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Staff article

SELMA, Alabama-President Joe Biden marched with Civil Right leaders and activists across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Sunday, March 5, 2023 to commemorate the 58th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday," the Sunday 58 years ago where activists were beaten and brutalized by police for marching across the bridge from Montgomery, Alabama to Selma, Alabama to demand passage of the Voting Rights Act.

Flanked by Civil Rights leaders the Revs Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, seasoned Congressman James Clyburn and other prominent people, Biden said that "the right to vote and to have your vote count is the threshold of democracy and liberty. "

The president also called for more voting rights protections.

Former president Barack Obama gave a historic speech before thousands at the same venue in 2015 when he was president to mark the 50th anniversary of the bridge crossing, a celebratory event that also drew select dignitaries and several members of Congress, including the late John Lewis. Then a young Civil rights activists, Lewis marched across the bridge with protesters 58-years-ago for the Civil Rights march for which "Bloody Sunday" draws its name.

Selma, said Obama when he spoke at the bottom of the bridge in 2015, "was part of a broader campaign that spanned generations, and those that crossed the infamous Edmund Pettus Bridge years ago "gave courage to millions."

"Because of what they did, the doors of opportunity swung open not just for African-Americans, but for every American," said Obama, the nation's first Black president who won election in 2008 and reelection in 2012 for another four-year term.

The attack by police on marchers in Selma 58 years ago on March 7, 1965 was a prelude to two other marches within a five day period, both of them led by the late Rev Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the last one of which thousands crossed the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge untouched. Months later, in August of 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which is under attack today by Republican led state legislatures across the country that are adopting laws to suppress the Black vote And this is no doubt coupled with  U.S. Supreme Court decisions striking down key provisions of the Voting Rights Act.

The Supreme Court, in 2013, struck down the provision of the Voting Rights Act that required Southern states to get federal court approval to adopt or substantively amend state voting rights laws.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most readBlack digital newspaper and blog in Ohio and in the Midwest Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

Pictured are Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson, who is Black, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, and former Chicago schools CEO Paul Valas, Valas and Johnson the top two vote-getters in Tuesday's election who will move on to the nonpartisan runoff in April for Chicago mayor. Lightfoot finished third Tuesday night,  ending her rein as mayor of the largely Black major American city

CHICAGO, Illinois-In an election that drew more than half a million people to the polls, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the city's first Black female and openly gay mayor, lost her bid for a second term on Tuesday, coming in third in a crowded field of nine contenders and failing to qualify to move on to a non-partisan runoff set for April.

Former Chicago schools CEO Paul Valas, whom firefighters and other first res-ponders championed and who promised voters that he would fight crime and poverty, led the field of candidates, followed by Brandon Johnson, a Cook County commissioner who was supported by progressives, the Black religious community, and the Chicago Teachers Union. Valas and Johnson will square-off next month in what pundits say will likely be a heated runoff election relative to public policy issues impacting the city and its residents.

Valas finished with 34 percent of the vote and Johnson 20 percent while Lightfoot got a dismal 17 percent.  And Chicago voters made it clear that race does not always matter in politics as Lightfoot and Johnson are Black, and Valas, the top vote-getter and a former school teacher turned schools CEO, is White.

A Democrat and an attorney, Lightfoot, 60, made history in 2019 when she became the first Black woman and first openly gay person to lead the city, but her popularly began to wane as crime went wild and the pandemic took an already struggling and largely Black major American city into deeper despair, financially and otherwise.

The third most populous city in the U.S. behind New York and Los Angeles, Chicago has a population of roughly 2.6 million people. As the seat of Cook county it is the center of the Chicago metropolitan area. It is also the international hub for finance, culture, commerce, industry, education, technology, telecommunications, and transportation.

Pictured in the long story of this article are Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson, who is Black, ousted Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, and former Chicago schools CEO Paul Valas, Valas and Johnson the top two vote-getters in Tuesday's election who will move on to the nonpartisan runoff in April

CHICAGO, Illinois-In an election that drew more than half a million people to the polls, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the city's first Black female and openly gay mayor, lost her bid for a second term on Tuesday, coming in third in a crowded field of nine contenders and failing to qualify to move on to a non-partisan runoff set for April.

Former Chicago schools CEO Paul Valas, whom firefighters and other first res-ponders championed and who promised voters that he would fight crime and poverty, led the field of candidates, followed by Brandon Johnson, a Cook County Commissioner who was supported by progressives, the Black religious community, and the Chicago Teachers Union. Valas and Johnson will square-off next month in what pundits say will likely be a heated election relative to public policy issues impacting the city and its residents.

Valas finished with 34 percent of the vote and Johnson 20 percent while Lightfoot got a dismal 17 percent.

A Democrat and an attorney, Lightfoot, 60, made history in 2019 when she became the first Black woman and first openly gay person to lead the city, but her popularly began to wane as crime went wild and the pandemic took an already struggling and largely Black major American city into deeper despair, financially and otherwise.

The second most populous city in the U.S. behind New York and Los Angeles, Chicago has a population of roughly 2.6 million people. As the seat of Cook county it is the center of the Chicago metropolitan area. It is also the international hub for finance, culture, commerce, industry, education, technology, telecommunications, and transportation.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

By Laura E. Klingler of the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland

Hello from Legal Aid!

CLEVELAND, Ohio- As March begins we have a busy calendar of free legal advice clinics coming up in Kirtland, Chagrin Falls, Cleveland, Oberlin, Ashtabula, and Lorain! We encourage you to circulate this information with your networks.

-Legal Aid is Hiring