Join fight on poverty, speaker urges

Economic justice will be one focus of Ohio Democrats this year, she said.
By KATIE LIBECCO
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
HOWLAND -- State Sen. C.J. Prentiss urged those attending the Trumbull County Chapter of the A. Philip Randolph Institute's 19th annual Salute to Martin Luther King Jr. to fight poverty by supporting a minimum wage increase.
About 200 people attended the luncheon Saturday afternoon at Leo's Ristorante here. Money raised from the event, along with funds raised at a roast April 21, benefit a scholarship fund.
Prentiss, of Cleveland, D-21st, the Senate minority leader, said that she wanted people to see beyond King's "I Have a Dream" speech and focus on economic justice.
"Keep the dream alive; do something," Prentiss told the audience. She is in her third term in the state Senate.
Prentiss, the keynote speaker, introduced Senate Bill 11 in the Ohio General Assembly last year. The legislation would have increased the minimum wage rate in Ohio from $4.25 to $6.85 an hour, and would be indexed each year to inflation. The bill did not pass.
She said economic justice and the increase in minimum wage would be the primary focus for Ohio Democrats this year.
"Seldom do we truly hear what he said and internalize it," Prentiss said of King. "To achieve this dream we must see a different image."
She said she intends to put an initiative on the ballot for the minimum wage increase but needs 322,000 signatures from Ohio citizens first.
Dann's comments
"I knew it'd never pass, so I took it to the community," Prentiss said. "I'm calling people together to fight poverty. We see this as a moral issue for 2006."
State Sen. Marc Dann of Liberty, D-32nd, also spoke during the salute, introducing Prentiss as "the third most important woman in his life," after his wife and daughter.
"I've had an incredible three years, and there's been one reason that I was so successful. The primary reason is that there was a leader in the Senate that had my back," said Dann, who is running for Ohio attorney general.
Warren Mayor Michael J. O'Brien presented Prentiss with a proclamation from the city, which honored her work against poverty.
The A. Philip Randolph Institute is a national nonprofit, nonpartisan organization. The Trumbull Chapter has about 50 active members and serves as an information center for the community, vice president Johnny Hughley said. All the members belong to local labor organizations.
A short biography on Randolph, found on the Internet, shows that he was a black labor leader born in 1889 in Florida. In 1925, he organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
He was an organizer of the historic August 1963 March on Washington, D.C., having shared leadership responsibilities with black leaders Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, Dr. King, Ralph Abernathy and James Farmer.
He founded the A. Philip Randolph Institute to promote cooperation between labor and the black community.