Media Release

The Baptist Ministers, the Cincinnati CBG (Collective Banking Group), Cincinnati NAACP, the IMA (Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance) and Visions and Dreams Ministry will be headed to city hall on Wednesday, April 8, 2009 at 12:30 pm.  The purpose of our organizations attending the Cincinnati City Council meeting on April 8, 2009 is to send a strong message to Mayor Mark Mallory and all members of council that economic apartheid in Cincinnati must end.   The Cincinnati NAACP is honored to stand next to our historical partners to fight for our economic civil rights.  Mayor Mark Mallory and all 9 members of City Council have failed the African American Community when the data shows the city spent $1 billion in contracts and African Americans received $716,824 in contracts over 2007 and 2008 or less than 1%.  The City of Cincinnati is 47% African American.  Smitherman says, "How can the Mayor and the 9 members of council look the African American Community in the face and ask our community to vote for them in November."  The Cincinnati NAACP is concerned that the political leadership in this town continues to exclude African Americans from the basic economic fabric. Their only public policy answer is to expand jail space.