BRONZEVILLE COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK

BEFORE WE BELIEVE ANOTHER PROMISE, LET'S EXAMINE WHAT ALREADY FAILED.

Amy Acton vs. Vivek Ramaswamy

For decades, Ohio politicians have promised better schools, lower taxes, stronger communities, more jobs and greater economic opportunity.

Yet significant disparities between Black and white Ohioans remain.

So before we examine what either candidate promises to do, we need to ask a more important question:

Democrats vs. Republicans: What actually happened to Black people?

People keep asking the same question:

Which party has done more for Black people — Democrats or Republicans?

That question is too simple.

The better question is:

THE DATA-CENTER DEBATE JUST GAVE US ANOTHER RECEIPT.

Data centers have become one of the biggest political and economic issues facing Ohio.

They promise billions of dollars in investment, construction and jobs.

But they also raise a question that directly affects ordinary Ohioans:

WHO PAYS FOR THE POWER INFRASTRUCTURE THEY REQUIRE?

There is something we have lost in the reparations conversation. Humanity.

We argue about numbers. We argue about politics. We argue about who should pay. We argue about who should receive. And somewhere in all that arguing, we stopped thinking about the people.

Before you laugh at an older Black man for supporting reparations, look at him for a moment. Really look at him. You don't know what he remembers.

You don't know whether he remembers being called a word that made him feel less than human. You don't know whether he remembers being told where he could sit, where he couldn't live, which school he couldn't attend, which job wasn't available to him, or which door suddenly closed when somebody saw the color of his skin.

You don't know whether his father came home one evening and had to explain to his family why a job he was qualified…

Sometimes we talk about Black families today as though history simply disappeared one morning. It didn't. 1960 was only 66 years ago. A 20 year old Black mother living through 1960 would be 86 years old today. That is not ancient history. That is somebody's mother. Somebody's grandmother. Somebody sitting in a living room right now who remembers.

Think about the America she was living in. Segregation was still legal across much of the South. Black citizens were still fighting for basic voting rights. Housing and employment discrimination could determine where Black families lived and what opportunities they had. And in that America, some governments decided they also had the authority to determine whether a poor mother's home was "suitable."

Let that word sit for a moment. SUITABLE. Who decided whether her home was suitable? The government.

Some states developed what became known as "man in the house" rules. In…

WHAT THEY SAID. WHAT THEY DID. WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED.

Two receipts we're following in Columbus and Ohio:

📍 COLUMBUS: FLOCK CAMERAS

Columbus City Council member Emmanuel Remy previously said he wanted legislation governing the city's use of Flock license-plate-reader cameras introduced by the end of September.

On September 25, Remy acknowledged that timeline would not be met and did not provide a new date.

THE BLACK WALL

RHETORIC RECEIPTS 🧱

September 24, 2026 | Columbus, Ohio

THEY MADE THE PROMISE. NOW WE FOLLOW THE ACTION.

Campaign season is full of promises, announcements, photographs, videos and carefully crafted messages.

This week, we remember Dolly Parton not simply for the songs she gave the world, but for the love she gave to people.

Dolly had a remarkable way of making everyone feel like they belonged. She crossed boundaries of race, politics, geography and generations with something increasingly rare—genuine kindness.

But perhaps one of the most beautiful parts of her legacy was her belief in children.

Dolly understood that putting a book into the hands of a child could put an entirely different future within their reach. Through her Imagination Library, she encouraged children to read, learn, dream and believe that their circumstances did not have to determine where their lives could go.

Millions of children received books because one woman believed that every child deserved the opportunity to better themselves through reading.

That is a legacy worth remembering.