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Photo By Jymi Bolden
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It's time for poor people to organize, according to
Harry Belafonte.
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Entertainer and political activist Harry Belafonte brought his smooth voice and lifetime of civil rights experience to Over-the-Rhine Sept. 20 for a day of workshops designed to empower the poor.
City council candidate the Rev. Damon Lynch III invited Belafonte and the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) to kick off what they hope will be a sustained movement toward a more educated and power-wielding citizenry in low-income neighborhoods.
"Over-the-Rhine in Cincinnati is just one of many places where poverty and disenfranchisement is pandemic," Belafonte said. "My presence here is linking this up to a history that I have lived. I see in Over-the-Rhine great similarities with another place called Montgomery, Ala. They said, 'We will take this oppression no longer.' They said, 'If this city will not do business with us and our cause, this city will not do business at all.' "
During the 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Belafonte says, city leaders "arrogantly dismissed" the requests of the African-American community.
"By the time those in power put arrogance aside, it was no longer just about a bus," he said.
He and Lynch say the same consequences are inevitable in Cincinnati if things don't change at City Hall.
"Cincinnati is a city that can turn this nation around," said Lynch, whose campaign motto is "Building a City of Hope." But he said construction has yet to really begin.
"In this city we have waged a war against the poor and we have not tried to attack the issues that bring about poverty," Lynch said. "That's why we again have national leadership here in Cincinnati."
Belafonte, who endorsed Lynch, gave him some advice during a visit earlier this year.
"When an activist runs for office there is the danger of being co-opted," Belafonte said.
"I thought about that and said, 'They might impeach me, but they won't co-opt me.' "
Nearly 100 people filled the First Lutheran Church in Over-the-Rhine to hear Belafonte and Lynch, many wearing "Damon Lynch for City Council" T-shirts. They burst into hoots and hollers throughout Lynch's address.
He drew some interesting parallels between tactics used by companies such as Convergys and those used by boycott supporters. While they both threaten to move business out of downtown, he says the morality is different.
Corporate greed motivated Convergys, but the Black United Front's motivation is care for the disenfranchised, according to Lynch. Convergys walked away with a $52.2 million commitment of tax incentives and grants over the next 15 years.
"The response we got is 'We will not talk to you,' " Lynch said.
Fellows of the Institute of Policy Studies conducted workshops connecting national and state issues with local politics.
"This country doesn't come with an owner's manual on how to work the system," said Sanho Tree, an IPS fellow. "IPS is here to do skills training and education."
On top of power-point presentations, lectures and videos, the workshops gave participants a stack of data on everything from military spending and the USA PATRIOT Act to local health care statistics and city council campaign contributions. Meanwhile, volunteers registered voters outside the church.
Speakers challenged community members to register five friends or relatives to vote, to write letters to newspapers and congressmen and to call the local media regularly to give feedback.
"Those newsrooms should be on your speed dial," said Karen Dolan, an IPS fellow.
She hopes such seemingly small activities will add up to a larger movement of the impoverished in communities like Over-the-Rhine.
"What we hope to establish here is the beginning of a long relationship," Dolan said. "I think when people reach rock-bottom, the only way to go is up. And I think that's what you are going to be seeing is an uprising."
The workshops also aimed to connect seemingly unrelated issues. One speaker pointed out that the median income household in Cincinnati paid $282.76 for military and defense in 2002 while paying only $55.48 on programs for education, housing and job training combined. Grunts in the audience seemed to show some disapproval of how their tax money was spent.
IPS workers said they'll return to Cincinnati before the election to continue their work.
Belafonte, an IPS board member, said he is committed to a sustained and long-term effort to eradicate poverty in Over-the-Rhine and communities like it around the nation.
"When I go to other cities, I tell them, 'Keep an eye on Over-the-Rhine,' " he said. "Others are coming from different parts of the country to bring validation to the struggles of this community. And we don't go away easy."
Less than a month ago, Belafonte and Martin Luther King III chose Cincinnati as the place to observe the 40th anniversary of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington.
"There's hardly an issue that affects America that cannot be reflected in Over-the-Rhine: drugs, unemployment, health care issues, under-education," Belafonte said. "You name it, and you will see the microcosm here." ©
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