Pictured are Seymour Avenue in Cleveland escape victims Michelle Knight (wearing black), Gina DeJesus (wearing pink)and Amanda Berry (wearing necklace), Journey Center for Safety and Healing CEO Melissa Graves (wearing Cleveland No. 23 shirt) and its racial equity and inclusion manager Victoria Grant (wearing gray hair), and Cleveland Ward 9 Councilman Kevin ConwellCLEVELAND, Ohio-May 6, 2021 marks the eighth-year anniversary of the escape, after a decade of captivity, of Gina DeJesus, Michelle Knight and Amanda Berry from the late Ariel Castro's since demolished Seymour Avenue home on Cleveland's near west side.
Greater Clevelanders will rally on this issue this day as they do annually.
Keynote speakers for the event are Cleveland Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell, Journey Center for Healing and Safety in Cleveland CEO Melissa Graves, and its racial equity and inclusion manager, Victoria Grant.
Activist Alfred Porter Jr of Black on Black Crime will be the MC.
Community members and mothers of women and girls who have been raped and/or murdered in Cleveland are among the speakers.
"We will be at the event and we encourage others to attend," said Graves, who has been the CEO for the Journey Center for Healing and Safety in Cleveland for several years.
Community activists are also among the speakers for the annual gathering.
Community members, led by International Women's Day March Cleveland, Imperialwomencoalition, Black on Black Crime Inc, Peace in the Hood,, the Laura Cowan Foundation, the Cleveland Domestic Violence and Child Advocacy Center (now dubbed the Journey Center for Safety and Healing), Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Clevelandurbannews.com and community activist women, will remember the abduction, decade-long rape and escape of the Seymour Avenue victims from the wrath of convicted rapist Castro at an anniversary rally and march at 5:15 pm on Thursday, May 6, 2021 at 2207 Seymour Avenue in Cleveland where Castro's home once stood.
Castro died in prison.
Masks are required per city ordinance. Organizers are requesting that participants bring rally signs to the event. Call the Imperial Women Coalition and Women's March Cleveland at 216-659-0473 for more information.
"We are not ready to forget what happened in the 'House of Horrors' on Seymour Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio and we have unfinished business as to heightened rape and murder and other crimes against innocent women and girls," said head organizer Kathy Wray Coleman of Imperial Women Coalition and Women's March Cleveland, a former Cleveland John Marshall High School biology teacher.
The activist women say the anniversary event will also address the Violence Against Women Act, local, county, statewide and national public policy changes sought, and a demand for resources as to violence against women and children, human trafficking, and the epidemic of missing persons.
Activists will also call for public policy changes and more resources relative to rape, domestic violence and other violence against women and girls locally, countywide, statewide and nationally.
Additionally, activists want more equitable distributions of resources in educational arenas for women and girls, particularly regarding poor, minority, inner city and LGBT women, girls, and other genders.
A local guitar player and former Cleveland schools bus driver, Castro hanged himself in prison a month into his life sentence without the possibility of parole. He was a sad character and a serial rapist of children and women.
Statistics on nationwide violence against women and girls include the following:
-Violence against women and girls, including rape and murder, remains an epidemic, as does human trafficking
-Women and girls ages 12-34 are at the highest risk for sexual assault
-Poor women are 12 times more likely to get raped
-One out of every six American women has experience an attempted or completed rape and 22 percent of African-American women and 14 percent of Hispanic-American women experience at least one rape or attempted rape in their lifetime
-Women and girls ages 12-34 are at the highest risk for sexual assault
-Poor women are 12 times more likely to get raped
-One out of every six American women has experience an attempted or completed rape and 22 percent of African-American women and 14 percent of Hispanic-American women experience at least one rape or attempted rape in their lifetime
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black and alternative digital newspaper and Black blog.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and 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.
