CPT • Change is Coming to Ohio's iconic 11th Congressional District — Part III

Cuyahoga Politics Today 

Fudge departure must be wake up call for 11^th District’s Black Civic Leaders — Part III

By R. T. Andrews

The gale force entry of former state senator Nina Turner into the developing race to succeed Cleveland area Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, pending her confirmation as the next Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, knocked our plans for this column momentarily askew. 

Having discussed here in Part I and here in Part II the District's proud origins and history, and its importance to Cleveland’s black community, we had planned to advocate for a new process whereby we might begin more effectively to cultivate the generation of new black political leadership. 

Turner’s reemergence on the local scene, taken together with the initiative Justin Bibb is showing in the race to replace Frank Jackson next year, might seem to suggest a reinvigorated local political scene. But Black Cleveland needs a long term strategy if it is ever to realize its potential as an agentic community or capitalize on its status as the city’s largest ethnic group. 

If we can do that, we would not only address our seemingly intractable problems of poverty and despair, we would galvanize a sorely needed larger civic vision that for once was truly inclusive, not just so in our typical top down pro forma way. 

A smart community has a system for developing and nurturing talent.

John O. Holly, founder and president of The Future Outlook League

So, while Rep. Fudge is still our Congresswoman, we should consider that a smart community has a system for developing and nurturing talent. Let us realize that the mid-twentieth century ecology that produced our community’s greatest political talent — the Stokes Brothers — is not the environment we inhabit today. Carl and Louis Stokes, separately and collectively, were a once in a lifetime occurrence, products of a compact hothouse black community where they could attach themselves to a John Holly, perhaps black Cleveland’s greatest civic leader, and imbibe his sense of community service and spirit. 

Black Cleveland needs a long term strategy if it is ever to realize its potential as an agentic community and capitalize on its status as the city’s largest ethnic group. 

Carl and Lou came of age at a time when avenues for black excellence were tightly constricted. Many avenues of career and professional development were unavailable. Black people were unwelcome in every professional association. Black real estate agents could not participate in multiple listing services and could not even call themselves realtors, forcing them to invent the term “realtists”. You couldn’t find a black professional anywhere from downtown east until you neared 55^th and Woodland Ave.

How did we overcome? We got organized, informally and formally. John Holly formed The Future Outlook League, which quickly became 10,000 strong, forcing employers large and small to open their hiring gates.

Informally, civic leaders convened Operation Alert, a regular conclave of community leaders who shared information, plotted how to capitalize on vulnerable points in the area’s apartheid regime, and discussed how to navigate both opportunities and crises, whether sudden or foreseeable. 

The eventual 1960s breakthrough was communal, collective, cultural, and simultaneously national, global, and local. 

Regrettably, once black people began to find status and success in positions of public service, i.e. as elected officials, the definition and pecking order of community leaders and spokespeople began to shift, often with unfavorable results. Sometimes we placed impossible demands upon some of these officials. More often we asked too little of them and failed to hold them accountable. And most fatally, we failed to recognize the extent to which they in fact often answer to interests outside the community that are inimical to our own.

How can we change a system where too many of our elected officials do not work for us, do not respect us, do not love us enough to care for our welfare?

In much of the black community, the quality of our elected officials is left to chance. We do not identify, train, nurture and develop our political leaders. They self-select, more often than not becoming beholden to those who finance their campaigns.

There has to be a better way.

To find it, we spoke over the past month with a number of folks from all walks of life about the black community might develop a more effective politics. The brightest among them were quick to decouple the issue from any particular office or imminent election.  The frustration and despair that sometimes peeked through our questioning gave way before long to hope as we realized the enormous talent that already resides within our community. 

In the midst of our discussions, cleveland.com published a column that purported to identify some leading candidates to succeed Fudge. With a couple of exceptions, the list was tired, perhaps reflecting a veteran reporter’s old paradigm and his obvious disconnect from the black community of the present and future. It seemed almost an attempt to select a leader for us.

This is what happens when by our inaction we leave the field to others. 

In the next and final installment of this series, appearing this Sunday, we will explore how we might become, as a friend of mine is wont to say, “active participants of our own deliverance”.

• • •• • •

CPT • Change is Coming to Ohio's iconic 11th Congressional District — Part II

Cuyahoga Politics Today 

The 11th Congressional District is endangered as a fount of black power — Part II

Hollowed out central city, state’s slow population growth, along with altered political culture, are diminishing black community’s grasp on former stronghold

By R. T. Andrews

The Cleveland Browns were synonymous with excellence almost from the very moment they burst onto the pro football scene in 1946. From the beginning the team was exceptional, so routinely dominant as to play for a league championship ten consecutive years.

In eastside neighborhoods like Glenville, where future NFL Hall of Famers like Marion Motley and Bill Willis lived unpretentiously alongside their neighbors in the city’s ghettos, the Browns were beloved, a source of pride. The team became such a part of the town’s fabric that even when they sank into competitive irrelevance — their lakefront  home relabeled as the Factory of Sadness, it was inconceivable to think of our town without them.

Then one day they were gone, leaving only the team colors and faded scrapbooks featuring such team legends as Jim Brown, Leroy Kelly, and Paul Warfield. [On the west side of town, the revered names were undoubtedly Lou Groza, Otto Graham, Dante Lavelli and Dub Jones.] Under team owner Art Modell, they made bad decisions, suffered financial reversals, mortgaged the future on bad short term bets, and proved themselves thoroughly inept at making the organizational and management changes required for success in the constantly evolving world of the NFL.

While the city got a new team three years later, the new Browns are only now  escaping the shadows of institutional incompetence that have dogged their rebirth.

Don’t look now, but a deft redrawing of political boundaries by Ohio’s rightwing General Assembly could mean that a Congressional District that once seemed institutionalized as the bedrock of black Cleveland politics could vanish after a half-century run as swiftly as those Browns did 25 years ago.

Ohio's 11th Congressional District

Dismal turnout by black Cleveland voters in recent elections will make it harder for a black candidate, especially one without the benefit of incumbency, to win either a primary or a general election campaign for the seat. 

Cleveland’s black community — the place that gave the country its first elected big-city black mayor; the home base of a co-founder of the Congressional Black Caucus; the birthplace of the Twenty-First District Caucus, once so powerful as to show urban Democratic political machines that there was a drastic price to pay for disrespecting the black community — could lose its grip on a Congressional seat?

Yes.

Consider the following:

• When the District was drawn in 1968 to comply with Constitutional principles, the vast majority of Cuyahoga County’s black residents were crammed into a handful of neighborhoods: Central, Hough, Glenville, Fairfax, Mt. Pleasant, and Lee-Harvard. All of the first ring suburbs that today have significant black populations and are part of the Congressional District — Euclid, Maple Heights, Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights, Bedford Heights, Richmond Heights, South Euclid, Garfield Heights, to name a few — were hostile to integration; collectively, they had less than five percent of the county’s black residents.

This concentrated black voting power was what the Ohio General Assembly kept a lid on through racial gerrymandering, until federal litigation and legislation — Baker v. Carr, the “one man, one vote” case decided in 1962; the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — helped lay the groundwork whereby an impressive cadre of local black attorneys and some staunch white allies, finally secured citizenship rights supposedly guaranteed one hundred years earlier by the Civil War Amendments. 

• Today, most county municipalities are at least nominally integrated, as are most of Cleveland’s west side wards. Black outmigration from the central city has seen substantial numbers of black families move across county lines, establishing homes in communities as varied as Streetsboro, Macedonia, Willowick, and Hudson.

The decennial redistricting that follows the Census every ten years is impacted by these migration patterns. Indeed, the current “Cleveland” district represented by Marcia Fudge snakes a narrow path down to north Akron to pick up several neighborhoods of black residents to pack into the 11^th District. That was a Faustian bargain struck at George Forbes’ house with then-Speaker of the Ohio House William Batchelder that benefitted both Republicans and the black Democratic establishment.

In several of her relatively rare public appearances in the district over the past few years, Fudge has referenced the dwindling margins of her majority minority district, pegging the percentage of black voters in the district somewhere around 50.5%. (We always found such hyper-parsing of her constituency curious: it made us wonder how it influenced her constituent relationship management, how she viewed her ability to win the support of nonblack constituents, etc.)

• In recent decades, Ohio has ranked among the nation’s ten worst states when it comes to Congressional district gerrymandering. In May of last year, voters overwhelmingly passed Issue 1, a compromise measure designed to limit the grossest excesses of gerrymandering. It is unclear how that will play out in the upcoming line drawing. The estimable Dr. Larry Brisker, the Tri-C professor whose analytical skills informed redistricting negotiations in ways that looked out for the black community’s political interests, has gone on to higher reward. Who is capable of assuming that role? 

• The willingness of the black state legislators to play footsie with their GOP legislative overseers a decade ago and create a second district more or less tailor-made for a black candidate — Joyce Beatty’s Third District seat in Franklin County —  could affect the State’s need to maintain the protected status of the venerable 11^th. Ohio’s 11-12% black population may warrant one majority minority district out of its soon-to-be 15 seat allocation; Beatty’s district may lessen the obligation of legislators to preserve a second such district. 

Are Ohio’s black and Democratic legislators willing to lay it on the line to preserve the 11^th District? The answer is not a clear yes, even before considering that House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes, a rising star, is likely maneuvering to support drawing a district that could be conducive to her own healthy ambition for a Congressional seat.

• And most significantly, dismal turnout by black Cleveland voters in recent elections will make it harder for a black candidate, especially one without the benefit of incumbency, to win either a primary or a general election campaign for the seat. Some informed estimates suggest that Cleveland’s 52% Census response rate means its city council will be reduced by at least six, and perhaps eight, wards. This will translate into fewer black elected officials than the already too aloof ones who populate public office now. This is not a recipe for enhanced civic engagement.

A few days ago, cleveland.com published a piece by retired political writer Brent Larkin that purported to list a half dozen likely aspirants to succeed Fudge. We saw it as a disservice to the black community. Too many of the names are retreads from an era of black politicians who never grasped the idea of elected officials as public servants.

Over the past few weeks, we have had numerous chats with community members regarding the District’s future, and sought suggestions of people who, blessed with a future outlook, could help guide the district into a new era of politics while echoing the best of our past. We will share those names  in the final installment of this series. But next, Part III will invite reflection on what qualities we would like to see in our next Congressperson? What should be the job description? 

Meanwhile, we invite you to share your thoughts on these questions, and to suggest names of potential candidates, whether they have previously run for public office or not. If you wish to share your suggestions in the comments, please use your real name. If you prefer to remain anonymous, email me directly. [It won’t be helpful to have Bill Neverwas anonymously float the name of Bill Neverwas.]

• • •• • •

CPT • Change is Coming to Ohio's iconic 11th Congressional District — Part I

Cuyahoga Politics Today

The 11th Congressional District as we know it is about to change, and with it, black Cleveland has a chance to remake itself — Part I

By R. T. Andrews

The very public effort of US Representative Marcia Fudge to persuade President-elect Joe Biden to appoint her as Secretary of Agriculture is an unmistakable signal that her time in Congress is rapidly coming to a close. Whether or not she secures the Cabinet slot, gets another appointment as consolation prize, or decamps to the nonprofit world, Greater Cleveland will soon have a new Congressional representative. And should some surprising turn of events occur whereby Fudge completes the term to which she was just elected, there is likely zero chance she would run again in 2022, when a new district, redrawn following this year’s Census, will almost certainly be less conducive to the walkover races she’s enjoyed since she won two races to succeed Stephanie Tubbs Jones in 2008.

Why Fudge has one foot out the door and the other in the air is open to speculation;  reluctance to face voters in a new district, and/or a loss of enthusiasm for the job are among those that have been advanced. Frankly, the reasons are subordinate in importance to a host of more substantial questions.

The Stokes brothers, Louis [standing]
and Carl, were architects of what we know
today as the 11th Congressional District.

What is the future of the 11th Congressional District?  How might we shake free of our dependence on the dinosaur style of politics that serves to keep us among the poorest, least healthy, and most ineffective communities in the nation? What opportunities exist for the black community to redefine our current politics? How can we develop and nurture the political talent that can make our politics relevant again? What changes need to be made to create a political climate where our electorate becomes engaged and our turnout is no longer dismal? Where among us at present are the candidates who can effectively represent our interests? How might we support them so that they remain responsive to us and not to the puppet masters who govern the larger community?

Answering these questions would go a long way to making the selection of Fudge’s successor a transformational moment and not just another horse race that reinforces the status quo.

Before we address these questions, let us first take a look back to another transformational moment.

• • •

What we now know as the 11th Congressional District was shaped as a result of multiple lawsuits filed in the 1960s over gerrymandering by the Ohio legislature to prevent the election of a black Congressman by carving up the black community. As Louis Stokes detailed in his memoir, that person most likely would have been his brother, Carl B. Stokes. But, as luck would have it, by the time the litigation was ultimately resolved, shortly after the US Supreme Court ruling in Lucas v. Rhodes, handed down in December 1967, Carl had just made history by becoming the first black elected mayor of a major American city.

[I pause here to give a special shout out to two black attorneys who were stalwart fighters in Cleveland’s civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s: Russell T. Adrine and Richard L. Gunn, who shared legal offices but had separate practices, were part of the successful legal team that created what was originally the Twenty-First Congressional District.]

The chance to become Ohio’s first black Congressman drew a plethora of candidates, including several experienced and well-known politicians: George Forbes, who would become the longest-serving and most powerful city council president in Cleveland’s history; Leo Jackson, an outspoken maverick Glenville area councilman who would go on to a long and distinguished career on the Court of Appeals; and George White, the Lee-Harvard councilman who later became Chief Judge of the US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.

What opportunities exist for the black community to redefine our current politics?

But Carl Stokes, who had been a driving force behind much of the litigation, was reluctant to concede the seat he felt was his to anyone outside his circle. And thus began the political career of his brother Louis, who would easily win the primary, winning every ward and every precinct, and go on defeat Republican Charles P. Lucas, who had been the plaintiff in the lawsuit that created the seat, in the general election.

Having a black Congressperson in Cleveland has been a given ever since 1968, when Louis Stokes won a special election for the Twenty-First Congressional District and became Ohio’s first black member of Congress. He went on to serve the entire district with distinction for thirty years, winning respect far and wide, perhaps as much for the dignity of his service as for his signal accomplishments and the bounty he returned to the district.

Stokes became the dean of local black politics in Greater Cleveland. While George Forbes, Arnold Pinkney, and later Mike White exercised tremendous political power and influence during the Stokes era, all understood that Lou was the godfather, the umpire and final arbiter on any important matters of political dispute within the black community. Much of his influence was exercised through BEDCO, the Black Elected Officials of Cleveland, the organization Stokes used to maintain a basic level of accountability, order, and coherence among local black elected officials.

The history of the 11th Congressional District has helped make the office of U. S. Representative the holy grail of Cleveland black politics.

As Stokes approached retirement, he proposed county prosecutor Stephanie Tubbs Jones as his successor. Her natural political touch, high name recognition, and immense popularity, along with an already distinguished resume that included service as a Common Pleas Court judge, made her the consensus pick. She won the 1998 primary in a landslide and seemed on her way to becoming a force in Congress when she suffered an aneurysm and died suddenly in July 2008.

The Cleveland black political establishment that had achieved some modicum of black political power, was now aged, and had failed to nurture any first-rate talent or establish any mechanism to pass the baton to the next generation. But in the absence of any countervailing force, they assembled enough energy to push forward a Tubbs Jones ally, then-Warrensville Hts. mayor Marcia Fudge, as her successor.

Unlike the pattern that prevails in districts with white representatives, the job expectation for Cleveland’s black Congressperson has always included more than normal constitutional duties. The history of the seat, coupled with systemic limitations upon the aspirations of black politicians — except for judges, only rarely has a black candidate (Virgil E. Brown Jr., Peter Lawson Jones, and Tubbs Jones) been able to succeed on a countywide ballot, and only one black nonjudicial candidate (Republican Ken Blackwell*) has ever won statewide — and the standard set by Lou Stokes, has made it the holy grail of local black politics.

While an evaluation of Fudge’s tenure in the seat is best left for another day, there is no doubt that the timing and manner of her departure will soon reveal just how bare is the cupboard of black political leadership in Cleveland.

Our next column will take a look at what her departure may mean for the constituents she leaves behind.

• • •• • •

* Blackwell was elected Ohio Treasurer in 1994 and Secretary of State in 1998 and 2002. Our original post said no black nonjudicial candidate had ever won a statewide election. This is true of Democrats who have run statewide.

Additionally, Jennette Bradley was elected Lieutenant Governor in 2002 as Governor Robert Taft's running mate. Taft appointed her as Ohio Treasurer, effective January 2005, to fill a vacancy; however she was defeated in the Republican primary the following year.

Both Blackwell and Bradley are African American.

Glenville: Bullets and Artists

-->

CORRECTION: today’s event @ MLK LIBRARY IS NOON-4:30pm. 

THEN and NOW: Glenville at the hub

Two nights ago, at that place of joyful gathering known as Karamu House, the only white person in a room full of mostly elderly but extraordinarily alert African Americans, spoke an obvious but too little appreciated truth when he said, “Black History is American history.”

Nine days from now will be the 50th anniversary of one of the most epic days in the history of a neighborhood, a community, and a city. As darkness enveloped a few tightly woven streets on the outskirts of Cleveland’s sprawling yet overcrowded Glenville neighborhood, a small but heavily armed band of black men and boys opened fire upon several unsuspecting isolated white policemen on nighttime patrol.

What happened next has perhaps never been told as grippingly in minute by minute detail as in Ballots and Bullets, a book published only days ago. While our review will be published here tomorrow, may it suffice to say now that the Glenville shootout still reverberates today, from Lake Erie to Kinsman, from the East Cleveland schoolyard to Cudell Recreation Center to West Park. Beyond its tragic human toll, it trumpeted the end of the Honeymoon of Carl Stokes administration’s honeymoon, the death of Cleveland NOW, and gave birth to the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association.[1]

Today and tomorrow, several generations of activists will share memories and perspectives of what some describe as the Glenville Uprising. Presenters will represent many disciplines and perspectives. Among them will be Dr. Raymond Winbush, Don and Norma Freeman, Mississippi Charles Bevel, Joan Southgate, Khalid Samad, Sherrie Tolliver, Christin Farmer, and many more.

Today’s program runs from noon until 4:30pm at the Martin Luther King Jr. branch of the Cleveland Public Library, 1962 Stokes Blvd. tomorrow’s event will occur from 2pm-5pm in Case Western University’s Harkness Chapel, 11200 Bellflower Rd.

# # #

Glenville will perhaps be undergoing a uniquely double collective Sankofa moment this weekend. Even as people address what happened fifty years ago in a spirit of “Where do we Go from here — Community or Chaos?”, another event will be taking place within walking distance of MLK Library and Harkness Chapel, celebrating what some interpret as harbinger of a New Glenville.

Today is the inaugural edition of “FRONT, An American City”, which is comprised of artist commissions, films, and public performances. FRONT will showcase the work of local, national and international artists from today through September 30, radiating out from a hub on East 105 Street just north of Wade Park Avenue to collaborating museums, civic institutions and public spaces throughout Northeast Ohio.

Details can be found here and here.

​

# # #

---

[1] The 2012 murderous 137-bullet rampage by Cleveland police officers that took the lives of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams ended on an East Cleveland public school playground. The November 2014 killing of Tamir Rice occurred on the playground of Cudell Rec Center. Carl Stokes’ plan to rebuild Cleveland through the multi-million dollar Cleveland NOW program went up in flames the instant it was discovered that a small portion of NOW proceeds had been misdirected towards the purchase of weapons used in the shootout. The CPPA was born in the wake of Stokes’ decision to withdraw white policemen from patrolling Glenville in the immediate aftermath of the Glenville shooting until the area had been pacified, owing to Stokes’ concern, supported by evidence, that some police officers were bent on exacting revenge for the murder of three of their colleagues.  

Former Cleveland Mayor Mike White Gets Real About Politics, Power, Race, Trump

Mike White talks to local civic group about everything from parenting, politics and power to leadership, race and Trump

Former Cleveland mayor Michael R. White made one of his infrequent public appearances Tuesday night when he appeared as the final speaker in a 17-month series on leadership sponsored by the Black Professionals Association Charitable Foundation (BPACF).

Former Cleveland Mayor Michael White
makes a point at BPACF event
[All photos courtesy of
WAKE UP CALL MEDIA]

Generational conflict was clearly on his mind as White spoke informally and extemporaneously, first in conversation with BPACF president Ronald V. Johnson, and later in a Q&A before an audience of at least sixty business owners, civic leaders, educators, and attorneys.

Echoing both his elders and the spirit of his youth, White repeated the wisdom of Frederick Douglass’ famous lesson that “Power concedes nothing without demand”. White displayed an enduring respect for the elders of his youth — “W. O., Carl, Lou, George, Arnold”[1] — who inspired and taught him the fundamentals of politics, supported his development, and then resisted him on generational grounds when, as a state senator, he decided to run for mayor in 1989.

BPACF President Ronald V. Johnson, left,
with business owner Ishmael Martin

White talked about how he soaked up the wisdom of these and other leaders in Cleveland’s black community. Feeling privileged to be in the room with these titans, White said he kept his mouth shut, his eyes open, and focused on doing what he was asked to the best of his ability. The result was a continuing rise in his responsibilities.

About 60 people attended the final session of BPACF's
Leadership Speaker Series at JumpStart in Midtown
on January 30, 2018.

Although he set his life’s goal on becoming Cleveland’s mayor after he “met” Carl Stokes at 13 (he saw him on television), White said he didn’t think of himself as having leadership qualities until 1969 and he arrived at Ohio State University, where he began to study leaders in a search for their common characteristics.

White expounded on a variety of topics, including Cleveland Schools — “No one in Cleveland should be happy with the state of public education.” — the impact of Donald Trump on race relations, the importance of vision, parenting, and some of his current work with the Mandel Foundation. And, of course, the Browns-Modell saga.

Among White’s observations:

Power: “you gotta take it.” When you have prepared yourself and you are ready, go for it!

Politics: “Politics is hard work… What prepares you to be a councilman is ward work.” You have to put in the time, work campaigns, get to know the issues. Formal education is important but insufficient in and of itself. White said he ran 6 or 7 campaigns, including those of Lou Stokes and Jesse Jackson [locally]. You have to stay focused on the task and not be distracted by the personal.

Parenting: One of “the most painful moments” of his life, on a par with losing his mother when he was 33 and his father a quarter-century later, “was realizing my children were gonna have to fight the same battles” against discrimination that he had fought.

Schools: “Education is so important to the future of our people... the school system has historically not been welcoming to working class people.

"Do not accept a high school graduation rate of 71%."

From left: Cosmo Danielly, Chris Nance,
Stephanie Hamilton Brown and Sanford Watson

The black community: We cannot be afraid of our young people. We must become more engaged with our children. We must nurture them.

“When everybody around you tells you can fly, you believe you can fly. That is half the battle.”

The stool of survival for our community has three legs, which are economics, education and politics.

“We need to continue developing and evolving our own businesses even as we penetrate institutions” at the professional level.

We need to be about business and not make things personal.

“We gravitate around personalities when we should gravitate around vision.”

Front: Marcella Brown, BPACF executive director

Vision: "Vision is always more important than the individual. There is no leader who is more important than the vision. The vision must remain intact and undefiled.”

The Cleveland Browns campaign: “The whole Save Our Browns strategy came out of the Civil Rights manual." Number one, do we have legal standing? [Yes.] Number two, talk to a broader audience. [Build a base of support.] Number three. Be disruptive. White said had Cleveland relied on the courts, “we would have lost” because of the time factor. By taking the fight to select cities and teams, the opposition got nervous and anxious. Cleveland won, he said, essentially because the National Football League paid us to go away.

Cleveland’s future: The city’s neighborhoods are moving in the right direction, albeit more slowly on the east side. There needs to be physical development, business development, and human development.

Question about Trump

White responds to question from BPACF President Johnson

Perhaps the most sobering moment of the evening came in White’s response to a question about the impact of Donald Trump upon race relations. The former mayor’s answer was ominous.

“We all know what it is, but that’s only a part of it. Much of it is under the radar. We don’t see ICE [deporting and harassing people].” 
We don’t see the move towards the development of a national database that will track license plates nationwide. We don’t see the rollbacks that are degrading our air and our water. We don’t see the “real insidious nature” of this administration.

Lisa Bottoms of Bottom Line Consulting, Christopher Howse
of Howse Solutions, and Gloria Ware of JumpStart 

There is a 21^st century kind of lynching going on of blacks, Hispanics, Arabs, people who don’t look like them. We have to fight back 24 hours a day.

White said, “Trump’s rise was enabled by millions and millions of people who think just like him, and worse.”

White warned the audience that we can’t be so holed up that we don’t understand what’s happening to others. We can’t take the attitude that because we live in Solon we can be dismissive about what goes on in Hough. White referenced the time when he became a state senator, and his constituency included Jewish citizens for the first time, causing him to broaden his perspective. He quoted a snippet from the famous poem that begins, “First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Socialist.”[2]

White said we should all be repulsed by what is happening to the Dreamers.

“We are all Dreamers,” he said.

White today

White was relaxed and outgoing, betraying little of the trademark intensity that characterized his governing style during his three mayoral terms from 1990-2001. Now 66, White was the first in his family to attend college. He earned two degrees at OSU and after graduation went to work for the Republican mayor of Columbus before returning home to pursue his goal of becoming Cleveland’s mayor. He left direct political combat close to two decades ago, moved several counties away, and now sees himself as a farmer. He has become a winemaker and a rescuer and hospice steward for horses. In what he said was a rare admission, White said he was an introvert, one who needed regular time away from the madding crowds. He attributed his attendance in large measure to his respect for BPA, which recognized him as its Black Professional of the Year in 1993.

White has been a consultant to the Mandel Foundation almost since his retirement from active politics. His work for Mandel brings him to Cleveland about once a week. While his Foundation work is most visible in his direction of the Neighborhood Leadership Development Program (NLDP), White has quietly become an influential political adviser to a reigning power structure that prefers to sit offstage until its interests are threatened and preservation of the status requires direct, albeit discreet, intervention. Politically speaking, he knows both how and when to wield a hammer and thread a needle.

Those interests were seriously challenged twice last year, most notably in the bitter fight to force public subsidization of the Quicken Loans Arena expansion to serve private interests. Strings were pulled from national to ward to parish level to thwart an engaged Cleveland citizenry. The second direct intervention was required following the September primary, when Mayor Frank Jackson’s surprisingly poor showing led to an “emergency cash transfusion” to beat down the quasi-populist challenge of Zack Reed.

White described his NLDP work as helping to identify engaged community leaders and building their capacity to be more effective. He likened it to “fishing for zealots”.

The event drew a Bell-shaped crowd age wise, from Millennials to seniors. Reed was among those in attendance, listening closely as his one-time hero turned adversary, showed that while removed from the ring, he still retained the sharp instincts honed during decades of political combat: White donated several bottles of wine from his Yellow Butterfly Winery as part of the evening’s refreshment.

-->

---

[1] W. O. Walker was the longtime editor and publisher of the once influential Call and Post weekly newspaper widely read throughout Cleveland’s black community. Carl Stokes was Cleveland’s first black mayor [1967-1971] and the inspiration behind both the 21^st Congressional District Caucus, in its heyday the strongest black political organization in the nation. Lou Stokes was Carl’s brother, an outstanding lawyer who became Ohio’s first black Congressman, serving from 1969-1998. George Forbes amassed unprecedented power during his tenure as City Council president from 1974 to 1989. Arnold R. Pinkney gained renown as a master campaign strategist power broker and was highly sought out for advice and campaign assistance by politicians near and far, including Jesse Jackson, Hubert R. Humphrey and Jimmy Carter in their presidential campaigns.

[2] First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

– Martin Niemoller

Niemöller  (1892–1984) was a prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps.