator.
Abernathy III was among a host of famous Blacks who toured Cleveland during the weeks leading up to the Nov 6., 2012 presidential election to rally voters for the Barack Obama campaign in the then pivotal state of Ohio, Cleveland a Democratic stronghold and the largest city in the delegate rich 11th congressional district, also heavily Democratic.
He spoke at a rally at Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church after appearing as a guest on ‘The Art McKoy University Show, ’ which airs weekly from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm on W.E.R.E. AM radio.
Other well known Blacks in Cleveland in support of Obama's 2012 reelection bid were John Legend, who is native of Springfield Ohio, Stevie Wonder, Yolanda Adams, Congressional Black Caucus members, California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who later became a U.S. senator and is now the vice president, actress Vivica Fox, and Valerie Jarrett, one of three senior advisers to Obama when he was president.
The first Black president of the United States of America and the country's most popular Black Democrat, Obama completed his second term in the White House in 2016 and was succeeded by former president Donald Trump, a Republican real estate mogul elected president in 2016 who lost the 2020 presidential election to President Joe Biden, who served as vice president under Obama.
Abernathy Sr. died in 1990. His son, Abernathy III, once imprisoned for forgery and theft regarding his finances while in office as a state senator in Atlanta, died of cancer in 2016, just two days shy of his 57th birthday. He said that his imprisonment was government entrapment because he was so outspoken for Blacks, and other disenfranchised people, and allegedly because he had a famous name. The younger Abernathy believed that too often Blacks forget what other Blacks fought for, and died for, including the right to vote.
“Some people have forgotten what we have fought for all these years,” said Abernathy III.
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Jailed at a protest at nine-years-old, Abernathy III was a fighter like his father. His older brother was named after his father too, but died three days after birth.
The fourth of five children, including his deceased brother, the articulate Abernathy lll said that the reason he called King "Uncle Martin" is because the Abernathy and King families were just that close, and that his father and King were, “Civil Rights twins."
He was nine years old when King was assassinated in 1968 on a hotel balcony in Tennessee, and when his father later assumed the leadership role of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Civil Rights organization that they founded together that was the thrust of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
He said that he often had trouble sleeping as a kid because their home in Montgomery had been bombed and he feared it would happen again.
"For years, I was afraid to go to sleep at night when I was a child because I feared that our house would get bombed," he said.
The former Georgia state lawmaker said that while Black people have not been fully compensated for the unconstitutional and statutory wrongs that they have endured as a once enslaved people, times have changed somewhat for the Black community.
Barack Obama, he said during the Nov 4, 2012 one-one interview with Marc Churchill and Kathy Wray Coleman of clevelandurbannews.com and kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, is a part of that systemic change in action and is a change agent for the betterment of Black people in particular, and the American people in general. And he said that the struggle for equal justice and equal opportunity for Black people continues.
“In as much as things seem to change, they still remain the same. There is a transitional period of the Black community and a lack of true economic power," said Abernathy III