By Bret Crow

The Ohio Civil Rights Commission has inducted retired Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals Judge Sara J. Harper, 87, into the Ohio Civil Rights Hall of Fame.

In her official bio that will accompany an educational display, it notes that she was the first African American woman to graduate from Case Western Reserve University Law School, the first woman to serve on the judiciary of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, the first of two Black women to win seats on an Ohio court of appeals, the first African American woman to run for chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, and the first African American woman to sit by assignment on the Ohio Supreme Court.

“As president of the Cleveland NAACP in the early 1980s,” the bio states, “Harper fought against strip searches by police of female NAACP members who were arrested for minor traffic infractions.” The bio also touts the fact that Harper co-founded the first victims’ rights program in the country.

Her many awards include the Ohio Supreme Court’s Excellent Judicial Service Award, the NAACP’s Unsung Heroine Award, and the Raymond Pace Alexander Award. She is a member of the Ohio Veteran’s Hall of Fame and the National Bar Association’s Hall of Fame. She continues to give back to the community with the Sara J. Harper Library, founded in the early 1990s at the Outhwaite Homes Estates on East 43rd Street in Cleveland. The mission of the library is to provide a safe environment that encourages and promotes reading, learning, and positive avenues for self-realization.

View the video from the Ohio Civil Rights Hall of Fame Class of 2013 induction ceremony held last week.

CLEVELAND, Ohio-Subodh Chandra (www.chandraforprosecutor.com ), a candidate for next year's Democratic Primary for Cuyahoga County Prosecutor, yesterday got the unanimous endorsement of the Imperial Women, the Women's Federation, the Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network, the People's Forum, People for the Imperial Act, the Joaquin Hicks Real People's Movement, top affiliates in their individual capacity that are members of groups such as Occupy Cleveland, the Committee for a Renewed African-American Museum of Cleveland, the Carl Stokes Brigade, Black on Black Crime Inc., and the Cleveland Chapter of the New Black Panther Party, and a host of other grassroots participants.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief,  Cleveland Urban News.Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com, Ohio's No 1 and No 2 online Black news venues (www.clevelandurbannews.com) Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com and by phone at 216-659-0473

CLEVELAND, Ohio- The wife of Cleveland NAACP President The Rev Hilton Smith passed away on Saturday, October 12, 2013, after a long illness, officials of the local chapter of the nation's most renowned Civil Rights organization said Monday. Arrangements for Delores W. Smith are by Strowder's Funeral Home in Cleveland. The wake is at the Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church in Cleveland where Rev Smith is an associate minister, 1161 East 105th St, at 10:30 am, on  Friday, October 18, with the funeral following at 11:30 am.  The viewing is on Thursday, October 17 from 10:00 am to 7:30 pm at Strowder's Funeral Home, 822 East 105th Street in Cleveland, phone 216-761-3092.

Cleveland Ward 6 Councilwoman Mamie Mitchell, a member of the Cleveland NAACP Executive Board, said that Smith and his wife "were always together at public events and that they were such a nice and pleasant couple and role models who always dressed well."

"She was quiet and he is friendly and the consummate gentleman," said Mitchell.

"We offer condolences to Rev Smith and his family," said Community Activist Mary Seawright, a member of the grassroots groups Imperial Women and Black on Black Crime Inc who owns and operates Seawright Enterprises in Cleveland and is also a member of the Cleveland NAACP.

Senior Greater Abyssinia Pastor the Rev. Dr. E. T. Caviness, the first vice president of the Cleveland NAACP and the executive director of the Cleveland Chapter Southern Christian Leadership Conference, will do the eulogy.

Rev Smith, 66, is senor vice president for corporate and community affairs with Turner Construction Company in Cleveland and a former Cleveland School Board president. He took the helm of president of the local NAACP late last year and replaced longtime president George Forbes, 82, a former Cleveland City Council president and current general counsel for the Call and Post Newspaper, Ohio's Black press.

Delores Smith was once a model, her friends said.

Regarding her age at death, NAACP officials would only say that she was "sixty something." Her obituary is being written and will be released prior to the wake and funeral, Cleveland NAACP officials said.

The Smith's have three grown children, and four grandchildren.

CLEVELAND, Ohio-Steve Loomis (pictured), the outspoken president of Cleveland's Police Patrolmen's Association who regularly quarreled with Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and at one time gave the mayor a 'D plus' for leadership skills, was ousted this weekend in a close election.

After a successful front line campaign with other union leaders against Issue 2, a state measure on the Nov. ballot that voters rejected that would have dismantled collective bargaining in Ohio for public sector unions, Loomis lost reelection Sat. to the union presidency by 10 votes to Jeffrey Follmer, a 21-year veteran on the force.