http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wires/2010/07/03/ramon-jimenez-to-run-for-_ws_634833.html
07- 3-10
'People's lawyer' Ramon Jimenez couldn't say "No" when Charles Barron
asked him to run. "I had no plans to run for elected office. No
intention, at all," said Jimenez. The last time Jimenez ran for
elected office was in 1978, when he ran a "real people's campaign"
for state senate and garnered 40% of the vote. "History is calling,"
said Jimenez, "I couldn't say no."
As a child, Jimenez said he saw firsthand how "ugly, ignorant, and
stupid racism is in NYC."
Born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn at Myrtle and Marcy Avenues, at age 8,
Jimenez's mother and father moved to East Elmhurst. When he was 15,
Malcolm X moved across the street. His family was there when that
fateful Molotov cocktail was thrown into Malcolm X's home.
Jimenez experienced his first demonstration at age 13, when he was
bussed to school in Astoria. "It was Archie Bunker territory," said
Jimenez. "1,000 Irish and Italians demonstrated against me. They spat
on us; called us names. A couple of my friends were painted white.
This happened in NYC, not Mississippi."
Ramon Jimenez attended St. John's U., then Harvard Law School. During
each stage of his development, Jimenez engaged in community activism.
When he taught at Hostos, Jimenez participated in a 20 day takeover
of the college to save it from being closed. While supervising 80
judges statewide as Senior Law Judge with the Worker's Compensation
Board, Jimenez organized the judges against being required to decide
100 cases a day. To this day, Jimenez recoils at the thought of "fast
food justice."
In 1988, Ramon Jimenez opened his own law office. "Half of my work is
pro bono," he said. Currently, Jimenez is representing African
American and Latino workers at Woodlawn Cemetery, where workers say
supervisors call them "spear chucker" and other derogatory slurs.
Explaining his decision to run for AG on the Freedom Party line,
Jimenez said "Blacks and Latinos have been shut out. I am compelled
to do this."
To complete the Freedom Party's slate, Buffalo activist Eva Doyle was
chosen to run for Lieutenant Governor. Mrs. Doyle is a long time
activist, educator, columnist, book author, and host of her own radio
show called Eye On History that airs weekly on station WUFO in Buffalo, NY.
--
Both candidates will appear at the Freedom Party's second statewide
convention on Sunday July 11, 2010 at Siloam Presbyterian Church
located on the corner of Marcy and Jefferson Avenues. Time: 5pm.
.
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