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1,000 march downtown to launch weeklong, statewide focus on nonviolence
YOUNGSTOWN
Families, teenagers, young adults, grandparents and people of all colors walked down Wick Avenue through downtown Sunday in the city’s Eighth Annual Nonviolence Parade and Rally to kick off Ohio Nonviolence Week.
They waved banners, carried signs and wore shirts with messages meant to raise awareness of the need to find an alternative to violence in resolving disputes.
Some messages read: “The Violence Must Stop;” Violence Cannot Heal,” “In Violence We Forget Who We Are,” and the words of civil-rights movement icon John Lewis: “If not us, then who? If not now, when?”
Organized by former Youngstown Schools history teacher, Penny Wells, community activist and director of the Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past, the parade and rally drew an estimated 1,000 participants.
The purpose of the event was to make members of the community pause and think about the need for everybody to work for nonviolence in the community. The entire Mahoning Valley needs to stand up and speak out against violence, intolerance, bigotry and hate, said Wells.
The Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past is a 10-day journey to Civil Rights sites including as Atlanta, Selma, Montgomery, Birmingham, Meridian and Hattiesburg. Sojourn students also learn lessons of the civil-rights movement such as compassion, nonviolence, tolerance, justice, forgiveness, civic responsibility and not being a silent witness, said Wells.
Among the out-of-town notables speaking at the rally were Minnijean Brown Trickey, one of the Little Rock Nine, who trained local students on how to facilitate workshops; and Jeff Steinberg of California, who founded Sojourn to the Past 19 years ago when he took 100 of his history students to civil-rights sites in the South. The Little Rock Nine was a group of black high-school students who challenged racial segregation in the public schools of Little Rock, Ark., in 1957.
Steinberg praised the Youngstown Sojourner program, saying it should be a standard-bearer across the nation.
“The principles of nonviolence should be in every classroom in the United States,” he said.
“I get emotional when I look at an audience like this. You are my dream. You make me proud,” said Trickey.
“Our culture encourages violence. The principles of nonviolence is a way of life. These young people have inspired me,” she said.
“This is what change looks like,” said Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown, referring to the audience.
In the 1990s, murder was rampant in the city. People need to learn that death is not play time. It’s real, he said, adding “Sometimes to make a change, you have to love someone you don’t like.”
“On behalf of the Youngstown State University family, I’m honored to be part of nonviolence week,” said YSU President Jim Tressel.
“Today is a day of love,” he said.
Several speakers addressed what they called a culture of violence in the United States.
“We have a responsibility to stop hate and violence. We know love will conquer all,” said Ohio Rep. John Bocceri, of Poland, D-59th.
“Every day a young person dies, we lose a gift,” said Youngstown City Councilman Julius Oliver.
We need to focus on the gift, not the violence. We need to encourage kids to develop their gifts. Each one of you has a gift we need,” Oliver said to the young people in the audience.
In his prayer, Rev. Jim Ray said the one thing all can agree on is working together to achieve peace.
“Violence is too simple an answer for the problems we face,” he said.
Many of the leaders of the rally are Sojourners to the Past alums. They included Lakeila Houser, Serina Chatman, Brittany Bailey, Ivori Harris, Skyann Cvetkovich, Kira Walker and Jasmine Macklin.
Sponsors of the parade and rally were Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past, City of Youngstown, Youngstown City Schools, Community Initiative to Reduce Violence and the YSU Department of Africana Studies.