Last Saturday, February 23, 2019, the Community Solidarity Responses Network (CSRN) presented the “Black Lives Matter Awards at the Fredrick Douglass Center. With a theme titled, “25 under 45”, the group celebrated 25 African Americans members of the Toledo community under the age of 45, who are working to improve Toledo’s communities.
CSRN member Julian Mack said, “We are having this program tonight because it’s important that we reaffirm the positive things that are being done in the community. We want to encourage the younger people in the next generation that’s coming up to continue to do the right thing. Often times, we only hear about the negative things that are going on. When in reality there’s plenty of positive things happening as well.”
Mr. Mack continued by explaining, “We want to reaffirm and lift up those who are doing positive things so that can continue to happen. We want to let them know and recognize them for their efforts, so that more people will hopefully decide, to do the right thing.”
The 25 awardee recipients, were Dave Ross, Danny Ricardi, Timothy V. Pettaway, Patrice McClellen, Keisha Snow-Veley, RaShya Ghee, Leigh Utley, Tiara Armstrong, Lonnie Ghee, Sheena Barnes, Nia Snelling, Veralucia Mendoza, Khadirah Muhammad, Rob Pasker, Lance Self, Mike Rob, Marcus Boyd, Tina Butts, Derrick Brooks, Terrence Pounds Sr., Kwilyn Tyler, Blair Johnson, Montrice Terry, Zia Cooke and Tony Barnes.
Brother Washington Mohammad, one of the founding members of CSRN added, “We had this program because, we wanted to highlight just some ordinary people in our community, doing some extraordinary things. A lot of people may not have heard of these young men and woman, who are doing wonderful things, so it’s up to us to lift each other up.”
The Black Lives Matter social movement materialized out of a community need, and is today’s core civil rights movement. Just like the original civil rights movement, Black Lives Matter has put a national spotlight on an injustice, and by doing so has somewhat reduced the problem.
When asked where did CSRN come from, CSRN member Ruth Leonard replied, ”The Black Lives Matter movement in Toledo started after the lack of conviction in the case of Michael Brown. After which people in the city were looking for a way to uplift each other and out of that effort the Community Solidarity Responses Network came in to existence.
The Community Solidarity Responses Network meets every Tuesday at 7:30 pm at the Paul-win Center at 1416 Nebraska Ave.
They also may be contacted through the following methods:
Community Solidarity Response Network of Toledo
Phone 419-329-8177
csrntoledo@gmail.com
1416 Nebraska Ave
Toledo, OH 43607
Facebook: Community Solidarity Response Network of Toledo, Instagram: CSRNToledo,YouTube: Community Solidarity Response Network of Toledo, Twitter: @CSRN Toledo, and Gmail: csrntoledo@gmail.com
