The 10th annual Nonviolence Parade and Rally occurs 3 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 4 in downtown Youngstown. The event kicks off Nonviolence Week in Ohio, Oct. 4-10.

Due to COVID-19, the event will be a parade of cars, trucks, floats. It begins at the intersection of Wood Street and Wick Avenue and proceeds to the Covelli Centre parking lot where a rally will be held immediately after the parade. People will remain in their cars and listen to the rally on their radio by tuning into 97.3 FM. The rally also will be broadcast on Facebook.

John and Denise DeBartolo York and The DeBartolo Corporation are 2020 sponsors of Ohio Nonviolence Week in the Mahoning Valley.

The remainder of the week’s events will be virtual, either via Zoom or Facebook. Zoom meeting invitations can be found here.

Other events include:

“Five Day Nonviolence Reading Challenge” (Sunday, Oct. 4-8) followed by panel discussion (noon, Friday, Oct. 9 via Zoom). Panelists include former Youngstown Schools Superintendent Dr. Ben McGee; YSU Assistant Provost Carol Bennett; Terry Vicars from Catholic Charities; and Ke’Lynn Dean, a Sojourn to the Past member and YSU student. The Ohio Nonviolence Week committee and the YWCA are co-sponsors. Visit here to register for the challenge.

“Mingle with Minni.” 6-9 p.m., Monday, Oct. 5. This is a fundraiser for Sojourn to the Past. Order spaghetti dinners ($12) online and pick up at Flambeau’s Live, 2308 Market St., Youngstown. As part of the fundraiser, you can bid on baskets on the Ohio Nonviolence Week website. Flambeau’s Live and St. Patrick Church in Youngstown are co-sponsors.

“Simeon Booker Award for Courage.” 6-7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 6, via Zoom. The recipient is Civil Rights activist Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, who participated in the Freedom Rides, was arrested and spent weeks in Parchman Penitentiary. She is the first white member of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. The Mahoning Valley Historical Society and Ohio Nonviolence Committee are co-sponsors. The Zoom invitation can be found on the Ohio Nonviolence Week website.

Civil Rights activist Joan Trumpauer Mulholland will receive the ‘Simeon Booker Award for Courage’ on Tuesday, Oct. 6 via Zoom. (Wikipedia) Civil Rights activist Joan Trumpauer Mulholland is pictured here following her arrest in 1961.

“Speak Your Peace.” 4:30-6 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 8, via Facebook. Poet Orlando Watson of Cleveland will be guest speaker in this poetry slam/spoken-word event. Youngstown City Schools, Inspiring Minds of Youngstown, the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County, Ohio Nonviolence Week committee are co-sponsors.

“Nonviolence Reading Challenge.” Noon, Friday, Oct. 9, with a discussion via Zoom.

Nonviolence Week has been celebrated in Youngstown since 2010 when, at the request of Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past students, “Nonviolence Week” resolutions were passed by Youngstown City Council, the Youngstown school board, Youngstown State University trustees and Mahoning County commissioners.

The first nonviolence parade and rally occurred in 2011 and was the idea of Sojourn student Janae Ward. State Sen. Joe Schiavoni (D-Boardman) introduced Senate Bill 38 in 2013 to designate the first week of October as “Non-Violence Week” to promote violence prevention and awareness across Ohio. It was passed by both houses of the General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. John Kasich on July 11, 2013.

“The purpose of Nonviolence Week is to make the community stop and think about the need for all of us to work for nonviolence in our community,” said Sojourn to the Past in a prepared statement. “In the words of Congressman John Lewis, an icon of the Civil Rights Movement and a nonviolence role model for all, ‘If not us, then who? If not now, then when?’ ” 

For more information, email Penny Wells at

pe*********@sb*******.net











… or call 330-207-4467. Wells is the director of Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past and chairwoman of the Nonviolence Week committee.

Flambeau’s Live

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