Pictured are Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, Michelle Knight, and child serial rapist and kidnapper the late Ariel Castro
By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com
(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio- Led by the Imperial Women Coalition, greater Cleveland community activists, elected officials (Cleveland councilpersons Mamie Mitchell and Brian Cummins), victims of rape and other violence, and others will rally at 4:30 pm Wednesday, May 6 at 2207 Seymour Avenue on Cleveland's west side where the home of convicted kidnapper and child rapist Ariel Castro once stood. For more information contact Kathy Wray Coleman of the Imperial Women Coalition by phone at (216) 659-0473 and by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com.
A woman is raped in America every two minutes, data show.
Castro held victims Michelle Knight, Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry captive for a decade at his since demolished home, and in chains, where he repeatedly raped and tortured them. May 6, 2015 marks the second anniversary of their rescue. DeJesus and Berry were teens at the time of their abduction by Castro, 52 at the time of his arrest in 2013, who hanged himself in prison while serving a life sentence.
The rally is a call to stop violence against women and children, including rape, murder, domestic violence, and human trafficking. Activists also want to know what has been done by city county and state officials to seek to eradicate violence against women since the Imperial Avenue Murders in 2009 where serial killer and death row inmate Anthony Sowell strangled 11 Black women to death at his home on Imperial Avenue on the city's east side, and raped three others. Information on rape and other violence and pamphlets will be distributed at the rally, organizers said.
In addition to council persons Cummins and Mitchell, speakers include Kathy Wray Coleman of Cleveland Urban News.Com and the Imperial Women Coalition, Laura Cowan of the Laura Cowan Foundation, Christine Wilson of Sister to Sister, Khalid Samad of Peace in the Hood, Nicole Ziegler of a Delicate Rose.Org, Kimberly Brown of the Brown Report Newspaper, Valerie and Dr. Stewart Robinson of Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor, Don Bryant of the Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network, the Rev. Lorenzo Norris of the Cleveland Clergy Alliance, the Rev. Pamela Pinkney-Butts, Marva Patterson and Genevieve Mitchell of the Carl Stokes Brigade, Bill Swain of Revolution Books, Carol Steiner of Puncture the Silence, and activist Pierre Nappier.. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com
