CLEVELAND, OHIO – U.S. Congressional Candidate Nina Turner will meet with grassroots Cleveland activists for a late brunch on Wed., July 28 at a restaurant in Ward 7 in the heart of Cleveland's historic Hough neighborhood to discuss her campaign platform relative to issues such as criminal justice reform, violence against women, public and higher education, the $15 minimum wage, and COVID-19 disparities in the Black community. (Call (216) 659-0473 or email organizers at editor@clevelandurbannews.com to R.S.V.P. for the brunch)

Speakers include Scott Hawkins, the father of Arthur Keith, who was gunned down by CMHA police, the mother of Cleveland murder victim Destiny Hardwick, who was 21 and whose killer remains at large, activist Genevieve Mitchell, who will introduce Turner, activists and retired Plain Dealer reporter Dick Peery, Cleveland Councilman Kevin Conwell, and other activists and other family members of Cleveland murder victims.

"Grassroots activists of Cleveland look forward to meeting with Nina Turner, a prospective congresswoman of our 11th congressional district, on issues of public concern that we have been fighting for in the trenches for so long," said event co-organizer Kathy Wray Coleman, who leads the Imperial Women Coalition, a grassroots group founded behind the murders of 11 Black Women on Imperial Avenue on Cleveland's largely Black east side by the late serial killer Anthony Sowell. "We have concerns across the board from the unsolved murders, rapes and other heightened crimes of Black and other Cleveland women, to educational policy, excessive force, mass incarceration, COVID-19 disparities, a working wage, and a sexist and racist criminal justice system that is wreaking havoc on the Black community and poor people."

Activist Alfred Porter Jr, a co-organizer of the event with Coleman and the president of Black on Black Crime Inc., agreed with Coleman and added that "we look forward to meeting with Mrs. Turner as she obviously can see the importance of having dialogue with influential grassroots community activists while on the campaign trail in this heated congressional race that activists are closely watching."

The upcoming meeting with Turner and seasoned and other activists of Cleveland and greater Cleveland comes as the Aug 3 special Democratic primary to fill the vacant 11th congressional district seat in Ohio nears and Turner, also a former Cleveland councilwoman, is locked in a battle with Cuyahoga County Democratic Party Chairperson and County Councilwoman Shontel Brown, her closest opponent of 13 Democrats in the crowded race.

The winners of the Republican and Democratic primaries will compete in a runoff for the congressional seat on Tues., Nov 2, the date of Ohio's general election.

A few Black elected officials, including Councilman Conwell, will be among those at Wednesday's brunch.

Activists say Conwell was invited because he has stood with activists in the trenches in their fight against violence against women and excessive force cases that expose the frailties in the legal system as it relates to Black people, and women who are victims of crime.

"I will be there," said Councilman Conwell regarding the much anticipated brunch with Turner.

Voter suppression, redistricting, and gerrymandering will also be addressed at the hour-long event as will Cleveland's consent decree for police reforms and the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, organizers said.

Participating activist groups or group members for the brunch include the Imperial Women Coalition, Black on Black Crime Inc, the Oppressed People's Nation, the Brickhouse Wellness Center, the Carl Stokes Brigade, the Coalition to Stop the Inhumanities in the Cuyahoga County Jail, Black Man's Army, and Father's Lives Matter.

Organizers say the focus of the meeting with Turner is criminal justice reform, and violence and murder against Black women.

Organizers say they want to know what Turner would do if elected as congress person as to necessary resources to reduce rape and murder against Black women and girls in Cleveland, and to help to minimize excessive force cases and conflict between police and the Black community .

They say they want help as to the multitude of cold cases of the murders of Black women and girls in Cleveland and across the country as well as federal intervention to deal with unconstitutional public school funding formulas in Ohio and in other states that punish poor children for being poor, a disproportionate number of them Black.

A progressive Black Democrat and former Ohio senator who was Sen Bernie Sanders' campaign surrogate and who co-chaired his presidential campaign for president last year, Turner 53, is the front runner in the race to replace former congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge, who is now the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and a member of President Joe Biden's cabinet.

Ohio's largely Black 11th congressional district includes most of Cleveland and its eastern suburbs of Cuyahoga County and a majority Black pocket of Akron and staggering sections of Akron's Summit County suburbs.

Both Cleveland and Cuyahoga County are Democratic strongholds run primarily by Democrats.

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.