The inside story of how Larry Doby broke the American League’s color line 76 years ago – Terry Pluto July 5, 2023

Larry Doby in his first MLB game with Cleveland on July 5, 1947.

The inside story of how Larry Doby broke the American League’s color line 76 years ago
by Terry Pluto, Cleveland.com Wednesday July 5, 2023
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When she won the first national spelling bee, Marie C. Bolden dealt a blow to racism, NPR

 


Marie C. Bolden made national headlines when she turned in a flawless performance at a spelling bee in Cleveland. Her competitors included white students from segregated school districts in the South.
Courtesy the Brown Family
When she won the first national spelling bee in 1908, Marie C. Bolden dealt a blow to racism
Marie C. Bolden made national headlines when she turned in a flawless performance at a spelling bee in Cleveland. Her competitors included white students from segregated school districts in the South.

If you haven’t heard about the Black girl who won the first national spelling bee in the U.S. 115 years ago, you’re not alone: even many in her family didn’t know about Marie C. Bolden’s feat until after she died, decades later.

“It’s astounding to me” that she never talked about winning a gold medal in front of thousands of people, Bolden’s grandson, Mark Brown, told NPR.

But back in 1908, Bolden’s victory made national news and upended racist stereotypes, less than 50 years after the Civil War. The 14-year-old did it by being perfect, spelling 500 words flawlessly to lead her hometown team, Cleveland, Ohio, to victory in the city’s then-new Hippodrome Theater.

“She never talked about this award, this amazing accomplishment,” Brown said. “But even Booker T. Washington mentioned [it] in his speeches.”

Bolden’s win was a national sensation

Boleden’s win was dramatic and unprecedented: Cleveland’s team was trailing in a field that included teams from New Orleans, Pittsburgh and Erie, Pa., near the end of the contest, according to contemporary accounts. But then Bolden vaulted her team to the top prize.

She never showed off the gold medal she won — in fact, her family isn’t sure what became of it — but in interviews after her win, Bolden told reporters she had studied hard for the competition, saying she wanted to help her city win, and that her mother and father wanted her to win.

“When I felt nervous at the Hippodrome, it steadied me to think of these things,” she was quoted telling The Plain Dealer. “I just kind of gritted my teeth and made up my mind that I wouldn’t miss a word.”

It was only after Bolden died that her family realized her place in history. Going through a box of her belongings, Brown says, they found a newspaper clipping from The Plain Dealer relating the story of the Black mail carrier’s daughter who out-spelled hundreds of white kids.

After her stunning victory, Bolden was hailed by “a storm of applause” and congratulations from hundreds of people, including members of the team from New Orleans, according to Indiana’s South Bend Tribune.

Bolden’s story has only emerged in recent years

Cleveland hosted the spelling contest in June 1908, using it as a marquee event to kick off the National Education Association’s conference. The contest is recognized as the first nationwide spelling bee by Guinness World Records — which also notes Bolden’s role.

The famous Scripps National Spelling Bee, which began in 1925, held its finals this week. Bolden’s accomplishment drew renewed attention in 2021, when Zaila Avant-garde became the first African American to win the Scripps contest.

Bolden’s story then drew the interest of Babbel, the language-learning software company, which contacted Brown after researching his grandmother’s win.

“Her parents and friends helped her memorize words, and she read a newspaper each day to perfect her spelling,” said Malcolm Massey, a language expert at Babbel. “It’s a blueprint for today’s would-be Spelling Bee champions.”

African American Cultural Garden adds Civil Rights Trail marker, Cleveland.com June 14, 2023

 

 

The “Doorway of No Return” at the The African American Cultural Garden, still under construction in the Cleveland Cultural Gardens.Zachary Smith, Cleveland.com

African American Cultural Garden celebrates Juneteenth, adds Civil Rights Trail marker
by Paris Wolfe, Cleveland.com June 14, 2023
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Take a tour of Cleveland’s new African American Civil Rights Trail, from Carl Stokes to the Ludlow Community Association by Susan Glaser Feb 3, 2023

An Ohio Historical Marker outside Cory United Methodist Church in Cleveland, one of seven sites on the new Cleveland Civil Rights Trail. David Petkiewicz, cleveland.comDavid Petkiewicz, cleveland.com
Take a tour of Cleveland’s new African American Civil Rights Trail, from Carl Stokes to the Ludlow Community Association
by Susan Glaser Feb 3, 2023

History of Civil Rights in Cleveland Webinar with Dr. Nishani Frazier


The link is here

Join Nishani Frazier, an Associate Professor of History and American Studies at the University of Kansas for a webinar on the civil rights movement in Cleveland.

In conjunction with the Cleveland Civil Rights Trail, Frazier will cover the long arch of political activism among Black Clevelanders from around the city’s founding to the modern civil rights era, and document how this rich history relates to the present day. Come celebrate Black History Month by learning about the history of Civil Rights in Cleveland. This program is made possible in part by Ohio Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication/ exhibition/program/website do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Visit https://clevelandcivilrightstrail.org/ to learn more about the Cleveland Civil Rights Trail.

Garrett A. Morgan, Cleveland’s ‘Black Edison,’ created today’s traffic light and gas mask by Brenda Cain, Plain Dealer, Feb 4, 2022

#BlackHistoryMonth

Garrett Morgan called himself the “Black Edison.” He invented the forerunners of the modern gas mask and traffic signal. (Plain Dealer file photo)
Garrett A. Morgan, Cleveland’s ‘Black Edison,’ created today’s traffic light and gas mask: Black History Month’s Untold Stories
by Brenda Cain, Plain Dealer, Feb 4, 2022

African Americans built a tiny enclave on the outskirts of toney Chagrin Falls: Black History Month

This was a typical home in Chagrin Falls Park. Families often built structures out of reclaimed building materials and depended on oil laps and coal stoves for light and heat. (Photo courtesy Chagrin Falls Historical Society)

African Americans built a tiny enclave on the outskirts of toney Chagrin Falls: Black History Month
by Brenda Cain, Plain Dealer Feb 7, 2022
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Zelma Watson George, the Cleveland opera singer who had a president’s ear: Black History Month Untold Stories by Brenda Cain, Plain Dealer

#BlackHistoryMonth
This 1990 photo of Zelma Watson George was taken at a fundraiser for the Cancer Society. She was 91-years-old. (The Plain Dealer file photo)
Zelma Watson George, the Cleveland opera singer who had a president’s ear: Black History Month Untold Stories
by Brenda Cain, Plain Dealer February 1, 2022

 

“Having Given Them Bayonets, We Will Not Withhold the Ballot”- Republicans and Black Suffrage in Reconstruction Ohio, 1865-1867 by Jacob T Mach

“Having Given Them Bayonets, We Will Not Withhold the Ballot”- Republicans and Black Suffrage in Reconstruction Ohio, 1865-1867

by Jacob T Mach, 2020, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, History.

The link is here

or try this link

Ohio politics during the Reconstruction era has received sparse treatment by historians. Not until 1970 with Felice Bonadio’s North of Reconstruction was there a monograph solely dedicated to Ohio politics during the era. Robert Sawrey wrote his Dubious Victory in 1992, but still the historiography on Reconstruction Ohio remains dramatically underdeveloped. In Ohio, the question of African American suffrage was the single most divisive issue facing politicians during the era. Radical Republicans brought a referendum before the people of Ohio in 1867 to change the state constitution to protect the suffrage rights of both white and black males above the age of 21. The measure failed 216,987 votes (45.9 percent) to 255,340 (54.1 percent) votes. The failure of the suffrage amendment disheartened many Radical Republicans across Ohio and the rest of the North, yet Ohio Republicans managed to elicit more support for suffrage than most states in the North. Such support did not arise randomly; it intentionally developed over a three-year period beginning after the Civil War. Two primary research questions drive this project: 1) Did suffrage become a crucial issue in the state of Ohio earlier than the existing historiography suggests, 2) why were Ohio radicals able to generate more support for black suffrage within the Republican party than in other states in the North? By showing that Republican support (through Congressional voting records, public support via speeches and letters, and by Republican-sympathetic papers throughout the state) for black suffrage existed in significant numbers in 1865 (prior to 1866-1867, as Bonadio, Sawrey and others suggest) in both the Western Reserve and in other parts of the state and only continued to grow until the referendum in the fall of 1867, this project will argue that black suffrage was not only being pursued by radicals, but ultimately by the vast majority of the Republican party. Ohio’s inability to secure black suffrage with overwhelming Republican support will in turn help to explain why other northern states achieved even less success in their pursuit of black suffrage.

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