It’s time to join Samaria Rice in her mission of demanding systemic change.

Written by Terricha Phillips

In this season of giving, Clevelanders should consider supporting Samaria Rice, the founder of not-for-profit organization Tamir Rice Foundation. She’s the mother of Tamir, who at 12 years old was killed November 22, 2014, by a Cleveland police officer after a resident reported him handling a toy gun outside Cudell Recreation Center.

The officers involved did not face charges for the tragedy (former officer Timothy Loehmann who fired the fatal shot resigned shortly after backlash from being hired this past summer by the White Sulfur police department in West Virginia), but the city of Cleveland awarded $6 million in damages to the Rice family. The recreation center’s gazebo where Tamir was shot has been dismantled and rebuilt in Chicago, where Samaria considered relocating to get support she lacked from her hometown community. Today, the Tamir Rice Butterfly Garden stands there as a peaceful place of remembrance, and Samaria has decided to stay and continue making a difference.

“I’m going to finish my project and whatever God wants me to have I’ll make do with and keep fundraising and get support wherever I can,” she said. “I’m the mother of Tamir Rice. I don’t owe anybody anything; I just want to do the work.”

Tamir was an “all-American boy” who loved his family, sports and the arts. Above all odds, the way Samaria enriched her four children ensured they could thrive no matter the circumstance. She didn’t ask to be a political face of the Black Lives Matter movement, but doesn’t hesitate telling her story until the police officers responsible for her son’s death are held accountable in court. Until justice comes, the pain empowers the resilient grandmother of five to keep healing while giving back to the community. One example is that helps families protect their youth is the Tamir Rice Safety Handbook available online by the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio.

All the love, nurturing and care bestowed upon Tamir is what Samaria gives to Cleveland-area youth at the Tamir Rice Afro-Centric Cultural Center, a flagship program under the nonprofit Samaria founded in 2016. Located at 6117 St. Clair Ave., the mission is to invest in the growth and enrichment of all children. More than 100 children have been impacted by the center’s arts workshops, tutoring, self-care and nutrition programs. The cultural center’s building purchased in 2018 is transforming into a safe place for youth, but needs renovations. Samaria lamented the lack of support from city leaders and needs more funds from area foundations.

“We are a thriving community and we should be thriving more, but we have been held up by the gatekeepers who keep us down and keep our communities in distress and don’t do good by them,” she added.

Nevertheless, 250 people from the community gathered to reflect on Tamir’s legacy at a recent forum hosted by City Club of Cleveland on the 10th anniversary of her son’s death. The intergenerational audience of high schoolers, local government workers and community organizers attentively listened and inquired about her justice work.

“Make sure you have the strength to go on, and make sure you have the right people around you, because unfortunately, the right people don’t come around you and it all depends on the situation,” Rice replied to MC2 STEM High School student Eshaun Travis who asked how families like hers can move forward in spite of barriers to accountability. She felt the media coverage exploited her son, but did bring some support, and she encourages families to stand up for their beliefs and pose hard questions to legal counsel, their police department and their elected leaders.

Joining Samaria Rice on the City Club’s panel were her cousin LaTonya Goldsby, president of Black Lives Matter Cleveland, and family attorney Subodh Chandra of The Chandra Law Firm LLC. The trio shared ongoing concerns about federal police reform and Cleveland’s citizen-led police commission’s slow progress with the department’s adherence to the consent decree meant to improve community policing with mental health support services and empathy training for police.

Majority of Cleveland voters in 2021 passed Issue 24 giving the 13-member Community Police Commission more power in giving input and reviewing police policies and training standards. The commission is a permanent body written in Cleveland’s charter that has the final say on police discipline cases, and can award grants up to $50,000 to local initiatives focusing on violence prevention, restorative justice, and mediation. In 2023, the commission awarded $1.08 million to 26 groups in the Cleveland area, announced by Commissioner John Adams in a presentation streamed on YouTube.

With the advent of the second administration for President-elect Donald Trump, Goldsby reiterated the importance of self-determination for youth and researching politicians asking for their votes. Local elected official Meryl Johnson asked Chandra his thoughts on a component of Project 2025, a policy agenda by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, that would expand presidential power to remove consent decrees and give police full immunity from prosecution.

“This will take a lot of vigilance, this will take people paying close attention to what’s happening,” said Chandra, “and my hope is there will be enough media attention to any efforts going in the wrong direction that people will speak up and engage with Congress and try to stop these changes from happening.”