Clevelandurbannews.com and-Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief

CLEVELAND, OHIO –U.S. Congressional Candidate Nina Turner, the front-runner among 13 Democratic candidates seeking to replace former congresswoman and U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia L. Fudge in Congress representing Ohio's largely Black 11th congressional district, will cast her vote for herself at 8 am on Wed., July 7 at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections on Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland, the first day of early voting in Ohio for the special congressional election.

The special primary election for Ohio's 11th congressional district seat, held separately for the Democratic primary and the Republican primary, is Aug 3 with the general election in which the Democratic and Republican winners will square off set for Nov 2. Early voting will continue from July 7- Sept 13.

In a press release the Turner campaign said that the former Ohio senator and Sen. Bernie Sanders surrogate will stand at the board of elections with elected officials, family members and supporters beginning at 7:45 am Wed. and that Turner will give remarks at 8:10 am. She will return to the board of elections at noon with supporters and elected officials to again rally for early voting, the campaign said.

"To mark the first day of voting, elected officials, community and faith leaders, activists and supporters will join Team Turner July 7 at the polls. Turner will greet supporters, cast her ballot and answer questions from media," said Turner's campaign press secretary Marisa Nahem.

Ohio's 11th congressional district includes most of Cleveland, mainly its majority Black east side, and several of its eastern suburbs of Cuyahoga County, and a Black pocket of Akron and a few of Akron's Summit County suburbs. It is roughly 53 percent Black and is of one of two majority minority districts in Ohio impacted by the redistricting provisions under the Civil Rights Act of 1965.

A former state senator for Ohio's 25th district after which she served as the co-chair of engagement for the Ohio Democratic Party and focused on building Party infrastructure and support for Democrats across the state, Turner is promoting a progressive campaign on issues such as a $15 an hour living wage, Medicare for All, and expanded public education from pre-kindergarten to college.

Clevelandurbannews.com and-Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper 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.

Pictured are Vice President Kamala Harris, the first woman and first Black vice president of America, and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R-OH)

Clevelandurbannews.com and-Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor in chief

WASHINGTON, D.C.-Vice President Kamala Harris, America's first woman and first Black vice president, visited the Mexico-U.S. border nearly two weeks ago, her first trip to the border and one that follows heightened criticism that the vice president was avoiding such a trip in spite of a surge in illegal border crossings and drug trafficking on the southern border and even after her return last month from her first foreign trip as vice president, a three-day visit to Guatemala and Mexico.

While the vice president made three stops in El Paso, Texas during her first trip to the Mexico-U.S. border, she did not visit the border wall. She did, however, tour border facilities with border control officials and she met with activists for undocumented immigrants, her return home in Air Force 2 met by a wealth of media whose questions she essentially sidestepped after a polite greeting session.

A daughter of immigrants, Harris has said that inhumane conditions furthered by the Trump administration when former president Donald Trump was in office continue to plague the border.

The Biden administration, which remains under scrutiny regarding America's border problem, has conferred with governors across the state to seek help in taming the border situation, some of the governors, including Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican up for reelection next year and a former U.S. senator, sending state highway troopers to help patrol the southern border. DeWine has sent 14 of Ohio's state troopers to the southern border, saying Texas authorities lobbied him to send them to do surveillance, activity that sources say raises questions about the governor's priorities and his use or misuse of state troopers abroad while crime skyrockets in major American cities in Ohio like Columbus and Cleveland.

Just last month Cleveland's mayor, Mayor Frank Jackson, the city's four-term Black mayor, joined 27 other big city mayors, in sending a letter to current President Biden, who ousted Trump in November following a contentious presidential election, asking him to help quell violent crime in their cities.

“We write to congratulate you and your administration on the steps you have already taken to address the scourge of gun violence we face in cities across America,” the letter, the June 15 letter states in part. “We believe there are other steps that the federal government is uniquely qualified to take to enhance the efforts already underway.”

In spite of some criticism for not effectively using the state troopers to address crime in his own state, DeWine, a progressive governor, said that he was pleased to send state troopers from Ohio to help during the crisis at the U.S. border. and that he was sending the troops for two weeks. On the other hand, activists said that the fewer state troopers in the inner city of places like Cleveland the fewer conflicts between Black people and law enforcement.

Harris, 56 and a Democrat, had initially said that she would visit the border in due time and that there is no quick fix to the influx of Central American migrants to the U.S. But pressure mounted, mainly from Congressional Republicans, wanted more answers as pressure mounted for the Biden administration to do more on the U.S.-Mexico border fiasco. The vice president said that the average immigrant flees to the U.S. for a better way of life.

According to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, border agents detained some 100,000 migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in February alone, with nearly a 70 percent increase in that amount in April and the numbers not getting significantly better in either May or June, the highest monthly totals since a major border surge in mid-2019. The numbers just keep getting worse, critics say, the worst U.S. figures in some 20 years.

Republicans say the Biden administration has watered down immigration policies in place under the Trump administration while Democrats argue that Trump's immigration policies were racist and anti-Democratic, and that they marginalized women, children, and people of color.

Former president Mike Pence, whom Harris succeeded into office this year, visited the border in 2019 and he criticized Harris last month for not visiting the border sooner, Harris saying that both Trump and Biden perpetuated border problems and fed off of harassing immigrants at the border.

Harris ran for president last year, and later vice president on the Democratic ticket. She is the first woman of color to compete on a major party presidential ticket in America.

On the campaign trail for her unsuccessful bid for president she had a tone amenable to  the nation's immigrant community as she pushed immigration reform policies. Biden later tapped her to run for vice president on his presidential ticket.

Clevelandurbannews.com and-Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. 

Pictured are retired Ohio 8th District Court of Appeals Judge Sara J. Haroer, also a Cleveland judge, Cleveland Councilman Kevin Conwell and Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Yvonne Conwell (wearing eyeglasses)

By Rhonda Crowder, field reporter

CLEVELAND, Ohio-Representatives of Volunteers of America along with the husband-wife couple of Cleveland Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell and Cuyahoga County County Councilwoman Yvonne Conwell (District 7) recently participated in a ground breaking ceremony to announce the beginning of construction of the Judge Sara J. Harper Village in Cleveland's historic Glenville neighborhood in Ward 9 on the city's largely Black east side.

The $1.2 million project is an affordable housing initiative for women veterans of the armed services that will be built specifically at 10531 Lee Avenue in Glenville.

Harper, 94, is a retired Ohio Eighth District Court of appeals judge, and a decorated Black Clevelander with a historic resume not only as a former judge but as a one time military judge, assistant city prosecutor, and president of the local NAACP chapter.

“By naming this facility after Judge Sara J. Harper the residents will know the history of what she’s done," said Councilman Conwell. "She’s been very successful and children need to see the success everyday.”

Harper, along with members of her family, attended last week's ground breaking.

“Making sure all people are aware of their basic human rights has been paramount to the values held by Judge Harper. Defending those rights has been our mother’s passion. She has been an uncontested warrior for justice for Black people and especially for women and children,” said Contance Trumbo Haqq, the eldest of Harper and former Judge Trumbo's five grown children.

Funding for the project is coming from the Volunteers of America (VOA)

“Judge Sara J. Harper Village will provide affordable housing for the community’s most under-served segment of the veteran population and help meet the unique needs of women veterans as they return to civilian life,” said John R. von Arx III, president and CEO for the Ohio and Indiana offices of the Volunteers of America.

Von Arx said VOA is pleased to support services for women who have served their country.

"We are honored to provide a safe place for women veterans to heal and rebuild their lives," he said.

Randy Graves, Volunteers of America director of field operations, said Cleveland and the Glenville community were chosen to host the project of affordable apartments for women veterans without hesitation.

“There’s a lot of things that went into it,” said Graves when asked why they selected this site. “It needed to be close to the VA, in a walk-able neighborhood. ”

Graves said that once they learned about Judge Sara J. Harper, it became a no-brainer to name the facility in her honor.

“With her credentials, there was no more discussion," Graves said.

Councilman Conwell said the project will benefit Cleveland, and Glenville.

He and his wife, County Councilwoman Yvonne Conwell, helped to negotiate the location of the project and said the Glenville location is the perfect fit.

“I’m very excited about the development,” Conwell said. “It’s going to benefit Ward 9. This site is going to bring jobs. It will help stimulate growth on Lee Avenue.”

(VOA) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1896 that is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia and has  some 32 affiliates nationwide. It provides affordable housing and other assistance services primarily to low-income people throughout the United States and serves approximately 1.5 million people each year in 46 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.Other community members and members of Harper's family were also in attendance.

The Judge Sara J. Harper Village will consist of two buildings with 12 thoughtfully designed, efficiency-style apartments. Each building will be approximately 3,000 square-feet, housing four one-bedroom apartments and two, two-bedroom suites for women with children. The units are ADA accessible/compliant while the site will also include indoor and outdoor common space, an office, community room, laundry facilities and parking.

The Rev. Larry L. Harris, senior pastor at Mt. Olive Baptist Church , Harper's longtime pastor, described the project as “continuing the legacy of Judge Sara J. Harper” and referred to her as “a doer for justice for all.”

“What I love about you is that care,” said Harris to Harper, who is a longtime member of Mt. Olive. “And what I love about today, you’re able to smell the flowers.”

According to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, women make up the fastest growing segment of the homeless veteran population with an estimated 1 and 4 experiencing sexual trauma. Volunteers of America is dedicated to helping people achieve well-being by offering hope, restoring dignity, and transforming lives, to ensure communities thrive.

For some  125 years its services have uplifted individuals, families, and communities including veterans, homeless individuals and families, men and women returning home after incarceration, low income seniors and those recovering and healing from addiction. Supportive wrap-around services and medical care at the Louis Stokes Cleveland Veteran’s Affairs Hospital (VA) as well as Cleveland Clinic and University Hospital are nearby for use by tenants, who will also have access to Volunteers of America’s case management, employment services, support groups, individual counseling and other services.

A Cleveland native, who grew up in the Outhwaite Housing Projects, Harper graduated from the Cleveland Public Schools and then went on to become the first African American woman to graduate from Case Western Reserve University’s School of Law. She is the first woman to serve on the judiciary of the United States Marine Corps Reserve and she co-founded the first victims’ rights program in the country.

She is a former Cleveland NAACP who was later active in the organization during the height of Cleveland’s schools desegregation era and she served as an assistant city prosecutor and judge for Cleveland Municipal Court before winning a seat on the Eighth District Court of Appeals in 1990, becoming one of two  African American women to be the first African-American woman elected to a state appellate court in Ohio.

Harper is also the first African-American woman to sit by assignment as a visiting judge on the Ohio Supreme Court and is the first African-American woman to run for a seat on that court, paving the way for other African -Americans to seek election to the state's highest court like current Ohio Supreme Court Justice Melody Stewart, the first Black and first Black woman elected to the Ohio Supreme Court bench.

The Sara J. Harper Children's Library that Harper founded sits in Cleveland's Outhwaite Housing Projects where Harper and her four siblings grew-up, all of them girls.

It is also where the late former congressman Louis Stokes, Ohio's first Black congressman was raised with his younger brother, the late  Carl B. Stokes, Cleveland's first Black mayor who became Cleveland's first Black mayor  when voters elected him in 1967, and the first Black mayor of a major American city.

Harper is the widow of the late former Cleveland Municipal Court Judge George Trumbo, and a sister of the late Connie Harper, a longtime editor of the Call and  Post Newspaper.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest, and the most read independent digital news in Ohio. 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.