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The Marginalized
and The Poor Stand Together For Justice
By Marlena Proper Deida Ramos Graves
Director of Communications,
FLOC
The Black/Brown Unity
Coalition hosted its second annual meeting Tuesday night
December 3rd. The Coalition is made up of the Toledo
Community Coalition, Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC),
FLOC Homies Union, Latins United, The Coalition of Black
Trade Unionists (C.B.T.U.), and the NAACP Toledo Chapter.
The featured speaker was Clayola Brown, the President of the
A. Philip Randolph Institute.
President Brown
emphasized, “Immigration is not just a brown issue, it is a
black issue. The number of children who look like us
(African Americans) who are locked up, this has been going
on for 20 years.”
Brown was referring to the
Haitian immigrants jailed in Miami. “When they talk about
immigration, we (African Americans) say, “Yes, we are in
this too. The saying, ‘An injustice to one is an injustice
to all,’ is not just a slogan. It’s a reality,” she said.
Brown was astounded that
the black and brown communities in Toledo—with their white
allies—joined together in a coalition in common cause. She
had learned throughout her life that things must be done “as
a collective to make it work.” She vowed to take the Toledo
Black/Brown Unity Coalition model to D.C. and elsewhere to
replicate it.
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