Above Picture: Protesters rally and march on June 21, 2025 in Cleveland, the weekend before the June 24, 2025 third anniversary of the fall of Roe v Wade, a 1973 landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that was reversed by the Supreme Court on June 24, 2022 via its Dobbs decision
CLEVELAND, Ohio-Women's March Cleveland hosted its "Third Anniversary of Roe Reversal March and Leave Women Alone Rally" on Sat., June 21, 2025 with a noon rally on the steps of City Hall in downtown Cleveland and a march through city streets. About 500 people were in attendance
Organizers said the event was a rally and march for reproductive and Civil Rights and an effort to continue the fight for choice for women in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio, including Black women.
"We thank all who participated in this annual event," said Women's March Cleveland head organizer Kathy Wray Coleman, a seasoned Black Cleveland activist and community organizer who leads Women's March Cleveland. "The fall of Roe on June 24, 2022, per the Dobbs decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, is a day that will live in infamy, and activists of greater Cleveland will continue to remember this day annually with a rally and march, and we want Roe restored, period."
Women's March Cleveland activists Elaine Gohlstin of the Black Women's PAC, Alysa Cooper Moskey, Sierra Mason and Alfred Porter Jr. of Black on Black Crime Inc. also helped to organize the event, Coleman said. Cooper Moskey and Mason, both millennials, led the march with chants in 88-degree weather.
"I am always glad to participate for women's rights," said Cooper Moskey after the event. "Our bodies, our choice."
Speakers at the rally included Ohio state Sen. and Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, state school board of education member Delores Gray, Cleveland Councilwoman Stephanie Howse Jones, Cuyahoga County Democratic Party Chairman David Brock, and activists and women's rights advocates Lee Thompson of Refuse Facism and Rise up for Abortion Rights CLE and Maosha Maybach Vales of the Black Women's Army.
Antonio told the crowd to keep up the fight and mentioned proposed anti-abortion and reproductive rights legislation pushed by Republican state legislators, and Howse Jones, one of the two Black women on Cleveland City Council along with Councilwoman Deborah Gray, rowled up the crowd with chants. Gray was also in attendance and marched with protesters, as did Howse Jones.
David Brock told the crowd that the Democrats of the county and the county Democratic party that he leads are in support of women's reproductive rights and that a unified coalition is the best coalition. He said that if he and other men could get pregnant, there would not be a problem and that the problem is the attack on women.
Delores Gray, a community activist elected to the State School Board of Education in November, spoke on national and state efforts by Republicans and President Trump to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and the State Board of Education in Ohio.
"They are trying to destroy our children and we must fight back and demand policies that support all of our children," said Gray, also a grandmother rearing her two teenage grandchildren, whom she brought along with her to the rally and march.
In addition to reproductive rights, the issues addressed at the rally and march included the attacks by Washington, D.C. operatives against DEI, immigrants, public and higher education, science, federal workers, and a litany of other issues.
Other activist groups supporting the event include the Black Women's PAC of Ohio, Cuyahoga Democratic Women's Caucus, Black on Black Crime Inc., Black Man's Army, Black Women's Army, Carl Stokes Brigade, Refuse Fascism, and Rise Up For Abortion Rights CLE.
Roe v. Wade, a landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal nationwide, was reversed by the Supreme Court on June 24, 2022 via its Dobbs decision. It stripped women of federal protection for abortion access and gave states the authority to legislate abortion and reproductive rights.
Cleveland's rally and march were on a Saturday before the actual anniversary date of June 24, which is Tuesday, and by design, organizers said.
"Saturday is usually the best day for a march," activist Kathy Wray Coleman said.
Abortion in Ohio remains legal after voters, in November of 2023, passed an Issue 1 referendum to enshrine the constitutional right to abortion in the Ohio Constitution, a response to the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs decision that gave the states the authority to legislate abortion. But activists who pushed for Issue 1 fear a national abortion ban is looming from conservatives and that state measures are underway in Ohio to try to undermine their victory in getting Issue 1 passed. And they have vowed to fight to the end.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com are the most-read Black digital newspaper and blog in Ohio. Tel. 216-659-0473. Email-editor@clevelandurbannews.com
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