DELEGATES COUNCIL MINUTES 8 April 2015

Welcome: MARCC President Rabbi Margaret J. Meyer Prayer: Rabbi Margaret J. Meyer, Jewish Community Relations Council of Jewish Federation of Cincinnati Minutes: Delegates Council Minutes of 11 March, 2015 – motioned and approved. Agenda: Delegates Agenda for 8 April, 2015 – motioned and approved.

Today’s Attendance: 43 ( Please remember to sign in upon entering. Thank you. )

ARCHDIOCESE: Connie Widmer, Bob Ehrsam, Karen Martin, Lucy Lorbach, Fr. Joe Folzenlogen AMERICAN BAPTIST CHURCHES, USA: Mark Basil BAPTIST MINISTERS CONFERENCE: Absent CINCINNATI ISLAMIC COMMUNITY CENTER: Nafisa Walk, Saeed Abdullah, Ilyas Nashid, Samuel Abu Bakr, Alir Abdullah, GUEST CHURCH OF THE LIVING GOD: Ramona Malone DISCIPLES OF CHRIST: Absent EPISCOPAL DIOCESE OF SOUTHERN : Marilyn Logan, Pat Coyle EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCHES ASSN: Absent FRIENDS RELIGIOUS SOCIETY: Frank Huss, Donne Hayden, Rhonda Pfaltzgraff-Carlson, Jean Crocker-Lakness INTERDENOMINATIONAL MINISTERS ALLIANCE: Absent JEWISH COMMUNITY RELATIONS COUNCIL: Rabbi Margaret Meyer MARCC: Margaret Fox, Angela Wright, Alice Skirtz (Past President) PRESBYTERY OF CINCINNATI: David Beran, Bob Clary, Tiffany Zents UNITED METHODIST ORV DIST: Ronda Deel, Nancy Walters UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST/SONKA: Linda Overholt UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST COUNCIL: Lee Meyer, Dan Schneider, Carrol Fencl UNITY CHURCHES ASSOCIATION: Mark Stroud, Judy Singer, Doris Hoskins VOLUNTEERS OF AMERICA: Tim Godsey, Chelsea Bennett Guests: School of Metaphysics, Davi Brown; IJPC – Andrea Koverman, Allison Reynolds-Berry; Christ Temple, Rev. Peterson Mingo, Pastor; Lucy Logan

OPENING PRAYER – Rabbi Margaret Meyer: I don’t believe in coincidences. How interesting that today we are about to discuss and its many forms that still plague our world. Because we, as Jews, were strangers in a strange land, we are taught to love the stranger… May we gather together as members of many faiths and traditions, be reminded through our discussions today, through our own tradition, that our own redemption is bound up with the deliverance and bondage of people everywhere. And until all are free from slavery, none is truly free. May we learn and heed the lessons that we will be taught.

OVERVIEW OF MEETING – Margaret A. Fox, MARCC Executive Director Today’s program was initiated by Juneteenth Cincinnati, celebrating 150 years of freedom. They have an annual celebration of the 13th Amendment, and resolved to do a special project for the 150th anniversary of the amendment. A variety of organizations were invited, of which MARCC is one, to hold a special meeting where its members would view the documentary, ‘Slavery By Another Name’, followed by a discussion on the documentary. Following David Beran’s presentation, delegates were divided into 5 groups. Each group will be led by a trained facilitator. Each facilitator was

1 instructed to ask a volunteer to act as the group recorder. Our assumption is that each attending member has watched this extraordinary documentary prior to today’s meeting. Each group was asked to provide 3 recommendations. Their recommendations will be put forward by MARCC. MARCC and the other organizations working on this project will come together, each bringing with them their recommendations. It is Juneteenth’s hope that the larger group will formulate major recommendations for policy and programs. The MARCC small group recommendations will be posted on our website, www.marcconline.com and will be sent out to our delegates and MARCC members. We will report back to the delegates at our June Delegates Council meeting and via email on the final recommendations and next steps. This project today is part of our Interfaith Dialogue/Human Rights concern. Angela Wright, MARCC’s Office Manager, handed out numbers to each that correlated to a group, which was their group. Table numbers were placed on each table following the speakers’ presentation.

TODAY’S PRESENTATION 150th Anniversary of the 13th Amendment - Featuring the documentary, ‘Slavery by Another Name” Speaker: David D. Beran, M.Div., MS Asst. County Administrator of Corrections 1979-1993 Safety Director-Hamilton County Department of Human Services 1993-1998

INTRODUCTION OF SPEAKER: Rabbi Margaret J. Meyer, JCRC/Jewish Federation (see yellow bio handout) I really don’t have to introduce David Beran to most of you. He has been an active member of MARCC for many years Delegate of Presbytery of Cincinnati and Alternate Rep to Executive Board), and you have seen him at many functions – whether it be delegates council, planning conferences, or annual meeting. He is a local boy having attended Withrow High School, University of Cincinnati, Xavier and the McCormick Seminary. He has served as Asst. Minister of Mt. Washington Presbyterian Church (1963-1966). He was president of the Clifton Town Meeting for several years, and is very active in the community. Besides his official professional titles, he serves on the Lane Seminary board and is an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati’s Department of Criminal Justice (1984-present). David will make a presentation to us. We will take a lot of what he will discuss to our breakout groups. Thank you. Welcome, David Beran.

Mr. Beran – I was asked to speak on the 13th Amendment, and let me tell you how you become an expert on the 13th Amendment. You get an email from Tiffany Zents explaining she wouldn’t be at the Executive Board meeting. So, as the alternate, I went and this subject came up. I shared that I knew a professor at UC that’s an expert on this and I’ll give her a call. She professed interest and was to get back in touch with me. She did not. Relaying this information back to Peg Fox brought forth, “why don’t you do it David?” That’s why I’m here. I will touch on some United States history about the Amendment and after the Amendment.

Lane Seminary University – was located in Walnut Hills on Gilbert Ave., founded by two business men – the Lane brothers. The land was donated by the Kemper family, strategically located on the Mason-Dixon line and a gateway to the West, and formed to prepare men for the ministry to save the Western frontier. Most Lane students had attended manual labor colleges and were very involved in the Black community of Cincinnati. The businessmen that had affiliation with Lane also had ties to the South. In 1834, student Theodore Well had a revival that entertained the first major discussion of slavery in the United States. These first debates lasted for 18 days, touching on such questions as – ‘Should the southern states abolish slavery? Is this discussion worthy of Christian patronage?’ Overwhelmingly, the students were against slavery and formed an anti-slavery society. The second debates lasted 18 months, being in the national media, further pushed ahead by Wm. Lloyd Garrison and his newspaper, The Liberator. The southern newspapers made the argument that the Negro was humanely treated. In 1850, the Fugitive Slave Law was passed, penalizing anyone that harbored a runaway slave. The novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin further pushed the national conversation. In 1860, was one of many Republicans mentioned as a possible alternative to the Republican presidential nomination: New York Senator William H. Seward. He was an abolitionist and his party deemed him too radical, so they gave the vote to Lincoln, only winning by 49% of the electoral college. Seward presented the Corwin Amendment to the Congress. This was a compromised amendment, a last ditch effort to keep the union together. The problem with this amendment was in the way it read, being too similar to the Confederate constitution. This never passed because the Civil War began. A year and a half into the war, Lincoln came up with the Emancipation Proclamation, which only affected the southern states and not the border states (Missouri, , , Delaware).

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Reasons for the Civil War – to preserve the Union, but gave impedance to provide freedom from slavery. Lincoln knew the North must win this war for this proclamation to become a reality. Blacks that fought for the North numbered 170,000. Here we are at the 13th Amendment, ‘Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.’ There are key words in this amendment – “except”, “duly”. This does not say justly convicted. These key words set up precedent into a whole different problem, slavery by another name. The U.S. had 8 decades of involuntary servitude (please refer to the handout of Key Terms). We now stand at the 150th anniversary of this amendment and 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination. After Lincoln’s death, Andrew Johnson (a southerner) is placed in charge of the Reconstruction period. During this period, the Republican Party supported radical reconstruction which helped prevent Southern politicians from restoring the historic subordination of African-Americans. After the 1870 census, the south gained additional representation in Congress, based on the population of freedmen. Newly freed African-Americans began voting for the first time in 1867, and the office of the Freedmen’s Bureau was instituted, forming political parties, and assumed the control of labor in many areas. With the power to vote, freedmen started participating in politics. While many slaves were illiterate, educated blacks (including escaped slaves) moved from the North to aid them. During this period freed men began forming their own religious organizations and public schools. By 1880, the soft reconstruction approach from President Johnson and coupled with fear, loss of capital, anger and violence from Southern state governments, restrictive black codes were quickly enacted. The south had lost a large part of its capital by the freeing of slave labor. The new Jim Crow law allowed picking up of individuals for minor crimes, padding the prison systems with free labor. Between 1880 – 1930, lynching’s were a form of intimidation and regaining control of black citizens. Between 1890 – 1910, Blacks became disenfranchised by laws passed in the southern states. By 1964, some of the Jim Crow restrictions had begun to be overturned by the Civil Rights Act.

Statistics - The southern strategy began their campaign, get tough on crime, that appealed to the white working class, then joined by President Ronald Regan’s war on drugs for crack & cocaine penalties. We have individuals released from prison as second class citizens – stripped of their rights to vote, rights to serve on juries, discriminated in public housing and discriminated against in student loans. Today, there are more African-Americans under correctional control than were enslaved in the 1850’s. The US has a larger part of its population incarcerated than was under apartheid in South Africa. Blacks are incarcerated at 6x’s the rate of Whites. In my observations, a comma (, except …) (shall have been duly convicted, …) can make a difference in a law, a single word or phrase can cause much collateral damage. We have spent more on corrections in this state than we do on education. Governor Kasich decided he would save the tax payers money by privatizing prisons, but in doing so – guards are less trained, food service is poor, medical service is poor. Private prisons are on the NY Stock Exchange, with the holders’ interests in the bottom line. The design of the Justice Center is built like a 1st generation jail = officer walks around and looks in the cells. Then a POD situation was established of the 2nd generation jails = where the officer can see everybody. The 3rd generation prison is where the officer is in with the inmates. We took the Hamilton County sheriff to a 3rd generation jail in California, built to be better for being pro-active than reactive. There has been proven less assaults on officers and inmates, fewer vandalism, no graffiti. Our sheriff, Lincoln Stokes, maintained ‘we don’t have the right caliber inmate for that kind of jail.’ So, Hamilton County reverted back to a 2nd generation jail.

Local Hearings - Our prosecutor eliminated the preliminary hearing to make the system run smoother. At this hearing, both the lawyer and prosecutor can make their plea in court. But, by eliminating this phase, it goes directly to the Grand Jury which is controlled by the prosecutor and behind closed doors. This does not give the defendant representation.

Release from Prison – When a person is convicted of a crime and sentenced, this is their penalty. They pay their debt to society. Unfortunately, the public has been trained to discriminate against this citizen after they’ve done so and implies that they must keep paying and live under a stigma of an ex-con or convicted felon.

The 2nd Amendment – ‘A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.’ James Madison (southerner), the writer of the initial draft of the Bill of Rights, stated that the well-regulated militia was for the security of the country. The south convinced him to change the wording to ‘State’. What were state militias in the south? They were slave patrols. Herein is another example of turning one word to color an entire phrase.

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Beran’s Closing Remarks: Peg Fox said a beautiful thing earlier –“We want the recommendations made from the bottom up”. From a quote of the ethics professor from Princeton University: ‘We often seek answers to complex and vexing problems from government officials and people powerful from the top, but laymen suggest the truth is often near the edges or at the bottom.’ We should seek out those from the bottom to see if the system is just and working. I know you all here do seek out those who are affected by the system. Hopefully, this will come out in our discussions.

SMALL GROUP DISCUSSIONS – Each delegate and guest was given a number (1 thru 5) and requested to meet up with the designated facilitator of the corresponding number for the breakout session that followed Mr. Beran’s presentation. The participants discussed the documentary and made 3 main recommendations that will be forwarded to a larger assembly of community organizations. Eventually it is MARCC’s intent that some of these recommendations will make their way to policy makers.

The facilitators:  Group #1: Bob Ehrsam, Archdiocese of Cincinnati  Group #2: Chelsea Bennett, Volunteers of America  Group #3: Tiffany Zents, Presbytery of Cincinnati  Group #4: Tim Godsey, Volunteers of America  Group #5: Samuel Abu Bakr, Cincinnati Islamic Community Center

Also included in the discussion/study was a listing of key terms and websites for further information. These key terms are:  Chain Gangs – http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/chain-gangs  Convict Leasing – http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/convict-leasing  Jim Crow & Plessy v. Ferguson - http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/jim-crow  Judgments and Contracts - http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/false-contracts  Life in the Coal Mine - http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/coal-mining  Peonage (Debt Slavery) - http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/peonage  Black Codes, Pig Laws and Vagrancy Statutes - http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/black- codes  Reconstruction - http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/reconstruction  Sharecropping - http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/sharecropping  Progressivism - http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/progressivism  White Supremacists and Terrorism - http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/white-supremacy

Fox requested each facilitator take their group’s three main recommendations, complete their Community Dialogue report form and hand it in to Angela Wright (MARCC) for compilation and final reporting. These recommendations will be placed on the MARCC website.

REMINDER

Delegates Council Meeting Wednesday, May 13th at 12 Noon Presenter: Mary Stagaman, Executive Director, Agenda 360 Topic: ‘Showing Me the Numbers – Regional Indicators Update’ St. Peter in Chains Cathedral Undercroft 325 W. Eighth Street Downtown Cincinnati

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