Black Women's PAC holds annual fundraising luncheon that draws county, statewide candidates for office, voting and justice for Trayvon Martin and Michael Ferguson are center stage

LYNDHURST, Ohio- The Black Women's Political Action Committee (BWPAC), led by East Cleveland Board of Education President Una H.R. Kennon, also a retired  East Cleveland judge, recently held its annual fundraising luncheon at the luxurious Acacia Reservation in Lyndhurst, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb. The four hour event, at $60 a person, drew a packed house and an array of people, including women's groups such as the local and regional members of the National Council of Negro Women, the Metropolitan Cleveland Alliance of Black School Educators, and judges, elected officials, and politicians and wannabes seeking county and statewide offices and judge-ships. 

Voting was the primary agenda with Keenon and her PAC sisters telling the audience to vote on November 4.

"It is very important that we get out and vote," said Kennon."We cannot leave it up to others to make our decision for us."

Cleveland Heights City Council Member Janine Boyd, the Democratic candidate for representative in House legislative district 9, a seat held by her term-limited mother, Barbara Boyd, a former BWPAC president, was the mistress of ceremonies, and Elaine Gohlstin gave the purpose of the BWPAC, a political organization that educates Black women on the political process and, among other initiatives, helps Black women win elected office.

The keynote speaker was the Rev. Dr. Sabrina Ellis, the founder and president of Living in Victory Ministries Inc. and the wife of Bishop J. Delano Ellis , senior pastor at Pentecostal Church of Christ in Cleveland and president of the Joint College of African American Bishops.

Ellis talked about strong women that became successful through drive and determination, her speech littered with biblical analogies, though she also said that the Black community remains in a crisis when the lives of young Black men have such little meaning in America's fragile and imperfect legal system.  

"We want justice for Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown," said Ellis, referencing Martin's high-profile shooting in 2012 in a Florida suburb by volunteer nightwatchman George Zimmerman, a White man who escape convictions for killing the unarmed Martin with the help of a largely White jury, and Brown, an unarmed Fergurson Missouri teen unceremonious killed in August.

Brown was gunned down by a White police officer who awaits decision on whether he will be indicted and charged by a county grand jury amid national protests, racial unrest,  and now tempered rioting  in the small majority Black Missouri town of some 21,000 people.

Democratic Attorney General Candidate David Pepper spoke at the beginning of the political gathering, and so did state Rep.  Armond Budish (D-8), the Democratic candidate for the powerful seat of Cuyahoga County executive 

"I'm honored to be endorsed by this organization," said Pepper. 

Pepper was the most high profile political candidate there, statewide. He faces the better financed Mike DeWine in next Tuesday's election. The incumbent , and a Republican, DeWine is a former U.S. senator.

Budish  is a Beachwood Democrat who faces Republican Cuyahoga County Councilman Jack Schron for county executive, a seat currently held by Ed FitzGerald, the Democratic candidate for Ohio governor, who is up against incumbent and Republican Gov. John Kasich, the front-runner. 

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Pamela Barker and Robert McClelland were there and spoke, and some city of Cleveland judges also attended, including  Pinkey Carr and Michelle Earley. 

Cuyahoga County Council candidates Warrensville Heights Council Member Shontel Brown and Adam Trumbo, both Black and the Democrat and Republican respectively for County Council District 9, campaigned at the event, both also getting an opportunity to speak, along with county probate judge candidate Michael Sliwinski 

State representatives John Barnes Jr. and Bill Patmon were there too, and Patmon a Cleveland Democrat, told the Call and Post that the BWPAC is a "longstanding and  true Black women's PAC."

The BWPAC has been around for 31 years and is also run by powerful Black women, including Cleveland NAACP Secretary Arlene Anderson, who also spoke, and prominent former and current elected officials, including Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals Judge Patricia Ann Blackmon, Common Pleas Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold , and retired Eighth District Court of Appeals judge Sara J. Harper

Kennon said that membership in the BWPAC is selective, requiring prospective applicants to secure the sponsorship of a current member for admission into the organization. Prospective members, said Kennon, are evaluated on their commitment to and involvement in health and welfare, political action, education, and their concern for Black women.