Pictured is the late Ohio 11th congressional District congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Cleveland

(Editor's note: See the Tubbs Jones one-on-one interview by investigative journalist Kathy Wray Coleman that was taken shortly before her death of Aug. 20, 2008 below this brief story, her last major interview before her untimely death and a Call and Post cover story.)

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

REMEMBERING STEPHANIE TUBBS JONES

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com remember Stephanie Tubbs Jones the week of the 11th-year anniversary of her death on Aug 20, 2008, Tubbs Jones's Ohio's first Black congresswoman who represented Ohio's 11th congressional district, which includes parts of the city of Cleveland and several of its eastern suburbs of Cuyahoga County, the federal lawmaker dying suddenly of a brain aneurysm while in office and just nine days before Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for president of the United States of America.

America's first Black president, Obama went on to beat then Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) of Arizona and won a second four-year term in 2012, beating then Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

Tubbs Jones backed Hillary Clinton, then a U.S. senator representing New York, for president in 2008 , and was her co-campaign chairperson, her decision not to dump Clinton after Obama, then a junior U.S. senator representing Illinois, became popular creating an uproar in her largely Black congressional district.

Greater Clevelanders have not forgotten her.

"She was such a phenomenal woman and I miss her," said greater Clevelander Meredith Turner in a previous interview, Turner a former aide to U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Cleveland.

"Everybody misses her," former Cleveland Ward 2 Councilman Zack Reed has said.

A Cleveland Democrat, former municipal and common pleas judge, and a prior Cuyahoga County prosecutor,  the county's first Black prosecutor, Tubbs Jones' work is now furthered by 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge, a Warrensville Hts. Democrat who has also developed her own niche. (Editor's note: Tubbs Jones followed the now late U.S. Rep. Louis Stokes of Shaker Heights  and was elected to the 11th congressional district seat in 1998. Stokes, who supported her candidacy, was the first Black congressperson from Ohio and the brother of the late Carl B. Stokes, who was elected mayor of Cleveland in 1967, and was the first Black mayor of a major American city).

Among other spots across town, the new Huron Medical Center, located at 13944 Euclid Ave. in East Cleveland, a Cleveland suburb, is named Stephanie Tubbs Jones Health Center.

Below is the last major interview with Tubbs Jones by journalist Kathy Wray Coleman that was published on Sept. 24, 2008 as a cover story in the Cleveland Call and Post Newspaper, Ohio's Black Press with distributions in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus. It came with Tubbs Jones' on record approval.

BELOW: 2008 INTERVIEW UNDERTAKEN SHORTLY AFTER BARACK OBAMA WON THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION FOR PRESIDENT OVER HILLARY CLINTON.  THE INTERVIEW WAS HELD SHORTLY BEFORE HER DEATH AND AFTER CLINTON LOST THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION TO OBAMA, BUT PUBLISHED AFTER HER DEATH AND AFTER OBAMA HAD WON THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION FOR PRESIDENT OVER CLINTON

By Kathy Wray Coleman

(National and Cleveland, Oh. Area News)

This is an exclusive interview with U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones held shortly before her untimely death where the beloved congresswoman of the 11th Congressional District spoke on various issues, including her tenure as the national campaign co-chairperson for New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton relative to Clinton's failed pursuit, in 2008, of the Democratic nomination for president of the United States of America. Such audio-taped interview, which occurred with Tubbs Jones' on record approval, was undertaken three days after Clinton gave her historic concession speech in New York City. There she urged her supporters and others to rally behind Illinois senator Barack Obama, the first Black presidential nominee of a major American political party.

The one-on-one interview highlights the complicated concepts of race and gender in American politics. As Clinton's national campaign chairperson, Tubbs Jones did not waver in her support of Clinton, even after an overwhelming number of Blacks from across the country and in her own congressional district rallied behind Obama. Though Clinton won Ohio's Democratic primary by some 200,000 votes, 70 percent of Tubbs Jones' constituents in the majority Black 11th Congressional District voted for Obama where tensions ran high with no holds barred. Still, Tubbs Jones remained loyal saying she came aboard for Clinton long before Obama revealed his intentions to seek the Democratic nomination for president and that her word was her bond.

In this in depth yet spontaneous interview Tubbs Jones talks about the congressional legislation and other activities she sought on behalf of the Black community. She also gives her perspective as to the ups and downs that ambitious women encounter when they seek to positively manipulate the status quo. She says that men are typically in and women must still struggle for acceptance at all levels of the continuum, in politics, in corporate America, and otherwise. The interview reveals a loss to the Black community as Tubbs Jones speaks of the Blacks in public office in Cleveland and in other Cuyahoga County communities that she helped to get elected.

CALL & POST REPORTER KATHY WRAY COLEMAN:

Can McCain beat Barack?

Tubbs Jones:

I think that Barack can beat McCain but we have a lot of work to do for him to beat John McCain.

Ohio is so very important isn't it?

Tubbs Jones:

I think Ohio is very important. No [modern day Republican or Democrat since John F. Kennedy in 1960] president has won the presidency without winning Ohio.

C&P:

Would you be as responsive to Obama as you were to Hillary?

Tubbs Jones:

Absolutely. At this juncture Hillary says it and I'm saying the same thing, that that's history and we're moving forward and the only thing we can do now is get senator Obama elected.

C&P:

Can he win if you don't help him?

Tubbs Jones:

I'm willing to help, but I don't predispose that I am that important.

C&P:

Did Hillary hurt you in your district?

Tubbs Jones:

I believe that there were many people who did not like the fact that I supported Hillary, but I don't believe it hurt my ability to represent the district or my record of support for other candidates. And you know what is so amazing Kathy, where were all these people when I was trying to help Raymond Pierce get elected mayor of the City of Cleveland? And where were all these people when there were other African-American elected officials that have been running for public office and we couldn't find them to support us? The list goes on.

C&P:

So what you are saying is that you supported a whole lot of African-American candidates, right?

Tubbs Jones:

Of course.

C&P:

Name a few

Tubbs Jones:

[Cleveland Mayor] Frank Jackson, Raymond Pierce, all the municipal court judges in Cleveland, Peter Lawson Jones for county commissioner, and upcoming Lillian Greene to be the county recorder.

C&P:

I guess if you said put Hillary on the ticket that would be another thing wouldn't it?

Tubbs Jones:

[laughter].. I think she'd be a great vice president but I don't know whether that's what she wants or whether that's what he [Obama] wants, and I'm not pressed.

C&P

Did you see any racism or sexism in this Democratic campaign?

Tubbs Jones:

Absolutely. I want to send you this article from the New York Times about sexism in the city and sexism in the campaign.

C&P:

Do you believe that this time sexism was more prevalent than racism?

Tubbs Jones:

Yes, absolutely.

C&P:

Men still like to run things, don't they?

Tubbs Jones:

Yes, absolutely. Men like to run things, and it's alright. Men like to run things and women like to run things, and that's a competition.

C&P:

Sexism can be stronger than racism in some arenas?

Tubbs Jones:

Absolutely. All you have to do is look at how many women there are in the Senate, how many women there are in the House compared to the number of men, how many women governors there are, women elected officials, women in the board rooms, and CEOs in large companies. We have come a long way, but we've got a long way to go. I felt blessed to have had the opportunity to advise a presidential candidate in 2008 having come from a father who was a skycap and a mother who was a factory worker. I will always remember the experience I had and I am thankful for it. Sen. Clinton has thrown her wholehearted support behind Barack Obama and I throw mine as well.

C&P:

What are some of the [bills] that you have sponsored or co-sponsored on behalf of the Black community?

Tubbs Jones:

The fugitive safe surrender and the uterine fibroid tumor [bills], and The Second Chance Act. It [The Second Chance Act] passed [into legislation] in the last 60 days. The Second Chance Act focuses on giving ex-offenders the opportunity for jobs, housing, drug treatment, family counseling and job training.

C&P:

Are Black women disproportionately affected by fibroids?

Tubbs Jones:

Absolutely, and no one knows the cause. They say that the highest incidence of hysterectomy is the result of uterine fibroids. I have been working on legislation around instate renal disease and kidney failure that predominates in African-Americans. So you know, people called in about she hasn't done anything for veterans and I created a veterans advisory committee, that I hadn't done anything for Black men, and the list went on. And as I said, I stand on my record for support for my community and my constituents.

C&P:

Is there anything else that you want me to get across to the Black community?

Tubbs Jones:

[Get across] how much I love and support them. And I say to them that you may not have liked my decision or you may not have supported my decision for Hillary Clinton, but look at my record and support of the community and the work that I have done in the past 26 years.

C&P:

Thank you.

Tubbs Jones:

You're welcome.

(Editor's note: The titles of some of the dignitaries below have changed since this story was published in August of 2008 at the time of the funeral of the late Ohio congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, which was held in her hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. For instance, Barack Obama was then a junior senator from Illinois who, that year, went on to become president with then senator Joe Biden as his vice president, Biden now among the Democratic candidates for president in 2020)

Tubbs Jones died at 58 on Aug 20, 2008, at the prime of her political career. Her death took greater Cleveland by storm where thousands attended her memorial service in Cleveland, including Sen. Obama, Michelle Obama, vice presidential Democratic Nominee Sen. Joe Biden, Sen. Clinton, former President Bill Clinton, Congressional Black Caucus Chairperson Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, retired U.S. Rep. Louis Stokes, and many of her constituents from the 11th Congressional District.

Pictured are Ohio Tenth District Court of Appeals Judge Jennifer Brunner, also a former Ohio secretary of state, Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge John O'Donnell, Cleveland Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell, and since fired Cleveland police officer Michael Brelo, Brunner and O'Donnell seeking election  in 2020 as Democrats to two seats on the seven-member Ohio Supreme Court, currently of which is majority Republican, with one Black, Democratic justice Melody Stewart (also pictured, and the first Black and first female ever elected the the Ohio Supreme Court)

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper and Black blog.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief

COLUMBUS, Ohio - COLUMBUS, Ohio -  Democrats Jennifer Brunner, a state appellate court judge and former Ohio secretary of state, and John  O'Donnell, a judge on the general division common pleas bench of Cuyahoga County that sits in Cleveland, will seek election in 2020  to two seats on the Ohio Supreme Court, Brunner running for the seat held by incumbent justice Judith French, 57, who beat O'Donnell in 2014, and O'Donnell set to  challenge incumbent justice Sharon Kennedy, 57

Both French and Kennedy, a former police officer, are Republicans, and are two of four women on the court, a majority female court led by Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor, a Lyndhurst, Ohio native, former lieutenant governor and the first woman chief justice, an elected office in Ohio.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com -CLEVELAND, Ohio - Former Cuyahoga County Jail Warden Eric Ivey, who is Black and was demoted to associate warden after he was indicted on several charges earlier this year, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors on Monday before Common Pleas Judge Nancy Fuerst, Ivey among some nine jail affiliates indicted following nine inmate deaths since last June, also including former jail director Ken Mills and some six jail guards. (Editor's note: Cleveland activists will protest before Ivey's sentencing and will attend the sentencing hearing: CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE FOR THE OCTOBER 3, 2019 PROTEST AT THE JUSTICE CENTER IN DOWNTOWN CLEVELAND OUTSIDE OF THE CUYAHOGA COUNTY JAIL )

The former warden is accused, among other illegal activities, of ordering correction officers to turn off their body cams relative to a drug overdose that left an inmate dead , jail and county officials, including the former sheriff and current county executive Armond Budish, also accused of ignoring the deaths until the FBI stepped in.

Last November U.S. Marshals released a stinging report of the county jail, one of the most notorious jails in the country, and deemed the mistreatment of inmates, including ignoring and covering up inmate deaths, rodent and roach infested facilities, the housing of pregnant women on mats on the floor, withholding food for punishment and assault on female and other inmates, inhumane and unconstitutional.

"Judge Fuerst accepting a misdemeanor plea deal from the former warden of the county jail is unacceptable and we invite people to the September 30 protest against the former warden and Judge Fuerst the day of sentencing," said longtime activist Art McKoy of Black on Black Crime Inc.

Five of the nine inmate deaths were purportedly the result of suicide.

Special prosecutor Matthew Meyer, on behalf of  Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, whose office replaced that of County Prosecutor Mike O'Malley per O'Malley's request, said  Monday in court that Ivey's plea deal requires that he resign as associate warden, effective the date of sentencing, and later testify or snitch on  other culprits as called upon by prosecutors.

Prosecutors also dismissed a charge of tampering with evidence, a third degree felony.

"Your honor, as a condition of the plea, the defendant would agree to testify truthfully and give truthful statements in any proceeding in which he is called upon to do so concerning the Cuyahoga County Jail or the operation of Cuyahoga County government," said Meyer to Fuerst.

The judge accepted the plea deal and set sentencing for 10:30 am on Oct. 3 in courtroom 15B, activists to picket beginning at 9:30 am the day of sentencing on the steps of the Cuyahoga County Justice Center in Cleveland.

Fuerst is also under fire for denying Blacks and activists their speedy trial rights, and scheduling trials not journalized or put in writing and then arbitrarily jailing Black defendants maliciously accused of crimes against racist White cops when they do not appear for her unconstitutional trials.

Public records also reveal that she is ordering Blacks to trials she schedules in under 24 hours without formal notice, and then jailing them via arrest warrants if they fail to appear. And, data show that she is covering up alleged indictment fixing by prosecutors and the clerk of courts, grand jury tampering, and falsification of court records, much of it with the help of corrupt attorneys she handpicks and appoints to felony cases of indigent Blacks.

Activists want Fuerst, 66 and up for reelection to another six-year term in 2020, voted out of office and demanded such at a rally on May 23 outside of the county jail.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE LIVE FACEBOOK VIDEO OF THE MAY 23 RALLY AGAINST CONDITIONS IN THE CUYAHOGA COUNTY JAIL BY CLEVELAND CHANNEL 3 NEWS

Also at issue is Common Pleas Judge Joe Russo, activists said, who leads all of the 34 largely White general division common pleas judges in prolonging cases of poor and indigent defendants who waive their right to a speedy trial and remain in the county jail unable to post bond,  the judge also accused of falsification with the clerk of courts office to cover up the absence of a required preliminary hearing in felony cases, among other malfeasance type activity.

Russo will be picketed too, said activists, his case docket a disgrace where some poor and indigent defendants wait years to go to trial, a strategy, say sources, to secure plea deals for prosecutors from innocent Black people.

A search committee for a permanent sheriff was appointed by embattled Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish, who appoints the county sheriff per the county charter and is under investigation also, authorities confiscating his office computer cell phone and  other materials when his downtown headquarters office was twice raided this year

Meanwhile, Sgt. David Schillings, a 15-year veteran with the sheriff's department, was named the acting sheriff to replace Pinkney

Clifford Pinkney, the county's  first Black sheriff, resigned Aug. 2 after four years as sheriff.

He  testified before county council days before he left the job, and by subpoena regarding the conditions in the county jail, and said he did not have ultimate authority over the jail as an appointed sheriff, and that his decisions were sometimes usurped.

But sources say he fears a potential indictment on criminal charges and has allegedly hired an out of state attorney in that respect

Appointed rather than elected due to a voter-adopted change in county governance implemented in 2011 that replaced three county commissioners and the county elected offices, with a county executive and 11-member county council, all but the still-elected judges and county prosecutor, the sheriff reports to the county executive.

This is applicable also to the county clerk of courts, treasurer, auditor and fiscal officer, all of the positions elected until the change in county governance took effect, a governance change that followed an ongoing county public corruption probe that took off in 2008 and has seen a former county commissioner and auditor, two judges, MetroHealth Hospital administrators and doctors  imprisoned, among some 75 Democratic operatives prosecuted, mainly businessmen, some of them avoiding prison with plea deals, and not even a hand full of whom were completely exonerated.

County Council has put a charter amendment on the ballot for next year to give voters the option of giving it more direct authority over the sheriff, council members saying such ballot initiative takes care of too much power under the county executive while at the same time not returning to an elected sheriff who can perpetuate more corruption as was the case under disgraced former sheriff McFaul, the county's last elected sheriff who was forced to resign after being convicted of crimes in office.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief at Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper and Black blog. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Coleman is an experienced Black political reporter who covered the 2008 presidential election for the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio and the presidential elections in 2012 and 2016 As to the one-on-one interview by Coleman with Obama CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

Pictured are NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson (wearing gold striped tie) and Ohio Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge (wearing orange suit), a Warrensville Heights Democrat whose largely Black Congressional Black Caucus whose largely Black 11th congressional district includes Cleveland, Maryland Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings (wearing blue striped tie), and Democratic U.S. Representatives Rashida Tlaib of Michigan (wearing red blouse), Ilhan Omar of Minnesota (wearing head garb), Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts(wearing all black and beads), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York (wearing all black and no beads)

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, BALTIMORE, Maryland- The NAACP, led by Derrick Johnson, its CEO and national president, has called for impeachment hearings to ensue against President Donald Trump, the nation's most prominent Black Civil Rights organization holding a mass teleconference and podcast discussion call last week on that and the Black agenda with the Black media and key Black leaders nationwide, including members of congress such as Ohio Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge.

Johnson has led the NAACP since October of 2017, and has said that Trump, a Republican seeking reelection in 2020, "is unfit to serve as president of this country."

Delegates to the NAACP voted unanimously via a resolution adopted at its national convention in Detroit in July in support of the impeachment of Trump, a billionaire real estate mogul and television personality turned president who defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton to win the White House in 2016, and whose controversial policies and recent attacks on congress persons of color and Civil Rights leaders have gotten him into political trouble.

“We want to talk about what part public policy plays in racism in the United States and we want to talk about what role the NAACP plays in trying once and for all to eliminate racism,'' NAACP board chairman Leon Russell told reporters at the convention, the NAACP demanding racial, economic and social justice for the Back community, among other concerns.

In spite of his racially divisive campaign strategy, designed, say pundits, to satisfy his Republican base by targeting Black people, including public comments that the Black community has nothing to lose economically and otherwise, the president, he apparently believes, is simultaneously courting the Black vote.

It fell seven percentage points from 2012 to 2016 when he won the White House over Hillary Clinton, some four million Obama voters who voted in droves when the country's first Black president was elected in 2008 and reelected in 2012 staying home, and Clinton, in 2016, getting six percent less of the Black vote that was handed to Obama in 2012.

And if the president continues his wicked ways, say his critics, borderline Blacks, the few that backed Trump for president in 2016, will likely vote blue in 2020, or, in other words, for a Democrat for president, the crowded field of Democratic presidential hopefuls of which include former vice president Joe Biden and U.S Sens Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris, the top tier Democratic candidates.

He lashed out at the Republican-leaning Fox News on Sunday over a hypothetical poll that shows him losing to Biden, Warren, Sanders and Harris in a general election match up in 2020, backlash, in part, from his shenanigans against Blacks and others of color.

There's something going on at Fox, I'll tell you right now," the agitated president told reporters on Sunday. "And I am not happy with it."

Pictured are U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, a former Ohio attorney general and the only Black female candidate in the 2020 race for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States of America, and Ohio 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge, a Warrensville, Ohio Democrat whose largely Black congressional district includes Cleveland, Fudge this week endorsing Harris in her bid for president of the United States of America

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief