Now is the time

The need for the emergence of new forms of black civic leadership in Cleveland has been demonstrated yet again by the continuing implosion of the local NAACP chapter.

In a show of staggering incompetence, fueled by the illusory pursuit of “little p” personal power and the continued abandonment of principle, the reigning potentates failed to follow their own rules in conducting the biannual election of officers, forcing the national office to call a time out.

Many people ask, with good reason, why this desiccated mess of a once powerful civil rights organization is worthy of any note when decade after decade it has engaged in self-dealing, credibility-destroying ways to render itself irrelevant?

Clearly, the Cleveland NAACP no longer resembles the mid-20^th century juggernaut that had 10,000 dues-paying members. Still, it stands in the gap, like an abandoned fort, between the tens of thousands of ordinary black people just trying to get through the month, the week, and sometimes the day, and those whose control of institutions — state offices, the legislature, the public safety and criminal justice systems, the schools and workplaces — allow them to ignore and devalue black life.

The poster event for black impotence is the impunity with which more than 100 Cleveland police officers disregarded departmental rules and procedures to chase two people across town at high speeds and when the prey was cornered, 13 police fired 137 bullets into one car, killing its two unarmed occupants.

The community response to this outrageous police misconduct has been muted. To some extent this can be attributed to the fact that Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson has adopted his usual calm stance. But we are approaching the second anniversary of “The Chase” and who in our community is monitoring the monitors in the Jackson administration?

The lack of effective organizational leadership is manifest in other areas as well. We may be at a moment when self-interest on the part of general contractors, property owners, and labor unions offer opportunities for real gains for black contractors, laborers, and neighborhoods. Some black business and leaders — Dominic Ozanne, for one, but there are others, including Natoya Walker-Minor of the Jackson administration — have helped drive a process where sizable business projects can be impacted by the views and wishes of area residents. But there is too often no community organization ready to sit down with affected parties to negotiate a Community Benefits Agreement even when the framework is already in place.

This is not to say that there are no effective black organizations or agencies here. There are scores, including the Black Professionals Association Charitable Foundation; Delta Sigma Theta; Sigma Pi Phi [the Boule]; Burten, Bell, Carr Development Inc.; to name but a few. But there is not one with the portfolio, the history, or the name to eclipse the NAACP.

If the NAACP were a public school, it would be ripe for reconstitution. Throw out all the officers and start anew. Try and keep the executive director, Sheila Wright. She is bright, passionate, innovative, and young. But she hasn’t been paid in five months, and we know what happens to romance when there is no finance.

Cleveland’s establishment has coasted on the inclusion tip for a very long time. One might say that coasting parallels the weakness of the local NAACP. The old boy network that runs this community needs to be broken up before it consigns us to eternal mediocrity. Black Cleveland needs to be in the vanguard of the modernization of our political, economic and social structures. That process has to begin at home, and it ought to begin with a thorough housecleaning at the NAACP.

New Leadership restores service orientation to key black organizations

NONPROFIT THURSDAY REPORT

A lot can change in a couple of years.

Less than two years ago we wrote, perhaps with more hope than seemed warranted, of “signs that Cleveland’s black community [was] slowly awakening from a generation of civic stupor.” Our eyes at that time were especially fixed on the three most important civic organizations in the black community: the Cleveland NAACP, the Urban League of Greater Cleveland, and the United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland. All three were in in the nascent stages of long overdue makeovers.  None of those groups seemed to have gotten the message that the twenty-first century was more than a decade old. Their leadership rosters at that time looked pretty much as they had looked for decades.  The NAACP’s executive committee had a core that had been in place for thirty plus years, and a president who had been running the show for twenty years. The Urban League’s board seemed to have been asleep nearly that long, awakening only when insolvency rang out and bankruptcy loomed. And UBF trustees and leadership seemed intent on grandfathering themselves in place until they all qualified for emeritus status.

But now, there is actually reason to be excited about the developments taking place under new and engaged professional and lay leadership. The turnaround has perhaps been most dramatic at the Urban League, which has benefited from the transformative leadership of its president and chief executive officer, Marsha Mockabee. She could be known as the Queen of Collaboration for the numerous partnerships she has forged with institutions and individuals all across the community.

The League’s annual meeting on February 6 saw a recapitulation of these and other accomplishments, and the issuance of the 2012-2013 Annual Report, which can be reviewed on their new website.

The well-conceived annual meeting was one of the most impressive and inspiring this reporter has attended. The event, attended by sixty-five or so, was held in the League’s second-floor boardroom in its office at Prospect Ave and East 30^th St. Mockabee was quick to give shout-outs to a host of the League’s sponsors and collaborators, including United Way, US Bank, UPS, the City of Cleveland, PNC Bank, Huntington Bank, the Cleveland Foundation, Dominion, American Family Insurance, and Steven Minter.

Mockabee and a reconstituted board have streamlined the League’s programs, and developed a tight focus around the intersection of education and youth development, entrepreneurship and business development, and workforce

Cleveland Urban League Board Chair Robert McRae beams as CEO Marsha Mockabee presents a certificate of appreciation to his predecessor, Patricia Ramsey.

training and employment opportunities. A small but highly professional staff carries out these programs. Its entrepreneurial team, headed by Donald

Michael Obi, strategic consultant at the
Urban League's Multicultural Business
Development Center

Graham, Michael Obi, and Donna Dabbs — all recruited by Mockabee — has been especially effective, training and supporting an impressive number of existing and start up businesses.

Especially notable at the annual meeting were the testimonies of new business owners and workers who have been assisted by the League’s programs.

Diamond Giles

Diamond Giles, who was laid off from a supervisory position after twenty years on the job as an HVAC technician, was able to get Diamond’s Heating and Cooling moving thanks to the counsel he received. He talked about being “uplifted to see staff going out of their way to help everybody.”

Terri Ellis was another success story. She launched Trinity Cleaning Service in 2005 after working for the Cleveland Clinic and the Cleveland school district. Thanks to the counsel and support she received from the League’s business advisory programs, she now has six employees of her own.

Monica Green, owner of So Kinky,
So Curly, So Straight Salon, tells her
story as an Urban League business client

Yvette Clark had an equally inspiring story to tell, recounting how she had started as a League volunteer, and helped to coach an incarcerated student to become high school salutatorian and Dean’s List freshman at Eastern Michigan University.

Among those honored by the League at the meeting were the heads of several of Cleveland’s largest and best-known African American construction companies. They received “Championship Awards’ not for their company exploits but for taking the lead in the development of a Community Benefits

Retired Congressman Lou Stokes
at Urban League annual meeting

Agreement that former Congressman Louis Stokes said will be “one of the greatest things institutionally” this community has seen in terms of its expected effect upon the construction industry. Stokes lavished praised upon Dominic Ozanne, Lonnie Coleman, John Todd, and Josh McHamm for their leadership in spearheading the CBA process. He also singled out Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson for his contributions, saying that while he “doesn’t show off or demand attention, he guided the efforts” that resulted in the historic agreement.

Dominic Ozanne, Ozanne Construction; Lonzo Coleman, ColemanSpohn; John W. Todd of John W. Todd & Associates; and Josh McHamm, New Surge Electric. Together they initiated the process that led  to Cleveland's adoption of a Community Benefits Agreement to govern area construction projects

Also coming in for commendation were contractor Fred Perkins, who was cited by Ozanne as being part of the contractors’ effort, and Patricia Ramsey of US Bank, who received a certificate of appreciation for her leadership of the board as the ship was being righted.

United Black Fund, NAACP step up

Positive change is also not only afoot at the United Black Fund and the Cleveland NAACP, but will be on display over the next week. This Friday, February 21, UBF will be hosting a happy hour social downtown, providing an opportunity for the community to meet and engage with its new board members. Cleveland Public Library director Felton Thomas is the newly installed president of UBF’s thirty-member board of directors, the vast majority of who have been in office less than two years. Later this year board members will attend a retreat to consider how the organization can best fulfill its mission as a federated charity dedicated to addressing core challenges for the black community.

The happy hour social will be held at Pura Vida restaurant, 170 Euclid Ave. on Public Square in part of the former May Co. space. The event runs from 5:30-7:30PM. Call 216.566.9265 for more information.

Finally, the Cleveland NAACP, which put a new leadership team in place in December 2012 with Hilton Smith as president and Sheila Wright as director, will welcome the community to its new office space in midtown Cleveland at an Open House/Black History Month celebration on Friday, February 28, from 6:30-8:30PM.

Moving to new quarters may not seem like that big a deal to some, but the group’s former headquarters on Fairhill Rd/Stokes Rd would doubtless have seemed cramped, ugly, unprofessional and unacceptable to its most celebrated founder, W. E. B. DuBois, back in 1909. Getting this most hidebound organization off its rump and out of an embarrassing dump of a space into modern quarters is a signal accomplishment that augurs well for it to play a more efficient role going forward.

For more info about the Open House, call 216.231.6260.

Kaleidoscopic Creative Cohort Convenes in Cleveland; Trayvon trial aftermath on local airwaves this weekend

A healthy segment of Cleveland’s African American creative class convened in University Circle last night to network and glean insight and inspiration from some of our town’s under the radar professional talent.

Jacinda Walker, right, chats with videographer Aaron Clement and his daughter

The occasion was a well-conceived DesigNation networking event sponsored by the Organization of Black Designers [OBD], a national group of design professionals from across a spectrum of intellectual workers: graphic artists, industrial designers, videographers, fashion designers, video gamers, product designers, architectural, interior, and multi-media designers, etc.

 

OBD national president David Rice, swaps ideas
with Scott "Spike" Radway, of Richmond Heights-
based Team Spike Consulting LLC

OBD is a national organization whose local presence is represented by the yearlong effort of Jacinda Walker to develop a regional chapter.

The group’s national leader, David Rice, was at last night’s event, which was held at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Rice encouraged attendees to toot their own horns, to lift each other up, and to work collectively to strengthen the network of black designers.

Drue Thompson
Dru Christine Fabrics & Design

After an extended networking period built around a thematic game of Pantene Bingo, the crowd of roughly seventy professionals heard briefly from several standout designers, including fashion designer Drue Thompson of Dru Christine Fabrics and Design, Tamar Medina of J-Lynn Entertainment, Marshall L. Shorts Jr. of Soulo Theory [Columbus], and Eric Mathews of Madwerkz.

Tamar Medina, J-Lynn Entertainment

Medina, whose company designs video games, talked about the serendipitous discovery that his products were of special utility for the cognitive development of autism sufferers.

Marshall L. Shorts Jr., Soulo Theory

Eric Mathews described his nine-person company as the leading digital effects company in the Midwest. He wowed the audience after he modestly sketched his prior work with LL Cool J, NWA, his tenure with National Geographic magazine, his work in place as varied as Bosnia and Sierra Leone, and his association with a variety of well-known Hollywood films. He encouraged talented artists to contact his company for possible employment.*

Maurice Wingfield of Tiny Giant Studio was singled out for special acknowledgement for his contributions to OBD’s work here.

[L-R] CIA interior design student Jaliah Johnson and graphic designer
Amber Albergottie, a CIA graduate,served as hostesses for the event.

[L-R] Cleveland Institute of Art faculty members
Kidist Getachew, Mari Hulick, and David Hart, Ph.D.

Event organizer Jacinda Walker had many reasons to be smiling all evening. On top of the positive vibe she was instrumental in creating, she was sharing the news that the local OBD chapter would be participating for the first time in next month’s Weapons of Mass Creation FEST 4, which bills itself as the premier art, design and music event in the Midwest.

The event draws creative professionals, entrepreneurs, artists and musicians from around the country.

This year’s festival will be August 16-18 at the Cleveland Public Theatre in the city’s Gordon Square Arts District. [Visit wmcfest.com for more information and tickets. Use OBD for a discount code to save $10.]

Walker’s smile was a little bittersweet when she announced that Walker would be leaving town at the end of the month to enter a master’s of design program at Ohio State University.

* An earlier version of this post misidentified the photo of Marshall L. Shorts Jr.

Anatomy of a Tragedy

I continue to shake my head how anyone could have thought, even in the immediate glow of Barack Obama’s 2008 electoral victory, that this country was entering a post-racial era. The tragic case of Trayvon Martin, where George Zimmerman got off scot-free after profiling, stalking and killing an unarmed teenager who was minding his own business, should put a halt to all such nonsensical thinking for a long time. But of course it won’t.

The case will be the centerpiece of two local community radio programs this week. Former NAACP president and current ACLU Ohio legal director James Hardiman will be discussing the case with Meryl Johnson on “It’s About Justice”, which airs tomorrow on WRUW-FM/91.1 from 1:30-2:30PM. You can hear it online at wruw.org/.

On Sunday night, Mansfield Frazier will be discussing the Trayvon-Zimmerman case with C. Ellen Connally, president of Cuyahoga County Council and a retired judge, and Sheila Wright, executive director of the Cleveland NAACP. Mansfield’s show, “The Forum”, airs Sundays from 7-10PM on WTAM-AM/1100.