CLEVELAND, OHIO – Cleveland activists, led by Imperial Women Coalition, Black on Black Crime Inc., and members of the Cleveland African-American Museum and the Black Women's PAC, will host a mayoral forum with all seven Cleveland mayoral candidates on Mon., Aug 23, 2021 beginning at noon at Annie B's Pancake House, 4017 Saint Clair Avenue on the city's largely Black east side as the Sept. 14 nonpartisan primary for mayor and the 17 city council seats nears. The general election in which the top two vote-getters for mayor and from each of the city's wards will square off is Nov 2 with early voting already underway.

"Grassroots activists of Cleveland look forward to meeting with the seven mayoral hopefuls in the heart of Cleveland's Black community to discuss issues of public concern that we have been fighting in the trenches on and to here what the candidates will offer if elected mayor of the largely Black major American city of Cleveland," said activist Kathy Wray Coleman, who leads Women's March Cleveland and the Imperial Women Coalition, a grassroots group founded behind the murders of 11 Black Women on Imperial Avenue on Cleveland's east side by the late serial killer Anthony Sowell. "We have concerns across the board that will be addressed at this necessary forum regarding a mayoral race that will have an impact on the Black community, women, our children, and poor people of Cleveland for years to come."

Organizers for the event are Coleman, who is the head organizer, Black on Black Crime President Alfred Porter Jr, activist Donna Walker-Brown, Cleveland-African American Museum Executive Director Frances Caldwell, and Elaine Gohlstin, president of the Black Women's PAC of Greater Cleveland.

Coleman said that all seven mayoral candidates have confirmed for the gathering.

Candidates in the seven-way primary race for mayor, all of them Democrats and four of them Black, are state Sen. Sandra Williams (D-21), Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley, former congressman and one-time city mayor Dennis Kucinich, attorney Ross DiBello, non-profit executive Justin Bibb,  Ward 7 Councilman Bashear Jones, and former Ward 2 Councilman Zack Reed, who lost a mayoral runoff to current mayor Frank Jackson in 2017.

A four-term Black mayor, Jackson is the city's third black mayor and its longest serving mayor. He announced earlier this summer that he will not seek an unprecedented 5th term, creating an open seat for the first time since 2005 when Jackson, then the city council president, ousted then mayor Jane Campbell, the first and only woman to be elected to the mayoral post.

Campbell succeeded former mayor Michael R. White, who is Black and served three terms before opting not to seek reelection.

Other affiliated grassroots groups relative to Monday's brunch with the mayoral candidates include Refusefacism. org, Father's Lives Matter, the Black Man's Army, Brickhouse Wellness Center, the Carl Stokes Brigade, the Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network, and the Coalition to Stop the Inhumanities in the Cuyahoga County Jail.

Issues for the forum include education, violence against women, housing and the eviction moratorium, tax abatement, excessive force, cold cases, heightened crime, jobs, neighborhoods, the American Rescue Plan for which Cleveland will divide up $511 million, the consent decree for police reforms, the $15 minimum wage, the Cleveland no chase policy, and the $450 million proposal by the Cleveland Indians franchise for stadium renovations at Progressive field.

Speakers include mayoral candidates, activists, Scott Hawkins, who is the father of Arthur Keith, who was gunned down by CMHA police, the mothers of Cleveland murder victims whose assailants remain at large, Black elected officials, and other community members.

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

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