Cleveland, home of the first Black-owned McDonalds franchise
Cleveland Historic Sites
Cleveland Historic Sites include churches served on the Underground Railroad and later aided the Civil Rights Movement. The city is home to important historic sites for politics, education, business and sports.
League Park
DESCRIPTION: Site of a baseball stadium opened in 1891, that was rebuilt in the early 1900’s and used by Cleveland Buckeyes of the Negro American League. In other words, it was a significant cultural venue for the African-American community before baseball began the integration process in 1947. In 1945, the Buckeyes won the Negro League World Series here. The park was also home to the Cleveland Spiders and the Cleveland Indians baseball teams. The NFL Cleveland Browns used it as a practice field until the 1960s. Unfortunately, lights were never installed in the the park for night events, which crippled its commercial potential.
ADDRESS: Lexington at 66th Street, Cleveland, OH MAP
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 Avenue, Cleveland, OH MAP
City Hall
DESCRIPTION: In 1967, Carl Stokes became the 1st African-American mayor of a large American city. Under the rotunda of recently restored building, you will see a plaque honoring Mayor Stokes.
ADDRESS: 601 East Lakeside Avenue, Cleveland, OH 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 U.S. Representative Louis Stokes are alumni. It is now a middle school.
ADDRESS: 2225 East 40th Street, Cleveland, OH MAP
PHONE: 216- 431-4410
Phyllis Wheatley Association & Jane 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 Avenue, Cleveland, OH MAP
PHONE: 216-391-4443
Hough Obelisk
DESCRIPTION: Spurred on by job discrimination and police brutality in the summer of 1966, African-American Hough District erupted in organized protest, then riots and flames. Unlike many other neighborhoods after a riot, Hough appears to have recovered better with an award-winning 277-unit Lexington Village housing complex. The obelisk, dedicated in 1989, symbolizes the neighborhood’s recovery from that dire event and a reminder not to riot over future grievances.
ADDRESS: East 79th Street at Hough Street, Cleveland, OH MAP
1st Black-Owned McDonald’s Franchise
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 Avenue, Cleveland, OH 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, Cleveland, OH MAP
PHONE: 216-361-6141
Garrett A. Morgan Water Works
DESCRIPTION: This large water plant honors Cleveland-native Garrett Morgan, whose “breathing mask” invention saved the lives of many workers trapped in a water works tunnel below Lake Erie in 1916 and saved many soldiers from mustard gas during World War I. There’s a plaque acknowledging Morgan onsite.
ADDRESS: 1245 West 45th Street, Cleveland, OH MAP
PHONE: 216-664-3175
Call & Post News
Ohio’s largest and oldest African American newspaper and serving the African American community for over 85 years
ADDRESS: 11800 Shaker Blvd
PHONE: 216-791-7600
WEBSITE: http://www.callandpost.com
CityNews
A weekly newspaper for the African American community of Cleveland
PHONE: 216-881-0799
WEBSITE: http://www.citynewsohio.com
John O Holly General Mail Facility
DESCRIPTION: Cleveland’s main post 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 Avenue at 22nd Street, Cleveland, OH 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 the neighborhood 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, MLK Blvd, Carr Avenue and East 109th Street, Cleveland, OH MAP
NAACP Cleveland
PHONE: 2131 Stokes Blvd, Cleveland, OH
PHONE: 216-231-6260
WEBSITE: http://www.clevelandnaacp.org
Urban League Cleveland
ADDRESS: 2930 Prospect Avenue, Cleveland, OH
PHONE: 216-622-0999
WEBSITE: http://www.ulcleveland.org
100 Black Men Cleveland
ADDRESS: 4415 Euclid Avenue, Suite 331, Cleveland, OH
PHONE: 216-361-9146
WEBSITE: http://www.100blackmencleveland.org
