Article With Protest Video: Racist voter intimidation billboards owned by Clear Channel that threaten felony, fine and prison to Black, poor voters in Cleveland, Ohio, Wisconsin to come down after protest in Cleveland by Imperial Women, Organize Ohio, Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor, Cleveland Jobs With Justice, Black on Black Crime, Peace in the Hood, other community activist groups, press conference by elected officials, view protest video by Fox 8 News here
The billboard at 35th St and Community College Ave. near Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland on its predominantly Black east side of town in the impoverished Central Neighborhood where Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson lives that was taken down on Oct. 22 by the advertising company Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc. after outcries by Black elected officials and a protest by community activists. Activists and Cleveland area councilpersons and state legislators had called the billboard and 29 others around Cleveland like it racist, unconstitutional, voter suppression and voter intimidation of Ohio communities that have a large number of poor and minority voters. A press conference by Black elected officials and a picket by community activist groups such as The Imperial Women, Black on Black Crime, Peace in the Hood, Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor and Organize Ohio over the aforementioned Clear Channel billboard was held on Oct. 11 and made national news, including CNN and MSNBC. (Photo by Will Monroe Photography, Email: monroe@clevelandurbannews.com).By Kathy Wray Coleman, Executive Publisher, Editor, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog(www.clevelandurbannews.com)
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, Cleveland Jobs With Justice, 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) and its blog site here 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 and poor communities in Ohio 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.
.jpeg)
Comments