Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Tel (216) 659-0473 Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio. After snubbing local Women's March organizers, Planned Parenthood's "Bans Off Our Bodies" marches in Northeast Ohio in Cleveland and elsewhere nationally failed to garner the mass crowd that was expected on Saturday in spite of the corporate-funded group spending thousands upon thousands of dollars for Facebook and other ads for the national initiative. And while a few media outlets covered the event, organizers of Cleveland's rally and march, who did not reside in Cleveland and were from Columbus and Akron, Ohio, got absolutely no pre coverage of the event from Cleveland's mainstream media. (Editor's note: Women's March Cleveland will rally and march Sat. June 11 at noon on the steps of Cleveland City Hall before the U.S. Supreme Court issues its decision in a Mississippi case where the court is set to overturn Roe v. Wade and more than a thousand have already responded on Facebook for the event. Click here to register on Facebook for the open-to-the-public event in June. Click here to register for the event at mobilize us). The event contact tel is (216) 659-0473.
In Cleveland, for instance, which was dubbed the Northeast Ohio regional Bans Off Our Bodies, only hundreds came out to Willard Park in downtown Cleveland, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer Newspaper, Ohio's largest newspaper. Also, Blacks and elected officials in the majority Black major American city of some 372,000 people stayed away in droves. Organizers had predicted that thousands would turnout, like they did on Oct 2, 2021 for Women's March Cleveland's mass reproductive march, but to no avail.
"They failed to engage the media and the community and were largely ineffective in Cleveland and elsewhere because they are inexperienced organizers who snubbed and disrespected local women's march organizers in the respective cities, including in Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton and Cleveland," said Women's March Cleveland head organizer Kathy Wray Coleman. She went on to say that "the event in Cleveland lacked diversity and Black people, and the inexperienced organizers of Planned Parenthood actually cursed out local women's march organizers in Cleveland."
The absence primarily of local leaders in a largely Black city also puzzled Coleman, a seasoned Black community organizer who trained at the Call and Post Newspaper for 17 years as a reporter, a historical Black print weekly published in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. Also, she said, there is a gubernatorial and a U.S. Senate race in Ohio, and congressional and other races, and none of the candidates spoke as the November midterm elections loom. That too, said Coleman, is a reflection on the organizers.
A former Cleveland schools high school biology teacher and longtime community activist and local reporter who also leads the Imperial Women Coalition and International Women's Day March Cleveland, Coleman is Black and has been a head organizer of Women's March Cleveland's mass rallies since 2018 when some 6,000 people turned out, up from 2,500 people on Market Square on Oct 2, 2021 who participated in a reproductive rights rally and march that included Black speakers, local community activists, and a diverse group of area elected officials.
The other reason they were ineffective, said Coleman, is that unlike Women's March Cleveland, which includes a coalition of local organizations at each major rally and march, Planned Parenthood is corporate funded and is run primarily by Washington insiders with no ties to the community, let alone the Black community. She said that "they thought they could buy successful mass marches in Cleveland and nationwide while simultaneously excluding experienced Black local organizers, and they could not."
Coleman called Saturday's rally and march of mainly out-of-towners in Cleveland by Planned Parenthood's disgruntled outside organizers "divisive and mediocre at best."
Moreover, the local Cleveland activist and organizer said that Women's March National and Planned Parenthood were both unprepared when the leak came down in early May that the U.S. Supreme Court is set to overturn Roe v Wade this summer.
Women's March Cleveland, she, said, which has ties to the national group but remains independent locally since divisive conflict in 2019 between Women's March National and the Jewish community, will be prepared to rally and march and is organizing now with a noon march on June 11 on the steps of Cleveland City Hall before the Supreme Court issues its decision to overturn Roe v Wade, likely in late June.The rally and march will also address Civil and voting rights since Clevelabd is a largely Black city.
Roe v Wade is the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that made abortion legal nationwide. When it is overturned this summer by the Supreme Court the states will then have authority to regulate or dismantle abortions, and most of the nation's state legislatures are predominantlty Republican like in Texas where abortion after six weeks of pregnancy has been unlawful since September of last year, per a new state law.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.
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