Community activists say Cleveland symbolic March on Washington and 300 person rally was a fraud, was politically motivated, marred by censorship, excluded Black, other community activist leaders from speaking forum while White, Jewish, Hispanic leaders spoke, Community Activist Al Porter of Black on Black Crime Inc. says it was "contrary to Dr. King's dream of inclusion"
CLEVELAND, Ohio -The Greater Cleveland Urban League held a symbolic March on Washington and rally yesterday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington at Public Auditorium in downtown Cleveland. Some said it was politically motivated, and marred by censorship against Black and other greater Cleveland community activists, who were excluded.
Other groups associated with the gathering were the Greater National Action Network (NAN), the Cleveland NAACP, the Cleveland Chapter Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the United Pastors in Mission. Sponsors also include PNC and Third Federal Banks, Medical Mutual, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Call and Post Newspapers.
The crowd of about 300, in a symbolic march, sang “Lean on Me” as they marched from Mall A a block away to Public Auditorium to begin the remembrance ceremony, which was attended by some 350 people.
Basheer Jones and Cleveland News Channel 5 Anchorman and Reporter Leon Bibb were the masters' of ceremony, one that featured Congresswoman Marcia Fudge (D-11), who said, “it’s time to make King’s dream our reality,” and state Sen. Nina Turner (D-25), who commented that “we all have the right to live our measure of the American dream."
The crowd rallied and marched for about 30 minutes before attending the 7 p.m. ceremony. It included political, civic and faith based leaders such as local Urban League President Marsha Mockabee, a key organizer of the event, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Cleveland Mayoral Candidate Ken Lanci, Congresswoman Fudge , state Sen. Turner, and Cleveland NAACP President The Rev. Hilton Smith.
Also at the rally were state Reps. John Barnes Jr. (D-12) and Bill Patmon (D-10), Community Activist Khalid Samad, Civil Rights attorney and CNN Commentator Avery Friedman, Rabbi Steven Weiss of B'NAI JESHURUN-Temple on the Heights, Cleveland Councilmen Zack Reed and Kevin Conwell, and Baker Hostetler Attorney Jose Feliciano, also president of the Hispanic Rountable. Both Rabbi Weis and Feliciano spoke.
United Pastors in Mission Executive Director The Rev. Tony Minor did the prayer at the rally, and Word Church Senior Pastor R.A. Vernon spoke, among others.
But no community activists were invited to speak at the inside forum and only one, Samad, got to speak outside.
Cleveland Urban News.Com was told by people associated with the organizers of the event that "it was about jobs and community activists do not have jobs," though greater Cleveland activists range from poor people, to Black journalists, retired teachers, working class people, and Dr. Stewart Robinson, a retired Case Western Reserve University mathematics professor. Others associated with the event said activists were excluded to censor them on issues such as police brutality, foreclosure fraud, racism, sexism, prosecutorial misconduct, and judicial malfeasance protected by some Black leaders, including some legal types of the Cleveland NAACP and Ohio ACLU. They said that most of those there will march and give speeches but will not stand up.
Community activists, aside from Samad, stayed away for the most part, partly, some of them said, because most there were friends of Mayor Jackson, who is in a heated campaign for reelection this year against Lanci, a White millionaire who grew up in a housing project on the largely Black east side of Cleveland.
Samad is allegedly a Fudge and Jackson supporter, while longtime Community Activist Art McKoy, who leads Black on Black Crime Inc., is backing Ken Lanci. So is the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association, the union for the rank and file of Cleveland police.
Greater Cleveland Nan President Marcia McCoy spoke. But she is no longer a community activist, activists said. Instead, they say, she is an establishment type who has always lobbied for affluent Black preachers and now works for Mayor Jackson as a Cleveland schools student recruitment administrator. Jackson, by state law, controls the city schools, and appoints the Cleveland Board of Education.
"For them to have a forum and rally commemorating Martin Luther King's dream that excludes Black and other activists from speaking while prominent White, Hispanic, and Jewish leaders spoke is contrary to Dr. King's dream of inclusion, " said Community Activist Al Porter, vice president of Black on Black Crime Inc. "Community activists and grassroots organizations were a vital part of the Civil Rights Movement that Dr. King led and they have fought for Civil Rights in greater Cleveland while some of the big shots at yesterday's rally have sold out the Black community to stay in good with the establishment."
Cleveland Black elected officials noticeably absent include Cleveland Councilmen Jeff Johnson and T.J. Dow, as Mayor Jackson is backing Besheer Jones for this year's city council race against incumbent Dow, and he supports Collinwood Councilman Eugene Miller in the Ward 10 council race against Johnson.
Miller and Johnson were forced to run against each other due to a city council redistricting map that will see city council go from 19 to 17 seats after the November election, though the non-partisan primary election is September 10.
Harriet Applegate, executive secretary of the North Shore AFL-CIO Federation of Labor, said at the rally that “the labor movement has been arm in arm with the Civil Rights struggle and jobs and continues to fight for equality, justice and jobs for everyone.”
An unexpected highlight of the evening was a short speech by 94-year-old Willa Morgan, a Cleveland resident who told of her experiences at the march in 1963 and said that she met Dr. King many times because he frequently visited Antioch Baptist Church here in Cleveland. She urged the crowd inside Public Auditorium to keep listening to Dr. King’s dream.
Also, the Distinguished Gentlemen of Spoken Word performed an oratory of Dr. King’s “If I Had Sneezed, which is an account of a stabbing he suffered at the hands of a forty-two year old mentally disturbed woman while at a book signing in Harlem that nearly killed him.
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