CPT • Black Political Unrest playing out in Cuyahoga Democratic Party

 Cuyahoga Politics Today

Cuyahoga Democrats: Change is Blowing in the Wind

Endorsement process is tip of iceberg of roiling black political energy

​It’s impossible to talk about politics in Greater Cleveland without talking about black politics.

That fact makes some folk uncomfortable for different reasons. People want to believe in the Kumbaya stick image that our homogenizing culture has made of Martin King. They like to cite his Dream while omitting the realities he gave his last full measure of devotion trying to change: a dominant military-capitalist system that crushed poor people and people of color.

Fifty years later society celebrates a sanitized version of King’s legacy that omits how he was cursed, vilified, asaulted, spied upon by his own government, and thrown in jail with regularity, just for trying to make this country a more just and humane place to live and work. When King came to Cleveland to support the 1967 Stokes campaign, Democratic Party chairman and county engineer Albert Porter sent out letters saying that a Stokes victory meant turning the city over to Martin King, the tone of his message implying that rape and pillage would soon follow.

King was one of a trio of now celebrated black men hated for their fearless and sacrificial stance on behalf of their community and thereby on behalf of the larger society. Muhammad Ali was another towering black figure who came to prominence in the civil rights era. His livelihood was taken away and all manner of hatred hurled at him for his humble, courageous and principled stand for his religious beliefs. He died in 2016 as perhaps the most recognized and beloved global citizen of his time.

Last year in Cleveland, establishment institutions went all in on the golden anniversary of Carl Stokes’ election as the first black mayor of a major US city. It seems little time was spent on how far we have and have not come in addressing our community’s continuing racial and class inequities. Carl and his widely respected brother Lou — the beloved Congressman aka “the Distinguished Gentleman” are today remembered for their accomplishments, as if the demons they wrestled against were vanquished.

The reality is quite different. Echoes of their struggles resound nationally in the rollback of voting rights; the outright perfidy of gerrymandering in North Carolina, Ohio and elsewhere; the open racism, crudity and unchristian behavior of this ersatz evangelical Administration bent on destroying the fundamentals of our democracy. Echoes of Ali’s struggles can be scene in the honest protest of Colin Kaepernick, who is reviled and unemployed for daring to speak out against police brutality and injustice.

Here in Cleveland, an examination of Stokes’ legacy would include fighting his own Democratic Party for respect and a fair deal. It would involve remembering how and why the Twenty-First Congressional District Caucus was formed, and how it became a transcendant force for empowerment.

When I remember Carl Stokes I like to recall his love for black people, his self-confidence, his willingness to go into hostile territory and stand on his qualifications to serve. I remember the respect he had for the profession of politics and the disdain he had for political pretenders. I loved that he always kept his eyes on the prize of fair and equitable power distribution.

I wish that today we had more African American professional politicians in our community who were, like the Stokes boys, rooted in our community and focused on their role as public servants. They understood that the leadership followed the service.

Each of these distingushed gentlemen — King, Ali, Carl, Lou — was guided in their professional pursuits by principle, purpose, passion and preparation. These were key elements in their ability to excel in their chosen fields.

Politics Today

For the past couple of days we have been writing to peel back some of the mystery of local politics, to provide some insight into the how and why some names appear on the ballot and some don’t. To give some understanding about the inner workings of the endorsement process.

One of the things we have noticed in our close up look at the local Democratic Party is how much is changing even as so much remains unchanged.

What has changed? Too often, black candidates are reluctant to campaign across their entire jurisdictions. They self-segregate themselves.

I just paused writing this and went searching for a passage in Carl Stokes’ magnificent book, Promises of Power: Then and Now. I re-read Chapter 3, “How to Get Elected by White People”. It’s unbelievable how his account of his campaign for the state legislature in 1960 remains a blueprint for any candidate of color seeking countywide office today. As I look at what’s happening in the local Democratic Party today, I think Karrie Howard may be the only black person running countywide this year whose campaign has internalized that chapter.

Perhaps that’s why Howard pulled the stunning feat of securing the backing of Parma’s rank-and-file political leaders even in the face of the Mason-Fudge alignment.

My political gut tells me that a huge shakeup in county politics may be on the horizon. Lou Stokes and the Congressional District Caucus were part of a strong black political tradition that connected ordinary black men and women to their political representatives. That tradition waned over the years, and when the Hon. Marcia L. Fudge took over from Lou’s successor, — the beloved Stephanie Tubbs Jones, who died suddenly in 2008 — Fudge effectively dissolved the Caucus, almost the last thread connecting the people to the process. In some cases the thread seems to have been replaced by ministerial mercenaries.

Fudge of late has been generously endorsing candidates, including two judicial aspirants — Deborah Monique Turner and Andrea Nelson Moore — who are longshots to garner the financial resources necessary — generally ballparked at $100,000 — to run successfully countywide. She is also backing Jeff Johnson in his campaign against incumbent State Sen. Sandra Williams, which most observers think is payback for Williams’ challenge to Fudge protégé Shontel Brown, to become Party chair. Fudge won that battle — which may be tied to her deal with Bill Mason — but is upset that Williams did not back down.

It is intriguing to consider what, if anything, this would-be Empress of Black Politics will be wearing if she leaves tomorrow’s executive committee meeting with none of her publicized candidates able to secure an endorsement.

-->

# # #

McGinty shouldn't swallow DeWine bait; Vigil tonight

Prosecutor must steer clear of DeWine's editorial

“I … knew from my own experience about how ingrown, defensive and isolated the [Cleveland police] department had become. And I knew that it had to become a public issue. …

“The fact is, though, that our police department happened to be a federation of fellows, some good, some bad, most conservative, some reactionary, but all almost totally lacking in the training in human relations that some departments have at least made a beginning to provide. … The most obvious failure of the police was in their dealing with the black community. … All the police knew that few policemen faced charges or an appearance before the grand jury for shooting a black man while on duty.” *

Need I go on? These words were written almost a quarter century ago about the state of the Cleveland Police Department nearly a half-century ago. The man who wrote them knew what he was talking about: he had been a probation officer, a defense attorney, and a prosecutor. He had also been in position to appoint the city’s police chief and its safety director. His name was Carl Burton Stokes.

So let’s be clear. Notwithstanding claims of whitewash, Attorney General Mike DeWine was correct when he concluded there was “systemic failure” by the Cleveland Police Department on Nov. 29. That critique, though obvious, was an editorial judgment he offered based on his investigation. Given his explicit intent not to assign individual culpability, it’s fair to ask whether there was a political motive to his denouncing by implication the safety administration of Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson?

Were DeWine’s editorial comments intended to displace attention from the individual actions of individual police officers who are paid, and hopefully trained, to be at their most professional precisely when the stakes are highest?

Would DeWine excuse those American troops at Abu Ghraib from individual moral or legal culpability on the grounds that they were insufficiently trained? Would he have denounced the generals instead for failing to properly train our men and women to handle stress in combat?

I would hesitate to think that the State’s highest law enforcement official was inclined in any way to lend the prestige of his office to any effort to influence public opinion before a grand jury had received this case and before a jury of the officers’ peers hears evidence concerning any criminal charges that may result from grand jury proceedings.

To that extent I am concerned about media reports that County Prosecutor Tim McGinty will present the A.G.’s report to the grand jury. I believe that residents of this community who have put their faith and trust in McGinty to seek justice in the matters brought to his office, have a right to expect that he will use the DeWine report for its material value in preparing the case[s] he presents to the grand jury. He should not just turn the report over to the grand jury.

I wrote back in December that the county prosecutor is the linchpin in the ultimate arc of this case. More than any other public official — the attorney general, the mayor, chief of police or safety director — McGinty will determine whether this case bends towards the arc of justice. The old saying — that a good prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich — has core elements of truth.

McGinty’s office has been relatively quiet in the aftermath of the Nov. 29 tragedy. He has yet to experience the scrutiny and heat that Mayor Jackson, Police Chief Mike McGrath, and DeWine have incurred. We see that as a good thing. But his time is surely coming. Let us hope he recognizes when the taking of lives is unwarranted and that each of us is accountable even where, and perhaps especially when the system fails to function.

Candlelight vigil tonight at Heritage Middle School

Area civil rights groups will hold a candlelight vigil at 6PM tonight in the parking lot at Heritage Middle School in East Cleveland, where the 25-minute police pursuit of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams on Nov. 29 ended in their deaths from a 137-bullet outburst by thirteen of the more than sixty police vehicles and 100+ officers involved in the chase of the apparently unarmed victims.

• • •

Click here to read this post in its entirety.

RECENT POSTS:

MONDAY ROUNDUP: CLEVELAND POLICE NOT ALONE IN NEED FOR TRAINING & RESTRAINT

IN SEARCH OF HARRIET TUBMAN

CHAOTIC KILLING OF TWO SUSPECTS? WHY, IT'S A 'PERFECT CHASE'.

This email list is handled manually by the author. If you prefer not to receive these emails, simply send a reply with the heading "Unsubscribed" and your address will be removed from the list.  Please indicate also if you prefer to receive this email at a different address. Thank you.

---

* Carl B. Stokes, Promises of Power: Then and Now, pp. 172-173. Stokes was Cleveland mayor from 1967 to 1971.

Caviness Leads Push: Nina Turner as OH Secretary of State

Black Ministers Start Groundswell:

Turner as Secretary of State in 2014

A small but influential group of black ministers, labor officials and community activists met at a Glenville area church Tuesday night to promote the candidacy of State Senator Nina Turner as Ohio’s next Secretary of State, hoping to spark a fuse that will catapult a black candidate to the upper levels of state government.

L-R: first row, Marcia McCoy, Bishop F.E. Perry, Rev. E.T. Caviness,  Fred Harris,  Vic Rubenstein, Art McKoy, Darlene Hardimon; 2d row: William Nix, Rev. Tyrone Davis,Shermaine Oliver, Barbara Rogers, [Cleveland Black Nurses Association] Pam Mason, ATU No. 268], Dr. Patricia McDonald, Mary Davis, Evelyn Bolden, Patricia Patterson, Rev. Dr. David Hunter [Baptist Ministers Conference]; 3d row: Rev. Larry Harris, [United Pastors In Mission] Rev. Ivory Jones, Rev. Dan Smith, Mt. Moriah Baptist [Photo: Jeff Ivey]

If their efforts prove ultimately successful, Turner would be the first African American Democrat of either gender to be elected to statewide office in Ohio.

The dismal history of African American Democrats as candidates for statewide office — not one has ever achieved a statewide win in 12 attempts by ten different candidates dating to 1972 — was detailed at the beginning of this week in a front page story from Sunday’s Plain Dealer.

The article was clearly the immediate catalyst for the meeting. Transparencies of the article were projected on a wall and read aloud, with meeting convener, the Rev. Dr. E. T. Caviness regularly interjecting emphatic commentary to underscore his disgust with what he portrayed as an unacceptable lack of commitment by Ohio’s Democrats to support its black candidates in state contests.

Following this discussion of the article, a critical excerpt was read on-screen and discussed from Carl Stokes’ seminal book, Promises of Power. The selection described the origins of the Twenty-First Congressional District Caucus, that hallowed moment in the early seventies when black political power reached its short-lived apex in Cuyahoga County. Under then-Mayor Stokes leadership, the unified political strength of the black community drew respect from every politician of any color and either party. The Caucus occasionally would provide crucial support to a white Republican candidate, sending a message to both renegade black candidates and retrograde Democratic Party leaders.

The message of Tuesday’s meeting was clear: it is time for the Ohio Democratic Party to do whatever it takes to elect a black Democrat to statewide office. Caviness acknowledged that the Party had worked to retain incumbent Justice Yvette McGee Brown on the state Supreme Court, investing a reported $750,000 in her campaign. But it wasn’t enough, he thundered, adding that if need be they should spend one million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars to support Turner.

Rev. E. T. Caviness [Photo by Jeff Ivey]

Caviness kicked off the fundraising part of the meeting by saying he had pledged $1000 to the draft Turner effort and that Rev. Larry Harris of Mt. Olive Baptist Church and the president of Black Pastors in Mission would do the same. Before the evening was over almost $15,000 had been pledged, much of it coming from the national transit workers union, whose local representative, William Nix, Local 268 president, was in attendance.

No Permanent Friends or Enemies, only Permanent Interests, so Politics Makes Strange Bedfellows

Addressing the unspoken irony that this gathering of very mainstream black Democrats in the room was working to draft the same black woman whose outspoken policies and independent ways they had spent much of the last three years vilifying, Caviness said that “we had to forgive her” even though she had “stabbed us in the back”. Caviness was referring to the contention of many that Turner had agreed at a meeting of black politicos to oppose the reformation of county government only to emerge a few days later as a featured champion of reform.

Turner offers a different version of those events but the stark reality is that she proved to be right and her political foes wrong on all counts. Black voters all across the community rejected the conservative counsel of their elected representatives and hoary leaders. And hindsight suggests that the voters were right: not only is there a more rational system of county government in place, but the black community appears to have stronger representation and voice in that new government.

This outcome no doubt fueled Turner’s flirtation late last year with the idea of challenging Congresswoman Marcia Fudge in this year’s Democratic primary. Fudge reacted quickly with an impressive show of district-wide support. Once again Turner was vilified in large measure by the establishment black political community. This time, Turner’s political calculus, informed by Fudge’s demonstration and the truncated Ohio primary season belatedly set by the legislature, convinced Turner to channel her political ambition elsewhere.

Turner has done so energetically, maintaining a rigorous and demanding schedule. Somehow she manages to juggle her work as a state legislator along with her duties as a history professor at Cuyahoga Community College, speaking regularly before community groups, and appearing frequently as a guest on MSNBC talk shows.

“Secretary of Suppression”

With Ohio in the national cross-hairs as the quintessential battleground state in the recent presidential campaign, much attention was focused on the coordinated nationwide efforts of Republicans to curtail voting rights by cutting back early voting, seeking to establish unnecessary voter ID requirements, and generally discouraging voting by those whose lives were already burdened with the pressures and complications of just trying to get through the day. In Ohio, those partisan efforts were centered in the office of Secretary of State Jon Husted, who Turner took to lambasting on MSNBC as the “Secretary of Suppression”.

After the meeting, Caviness called and spoke with Turner in Columbus, where she is working in the midst of the General Assembly’s lame-duck session. Reached later by this reporter, Turner seemed at a rare loss for words, saying that she was “humbled” by the show of support. Pressed as to whether she had made a decision on whether to take on Husted in 2014, Turner said that she would decide sometime in January, acknowledging that an early decision was necessary given the requirements of running a statewide race.

Other sources contacted by The Real Deal said they expected Turner to make the race. She is passionate about making a difference through government service, they say, and protecting citizens’ voting rights has once again become a core issue, nearly fifty years after the country’s civil rights revolution.

Turner is also term-limited as a state senator, which is likely to spur her willingness to become the standard bearer for what may turn out to be, in the words of one meeting participant, “an excellent opportunity to elect the first black to statewide office.”