By Kathy Wray Coleman, Executive Publisher, Editor, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog
CLEVELAND,Ohio- A press conference by some Black elected officials and a protest, both covered locally and nationally by CNN and MSNBC, were held on Oct 11 by The Imperial Women, Organize Ohio, Black on Black Crime, Peace in the Hood and Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor under a racist voter suppression billboard in the city of Cleveland that threatens residents with a felony, prison and a $10,000 fine for voting.
The organized effort has caused the company that owns the unconstitutional billboard, Clear Channel Holdings Inc., to take it down, and 29 others like it around Cleveland, elsewhere in cities in Ohio, including Columbus and Cincinnati, and in the swing state of Wisconsin.
Watch the video below by Fox 8 News Channel in Cleveland of the Oct 11. voter suppression billboard protest led by Community Activists Kathy Wray Coleman and Khalid Samad. . CLICK HERE ON THIS LINK TO GO TO FOX 8 NEWS TO SEE THE VIDEO OF THE PROTEST AND THE STATION'S NEWS STORY ON IT
Coleman leads the Imperial Women, a community activist group founded around the murders of 11 Black women on Imperial Ave in Cleveland by since convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell. Go to Cleveland Urban News.Com (www.clevelandurbannews.com) to read about the third anniversary rally and vigil on Oct 27, 5 pm, at E. 123rd St and Imperial Ave in Cleveland. For more information call 216-659-0473.
An advertising division of of Clear Channel Holdings Inc., which also owns radio stations throughout the country, including seven in greater Cleveland like WTAM that carries the Rush Limbaugh Show, Clear Channel Outdoor had used the billboards to intimidate majority Black communities in the key battleground states of Oho and Wisconsin, both key battleground states for presidential elections.
A spokesperson for the company said yesterday that all 145 billboards in both Ohio and Wisconsin are coming down. And, that Clear Channel would put up billboards that are to say "Voting Is A Right Not A Crime," though the number of billboards that will go up with the new slogan is in controversy. (Editor's note: The billboard at E. 35th St and Community College Ave was taken down on Oct. 22 and was replaced with a billboard that reads "Voting Is A Right Not A Crime).
Once connected in a business fashion to Bain Capital and Republican Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney, if not still affiliated, Clear Channel had originally refused to take down the billboards, calling them "free speech and factually correct."
Joining the community activists midway into their organized rally on Oct 11 for a press conference over the billboards were Cleveland Ward 5 Councilwomen Phyllis Cleveland, who also led the charge around the billboards, Ward 6 Councilwoman Mamie Mitchell, and state Sen. Nina Turner (D-25), all of whom are Democratic Obama supporters.
In addition to Coleman and Samad, other activists that spoke at the rally of some 80 people last Thursday include Griot Y-Von, Dr, Stewart Robinson, Valerie Robinson, Al Porter, Jean Whitte and Larry Bresler.
A group of Civil Rights attorneys commissioned out of Washington D.C was also the impetus for the decision for Clear Channel to take the controversial billboards down.
Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com by telephone at 216-659-0473 and by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com.
