As Martínez and Dueñas were completing three weeks of speaking engagements on inviation of university students, faculty, and departments in several states, protests erupted in Cincinnati after policeman Stephen Roach gunned down an unarmed, 19-year-old Black youth, Timothy Thomas.

During their day in the city, the two Cuban youth leaders met Valerie Rawls, 31, an Over-the-Rhine resident, who guided the Cubans to the alley where Thomas was killed. An impromptu memorial of flowers and messages marks the spot. Rawls expressed what many feel when she said, "It was wrong. He was murdered by the police for traffic violations."

Veteran civil rights leader Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth invited Martínez and Dueñas to his church for a discussion. Shuttlesworth led the fight for desegregation in Birmingham, Alabama, in the 1950s and 1960s, and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He was beaten dozens of times by Klansmen and others and arrested more than 30 times during these struggles."

When asked to compare his experience in the civil rights movement to what was happening in Cincinnati today, he told the Cuban visitors, "It's the same thing. Our system has not changed sufficiently. I've been leading demonstrations against police brutality here for 25 years.

"In Birmingham," he said, "when the police or government officials spoke, it was the Klan speaking. Here today, you have the Klan mentality, without the sheets or robes, at all levels of government. You have racism."

When Dueñas asked if he had a message for them to bring back to Cuba, Shuttlesworth replied, "Keep in mind that violence in and of itself will not win. Cities are prepared to deal with violence...we have a state of emergency and a curfew imposed. They majored in violence. But we are stronger armed with the truth and faith. We must join together in civil disobedience of large enough numbers that we can actually disrupt the system."

T.J. Brown, a member of the Cincinnati Black United Front and of United Auto Workers Local 647 at the GE jet engine plant here, sat down with Martínez and Dueñas to fill them in on activities of his group and the events around the death of Timothy Thomas. "The youth are tired of waiting for the judicial system to work," Brown said. "They are tired of being stopped, harassed, beaten, and killed for no reason. They are tired of deplorable housing and dilapidated schools, while millions are spent on new sports stadiums and the downtown."

Hundreds of people, a large number of them youth, turned out that night for a Youth Forum. After a panel of youth and community leaders made brief opening remarks Angela Leisure, the mother of Timothy Thomas, was the first to speak from the floor.

Leisure captured the sentiment of the crowd as she said, "I didn't listen enough to Timothy before he died. But I hear the young people now. They say, 'By any means necessary'...they felt they had to do something. I've lost my son. I don't want anyone else to lose a child. My son was not bad. He had no felonies.

"I'm still asking for peace," she said, "but everybody is sitting back and waiting for the grand jury. We're sitting on a powder keg waiting to see what they do. They're trying to take the focus off the person who was murdered, my son. But he was not the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth or fifteenth! Let's not give them an excuse to beat us down and take away any more from us," Leisure said. "So let's see what the grand jury says. Let's see if this officer will be held accountable just like we would be. But don't ask me to hold down the anger I will feel if they don't."

Leisure added, "All those other police officers are chasing our youth down, and the youth are tired. This is not a Black and white issue; it's a police issue. The police were provoking peaceful protesters right after my son's funeral. They wanted to start it all over again."

After Leisure spoke dozens of young people came up to the open microphone to explain their experiences and voice their demands.
 
 
Related articles:
Cincinatti protesters say: 'Try the cops for murder'
Jail the killer cops!
 
 
 
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