Category: Carl Stokes – Civil Rights 1960’s

How one civil rights activist’s death turned the tide on Cleveland school segregation – Ideastream 8/24/26

 

The Rev. Bruce Klunder, left, with his two children Janice and Douglas and wife Joanne, in an undated photo provided by the family.
-Janice Klunder

How one civil rights activist’s death turned the tide on Cleveland school segregation
by Conor Morris, Ideastream, August 24, 2026
The link is here
https://www.wosu.org/2026-08-24/how-one-civil-rights-activists-death-turned-the-tide-on-cleveland-school-segregation

Judge Jean Murrell Capers was Cleveland’s first Black woman to sit on the city council, WEWS, March 29, 2026

Judge Jean Murrell Capers was Cleveland’s first Black woman to sit on the city council
Her ‘godson’, James Lamb, shares her story during Women’s History Month
by Mercy Sackor, WEWS,

Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, who advocated tirelessly for civil and human rights, dies at 93 – Plain Dealer April 15, 2025

 

Joan Brown Campbell, who advocated tirelessly for civil and human rights, dies at 93
– By Nora Tree Newhouse, Plain Dealer April 15, 2025
The link is here

Naso/NY Daily News Archive, via Getty Images

Joan Brown Campbell Dies at 93; Led Largest Ecumenical Body in U.S.
-New York Times obit

When Joan Campbell invited the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to speak at her all-white church in the Cleveland suburbs in 1965, she had no idea of the furor it would cause.

Bomb threats were made to her family’s spacious home in Shaker Heights, where Ms. Campbell was a full-time wife and mother. Some members of Heights Christian Church, where she worshiped, refused to let Dr. King cross its threshold.
Read more

Joan Campbell, former activist who led U.S. church council, dies at 93
-Washington Post obit

“During a visit by King to Cleveland, he met briefly with Rev. Campbell and mentioned offhand that he had never been invited to speak at a mostly White church in the area. She suggested he come to the Heights Christian Church, where she was part of the congregation.”

Read more

How a 1963 Cleveland case shaped stop-and-frisk police tactics, and why it still matters, Signal Dec. 19, 2024

A historical marker honoring Cleveland police Detective Martin J. McFadden sits downtown near where the 1963 police stop happened that led to the landmark Terry v. Ohio U.S. Supreme Court decision. Credit: Courtesy of Jonathan Witmer-Rich

How a 1963 Cleveland case shaped stop-and-frisk police tactics, and why it still matters
by Brittany Hailer and Rachel Dissell,  

In 2015, Cleveland officials signed a federal consent decree and agreed to update department policies on stops and searches. Now, the department tracks who is stopped and why

The Cuyahoga River was so polluted, it used to catch fire. Now it’s making a comeback, NPR Oct 12, 2024

Firefighters stand on a bridge over the Cuyahoga River to spray water on the tug Arizona as a fire, started in an oil slick on the river, engulfs docks in Cleveland on Nov. 1, 1952.
-Getty Images

The Cuyahoga River was so polluted, it used to catch fire. Now it’s making a comeback

by Scott Neuman, NPR October 12, 2024
https://www.ideastream.org/2024-10-12/the-cuyahoga-river-was-so-polluted-it-used-to-catch-fire-now-its-making-a-comeback

What Happened When Violence Broke Out on Cleveland’s East Side 50 Years Ago? From Smithsonian Magazine

Fire fighters attempt to douse a smoldering building on Superior following the shootout in the Glenville neighborhood of Cleveland on July 23, 1968. Michael Schwartz Library, Cleveland State University

What Happened When Violence Broke Out on Cleveland’s East Side 50 Years Ago?
In the summer of 1968, the neighborhood of Glenville erupted in “urban warfare,” leaving seven dead and heightening police-community tensions
by Lorraine Boissoneault, Smithsonian Magazine, July 24, 2018

The link is here

See the Cuyahoga River, Clean Water Act Video that won a St. Ignatius senior 2nd prize in C-SPAN competition

by Peter Krouse
The 1972 Clean Water Act was created to stop river fires, but can it help today? In 1969 the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio burst into flames after being filled with toxic oil and waste for decades. Since, the EPA has led a charge to try to change that. Follow me as I dive into the Nixon-era law that changed how we view water quality and try to answer the ultimate question, did it work? And if it did, what can we learn from it for the problems we face today like climate change?
Teaching Cleveland Digital