The Cincinnati Enquirer |
NEWS
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Nov. 2, 1998 |
| National Organization for Women Vice President Karen Johnson
thanked the crowd of 45 who joined her and other speakers on the
Hamilton County Courthouse steps Sunday "as we speak out against
hate violence based on our race, our agenda, our faith, or our choice."
Ms. Johnson urged voters to show their support Election Day for legislators who are working with NOW to attempt to get national hate crime legislation passed. But she cautioned that anti-hate crime laws only are not enough, saying that parents must educate their children that hate crime violence is unacceptable. She noted that the FBI has documented 25,000 incidents of hate crimes across the country during its first four years of tracking such crimes. The cases of Dr. Barnett Slepian, an abortion provider shot to death in his suburban Buffalo home by a sniper; Matthew Shepard, the |
21-year-old gay University of Wyoming student beaten to death, and
James Byrd, a 49-year-old black man dragged to death in Jasper,
Texas, were cited by speakers as recent highly publicized hate crimes.
"We're here tonight to lend our voices to the people that cannot speak for themselves," the national NOW officer said. "We chose not to be silent when others are oppressed." Cincinnati NOW chapter President Mindy Graham said: "It's upsetting it takes such events to bring us together. " Marian Spencer, former Cincinnati vice mayor and NAACP president, added: "These (incidents), in my opinion, are modern-day lynchings."
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