PRESS RELEASE: Grassroots women to debate Cleveland Councilman Jeff Johnson over Cleveland schools 15 mill property tax levy on November ballot on Thursday, August 30, 6 to 8 pm, 6816 Superior Ave in Cleveland at Lil Africa, state Rep. Patmon to moderate, learn the truth about the levy, Attorney Edele Passalacqua, Activist Willie Stokes to be honored by grassroots at debate

From the Metro Desk of Cleveland Urban News.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com) and (www.clevelandurbannews.com)

PRESS RELEASE..THE REAL DEAL DEBATE ON THE CLEVELAND SCHOOLS 15 MILL PROPERTY TAX LEVY FEATURING CLEVELAND COUNCILMAN JEFF JOHNSON AGAINST GRASSROOTS WOMEN TO BE HELD ON AUGUST 30, 2012, 6-8 PM, 6816 SUPERIOR AVE, LIL AFRICA CENTER IN CLEVELAND, OHIO. STATE REP. BILL PATMON (D-10) WILL SERVE AS MODERATOR OF THE DEBATE. SEE BELOW THE PANEL OF COMMUNITY ACTIVIST LEADERS THAT WILL POSE QUESTIONS TO THE DEBATERS, THOUGH A 15 MINUTE SEGMENT WILL BE RESERVED FOR AUDIENCE QUESTIONS BEFORE THE VOTE BY ACTIVISTS AT THE DEBATE ON WHETHER TO ENDORSE THE LEVY. 


WHEN: Thursday, August 30, 2012 from 6 pm to 8 pm 

WHERE: Little Africa Recreation and Versatility Center, 6816 Superior Ave. in Cleveland, Ohio

CONTACTS:  Imperial Women Leader Kathy Wray Coleman at 216-659-0473 and Cleveland African American Museum Executive Director Frances Caldwell at the museum offices at 216-721-6555.

WHO: Grassroots factions sponsor debate on Cleveland schools 15 mill property tax levy that is on the November 6, 2012 ballot. (Grassroots groups include  Cleveland Urban News. Com, the Imperial Women Coalition, the Imperial Women,  Black on Black Crime, the Oppressed People's Nation, the Carl Stokes Brigade, the Underground Railroad, the Sowell 11, Cleveland Jobs With Justice, the Joaquin Hicks Real People's Movement, the Cleveland Chapter of the New Black Panther Party, the Cleveland African-American Museum, the Committee to Bring Home Jamela and Jamala, Occupy Cleveland, the Family Connection Center, Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor, Organize Ohio, the Northeast Ohio's Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, the People's Forum, Ohio Family Rights, People for Parental Equality, and others).

At the debate community activists will vote by secret ballot on whether to endorse the levy with a criterion for eligibility to vote requiring participation in either a protest or rally since the initiation of protests around the public announcement of the Imperial Ave. Murders of 11 Black women in October 2009. (Note: Rapist Anthony Sowell was convicted of the serial murders and sentenced to death by lethal injection last year, though his convictions are on appeal. The activist groups that fought for justice around those murders are still alive and seek changes in public policy for the betterment of the community in education, the legal system and other public venues of concern).

WHAT: Cleveland Ward 8 Councilman Jeff Johnson, who is for the levy, will debate anti-levy proponents and community affiliates Kimberly Brown and Donna Walker  Brown, with Imperial Women Member Roz McAllister as an alternate in the event that pressure from the establishment causes a participant against the levy to drop out of the debate.

Debate questions panelists include Community Activists Art McKoy, Debbie Kline, Mary Keith, Roz McAllister and Frances Caldwell,  Attorney Michael Nelson  Sr,. and Dr. Eugene Jordon, Second Vice President of the Cleveland NAACP.

Cleveland area defense attorney Edele Passalacqua and Willie Stokes will be honored for grassroots excellence in activism, with Passalacqua receiving the grassroots award for attorney excellence on behalf of community grassroots factions and Stokes getting the grassroots hidden warrior award for his support of victims, families and community activists around the Imperial Ave Murders and otherwise.

Other presenters and/or speakers include Art McKoy, Former Cleveland School Board Member Genevieve Mitchell, Oppressed People's Nation Leader Ernest Smith, Entrepreneur Michael Nelson, Community Activist Denise Taylor, and Kathy Wray Coleman, a community activist who is the publisher and associate editor of Cleveland Urban News.Com.

Brief questions from the audience shall occur and activists shall demand compliance by the Ohio State Legislature of the Ohio Supreme Court's DeRolph decision for it to revise its unconstitutional public school funding formula that was deemed unconstitutional for relying on property taxes in part to give an advantage to rich children over poor children.

Another highlight of the event will be a 5 minute presentation by Genevieve Mitchell of the Cleveland Municipal School District from the desegregation court order to mayoral control of the predominantly Black city schools.

 And the plight of the Black male student as stereotyped and disenfranchised shall be discussed by Smith, a young activist whose leadership as chief of the Oppressed People's Nation has garnered respectable attention.

Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com by telephone at 216-659-0473 and by email@ editor@clevelandurbannews.com