Agnes Hitchcock and Call ’em Out were in forefront of battles against giveaways of Detroit schools, city jobs and services; shown here is protest against Mackinac Island Conference May 28 2009
Michigan Citizen prints Womack’s slanderous remarks re: Agnes Hitchcock
By Agnes Hitchcock
July 30, 2012
Can you trust a candidate for public office who goes out of his way to tell a lie? In response to a question (“What is your position on Public Act 4 and, now that it is state law, what can be done during your next term to address the affects it has had on Detroit residents?) put to him by Michigan Citizen reporter, Eric Campbell, Womack responded “I’ve always opposed an emergency manager, or a financial manager, when Robert Bobb was appointed, even when some grassroots people—that includes Agnes Hitchcock—supported the appointment of Bobb..”)
- Agnes Hitchcock receives surprise award from community. Speakers at the dinner included Tom Barrow, Al Garrett of AFSCME Council 25, Attorneys George Washington and Jerome Goldberg, and a host of others who also supported Hitchcock’s heroic efforts over the years.
I, Agnes Hitchcock, did not support Robert Bobb personally or as an activist because I have always held the belief that the people should have full control of their schools and all other forms of government by way of a vote in order insure accountability. I support and favor the people electing their representatives, even if they are self serving liars. This is not his first attempted character assination directed at me. Previously he has referred to me as a “Social Terrorist.”
I hosted the Call’em-Out weekly talk show, which was dedicated to holding elected officials accountable to the people on WHPR TV33 and Comcast 20 for several years. There is no one who listened to that program who can truthfully say I supported the appointed Robert Bobb or for that matter, any elected official who did not serve the interest of the people in the city of Detroit.
- As school board president, Jimmy Womack testified against Agnes Hitchcock at her trial for throwing grapes at school board members after a majority, including Womack, voted to close the first 50 schools of many more to come in 2004.
Jimmy Womack took and apparently still takes issue with my views because he was often the butt of my rebuke due to the destruction he caused at the Detroit Public Schools. Jimmy Womack received a Lifetime Achievement Sambo Award at one of our Annual dinners. These awards are reserved for an individual who served the interest of his perceived master over the interest of his own people.
By the way, he never answered the question. He ended his statement by saying “There are more things we should be worried about other than this emergency manager—there are other rights being taken away.”
VOD editor Diane Bukowski has personally requested that the Michigan Citizen print an acknowledgment that Womack’s statement about Agnes Hitchcock is FALSE AND SLANDEROUS.
- Agnes Hitchcock presents Sambo Award to Kwame Kilpatrick in protest of water shut-offs and policies of privatization.
Bukowski covered the Detroit Public Schools for the Michigan Citizen for eight years during the time Ms. Hitchcock and Call ’em Out campaigned aggressively against any state takeover or emergency manager, as well as numerous Call ’em Out protests on all matters adversely affecting Detroit residents and the residents of other poor cities.
Newspapers are not given carte blanche to publish quotes such as this without checking their veracity. All the editors and reporter had to do was check their own numerous stories by Bukowski published on Agnes Hitchcock and Call ’em Out.
Those included stories on the school board’s first vote to close 50 schools, of many more to come, when Womack was Board president. Ms. Hitchcock took appropriately aggressive action, throwing the “grapes of wrath” at board members who voted “Yes,” including Womack. For that, she was arrested, tried and convicted, with Womack and board vice-president Joyce Hayes-Giles both testifying against Hitchcock.
Agnes Hitchcock chairs town hall forum to stop takeover of Detroit Water Department during Kilpatrick administration. Call ’em Out was once again in the forefront of this battle, years before Synagro-gate and Judge Sean Cox’s orders.
In 2008, the school board’s vote for a “consent agreement” with the state paved the way for Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s appointment of Robert Bobb as emergency manager. The only member to vote NO was Marie Thornton.
As leader of Call ’em Out, Agnes Hitchcock earned enormous respect across Detroit for their campaign against corrupt state, city, and school politicians (hence the name “Call ’em Out), their annual Sambo Awards Dinners, which were attended by hundreds, and their vanguard positions against water-shut-offs, privatization and other corruption that hurt the people of Detroit, Highland Park and elsewhere.
- Call em Out protest in front of Jimmy Womack’s home. A young Womack supporter (in red shirt) berates Ruth Williams, a member of the community group Call ‘Em Out, at a May 28, 2006 protest at Womack’s house. Call ‘Em Out has marched on the homes of school board members whom they feel are not acting in the best interest of DPS students. WYOMAN MITCHELL PHOTO
They marched in front of Womack’s house to protest his stances as Board president, which included the merciless and biased persecution of the only school board member who consistently stood up and voted “NO” on school closings, contracts, and privatization, Marie Thornton. He also consistently supported every private contract despite ties to the late Schools CEO Kenneth Burnley, who was later indicted, and others.
To read Bukowksi’s MC story on Call ’em Out protest at Womack’s house, click on: http://michigancitizen.com/womack-parties-while-call-em-out-pickets-p3105-1.htm.
Womack basically supported a corporate agenda designed for the city’s first elected school board since the 1999 state takeover. That agenda paved the way for the second takeover by the state in 2008 under Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who appointed Robert Bobb as EFM despite his affiliations to pro-charter school organizations.
- Sandra Hines is hauled out by DPS Police at Jimmy Womack’s direction, for her passionate protest against school closings.
Womack created constant dissension on the board by pitting one board member against another and allowing certain audience members, notably the Rev. Loyce Lester, to loudly taunt his opponents on the board, particularly Thornton, during proceedings without sanctioning them.
At the same time, he directed DPS police to haul out those protesting school closings.
Call ’em Out campaigned against City Council members who voted in favor of privatization, including Kay Everett and Alonzo Bates, and against Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick for the first 40,000 water shut-offs, initiated in force for the first time in Detroit’s history, during his administration.
Call ’em Out was part of mass demonstration protesting water shut-offs, bus cuts and other privatization at the Manoogian Mansion, at the time inhabited by Kwame Kilpatrick
Packed audience at Call ’em Out Sambo Awards Ceremony.
- Call em Out “prayer vigil” at the late Councilwoman Kay Everett’s house; she was later indicted for taking bribes to vote for private contracts;
- Hundreds at Call em Out’s 7th annual awards dinner Feb. 25, 2010 applauded as Agnes Hitchcock was presented with surpise Lifetime Achievements trophy.
