NAACP General Membership meeting LIVE!

This is coming to you as a live report from the Cathedral Church of God in Christ, at the northwest corner of Martin Luther King Jr Drive and Lamontier Ave.

I am actually in one of the Church’s ancillary buildings, which serves during the week as the home of Woodland Academy, a charter school operated by White Hat Management.

This is the first real meeting of the general membership in several years, occasioned by the election of new officers of the local chapter.

Right now there are about eighty members in the room, including a handful of the organization's governing body, its Executive Committee. The purpose of the meeting is to select a Nominating Committee that will recommend a slate of sixteen to thirty-two officers and executive committee members. 

A substantial number of those in attendance are apparently members of Greater Abysinnia Baptist Church, led by the redoubtable Rev. Dr. E. Theophilus Caviness. Caviness is running a determined campaign to elect Hilton Smith, a vice president of Turner Construction as well as an assistant pastor at Greater Abysinnia.

Elected to the Nominating Committee thus far: former Congressman Louis Stokes.

In a bit of a surprise, the nomination of long time NAACP officer Eugene Jordan, DDS was defeated 28-17. Most of the opposition came from the Caviness-Smith faction.

Right now the meeting is bogged down over procedural squabbles about  the process for how the balance of the committee should be conducted.

A few minutes ago, the procedural issue was resolved when a motion passed to start over.

7:08PM
Thirteen people have been nominated: Louis Stokes, Darnell Brewer, Sara Harper, Jackie Caviness Tucker, Mary Hill, Eugene Jordan, Tyrone Bolden, Michael Nelson, Wendell Turner, Pippa Carter, Kyle Earley, Michelle Felder, Ron Kisner, and Sheila Wright.

7:34PM
As the votes are being tallied, president James Hardiman is leading a discussion on capital punishment and its discriminatory application against people of color. Attorney Michael Nelson urged that pressure be applied to Cleveland City Council for the passage of an ordinance installing cameras in  all police cruisers. He said Cleveland is the only large city in the State that does not mandate cruiser cameras.

Hardiman has just announced that this is the largest meeting of the branch in about six years. 

7:58PM
Community activist Gerald Henley urged Cleveland voters to support the November school levy, saying that some classrooms at A. J. Rickoff School  — where he said his wife teaches — on Cleveland's east side have fifty children.


8:08PM
Interim executive director Arlene Anderson announced the results of the voting. In descending order of most votes received: Louis Stokes, Sara Harper, tyrone Bolden, Jackie Caviness Tucker, Mary Hills, Pippa Carter, and Wendell Turner. The current membership status of Bolden, Hills and Carter is in doubt, subject to replacement by in order by Eugene Jordan, Michael Nelson and Ronald Kisner.

The next general membership meeting will be October 16 at a location to be announced.

Monday Morning Humor

These comments were reportedly made by South Carolina Troopers as captured on their car videos: 

1. "You know, stop lights don't come any redder than the one you just went through." 

2. "Relax, the handcuffs are tight because they're new. They'll stretch after you wear them a while." 

3. "If you take your hands off the car, I'll make your birth certificate a worthless document."

4. "If you run, you'll only go to jail tired." 

5. "Can you run faster than 1200 feet per second? Because that's the speed of the bullet that'll be chasing you."

6. "You don't know how fast you were going? I guess that means I can write anything I want to on the ticket, huh?" 

7. "Yes, sir, you can talk to the shift supervisor, but I don't think it will help. Oh, did I mention that I'm the shift supervisor?" 

8. "Warning! You want a warning? O.K, I'm warning you not to do that again or I'll give you another ticket." 

9. "The answer to this last question will determine whether you are drunk or not. Was Mickey Mouse a cat or a dog?" 

10. "Fair? You want me to be fair? Listen, fair is a place where you go to ride on rides, eat cotton candy and corn dogs and step in monkey poop." 

11. "Yeah, we have a quota. Two more tickets and my wife gets a toaster oven." 

12. "In God we trust; all others we run through NCIC." ( National Crime Information Center ) 

13. "Just how big were those 'two beers' you say you had?" 

14. "No sir, we don't have quotas anymore. We used to, but now we're allowed to write as many tickets as we can." 

15. "I'm glad to hear that the Chief (of Police) is a personal friend of yours. So you know someone who can post your bail." 

16. "You didn't think we give pretty women tickets? You're right, we don't. Sign here."

NONPROFIT THURSDAY: Resources for African American Youth; Wade Oval Wednesdays; Voter Suppression

The African American community is often castigated for its indifference to our young.  Critics, many of whom are not well meaning or constructive, fault us for ignoring our children’s education, manners, home training, health and the like.

To be sure, many of these self-assured pontificators and tut-tutters are African American themselves. And there is certainly room for improvement in pretty much every area of our community, regardless of how we interpret “our”.

The other side of the coin however is that there are many organizations and individuals who work and contribute to the general uplift of our young people. They often operate without fanfare.

We have come across a number of these outstanding efforts in just the last couple of months as we have begun to work more formally with what we have long referred to as “EAGs”, or ethnic affinity groups. We use that term to refer to those innumerable social, communal, neighborhood, professional, faith sororities, fraternities, beneficial societies and organizations that black people formed to provide essential community benefits when the larger American counterparts excluded us from participation.

While popular belief adheres to the fiction that that time was long ago and far away, the reality is that exclusion from opportunity has been and continues to be the norm in the lived experiences of most black Americans of all ages. This is true even in the nominal Age of Obama, Diversity, and Multiculturalism.

Rules and roles around racial and ethnic identity are changing, but the vestiges of centuries of legal and social practices and attitudes die hard.

The more racially retarded among us love to argue that we have become a colorblind society. Even worse, some whites see race/racism as a zero-sum game that they are now losing.

All of this is part of the background that informs our sense that compiling an inventory of the programs and services available to African American young people in Northeast Ohio would be a beneficial exercise.

The verbal and in some cases informational responses we are getting suggest that this listing can become a useful community resource. So once again, we invite you to join in this collective effort and respond to our request to send the pertinent info to nonprofits@cuyahoganews.net if your church, club, sorority, fraternity, social, auxiliary, civic or other nonprofit organization provides resources [programs scholarships, mentoring, field trips, college tours, etc.] to area African American boys and girls.

• • •

Wade Oval Wednesdays

It has been said with truth that 11am on Sunday is the most racially segregated hour in America. In Cleveland the antidote to that is Wade Oval Wednesdays.

The weekly summer picnic in Cleveland’s University Circle is beyond question the most eclectic, integrated, wholesome, heavenly recurring activity in our town. Old, young, robust, frail, wealthy, poor, urban, suburban, blond, dreaded, solitary, betrothed, pet lovers, the animal adverse, vegetarians, prime ribbers, tree huggers, chain smokers, hippies, Brooks Brethren, students, veterans, the blind and the bespectacled, Browns backers, LeBron haters, Frisbee throwers, music lovers, exhibitionists, the bi-polar and the ambivalent, the tall and lean, the short and stout, the bald and the hirsute, the tidy and the slovenly, the shy and the gregarious, PhDs and no degrees, the native and the transplant, the Asian, the South American, the European, the Middle Easterner and the African, and impossible to decipher amalgams of each all spread over a lush expanse of nature, encircled by the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Museum of Natural History, the Botanical Gardens, and Case Western Reserve University to enjoy beautiful weather and the strains of reggae, blues, classical, hillbilly, rock, salsa, et al in a FREE EVENT.

The naturalness of it all is extraordinarily blissful. Yesterday was like nature without predators. Lions and lambs and all that.

Next week is the last gathering for Cleveland Summer 2012. The music will mine the Blues/Rock vein, performed by The Soul Men and a Blues Brothers Tribute with Shady Drive Band. Six to Nine. Come early or come later.

Be there or be square.

• • •

Tomorrow, the Cleveland State University Black Alumni Association will meet up with the After Five Friday posse led by inveterate networkers Alton Tinker, Donna Dabbs and Jesse LeGrande for the post-workweek happy hour confection of music, libation, food, and networking at Bodega’s Restaurant, 1854 Coventry, Cleveland Heights. The evening runs from 5:30 to 11p.

• • •

And I don't know how I posted but failed to mention tonight's program at 7PM on Voter Suppression at the Cleveland Heights Public Library, 2345 Lee Rd.

The speakers will include former Cleveland law director Subodh Chandra, Kathe Mayer, co-president of the Heights-Hillcrest branch of the American Association of University Women, and State Senator Shirley Smith, D-21 Cleveland. Your correspondent will serve as moderator.

Tea and cookies will be served at this event, sponsored by the ADA of Northeast Ohio, a chapter of Americans for Democratic Action based in Washington DC.

Area Nonprofits Offering Enrichment Programs for Youth; Party Time!

CALLING FOR YOUTH PROGRAM INFO

Does your church, club, sorority, fraternity, social, auxiliary, civic or other nonprofit organization provide resources [scholarships, mentoring, field trips, college tours, etc.] to area African American boys and girls? If so, drop us a line at nonprofitnews@cuyahoganews.net. We are building a comprehensive listing of such services as a community resource.

Two upcoming programs for area youth:

The Consortium of African American Organizations is hosting an orientation meeting this Saturday at the Urban League of Greater Cleveland, 2930 Prospect Avenue, Cleveland OH 44115 for CAAO’s three-month Youth Innovation Forum. During the Forum’s weekly Saturday morning sessions, students nine and a half to sixteen absorb critical thinking skills while working on product development that offers real life solutions. The orientation is free. All youth must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

For more information on Saturday’s orientation or the Forum, visit here.

For an application, go here.

Another outstanding program for area youth is the PC Scholars Program, operated by The Presidents' Council Foundation. The program works with Cleveland high school students on four key areas: [1] academic achievement, [2] career preparedness, [3] Leadership and [4] life skills. This program is designed for African-American high school students who have a grade point average of 2.5 – 3.0 and are ready to enter a program that will set them up for future success.  Students enter the program as a sophomore in high school and stay until graduation. 

The Foundation is currently recruiting applicants now for the program year that begins in November. Contact Athena Nimmer at the Foundation for more information. [Athena@thepresidentscouncil.com • 216.771.8702 • www.thepresidentscouncil.com ]

POP UP PARTY TODAY AT THE PLAZA

Great weather appears to be on tap for the Society of Urban Professionals Pop Up Party at Perk Plaza at Chester Commons, on the northwest corner of East 12 Street and Chester Avenue. The event, from 5-8p, will feature live music, food trucks, and a beer garden. More info: atinker@thesoupnetwork.com.

In Cleveland today, Al Sharpton says "This is right now."

Rev. Al Sharpton is in town today with a sharp and sober message for those who are comfort themselves in the perilous notion that civil rights certainly cannot regress under the nation’s first African American president: 2012 is not 2008.

“There is a new landscape”, Sharpton told a luncheon audience at Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church. He was referring primarily to two developments that have occurred since people of color turned out in huge numbers in support of Barack Obama in 2008.  The Citizens United decision legalizing spending on political advertising that is unregulated, unreported, and unlimited, together with legislative action in as many as 19 states to restrict ballot access are serious threats to an open and fair presidential election this year.

It is possible that “five million voters will lose their right to vote” this year, said Sharpton, citing documented abuses in such states as Florida as well as an analysis offered by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.

While he was speaking largely to the choir — the event was sponsored by his National Action Network, and the church’s pastor, E. Theophilus Caviness, is N.A.N.’s local liaison — Sharpton pulled no punches in challenging the legion of Cleveland’s African Americans who work downtown in comfortable office buildings. Addressing the children and grandchildren of the generation that fought for civil rights half a century ago, Sharpton said “you are collecting on a debt you didn’t invest in, you are reaping a harvest you did not plant.” The least they could do, he said, is to “protect what’s been achieved.”

Sharpton argued forcefully and with acerbic wit that the effort to enforce voting restrictions across America is a coordinated attempt to roll back the civil rights gains of the 1960s. He dismissed claims that requiring voters to have government issued photo identification was related to an attempt to curb voter fraud.

In a remark that drew laughter and applause, he said, “the only fraud in voting fraud is the fraud of voting fraud.”

“They are targeting us, not targeting fraud, he said.”

Sharpton questioned how some government leaders could celebrate voting in Egypt while cutting back on voting opportunities in Ohio. He wondered aloud why the Republicans who claim to be so concerned about voter fraud recently went through their entire primary season without requiring any voter i.d. at their caucuses or primary voting sites.

Sharpton said, “We romanticize the civil rights battles of the Sixties and act as if there is no civil rights struggle in Ohio. … This is right now”, he said. “ There is a real threat to the social order established in the 1960s."

After the lunch there were a series of workshops scheduled related to election issues, including the effect of voting upon educational issues and vice versa.

N.A.N. activities continue with a rally tonight at Greater Abyssinia, 1161 East 105 St., beginning at 7PM. Sharpton is scheduled to speak tonight as well.

Today’s lunch was intended for public officials, local clergy, and community leaders, including leaders of many organizations and institutions not generally thought of as politically active, including for example, the Top Ladies of Distinction and all three local chapters of the National Council of Negro Women.

Public officials in attendance included US Senator Sherrod Brown, State Senator Nina Turner, State Representative Sandra Williams, and Cuyahoga County councilman Julian Rogers.

Nonprofit Thursday Returns!

Fewer than two months I was privileged to be named the new executive director of CAAO, the Consortium of African American Organizations. Pronounced K-O, the organization was founded in 2002 to provide a collective voice for and support to Greater Cleveland’s African American professional organizations. Under the leadership of the inimitable Connie Atkins, the organization thrived over its first decade by finding ways to serve a variety of organizations, businesses, and professionals. Connie retired in December 2011 and is now executive director emeritus of what even before my official start date was one of my favorite nonprofits.

One of CAAO’s signature programs is just over the horizon: this Saturday will see CAAO conduct its tenth annual Leadership Retreat, which brings rising and established community leaders together to look at critical community and career issues that enhance their ability to achieve personal, professional and civic goals.

This year’s retreat addresses “Turning Roadblocks into Starting Blocks” and offers a stellar panel of some of Cleveland’s best and brightest: Ellen Burts-Cooper [Improve Consulting and Training]; Miranda Creel [PNC Financial Services Group]; Ly’Nette Cordaro [Cuyahoga Community College]; Emmanuel Glover [5/3 Bank]; Marvin Montgomery [sales and customer service trainer]; Mark Parks [MarCon Consulting]; and Kazell Pugh [[TLC Springwater LLC].

Patrice Blakemore of Blakemore Consulting will facilitate the program. She will guide panel discussions on navigating roadblocks, getting clients to pay, and positioning yourself for advancement.

The one-day event will be held on the tranquil Beachwood campus of The Gathering Place.

Before you bombard the CAAO office with your last-minute reservation requests, be alerted that the event is SOLD OUT. This happens pretty much every year, so be on the lookout for 2013!

CALLING ALL KARAMU ALUMNI

If you are an alumnus of Karamu House — either as an employee or having worked on a show — be advised that an effort is underway to revitalize its alumni association, please let me know and provide me with your contact information as soon as possible.  An initial planning session was held just recently and we hear the enthusiasm to rebuild the organization was palpable. This was perhaps due to the early buzz over Karamu's centennial celebration, now less than three years away,

If interested in the alumni association, send your contact info to peterlawsonjones@gmail.com. 

HISTORIC FOREST CITY TENNIS CLUB to Mark Centennial with Labor Day Tourney and Banquet

Members of the Forest City Tennis Club don’t have to wait until 2016 to celebrate their 100 Anniversary: their club was founded in 1912, perhaps the oldest African American social club in Cleveland.

On Labor Day weekend, while hosting the 67th Tri-City Tournament at the Jean M. Capers Tennis Courts in University Circle’s Rockefeller Park, the Club will also hold its 100^th Anniversary Celebration on September 2 at the Cleveland Marriott East in Warrensville Heights.
For more information, contact FCTC president Kevin Strickland at 216.536.5677 or kstrick@sbcglobal.net or visit www.fctclub.org.

CALLING FOR YOUTH PROGRAM INFO

Does your church, club, sorority, fraternity, social, auxiliary, civic or other nonprofit organization provide resources [scholarships, mentoring, field trips, college tours, etc.] to area African American boys and girls? If so, drop us a line at nonprofitnews@cuyahoganews.net. We are looking to establish a comprehensive listing of such services as a community resource.

POP UP PARTY AT THE PLAZA

Next Thursday, August 16, you are invited to be a guest of the Society of Urban Professionals at Perk Plaza at Chester Commons, on the northwest corner of East 12 Street and Chester Avenue. The event, from 5-8p, will feature live music, food trucks, and a beer garden. More info: atinker@thesoupnetwork.com.