Cleveland, OH

Old Municipal Stadium Site
DESCRIPTION: Before being torn down for the new Cleveland Browns Football Stadium, Municipal Stadium, which hosted baseball and football, is a significant historic site because a few months after Jackie Robinson broke the National League's baseball color barrier in 1947, Larry Doby broke the American League's color barrier and in 1975 Frank Robinson became the first Black manager in Major League Baseball here; we should not forget that the greatest NFL running back, Jim Brown, played here as well

ADDRESS: West 3rd Street at Erieside Ave  MAP
 
City Hall
DESCRIPTION: In 1967 Carl Stokes became the 1st African American mayor of a major American city; under the rotunda of recently restored building you will see a plaque honoring Stokes

ADDRESS: 601 East Lakeside Ave  MAP

PHONE: 216-664-2000
 
Central High School
DESCRIPTION: Every major city had at least one prominent African American high school before desegregation, this is it for Cleveland; Langston Hughes, General Benjamin O Davis, Jr, composer Noble Sissle, and US Representative Louis Stokes are alumni; now a middle school

ADDRESS: 2225 East 40th Street  MAP

PHONE: 216- 431-4410

Phyllis Wheatley Association & Jane E Hunter Museum
DESCRIPTION: Nurse Jane Hunter who converted this 9 story building to serve as a home and job training facility for newly arrived Black women in 1927; by appointment you can see Hunter's photos and personal memorabilia

ADDRESS: 4450 Cedar Ave  MAP

ADDRESS: 216-391-4443

Hough Obelisk
DESCRIPTION: Spurred on by job discrimination and police brutality in the summer of 1966, the Hough African American neighborhood, erupted in riots and flames; unlike many other neighborhoods, Hough appears to have recovered with an award-winning 277 unit Lexington Village housing complex; the obelisk, dedicated in 1989, symbolizes the neighborhood’s recovery from that dire event

ADDRESS: East 79th Street at Hough Street  MAP

1st Black-owned McDonald's
DESCRIPTION: In 1969 an African American attempted to purchase this restaurant, but was denied due to racial bias; that lead to a community-wide boycott of McDonald's in Cleveland; the successful boycott caused business owners to sell McDonald's franchises to Blacks nationwide as well as Cleveland

ADDRESS: East 105th Street at St Clair Ave  MAP

Eliza Bryant Center
DESCRIPTION: Established in the 1890’s as Cleveland Home for Aged Colored People and now the second oldest African-American nursing home in the nation; named after this free woman of color from North Carolina, who was determined to provide a home where elderly Blacks who were no longer able to work; it stands as a social and cultural anchor in the inner city

ADDRESS: 7201 Wade Park Avenue  MAP

PHONE: 216-361-6141

Garrett A. Morgan Water Works
DESCRIPTION: This large water plant honors Clevelander Garrett Morgan whose "breathing mask" invention saved the lives of many workers trapped in a water works tunnel below Lake Erie in 1916; there's a plaque acknowledging Morgan

ADDRESS: 1245 West 45th Street  MAP

PHONE: 216-664-3175

John O Holly General Mail Facility
DESCRIPTION: Cleveland's main port office, honors Holly for organizing a successful boycott to combat discriminatory hiring practices; they visited every Cleveland store patronized by African Americans demanding that we be hired or we will no longer shop there; there's a plaque honoring Holly in the lobby

ADDRESS: 2400 Orange Ave at 22nd Street  MAP

Glenville
DESCRIPTION: Incorporated 1870, by 1905 it was annexed to Cleveland as a home to the White super-wealthy; beginning in the 1940s wealthy African Americans began moving into stately homes; by the 1970’s fallout from race riots, White Flight and declines in household income took a toll on the community; somehow that neighborhood has managed to stabilize; former mayor Michael A. White resided here and there is a Booker T. Washington statue located within Rockefeller Park

ADDRESS: bounded by Lake Erie, Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd, Carr Avenue and East 109th Street  MAP