AFRICAN-AMERICAN IN CLEVELAND

Civil Rights and the African-American in Cleveland, OH

[Mohammed Aljadani]

[Wendy Slone]

[UST 202 Cleveland: The Afr-Amer Exp - 2010 - Sec:1]

Civil Rights and the African-American in Cleveland, OH

The American Civil Rights Movement refers to the reform movements in the United States aimed at abolishing the racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring suffrage in the Southern States. “Many of those who were most active in the Civil Rights Movement prefer the term Southern Freedom Movement” because the struggle was about far more than just civil rights under law; “it was also about fundamental issues of freedom, respect, dignity, economic and social equality”. During this period there was several key events that built the bridge for modern African American civil rights.

African American's across the nation developed the strategy of mass action shortly after the “United States Supreme Court handed down its decision regarding the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas”.These “actions consisted of bus boycotts, sit-ins, freedom rides, and similar tactics that relied on mass mobilization, nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience from 1955 to 1965”. The movement of “Direct Action” began with Rosa Parks on December 1, 1955 in the city of Montgomery. Rosa refused to move to to the back of the bus in order to make room for a white passenger, causing her to be arrested, tried and convicted for disorderly conduct and violating a local ordinance. Soon after this incident, “word reached the black community, and 50 other African American leaders gathered and organized the Montgomery bus boycotts”. This boycotts protested the segregation of blacks and whites on public buses. “Whit the support of over 50,000 African Americans, the boycotts lasted for 381 days and brought down bus revenues by 80%” therefore forcing the courts to order Montgomery busses to desegregate on November 1956, bringing an end to the successful bus boycotts.

Primary Social Issue

Many African-American residents in the eastern part of Cleveland believed that the city, state, and federal government officials were not meeting their needs. African Americans in other large cities across the country shared these sentiments. For much of the twentieth century, Cleveland's eastern neighborhoods had lacked business development and a declining population, as many residents, especially white ones, sought better lives in the suburbs. Many remaining residents developed a sense of hopelessness as their communities declined and the various levels of government failed to assist them. The Hough Riots, the Glenville Shootout, and Ohio's several other racial disturbances of the 1960s illustrate the lack of opportunity for many people, especially African Americans, in Ohio's major cities during this era. Other cities across the United States faced similar disturbances.

Cleveland, Ohio was the scene of several nationally prominent civil disturbances that were racially charged. During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950's and 1960s, many African Americans and their supporters began to seek political, social and economic equality. With the adoption of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, many people believed equality was attainable for African ...