wfn.org | UCC leaders join Ohio ACLU in lawsuit

[powellb@ucc.org]

March 10, 2000
Office of Communication
United Church of Christ
Hans Holznagel, (216) 736-3863
holznagh@ucc.org
Barb Powell, (216) 736-2217
powellb@ucc.org
On the Web: <http://www.ucc.org>

For immediate release

United Church of Christ leaders join Ohio ACLU in filing
free speech lawsuit against Cleveland's Gateway Sports Complex

     CLEVELAND -- A coalition of religious, civil and
American Indian groups filed suit in U.S. District Court today
(March 10), charging violations of First Amendment rights of
demonstrators outside Jacobs Field and Gund Arena and
asking the court to declare that the plazas and pedestrian malls
there are "public fora for free expression."
     The suit was filed by Cleveland attorney Niki Z.
Schwartz and the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio
Foundation in behalf of the coalition, led by the United
Church of Christ.  The group seeks the right to protest on the
sidewalks and plazas of the Gateway Sports Complex near
Jacobs Field in opposition to the use of the "Chief Wahoo"
image and the "Cleveland Indians" name.  The Gateway
Complex includes Jacob's Field, home of the Cleveland Major
League baseball team,  and Gund Arena, home of the city's
professional basketball and hockey teams.
     "The rights of freedom of speech and freedom of
association give dignity to every person.  For far too long, the
voice of some has been ignored and distorted," said the Rev.
John H. Thomas, president of the United Church of Christ at a
noon press conference.  The suit assures that the speech and
voices of all people, especially Native American people, can
be heard and their dignity affirmed, said Thomas, so that we
can "move past the genocide and hatred of 500 years."  Ending
the use of the "Chief Wahoo" logo and the "Cleveland
Indians" name is a "symbolic step of hearing the voices of our
sisters and brothers in the Native American community," he
said.
     Since the Gateway Complex opened in 1994, Gateway
officials have maintained control over the public spaces near
Jacobs Field, physically barring or barricading some protestors
and having others arrested, all because they claim the complex
is private property.  However public funds built the ball field,
arena and adjacent malls.  The coalition bringing suit says that
by the way the Gateway Complex is set up, it is an extension
of the city government and, therefore, public property.
     The suit is aimed at "protecting the rights of these
people to demonstrate and protest in public areas of Gateway"
because in the past, peaceful protestors have been "interfered
with and arrested ... for exercising their First Amendment
rights," said attorney Niki Schwartz of the prominent
Cleveland law firm Gold, Schwartz & Co.  A peaceful
demonstration is scheduled for April 14, Opening Day in
Cleveland.
     The logo and name of the Cleveland ball team should
be "part of Cleveland's history, not its future," said the Rev. F.
Allison Phillips, general secretary of the American Missionary
Association of the United Church Board for Homeland
Ministries, the U.S. mission arm of the church.  "We support
the Cleveland baseball team," but not its name or mascot,
Phillips said.
     Also speaking at the press conference announcing the
lawsuit were Gino Scarselli, associate legal director of the
Ohio ACLU; Juan Reyna, chair of the Committee of 500
Years of Dignity and Resistance; Michael S. Haney, executive
director of the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and
Media, whose members include national religious and civil
rights organizations; and Curtis Crow, executive director of
Akron-based American Indian Services Inc.
     "The City of Akron had the courage to change their
team name from the Akron Indians to the Akron Aeros, and I
think it's time Cleveland had the same courage," said Crow.
     The suit asks for judgment that excluding peaceful
protestors is a violation of the Free Speech clause of the First
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and is in violation of the
Fourteenth Amendment.  It also asks for a mandatory
injunction preventing Gateway Corporation from excluding
peaceful protestors.
     Among the plaintiffs in the suit are several national
agencies and councils of the United Church of Christ; the
Committee of 500 Years of Dignity and Resistance, which
regularly organizes demonstrations at Jacobs Field;  Mount
Zion Congregational Church, a United Church congregation in
Cleveland; Emmanuel United Church of Christ in Lexington,
Ky; American Indian Services Inc.; The Lake Erie Native
American Council; The Peace with Justice Project; and
several individuals.
     The United Church of Christ, with national offices in
Cleveland, has some 1.4 million members and more than
6,000 local congregations in the United States and Puerto
Rico.  It was formed by the 1957 union of the Congregational
Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed
Church.  Its American Missionary Association and its
predecessor bodies have been active in civil and human rights
since the early days of the Congregational Church in the
United States.  Since 1991, the UCC's General Synod, a
national body of delegates that meets every two years, has
called for an end to the use of names and logos which demean
Native American people.

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