By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com

CLEVELAND,Ohio-A community activist and member of the Imperial Women who fought for changes in public policy around the Imperial Ave Murders and attended rallies on that and other community issues such as the Trayvon Martin case was stabbed in the back and seriously injured last week allegedly by a teen whose mother was arguing with her over an ongoing feud between that teen and one of the stabbed woman's teen daughters.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com

CLEVELAND, Ohio-First Lady Michelle Obama (pictured) will visit Cleveland on Mon, May 21 for an 11:00 am fundraiser reception at Progressive Field at 2401 Ontario St  in Cleveland, the Obama for America campaign announced last week.

Progressive Field is the Cleveland Indians sports stadium, though no ball game is in session for that day.

By Johnnette Jernigan

Cleveland, Ohio-This is a one-on-one interview with CNN contributor and TV-One commentator Roland Martin (pictured), a nationally known Black political analyst.

In this short but engaged interview Martin gives his views on the Democratic and Republican campaigns for President of the United States of America. He also discusses his take on the suggestion by some right wing conservatives that First Lady Michelle Obama is "too Black."

President Barack Obama, a Democrat, will face former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party, for the upcoming November election for president.

The below interview was undertaken during the heat of the fight for the Republican nomination for president and before Romney became the presumptive nominee.

It is printed here because it still has significance as America's Black community and others prepare for a showdown as to a tight race for the White House, with the latest CBS poll on the election putting Obama and Romney at a statistical tie.

Journalist Johnette Jernigan:

Who will get the Republican nomination?

Roland Martin:

Mitt Romney will win the nomination because the Republicans always choose the next person in line. Since Romney lost to McCain in 2008, Romney is next in line for the Republican nomination.

Jernigan:

What states must the president be more aggressive with to obtain votes?

Martin:

President Obama really needs to do well in the western states and regain the Hispanic vote. They’re angry because of the Dream Act and immigration reform.  The president has deported more Hispanics in three years than Bush did in eight, so that’s a hurdle that the President has to overcome.

Jernigan:

What about Ohio and the eastern states?

Martin:

The Electoral College has changed. Some of the states that the President won in 2008 have lost somewhere between 8-10 electoral college votes like Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire, and Indiana  He only won Indiana by less than one 1% and only won North Carolina by 14,000 votes.  He lost Missouri by less than 1%.  You can take those states off the board.  With regard to Ohio, Kasich came in and became aggressive against the unions and woke up a sleeping giant which may have given the president an in that he needs.

Jernigan:

Would Ron Paul have  been a better Republican candidate than Mitt Romney?

Martin:

Ron Paul’s views are far too strident when it comes to the budget and the war.  He doesn’t make the left happy because of his views on the economy; he won’t make the right happy because of his views on foreign policy.  He has a core constituency.  If he runs for a third party, he clearly could take a significant number of votes and it could be a remake of 1992 when Ross Perot ran for the presidency.

Jernigan:

Who will the Tea Party support?

Martin:

The Tea Party will support the Republican nominee.  The Tea Party is not the Tea Party. It’s the Republican Party that is largely made up of people that are fiscal conservatives.  If you go back to Ross Perot’s campaign, you’re dealing with the same group of people calling themselves the Tea Party, which are basically blue collar democrats or Reagan democrats.

Jernigan:

What do you think about the attack against First Lady Michelle Obama saying that she is too Black?

Martin:

All the people that talk about Jody Cantor’s book, they have not read it.  I read her book.  She does not make her out to be an angry Black woman.  Anyone that reads that book will see that she is a confident, assertive woman who worked in corporate America and understands that she must plan and also must not simply do things haphazardly.  Anyone that read that book will understand that she is a woman that is very clear on what she wants and it does not make her out to be some angry Black woman.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com (www.clevelandurbannews.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio-After accepting the resignation of former Cleveland NAACP President George Forbes two weeks ago amid controversy over whether he had resigned by letter last year or not, organization officials are now seemingly confused over whether the annual freedom fund dinner will go forward as previously planned for June 23 at the Renaissance Hotel in Cleveland.

Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com (www.clevelandurbannews.com)

WASHINGTON D.C.- President Barack Obama publicly announced his support of same sex marriage last weekend, causing a furor of debate over the controversial issue and gaining accolades from gay and lesbian rights groups, Civil Rights activists such as former National NAACP Chairman Julian Bond and political pundits like CNN Political Contributor Donna Brazile, who called the announcement “a historical decision for justice and equality for civil and human rights. “

And Cleveland area affiliates, from Cleveland City Council members to community activists, spoke out, with many supporting the president, though Black preachers collectively remain homophobic.

"‘He’s out of town but I can tell you that he does not support it," a woman answering the phone at the main campus of the Word Church in Warrensville Hts said when asked the position of Word Church pastor the Rev. R.A. Vernon, who leads the only Black mega church in greater Cleveand and is one of Cleveland’s most influential Baptist ministers.

Prominent Cleveland Black ministers such as the Rev. Larry Harris of Mount Olive Baptist Church, Greater Love Missionary Baptist Church Bishop Eugene Ward Jr., and Cleveland Chapter SCLC President and Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church Senior Pastor The Rev. E. T. Caviness did no return phone calls seeking comment.

Other people had a lot to say about it.

“It is a courageous move that is long over due,” said Sharon Danann, a White community activist and gay rights advocate with a master’s degree from Harvard University who is a founding member of the Imperial Women and belongs to other grassroots groups such as Black on Back Crime Inc. and the Lucasville Uprising Freedom Network.

“I don’t support it because it is not a destiny that is meant to be," said East Cleveland Community Activist Art McKoy, a founding member of Black on Black Crime.

“It will promote monogamy,” said Larry Bresler, a west side Cleveland community activist who leads Organize Ohio and the Northeast Ohio Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign.

Cleveland councilpersons Mamie Mitchell and Jeff Johnson, both licensed atorneys, said that they support it.

”If two people are in love and happen to be of the same sex, who are we to interfere in their affairs," said Mitchell, who represents Cleveland’s Ward 6. “I support the president’s decision."

Mitchell said that opposition to gay and lesbian rights is sometimes rooted in male machoism and that states across America that have outlawed same sex marriage might be violating the separation of church and state clause of the First Amendment by interfering in an unconstitutional fashion beyond the necessary scope in marriage, which she says is a religious based institution.

And Councilman Johnson, who highlighted that he is straight, told his Facebook friends that some people are born gay and lesbian and should not be penalized with prejudicial public policy because of it.

Even former Cleveland NAACP President George Forbes weighed in, issuing a press release last month before the president's stunning and risky announcement where Forbes, 81, and a former Cleveland councilman and mayoral candidate, said that he supports gay marriage, a move that forced the executive board of the Cleveland NAACP to finally accept as official his Dec. 21, 2011 resignation as the president.

Whether Obama will face any serious fallout from his announcement remains to be seen, and is unlikely many have said because the president is simply pushing for fair play for gay and lesbian people.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who will square off in the November general election for president as the nominee for the Republican Party against the Democrat Obama, quickly announced that he believes that marriage is between a man and a woman, even after saying publicly prior to his current run for president that he supports equality for gay and lesbian people.

Reach Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and by phone at 216-932-3114.