Legislative Update

A 400 YEAR HISTORY OF COURAGE, BRAVERY, LEGISLATIVE UPDATE LEADERSHIP AND SACRIFICE - OUR MILITARY SERVICE OLBC INTRODUCES RESOLUTION DECLARING RACISM A PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS

By Tim Anderson By Senator Charleta B. Tavares (Ret.) I am the son of a career military parent. My father served in the United States Airforce for thirty years achieving the highest rank for a noncommissioned officer, Chief The Ohio Legislative Black Caucus on Tuesday, June 2, 2020 held a press conference to announce the introduction of resolutions in the Ohio House and Senate to declare Master Sargent. His father, my grandfather, “racism” as a public health crisis. The James D. Anderson Sr. (1915-2010) from members offered statistics that show Ruleville, Mississippi attended Jackson State disparities in African/Black women, infants and later attended the Tuskegee Army Pilot Training Center, where he became a pilot as a Tuskegee Airman during WWII. After the war he would resettle in the Los Angeles area and fly eleven years for the California and men dying disproportionately from hypertension, cardio-obstructive pulmonary disorders (COPD), diabetes, infant and maternal mortality, COVID-19 and at the hands of police. Civil Air Patrol. My brothers have served The resolutions, call on the governor, in the military as well; one serving fifteen state agencies and state lawmakers to years in the United States Air Force and the other serving in the Ohio Air National Guard. Finally, my oldest son John, served four years in the United States Army, where he was stationed in South Korea in the missile defense deployment unit. Four generations undertake a number of strategies including asking Gov. Mike DeWine to establish a working group to promote racial equality. One of the recommendations calls on state agencies to review the Ohio Revised Code for individual laws that may unfairly impact people of color and laws that place of black men from my family have served unequal burdens on communities of color. during war and peace time with honor and In addition, recommendations include distinction. creating workplace bias training, developing educational materials that address racism In our four-hundred-year history military service was not initially a part of our experience. Although prior to August 1619, and designing “racially equitable workforce development and promotion” policies and practices. Africans were among earlier expeditions Other actions included in the resolution to to North and South America, primarily as counter racism in Ohio: laborers on board European vessels. These expeditions were by and large, military expansions of colonial European monarch nations. Those nations included Spain, England, France, Portugal and the Dutch empires which were all heavily involved in • Establishing a glossary of terms and definitions concerning racism and health equity; • Assert that racism is a public health crisis affecting our entire community; • Incorporating educational efforts to address and dismantle racism, and expand the slave trade and the colonization of North understanding of racism and how racism and South America and the Caribbean. The affects individual and population health; first Africans not of an expedition, who came to colonized north American were from Angola. They were aboard a Portuguese slave ship which was pirated by other slave traders and sold to the British. Eventually these enslaved Africans would find themselves • Promoting community engagement, actively engaging citizens on issues of racism, and providing tools to engage actively and authentically with communities of color; • Committing to review all portions of codified ordinances with a racial equity lens; in Jamestown, Virginia in August of 1619. • Committing to conduct all human resources, Jamestown would become the epicenter for vendor selection and grant management slavery, migrating the slave trade along the eastern seaboard colonies from Georgia to Massachusetts. activities with a racial equity lens including reviewing all internal policies and practices such as hiring, promotions, leadership appointments and funding; The slave traders, the European Monarchs along with their military brought slavery into what is commonly referred as the Middle Passage. In 1770, the descendant of an enslaved African and a former slave, Crispus Attucks would die at the hands of a British soldier at the Boston Massacre Rebellion in Boston Massachusetts. His death would be recognized as the first blood shed for America’s independence from England.

Both colonial states and the British military offered slaves their freedom if they chose to serve in their respective military. Slave

OLBC President, Stephanie Howse

• Promoting racially equitable economic and workforce development practices; • Promoting and encouraging all policies that prioritize the health of people of color, and support local, state, regional, and federal initiatives that advance efforts to dismantle systematic racism and mitigating exposure to adverse childhood experience and trauma Training of all elected officials, staff, funders and grantees on workplace biases and how to mitigate them; • Partnering and building alliances with local organizations that have a legacy and track record of confronting racism; • Encouraging community partners and stakeholders in the education, employment, housing, and criminal justice and safety arenas to recognize racism as a public health crisis and to activate the above items; and • Securing adequate resources to successfully accomplish the outlined activities.

“These are not new things,” said OLBC president, Rep. Stephanie Howse, (D-Cleveland). “These are things that are vital to ensuring that African Americans, Hispanics, Indigenous people and people of color here in Ohio can live the American dream.”

According to members of OLBC, when passed, the resolution would be the first of its kind at the state level. However, in the wake of the protests, counties and cities across Ohio and America are considering similar declarations. One has also been proposed in at least one other state.

“What we are witnessing around the country is a community simply begging to be seen and heard,” said OLBC President, Rep. owners would allow their slaves to enlist in the military during the Revolutionary War. With the promise that at the end of their enlistment, they would earn their freedom. However, this was a promised not kept. Many of these black militiamen were killed in battle and those who survived were often placed back into slavery. Not until the American Civil War and at the urging of Fredrick Douglas would black serve in the military.

Douglas, pressured and persuaded President Lincoln to allow the formation of an allblack military regiment. The Emancipation Howse, “racism is real and it is the biggest public health threat citizens of color face.”

The death of Floyd, a black man who died in Minnesota after a white police officer pressed a knee into his neck for nine minutes, has galvanized protesters across the country and called attention to issues of systemic racism. The caucus says the resolution will officially acknowledge racism in Ohio for the first time.

The largest county in the state, Franklin’s Board of Health and County Commissioners adopt a resolution last month declaring racism as a public health crisis which was followed by the Columbus Mayor, City Council and Columbus Board of Health on Monday, June 1, 2020. The Columbus Medical Association also adopted a similar resolution on Tuesday, June 2, and were quoted as stating, “Simply put, science tells us stress from racism worsens health. As physicians we are obligated to speak out.” *OLBC member There are currently eighteen (18) members including one Asian American member participating in OLBC. For additional information on the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus, contact info@ ohiolegislativeblackcaucus.org or visit ohiolegislativeblackcaucus.org.

If you are interested in testifying on any of the bills introduced in either the House or Senate, please contact the chair of the committee who can be found at www. ohiosenate.gov or www.ohr.gov.

Additional Contacts

UPDATE: The Ohio General Assembly sessions and the House and Senate Committees are televised live on WOSU/

WPBO and replays can be viewed at www. ohiochannel.org (specific House and Senate sessions and committee hearings can be searched in the video archives).

Former Sen. Charleta B. Tavares, D-Columbus, is the 1st Democrat and African American woman to serve in the Ohio House of Representatives and the Ohio Senate from Franklin County. She is also the first African American woman to serve in leadership in the history of Ohio and the 1st Democrat woman to serve in leadership in both the Ohio House of Representatives and the Ohio Senate (House Minority Whip and Senate Assistant Minority Leader). Proclamation set forth by Lincoln which abolished slavery in all states, established the foundation for the recruitment of free blacks and enslaved blacks to become soldiers in the Union Army. The 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Regiment would be the first all-black regiment, the second all black regiment would be the FiftyFourth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, known as the Massachusetts 54th (and made known in the 1989 film, Glory). Both regimens were commanded by white officers, blacks could not become