Imperial Women, activists postpone March 13 protest against NAACP, will meet with Executive Director Arlene Anderson first, will protest if refused

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

CLEVELAND, Ohio-Community activists disenchanted with Cleveland NAACP President George Forbes, including The Imperial Women, family members of the Imperial Ave. murder victims, People for the Imperial Act, The Joaquin Hicks Real People's Movement, Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor, Ohio Family Rights, The National Association for Parental Equality, The Committee to Bring Home Jamela and Jamyla and members of various other groups such as The Carl Stokes Brigade, Black on Black Crime Inc and The Cleveland Chapter of the News Black Panther Party, have postponed the protest against Forbes and Cleveland NAACP officials scheduled for Tues., March 13 at 5 pm at company headquarters, 2131 Stokes Blvd. in Cleveland.

The activist groups decided yesterday that they shall seek a meeting first with interim Cleveland NAACP Executive Director Arlene Anderson and its legal counsel, Cleveland Attorney James Hardiman, a courtesy that they say is warranted before they highlight further discrepancies with the leadership team of the local chapter of the nation's most renowned Civil Rights institution.

"Ms. Anderson is a Black woman and we voted to seek a meeting with her first," said Community Activist Ada Averyhart, a member of The Imperial Women and The Carl Stokes Brigade. "But if she ignores us we are prepared to picket at the next regular Cleveland NAACP meeting in April."

Denise Hunter, a member of The Imperial Women whose sister Amelda Hunter was one of the 11 Black women raped and murdered at the home of since convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell, who he was released from police custody in 2008 on a rape complaint to kill the last six of the 11 women, agreed to the postponement but said that something must be done as to the way the Black community has allegedly been neglected by Cleveland NAACP officials, particularly former Cleveland NAACP Executive Director Stanley Miller, who resigned last summer.

"The Cleveland NAACP sent us a letter telling the families that if we had no money for a membership they could not help us and Ms. Anderson probably does not know the extent of the crap that they were pulling," said Hunter.

Contacts for the activist groups are Ada Averyhart at 216-938-7891, Imperial Women Leader Kathy Wray Coleman at 216-932-2114 and Marva Patterson at 216-334-7013.

Community activists voting to postpone the protest but to go forward if Anderson refuses to meet with them and address their issues of public concern include Ada Averyhart, Marva Patterson, Roz McAllister, Brett Jackson, Imperial Women Leader Kathy Wray Coleman, Angelique Cunningham, Ann Foster, Reketta Barringer, Frances Caldwell, Denise Taylor, Willie Stokes, Veronica Williams, Tiesha Foster, Jean Whitte, Valerie Robinson, Stewart Robinson, Almecia Ward, Rebecca Whitby (mom), Rebecca Whitby (daughter), Entrepreneur Michael Nelson, Denise Hunter, John Hunter, Cheryl Wilson, Tina Bronaugh, Destini Bronaugh, and DeAsia Bronaugh.

The activists said that they are voicing opposition to Forbes support of Cuyahoga County prosecutor candidate Tim McGinty in the midst of his record of racism and hostility against the Black community as a former assistant county prosecutor and prior judge, including prosecuting innocent Black men on bogus charges of raping White women that later recant and having his orders to imprison Black men and harass White and Cherokee Indian Women and community activists repeatedly overturned on appeal (Note: McGinty also issued an arrest warrant for police to storm the family home of then 16-year old teen Brandon McCloud over a pizza where police shot the unarmed teen 12 times and killed him, and after bragging on the police radio that they intended to kill somebody that day. And upon winning Tuesday's March 6 Democratic primary he bragged that as part of his reform efforts Blacks and others accused of felony crimes, even lower level ones, will be held in jail without bond before being charged or indicted by a Cuyahoga County Grand Jury).

Activists said also that they seek to reengage Forbes and Cleveland NAACP officials on the organization's mission to promote issues of public concern for the betterment of the Black community and to highlight what they have not done including the failure to speak up relative to negligence by Cleveland police and others as to the Imperial Ave. Murders, illegal foreclosures by common pleas judges and county officials to steal Black people's homes to hand to friends and rich banks and mortgage companies, the theft of Black babies to hand or sell to affluent White by the Cuyahoga County Department of Child and Family Services, and the malicious prosecutions, illegal jailing and police misconduct relative to Black men, women and girls.