Protest Reports

Columbus, Ohio is a city known for its arts, culture, innovation, politics and the Buckeyes. However, Columbus is the largest city of its kind named after 15th Century Italian-Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus, an explorer who was more known for raping and pillaging indigenous people, and being a kingpin for slavery, rather than sailing across the Atlantic.

There are some people in Columbus who are questioning the city being named after the famed explorer who also did these heinous things to the indigenous.

There is a petition circulating around to have the City of Columbus change the city’s name to Arawak. Local activist Charles Robol is leading the charge into getting the city’s name changed. Robol has been out in the community in recent weeks handing out flyers to spread awareness of Arawak City.

Educate A Legislator Day date has changed to Wed. Sept 25th 8 am – 4 pm

We received information over the weekend that the Ohio Republicans will be taking a retreat to organize their plans for the year beginning on September 19th, the day we were going to talk with our legislators. I started calling Monday to verify this with the Representatives on the House Public Utilities Committee and was surprised to find that the aides answering the phones knew nothing about any retreat. So, I made some tentative appointments to meet, hoping that the information we received was wrong. I asked if they could investigate and tell me for sure if the Republican Party was going to be at the State House or on retreat on the 19th.  

On Tuesday, Rep. Jay Edwards’ office called and confirmed that the Republicans will indeed be going on a retreat the same day we are trying to hold Educate a Legislator Day. I received calls from other aides canceling appointments I had made because the Representatives would not be available.

When Westboro Baptist protestors descended on St. John's United Church of Christ on Columbus' near east side to demonstrate again the "Jezebel Preacher," over 130 counterprotestors showed up to peacefully defend their female pastor. The Rev. Virginia Lohman Bauman, targeted for being a female preacher who opens up the church to a congregation that includes LGBTQ people, called it "an amazing spiritual experience" as she was joined by so many supporters on very short notice, according to the United Church of Christ website. According to the website, Columbus Police tipped off the church that the notorious anti-gay Westboro Baptist protestors were coming their way on Friday, August 30. The demonstration happened Sunday, September 1. Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church was the second target of the Westboro group and counterprotestors kept up their viglance against the haters there. Rev.  Gary Witte and his wife Winifred Wirth joined in the counterprotest and supplied the photos displayed here for the Free Press. Witte reported that the huge outpouring of support by the community for the churches far outnumbered the members of the Westboro Church protest. 

Trump’s Global Gag Rule restricts international family planning aid and access to reproductive health care, forcing clinics to either accept restrictions on the care they can provide to patients or lose aid. The Domestic Gag Rule bans the use of Title X funding for U.S. family planning clinics that also offer abortion services. 

Columbus teachers picketed outside of Columbus City Hall to demand an end to tax abatements to corporations on Monday, July 29. They are bargaining for a new union contract to end the school to prison pipeline, reduce class sizes, end handouts to companies, hire counselors, social workers, nurses, and librarians, design schools that support physical education, music and the arts, and to compensate educators like the professionals they are.

At 4 p.m., community members, school children, future school kids, teachers, activists and union members from the Columbus Education Association (CEA), the Ohio Education Association and the National Education Association gathered in front of the Columbus Firefighters Union. CEA Vice President Phil Hayes, emcee for the event, informed the picketers to gear up for the march from 379 West Broad Street to 90 West Broad Street across the river after a few union members and teachers made statements.

Masonique Saunders was sentenced today. A reporter stated that she was sentenced to three years in the Ohio Department of Youth Serevices with the possibility of being released after two years on good behavior. Activists that had gathered outside the courthouse to advocate for minimum sentencing are sad and upset. See this article for more information on Masonique's case and this article on her plea deal.

On June 18, members of the Columbus Education Association and community supporters gathered downtown at the STRS Plaza to protest an impending move by the Columbus school board. A block away, the Columbus Board of Education was preparing to vote on whether to hire the Michigan-based agency Huffmaster for strike contingency planning.

"We do not want a strike,” CEA president John Coneglio told the crowd. “Your bargaining team is committed to doing everything possible to reach an agreement. We want to be back in the classrooms, doing what we do best. However, we need to be crystal clear to those in power: we will not let you shortchange our students, and we will not accept a contract that treats us as anything less than the professional educators that we are.”

"No borders! No nations! Stop deportations!" A small but mighty group gathered across the street from the Hotel Leveque to protest Trump's announcement that deportations would be stepped up starting Sunday morning, June 23 in certain major US cities.  The protestors shouted at people coming out of the building that they should not stay in a building in which ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) uses to hold immigrants in cells in that very building.

The activists had written chalk messages against deportations, detention centers and mistreatment of immigrant children on the sidewalk in front of the hotel but were shooed off by the hotel staff. From across the street they chanted, sang, and read the names aloud of the immigrants who had died in U.S. custody or shortly after being in a U.S. detention center. 

Some drivers honked as they passed by and the group was joined by some of the pro-choice ralliers from a statehouse demonstration that had just ended. One anti-abortion counter-protestor also argued with some in the "stop deportations" group. Police were not present. 

Dayton police protected nine KKK members with hundreds of police yesterday at a two hour Honorable Sacred Knight of the Klu Klux Klan’s Members and Supporters Only Rally in a show of police force not common in Dayton. Across downtown Dayton about 3,000 peace and equality loving protesters sang songs, led chants, and gave speeches, with several hundred across the street from Courthouse Square, several hundred at the launch of Black Lives Matter Dayton at RiverScape MetroPark, and several hundred more celebrated An Afternoon Of Love, Unity, Peace and Inclusion in McIntosh Park.

“Dayton turned out,” said Dayton resident Miracle Woods who attended the counter protests. “We didn’t do any negative sh*t, we came in love and peace and we left in love and peace,” she said. Woods, who was not with a particular group but identified as being with “the anti-KKK unity,” was critical of how the city handled the KKK permit. She said “the mayor needs her ass whooped” for allowing the KKK permit to be rushed through.