Correspondent photo / Sean Barron The Rev. Kenneth L. Simon, pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church in Youngs-town, speaks during Sunday’s anti-racism workshop at Poland United Methodist Church.

POLAND — Tears welled in the Rev. Robin Woodberry’s eyes as she recounted a phone call she received from her terrified son, who sat in the back of a police cruiser wondering why he had been pulled over.

“My sons have been stopped in this Valley numerous times going to the gym or to a basketball game. My son got pulled over for driving black,” said Woodberry, the Mahoning Valley Association of Churches’ executive director.

Woodberry was one of several speakers to share personal accounts of racist incidents during Sunday evening’s “Stories of Racism in the Valley” workshop at Poland United Methodist Church, 1940 Boardman Poland Road, which hosted the outdoor forum.

The speakers also addressed what they feel still must change.

Woodberry told a gathering of more than 100 that she’s repeatedly had the painful conversation with her grown sons that when they go out, they must keep their hands out of their pockets, try not to draw attention to themselves and make no sudden moves when in the presence of police.

The Rev. Todd Johnson, pastor of Second Baptist Church in Warren, recalled having been stopped on state Route 193 near Vienna one night with his two small children in the car by an officer who had intended to pull over another vehicle that got away. After claiming Johnson had a broken license plate light, then seeing that he was a minister, the officer did not cite him, but did leave him infuriated, he remembered.

“It made me realize that no matter what I said or did, I was completely at his mercy. I was in the wrong spot,” Johnson said. “He let me go, but I felt terror mainly for my babies. My babies were in the back, and I would not allow them to be fatherless.”

The Rev. Kenneth L. Simon, pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church in Youngstown, recalled having tried to patronize a small store in Youngstown one day on the way home from school, only to have the owner refuse him entry. Soon after, however, two white people got out of a car and were let in, he said.

Among Simon’s more than 15 traffic stops was one on Market Street in Boardman while he drove 25 mph in a 40-mph zone after he had visited his father, the Rev. Lonnie K. Simon, a longtime civil rights activist who was very ill. Police have stopped him in several suburbs “merely for driving while black in America,” an emotional Simon added.

Even as a child, she and her mother were refused service at a Youngstown lunch counter because they were black, remembered Jaladah Aslam, the Youngstown / Warren Black Caucus president.

Aslam added that rather than defunding police departments, greater steps should be taken to ensure officers wear body cameras, as well as to tackle racial profiling and better educate officers, too many of whom are underpaid, especially given the inherent risks they face.

The Rev. Ken Gifford, pastor of Poland United Methodist, discussed white privilege, which includes unearned societal advantages and benefits bestowed upon whites that are not usually available to people of color. Unlike many of the black speakers who faced overt racism and threats in or traveling to the Deep South, he neither worried about nor faced such problems while in that part of the country because of his skin color, Gifford said.

The Rev. Michael H. Harrison Sr., pastor of Union Baptist Church in Youngstown, noted that specific policies, not happenstance, are responsible for creating or fueling institutionalized racism. All too often the effects harm many minority neighborhoods, prevent many young people of color from achieving prosperity and contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline, said Harrison, who added that about 66 percent of black families are headed by single mothers largely because the fathers are incarcerated with disproportionately long sentences.

Often overlooked is the fact that every black person who’s a victim of racism or police mistreatment is someone’s loved one, Woodberry reminded attendees.

“What I want you to do today is see us as people,’ she said. “We are not statistics; we are people.”

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