FREEDOM FUND Focus on civil rights

The judge also spoke about extending the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
WARREN -- When preparing his remarks for the 2005 Warren/Trumbull Freedom Fund Banquet, Judge Randolph Baxter couldn't let the passing of civil rights giant Constance Baker Motley go unnoticed.
"Because of people like her, we as African-Americans have access to many public facilities," said Baxter, the banquet keynote speaker. He is the chief judge of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Ohio.
The banquet is the annual fund-raiser of the Warren-Trumbull Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. A dinner was held Saturday night at the W.D. Packard Music Hall.
Judge Baxter said he met Baker Motley at a judicial conference about eight years ago and was completely awed by her.
Baker Motley, who died Sept. 28, was one of the chief strategists of the Civil Rights movement and won nine of the 10 cases she argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, including the case that allowed for school integration. She later went into politics and eventually became the first black woman named a federal judge, a post held until her death.
"It's like a giant tree falling in the forest," Baxter said of her passing.
The judge's message about the Civil Rights movement carried through the night for the Rev. Gerald Morgan, president of the Warren-Trumbull County NAACP.
Community's importance
"There is the need to come together and be more committed for the common man," he said.
The Rev. Mr. Morgan said the community organizations, such as Children Services and the school board, must come together to help empower people economically.
"We really do need each other. It takes a village to raise a child," he said.
Mr. Morgan also touched on voting, encouraging everyone to register.
Judge Baxter also talked the crowd of about 225 people about the importance of extending the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The judge said the law signed by President Lyndon Johnson eliminated many of the barriers that kept blacks from voting such as poll taxes and literacy tests, but the law expires in 2007.
"It's important that we all encourage our congressmen to extend it indefinitely," he said.
Judge Baxter also touched on financial literacy in his speech.
"So many people are abusing credit cards, and as a result it has enslaved people," he said.
Members of the local NAACP branch also used the banquet to help raise money to support the national NAACP Hurricane Katrina relief effort. Bags for monetary donations were on each table.
cioffi@vindy.com