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CORRECTION: today’s event @ MLK LIBRARY IS NOON-4:30pm.
THEN and NOW: Glenville at the hub
THEN and NOW: Glenville at the hub
Two nights ago, at that place of joyful gathering known as Karamu House, the only
white person in a room full of mostly elderly but extraordinarily alert African Americans, spoke an obvious but too little appreciated truth when he said, “Black History is American history.”
Nine days
from now will be the 50th anniversary of one of the most epic days in the
history of a neighborhood, a community, and a city. As darkness enveloped a few
tightly woven streets on the outskirts of Cleveland’s sprawling yet overcrowded
Glenville neighborhood, a small but heavily armed band of black men and boys
opened fire upon several unsuspecting isolated white policemen on nighttime
patrol.
What
happened next has perhaps never been told as grippingly in minute by minute
detail as in Ballots and Bullets, a
book published only days ago. While our review will be published here tomorrow,
may it suffice to say now that the Glenville shootout still reverberates today,
from Lake Erie to Kinsman, from the East Cleveland schoolyard to Cudell
Recreation Center to West Park. Beyond its tragic human toll, it trumpeted the
end of the Honeymoon of Carl Stokes administration’s honeymoon, the death of
Cleveland NOW, and gave birth to the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association.[1]
Today and
tomorrow, several generations of activists will share memories and perspectives
of what some describe as the Glenville Uprising. Presenters will represent many
disciplines and perspectives. Among them will be Dr. Raymond Winbush, Don and
Norma Freeman, Mississippi Charles Bevel, Joan Southgate, Khalid Samad, Sherrie
Tolliver, Christin Farmer, and many more.
Today’s
program runs from noon until 4:30pm at the Martin Luther King Jr. branch of the
Cleveland Public Library, 1962 Stokes Blvd. tomorrow’s event will occur from
2pm-5pm in Case Western University’s Harkness Chapel, 11200 Bellflower Rd.
# # #
Glenville
will perhaps be undergoing a uniquely double collective Sankofa moment this
weekend. Even as people address what happened fifty years ago in a spirit of
“Where do we Go from here — Community or Chaos?”, another event will be taking
place within walking distance of MLK Library and Harkness Chapel, celebrating
what some interpret as harbinger of a New Glenville.
Today is
the inaugural edition of “FRONT, An American City”, which is comprised of
artist commissions, films, and public performances. FRONT will showcase the
work of local, national and international artists from today through September
30, radiating out from a hub on East 105 Street just north of Wade Park Avenue
to collaborating museums, civic institutions and public spaces throughout
Northeast Ohio.
# # #
[1]
The 2012 murderous
137-bullet rampage by Cleveland police officers that took the lives of Timothy
Russell and Malissa Williams ended on an East Cleveland public school
playground. The November 2014 killing of Tamir Rice occurred on the playground
of Cudell Rec Center. Carl Stokes’ plan to rebuild Cleveland through the
multi-million dollar Cleveland NOW program went up in flames the instant it was discovered that a small portion of NOW
proceeds had been misdirected towards the purchase of weapons used in the
shootout. The CPPA was born in the wake of Stokes’ decision to withdraw white
policemen from patrolling Glenville in the immediate aftermath of the Glenville
shooting until the area had been pacified, owing to Stokes’ concern, supported
by evidence, that some police officers were bent on exacting revenge for the
murder of three of their colleagues.
