By Kathy Wray Coleman, Publisher, Editor-n-Chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper
CLEVELAND,Ohio- The Cleveland Chapter NAACP will hold its every-two-years election of branch officers on Sunday, Nov. 11 from 1 pm to 5 pm at the school behind The Cathedral Church of God in Christ in Cleveland, 2940 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
To vote members must have their dues paid 30 days in advance of the election, according to organizational bylaws. (Editor's note: For more information contact the Cleveland NAACP offices at 216-231-6260)
The election is the first of its kind in terms of enthusiasm since former Cleveland NAACP President George L. Forbes (pictured in eye glasses and grey suit), a former city council president who lost a bid for Cleveland mayor against Michael R. White in 1989, reigned as president of the local branch of the nation's most renowned Civil Rights organization.
Branch president from 1992 until his official resignation in April of this year, Forbes, 81, leaves a legacy with the organization of leadership, and controversy.
Cleveland NAACP officials said that a representative from the National NAACP will help supervise the election, activity that is not extraordinary for such an election.
Those competing for branch president are Real Estate Entrepreneur Clint Bradley (pictured in blue tie), Executive Committee Member and Long time NAACP Affiliate Jocelyn Travis (pictured), and the Rev. Hilton Smith (pictured in red tie), senior vice president for corporate and community affairs at Turner Construction Company in Cleveland and an associate minister at Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church in Cleveland.
The only other contested race is that of third vice president, which pits retired Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals Judge Sara Harper, a former branch president, against Dr. Eugene Jordan, currently the second vice president and a well known East Cleveland dentist and community activist.
The third person in that race is Danielle Sydnor.
Jordan, a longtime Forbes ally, is under fire by some members of Cleveland's Old Black Political Guard for allegedly speaking to the Cleveland Plain Dealer Newspaper on the nominations committee process as flawed initially because some people nominated to be on the committee were not verified as members.
He would not comment for this article.
But the fight between the Plain Dealer and the leadership team of the Cleveland NAACP has been brewing since the Call and Post Newspaper, Ohio's Black press, which has Forbes as its legal counsel and Harper's sister Connie Harper as the associate publisher and executive editor, put state Sen. Nina Turner (D-25) on the cover of the newspaper in an Aunt Jemima suit in retaliation for her support of Issue 6, a county government reform issue.
A ballot initiative adopted overwhelmingly by Cuyahoga County voters in 2009, Issue 6 substituted a Cuyahoga County Executive and 11-Member Cuyahoga County Council for the elected positions of the Three-Member Cuyahoga County Board of Commissioners and the sheriff, coroner, treasurer, auditor, recorder, clerk of courts and engineer.
Former Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones and county recorder Lillian Greene, the only Black county office holders at the time other than some of the judges, were among the all Democratic elected officials, ousted by Issue 6.
Forbes and every prominent Black elected official in the Cleveland area but Turner opposed Issue 6 as detrimental to the Black community for various reasons, including leveling too must power for the county executive , now Ed FitzGerald, a White man and former Lakewood mayor and FBI agent.
Turner, the Plain Dealer and former county prosecutor Bill Mason argued that Issue 6 is good, given the corruption that has stalked Cuyahoga County and resulted in federal convictions or guilty pleas of over 50 Cuyahoga Democratic Party affiliates in the last two years, including former Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora, a former chairperson of the county Democratic party, two common pleas judges, and Frank Russo, the former county auditor.
Dimora is serving a 28 year prison for racketeering and other corruption-related crimes.
Russo, who was finally jailed after getting leeway for snitching for the FBI and the prosecution, is expected to be sentenced this month and faces up to 22 years in prison for his crimes in office, though his snitching is expected to bring leniency.
A full list of offices and candidates on the ballot competing for them as well as candidates for the 25- member executive committee is as follows:
President: Clint Bradley, Jocelyn Travis, the Rev. Hilton Smith
1st Vice President: The Rev. E. Theophilus Caviness, senior pastor of Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church in Cleveland
2nd Vice President: Bishop E. F. Perry. senior pastor at Cathedral God in Christ in Cleveland
3rd Vice President: Judge Sara J. Harper, Dr. Eugene Jordan and Danielle Sydnor
Treasurer: Amos Mahsua
Secretary: Arlene Anderson
Assistant Secretary: Marcia McCoy
Candidates for the 24 elected slots for the executive committee are as follows:
Benny Bonanno,Terry Butler, Judge Pinkey Carr, Lang Dunbar, Carl S. Ewing, Michelle Felder, Annetta Fisher, Bruce Goode, Blaine Griffin, Leslye Huff, Leonard Jackson, Eric Johnson, Meryl Johnson, Rev. Charles Lucas, Jason Lucas, Dr. Sarah Mack, Cleveland Ward 6 Councilman Mamie Mitchell, Susie Rivers, Leathea Robinson, Rev. Leon Thompson, Theodosia Caviness Tucker, Wendell Turner, Kent Whitley, Harold Wilson, and Beverly Wright.
Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com at (www.clevelandurbannews.com), by phone at 216-659-0493 and by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com
