Comunity activist challenges audience to scrutinize public officials at Feast of Salads

YOUNGSTOWN — "It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” – Frederick Douglass.

Clarence Boles of Youngstown, community activist and columnist for The Buckeye Review, the Mahoning Valley’s weekly newspaper that focuses on issues that impact black Americans locally and nationally, used the above quote and others by Douglass, a black social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman of the late 1800s, to make his points during his address today at the Feast of Salads Black History Month event at Wick Park Pavilion.

The event, attended by about 100, was organized by Annie Hall of the East Side Crime Watch at Oak and Fruit streets, and Robert Burke, director of the Youngstown Parks & Recreation Department.

Boles urged people to make sure candidates for public office are strongly vetted.

“They have to have a record of community service. Ask them questions. Make them prove they are worth your vote,” he said.

He also challenged the black community for not doing enough to educate their children about black history.

“Teach your kids black history the way you teach them the Gospel,” Boles said.

For the complete story, read Sunday's Vindicator and Vindy.com