New exhibit examines ‘the rise of Black Glenville’

Shelli Reeves of Reframe History. Photo by Rhonda Crowder.

By Rhonda Crowder

On both sides of the Cuyahoga River, Cleveland has several storied communities. Glenville, located about four-and-a-half miles east of downtown and just a stone’s throw south of Lake Erie, is one. Yet, when most people think of this neighborhood, two things generally come to mind: that it’s the home of Superman or the shootout in the 1960s.

However, the emerging for-profit business Reframe History, founded by Shaker Heights native Shelli Reeves, is attempting to change the narrative of this community through its inaugural exhibit “The Rise of Black Glenville,” which features photos, stories and a mini-documentary about the neighborhood. The exhibit, which can be viewed online or by appointment, is housed at ThirdSpace Action Lab, 1484 E. 105th St. [44106] until the first week of December.

“It’s the people, the people I continue to meet,” says Reeves, 26, when asked why she chose Glenville as her subject matter.

For an exhibit like this, Reeves believes its power lies in bringing together stories and art to express the history of Black people.

“I am a defender of Black history,” she says.

Porch stories

Reeves is a graduate of Shaker schools and Ohio Wesleyan University where she double majored in International Studies and Black World Studies and double minored in Women and Gender Studies and English. When she returned to Cleveland, her work at both Famicos Foundation and Cleveland Museum of Art put her in and around the Glenville area.

“I sat on porches and people told me stories.”

Through the lens of five longtime residents, Evelyn Davis, Darrell Branch, Fannie Allen, Cynthia Evans and Don Freeman, “The Rise of Black Glenville” takes a unique, first-person look at the neighborhood’s history as it began the transition from a Jewish to an African American community in the late 1940s and ‘50s, an era that becomes the focal point of the exhibit.

Reeves used phone trees as her process to select those featured in the exhibit. “The phone tree kept coming back to the same people, particularly to Don Freeman and Evelyn Davis. They were ingrained in the community as people who embodied the topic.”

New perspectives

The physical exhibit includes two panels suspended from the ceiling and the documentary looping on a monitor. The front of the panels can be seen from E. 105th Street, through ThirdSpace’s picture window.

A wooden table placed in the center of the room, adjacent to the backside of the panels, allows visitors to sit and chat with Reeves about the exhibit.

Reeves’ biggest surprise from her research were the different perspectives provided on the infamous Glenville shootout.

“Carl Stokes met with Black leaders and they decided to not allow police into the community for twenty-four hours. They decided the leaders would ‘community police,’” says Reeves. “I had no idea of the strategy and what happened from reading textbooks and newspaper reports.”

Reeves sees this exhibit, and Reframe History, as an opportunity to combat existing narratives by sharing stories that have been marginalized for a long time. “So many of the civil rights big names like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were in [Glenville] at the time,” says Reeves.

She also learned why Blacks chose to move into Glenville. “They spoke of the houses being affordable and it being a great place to raise a family,” she says.

When Reeves approached Branch, who has lived in Glenville since 1955, he thought, “I would love to participate.”

His mom, who is 96 years old, moved to Cleveland from Mississippi and settled in Glenville.

“I’m partial to the Glenville area. I’m a Tarblooder for life,” says Branch, a photographer and filmmaker himself. “To hear the stories would be a wonderful thing, I thought.”

Capturing history

According to Reeves, this exhibit is about capturing history that has already been lost and trying to restore it. She’s worked hard to present these stories to museum standards.

Michelle Jackson, while viewing “The Rise of Black Glenville” at ThirdSpace Action Lab, says “I think it’s pretty amazing.” Jackson thinks its contribution to Glenville is connecting people together.

“What I love is that this is about a community. I hope everyone can come get a taste,” says Jackson, who didn’t grow up in Cleveland and doesn’t know a lot about the various neighborhoods. “As you look at the changes in the community, people will be displaced. This [exhibit] becomes even more important.”

Knowing some of the images were acquired from local archives and others from personal collections, Branch says the latter gives a sense of connection between the participants, showing what they were doing at the time. He’s impressed with the video as well.

“I thought the editing was nice, from a technical standpoint, but also the content. It has a good range of residents,” says Branch. The 99-year-old Evelyn Davis’ attitude about the changing community reminds him of this mother’s.

Reeves, who currently works at Ideastream as a community engagement specialist, examining toxic stress on middle school children, says, “All of my work focuses on stories.”

“The Rise of Black Glenville” is the first of many Reframe History projects to come that will discover new approaches to examining Black history. “We make street corners our galleries and everyday objects become our collection,” says Reeves.

• • •• • •

This exhibit, funded by Famicos Foundation and The Gund Foundation, was initially scheduled to launch in April at Third Space only but Covid-19 caused a pivot to include a website, www.blackglenville.com, as well. To set up an appointment to the view the exhibit in person, email Shelli Reeves at shelli.reeves@reframehistory.org.

Rhonda Crowder is a freelance journalist, entrepreneur, author and literacy advocate. She is also the associate publisher of Who's Who in Black Cleveland.

This article originally appeared in The Land, a local news startup that reports on Cleveland’s neighborhoods and inner ring suburbs. Republished with permission. See the original story here.

 

 

 

Glenville: Bullets and Artists

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CORRECTION: today’s event @ MLK LIBRARY IS NOON-4:30pm. 

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.

Details can be found here and here.

​

# # #

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[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.  

Sounds of silence overwhelm talk of Cleveland's future

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In what may have been the last question* from the audience after a panel presentation on how catalyst projects throughout metro Cleveland impact the small business community, city councilman Kevin Conwell, whose Glenville area ward encompasses deep poverty cheek by jowl with the region's wealthiest concentration of institutional assets, rose to ask how the kinds of projects being discussed might be designed to benefit the whole community, especially those parts that suffer from "abject poverty".

Cleveland City Councilman Kevin Conwell's 8th Ward
encompasses the wealth and power of University Circle

as well as the poverty and promise of Glenville.

Conwell’s “tale of two cities” question was asked against the backdrop of a recent incident that clearly had him distressed; he had referenced the same issue earlier that week at the annual meeting of Famicos Foundation. Conwell spoke in both instances about having to call the city's health department over the filthy and unsafe conditions at Park Place, a 122-unit concrete estate that sits near the southwestern foot of University Circle. While geographically the estate sits just off the west end of Opportunity Corridor,

Park Place Apartments, where Councilman Kevin Conwell,
who lives about two blocks east of the complex, says that
residents are complaining of rodent infestation and other
unsanitary conditions. He has called for action by the city's
health department.

culturally there is a mile deep chasm between its tenants and the accumulated wealth perched just above it.

Conwell's question came after a discussion featuring Kyle Dreyfuss-Wells, chief executive of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District; Carl Naso, CFO of the Port of Cleveland; David Ebersole, Cleveland's economic development director; and Deb Janik, senior vice president for real estate and business development at the Greater Cleveland Partnership, the nation's largest chamber of commerce.

Before Conwell's question brought the discussion down to earth, Janik had extolled the Opportunity Corridor, saying the project was a "foundation upon which to rebuild every single neighborhood". She praised her organization for its role in Cleveland's over-hyped "public-private partnership" development model, saying that "no one does [PPP] better than Greater Cleveland, and no one ever has." Unable to check her enthusiasm, Janik professed her belief in Cleveland's being the "greatest city in the country".

These comments fairly cried out for the counterpoint that Conwell's question provided. As we discussed with a friend afterwards, clearly just asking the question is not enough. But too often at such civic engagements — this annual meeting of the Uptown Business Association, held in the elegant quarters of Case Western Reserve University's Alumni Center — the concerns Conwell raised are invisible and unvoiced.

Several weeks ago, the managing partner of a midsize downtown law firm ratcheted up a civic debate on Cleveland's sorry ranking across a variety of metrics in contrast to our perceived municipal competitors. There was an immediate cry to round up and interrogate the usual suspects, worthy of Captain Renault at the end of Casablanca. Amid cries to form this or that committee or commission, there was scarcely a peep from Cleveland's black community, whose issues must be addressed if this region is ever to stop circling the drain.

There should not be a public meeting in Greater Cleveland on the status, accomplishments or prospects of our city or region, attended by any would be leader or representative of the black community, where the disparities and inequities of our community are not discussed. Nowhere is the timidity and fecklessness of our current leadership more in evidence than in our inability or unwillingness to even put our issues on the table.

Outside of our local sports icons, the three most celebrated public figures in most black homes are likely Martin Luther King, Carl Stokes and Muhammad Ali. All are now nearly universally lauded for their courageous stands born of principled conviction. But every one of them was vilified when they were standing strong. And many of those who sing their praises the loudest today battled them viciously every step of the way.

Where are today's representatives capable and willing to speak truth to power?

* We were unable to stay and hear any response to Conwell's question.

# # #

Sightings from Mt. Pleasant, Hough, Lee Harvard

​Zack Reed enters mayor's race from home plate; Hough council candidates use batboys to toss infield dirt at one another

I’m a little more than halfway through a marvelous book focused on a distinct group of Cleveland neighborhoods. I thought it was going to be about the Lee-Seville area on the city’s southeast side but it’s turned out to be so much richer, deeper and broader than I had anticipated. Look for my review in a couple of weeks.

Even those familiar with our city’s history are likely to seldom reflect that the confinement of black Clevelanders almost exclusively to the Central/Cedar neighborhood for about the first 150 years of Cleveland’s founding in 1796 has done much to shape our city. There were of course a few pioneers and outliers scattered here and there, but their presence and experience simply confirms the human condition; they were the exceptions that proved the rule.

Sheer population pressures after World War II forced expansion of the black community into the Hough, Glenville, Mt. Pleasant and Lee-Harvard neighborhoods at an accelerated pace. Learning about the histories of these communities can inform our understanding of the people who live there now, even if the denizens of those neighborhoods are unaware of the dynamics that foretold their arrival.

The neighborhood lens shapes and guides our local politics in many ways; the effects can be healthy or toxic. This is likely to be especially true in the next few years: almost every one of the city’s 17 wards and the mayor’s seat will likely see very competitive races this year. Next year will be a 2018 statewide election that will set the stage for what has become a hyper-contentious and almost criminal redistricting process following the latest decennial census results.

This backdrop had us looking with fresh eyes as we boarded the #14 bus from West Third and Frankfurt just off Public Square along a route initially as circuitous as the Cuyahoga River. We eventually sliced through Tri-C’s Metro campus and straightened out going eastbound on Woodland Ave. Soon we reached the intersection of 55^th and Woodland Ave., once the undeniable cultural and commercial heart of Cleveland’s black community. (One might ask if the “heart of Cleveland’s black community” still exists, and if so, where, and if not, why, and whether any of the answers represent progress.)

MT. PLEASANT

Eventually the bus got us onto the long stretch of Kinsman Road, still the undeniable main artery of the euphoniously named Mt. Pleasant neighborhood. Much of the street has a weary feel to it, as do lots of the other once vibrant thoroughfares that electrified mid-century Cleveland, carrying factory workers, students and shoppers all over town. For a long time Mt. Pleasant was one of the city’s model neighborhoods, full of Hungarian and Italian descendants, Jews, and blacks up from Alabama and Georgia.

I didn’t know it but when I got to the Murtis Taylor Services Center — a longstanding community anchor at 137^th and Kinsman — I would soon be listening to Warrensville Heights mayor Brad Sellers reminisce about growing up on the tail end of that era. “The Mt. Pleasant I know is vibrant”, he would recall. “It is rich in tradition. It is rich in people.”

Even as he moves through the neighborhood today, Sellers continued, he does not see decay.  “We [Ward 2 councilman Zack Reed and I] see a world of potential ready to be unleashed.”

Does the “heart of Cleveland’s black community” still exist? If so, where is it? If not, what happened to it? Is that progress?

Sellers was at Murtis Taylor to introduce Reed at the official launch of Reed’s entry into Cleveland’s 2017 mayoral race. Nodding at the oddity of his intrusion into another city’s politics, Sellers forthrightly observed, “Blood is thicker than water”. He and Reed are brothers. Though the legal status may actually be half-brothers, neither used that term and the warmth between them was clearly genuine.

The themes of home and family were clearly prevalent as Reed told the assembly that he was running for mayor and what he wanted to accomplish. Indeed, that sense of home and neighborhood was why he chose the Murtis Taylor venue for his announcement.

Outside the comforts of Mt. Pleasant, Reed may be best known for his three D.U.I. convictions, and he was not far into his relatively short speech before he addressed that issue. He acknowledged and apologized for the hurt, pain and embarrassment he had caused the community, his family and the city, and he averred that a period of self-reflection and treatment at the Cleveland Clinic had helped him get straight.

Reed talked about the city’s “depressed wards” — a phrase he used more than once — and talked about rebuilding neighborhoods. Key to accomplishing that, and anything else, Reed said, was public safety. He proposed adding 400 police officers trained in community policing. Reed also talked about job creation and youth services.

Reed said a couple of times that “this election is not about Frank Jackson” but about new leadership and new ideas. But he did take direct at the mayor when he referenced how one man without consultation or public discussion, “closed Public Square”.

HOUGH

Our political watch yesterday actually began at the County Board of Elections where a challenge to Basheer Jones as a lawful candidate for the Ward 7 was being heard. The challenge was filed by supporters of the incumbent, T. J. Dow, who won a second term by defeating Jones in November 2013. Dow won that election by fewer than 600 votes, a closer margin than one might expect, given that Jones was running for the first time. Jones had the endorsement of Congresswoman Marcia Fudge in that first campaign, and some observers were expecting an even closer race this year, even before Mansfield Frazier joined the already crowded field last week [see here and here].

Jones pulled his petitions to run on December 28, 2016 and filed them on March 7. Each time he listed his residential address as 6400 Whittier Ave. The Dow camp submitted documents indicating that the lienholder took title to that property last October and subsequently filed eviction papers against the occupants, including Jones’ surrogate father, Timothy Roberts. Heart-tugging tales were offered by the candidate’s side regarding how the house was lost [divorce, delay, miscommunication, “religious marriage”, etc.] all of which were irrelevant. A successful challenge hinged solely on proving by clear and convincing evidence that Jones did not consider the Whittier address his home and that had no intention to return there for domiciliary purposes.

When the challengers could offer no proof in this regard, the elections board voted 3-0 to dismiss the challenge. At least one board member was troubled by the fact that Jones obtained a new driver’s license after the challenge was filed. His new license shows the Whittier address; the old one, Jones admitted, bore the South Euclid address where Jones’ three children now live with their mother, from whom Jones is estranged.

Jones will need to update his license once again. He was scheduled to move today, along with his surrogate family, to a new home on East 74 Street near Superior, in the wake of the eviction proceedings.

Dow supporters had only a little time to gloat over how their lightweight maneuver vexed and embarrassed Jones. As we were leaving the Board meeting, we learned that only the day before, Clark Nelson of Lexington Ave. in Ward 7, had filed a challenge to Dow’s candidacy, “protesting the validity of his address and accusing Mr. Dow of voter fraud … and election falsification.”

The eagle-eyed Mr. Nelson noted — or was perhaps advised — that Mr. Dow’s Decker Ave. voting address differs from the address on a May 2014 traffic ticket issued to the councilman in Shaker Hts. The ticket hit the news when after news reports there was an active warrant out for the councilman for his failure to appear at a court hearing. He had apparently been cited “for improper use of earphones” while driving in that fair city.

We called Mr. Nelson to inquire as to his preference in this councilmanic [manic council?] contest but were unable to reach him by publication time.

LEE-HARVARD

Word on the street is that former Ward 1 councilman Joe Jones is circulating petitions to reclaim his old seat from incumbent Terrell Pruitt. Jones would be another strong candidate in the race that also includes Kimberly F. Brown, who has had Pruitt in her sights ever since he defeated her in 2013.

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