Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech at Glenville High School preserved on little-known recording (audio) – by Margaret Bernstein from the Plain Dealer.
The Late Cuyahoga County Republican Party Chairman Bob Hughes was Last of a Kind: Brent Larkin, Plain Dealer
The late Cuyahoga County Republican Party Chairman Bob Hughes was last of a kind: Brent Larkin
Published: Saturday, November 19, 2011, 2:25 PM
When Cuyahoga County Commissioner George Voinovich resigned to become lieutenant governor in early 1979, the usual suspects — middle-aged white guys — began jockeying to replace him.
But county Republican Party Chairman Bob Hughes had other ideas.
The Voinovich seat would be filled during a vote by Republican Party regulars. But in his 23 years as chairman, Hughes never called the roll unless he knew things would come out the way he wanted.
What Hughes wanted was to make history. He wanted Republican regulars to fill Voinovich’s seat with Virgil E. Brown, then the head of the county election board.
A former councilman from the Glenville neighborhood, Brown was a rarity — a black Republican. No black had ever held or been elected to a nonjudicial county office.
And Hughes’ recommendation wasn’t universally popular with many of the Republican guard.
“Some of the older guys thought that by picking Virgil, we’d be throwing the office away,” remembered Bob Bennett, at the time Hughes’ loyal assistant who would later serve nearly two successful decades as Ohio GOP chairman. “But Bob thought it was the right thing to do. So he took a stand.”
And he prevailed.
Brown not only won the appointment, but three times county voters validated the choice by electing Brown to full terms as commissioner.
“This whole community is indebted to Bob for his vision and willingness to take a risk,” said Virgil E. Brown Jr., the late commissioner’s son.
Hughes died 20 years ago today of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning inside the garage of his Lyndhurst home. He was 63.
And he was Cuyahoga County’s last true Republican boss, a leader in the mold of Mark Hanna and Maurice Maschke. The results speak for themselves:
On Hughes’ watch, Republican candidates won 11 elections for countywide office. Since he resigned as chairman in 1991, they’ve won one — in 1994.
When Hughes was chairman, Democrats in Cleveland held a registration advantage over Republicans of nearly 5 to 1. Nevertheless, Republican candidates won six elections for mayor — three each for Voinovich and Ralph Perk (five of those six were nonpartisan). Since then, they’ve won none.
The simplistic explanations for Hughes’ success argue that he was chairman at a time when Republicans, while still a distinct minority in the county, represented a slightly higher percentage of the electorate than today; and that the political roots of many successful GOP candidates were in the nationalities movement, not the Republican Party.
But those explanations ignore Hughes’ remarkable political instincts, his understanding of how to appeal to blue-collar independents and his single-minded dedication to winning elections.
What’s more, Hughes won elections the right way. Many of Hughes’ biggest admirers were Democrats because, as former Gov. Richard Celeste said at the time of his death, Hughes “played the game of politics the best way — hard and clean.”
Hughes’ last years as chairman were hardly his best. The party ran up debts. And loyalty prevented Hughes from seeing that his dear friend and mentor, former Gov. James A. Rhodes, was the wrong candidate to run against Celeste in the 1986 race for governor, which Celeste won in a rout.
But that barely dims his legacy.
“He was pretty much an impossible act to follow,” remembered Roger Synenberg, who succeeded Hughes. “The beauty of Bob was that he would talk to the guy on the street the same way he would talk to the president.”
But politics today is far meaner than it was 30 or 40 years ago. And Hughes, a consummate deal-maker, might not have been as successful in today’s climate.
Longtime Democratic pollster Bob Dykes, a big admirer, said “politics today is too uncivil for Bob.”
“My dad was never out to ruin people,” said Hughes’ son, Jonathan, a Columbus-based lobbyist. “Today, everybody is trying to throw their enemies in jail. I think my dad had as many Democratic friends as Republicans.”
But Rob Frost, the county’s current Republican chairman, thinks Hughes would have found a way to adapt.
“When Bob was chairman, there was not the great urban divide that we have today. But I don’t say that to make excuses. The record of Bob Hughes is the inspiration for what we need to aspire to as a party.”
That’s setting the bar pretty high — but exactly where it belongs.
In Northeast Ohio, 3 Gray Eminences Wield Black Political Influence: Brent Larkin, Plain Dealer
Plain Dealer article about George Forbes, Louis Stokes and Arnold Pinkney that ran on October 8, 2011
In Northeast Ohio, 3 gray eminences wield black political influence: Brent Larkin
Published: Saturday, October 08, 2011, 9:10 AM Updated: Saturday, October 08, 2011, 1:02 PM
In the days before the Republican-run state legislature drew new congresional boundries for Ohio, House Speaker Bill Batchelder drove to Cleveland for a Saturday meeting at a home on the city’s East Side.
The speaker came to see two old men, both in their ninth decade of life, and to show them a map designed to all but guarantee that Greater Cleveland’s congressional delegation would continue to include at least one minority member.
As the two men studied the map, they proposed some minor changes.
But on balance they were pleased with the new boundaries.
Following the meeting, a call was placed to the eldest member of their informal, three-person group. That man, himself a former congressman, was told the new congressional district would be a barbell-shaped concoction running from Cleveland into eastern Akron.
The old men were satisfied. The deal was done.
And a week or so later, the plan laid out that Saturday in University Circle was passed by the legislature and signed into law by Gov. John Kasich.
What makes that weekend meeting so remarkable is this: Had Batchelder been speaker of the Ohio House in the summer of 1971 and needed input from Cleveland’s black political leadership, he would have sought the opinion of the same men he reached out to 40 summers later.
In Cleveland, you see, some things rarely change.
George Forbes, host of the Saturday session with Batchelder, is 80 now. He last won an election for public office in 1985. He never won one outside of Glenville.
Arnold Pinkney is also 80. He last won an election in 1977. It was for the Cleveland school board.
The leader of this troika, the one who wasn’t there, is 86-year-old Louis Stokes, who served 15 terms in Congress before retiring in 1999. He now spends most of his time in Maryland.
Though long gone from public office, Stokes, Forbes and Pinkney still possess enormous political influence — and at times aren’t bashful about using it.
When Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones died three years ago, Stokes pretty much single-handedly chose Marcia Fudge as her successor in Congress.
Over time, Forbes has proven the most adept of the three at retaining and using power. Though long gone from the City Council he once ruled with an iron fist, Forbes benefits from his ongoing roles as ruler of the Call and Post newspaper and head of the Cleveland NAACP.
And having run campaigns at the local, state and national levels — including Jesse Jackson’s 1984 race for president — Pinkney remains to this day the town’s pre-eminent adviser to black politicians, young and old.
These three may be well past their prime, but their power was again on display the week before last, when some black Democrats turned against one another over the drawing of boundaries for new state Senate seats in Cuyahoga County.
Drawing those boundaries was the responsibility of Kasich and other leading Republicans, but they understandably had no desire to wade into a decidedly local fight involving members of the other political party.
So a top Republican sought the opinions of Forbes and Pinkney — and later that day, Kasich and other GOP leaders resolved a dispute by drawing the new Senate districts the way Forbes and Pinkney wanted it done.
While it’s easy to make a case that Stokes, Forbes and Pinkney have clung to power far too long, Pinkney passionately defends their continued involvement.
“At our age, we’re not looking for anything,” he said. “We have absolutely no desire to control things. But we do have experience, and the trust of the African-American community. We know how to negotiate and, when necessary, compromise. Our interest is in what’s best for black people. It’s not about grabbing power.”
But State Sen. Nina Turner, who is considering a primary challenge to Fudge in the district mapped out in Forbes’ home, believes the haggling over the new state Senate districts was an example of politics at its worst. And, without naming names, it’s pretty clear she places some of the blame on her elders.
“What they have done is completely contrary to the whole point of the civil rights movement, and for that they should be ashamed,” said Turner.
Nina Turner is one gutsy woman. And she’s spent the past two years — beginning with her decision to defy the black political establishment and enthusiastically support the 2009 ballot issue that restructured county government — proving it.
But a race for Congress would pose multiple challenges.
Beating Marcia Fudge would be difficult.
Getting past the three seniors will be even harder.
Larkin was The Plain Dealer’s editorial director from 1991 until his retirement in 2009.
Martin Luther King Jr. in Cleveland: How The Plain Dealer Covered Him
Martin Luther King Jr. in Cleveland: How The Plain Dealer Covered Him
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change
Website that allows digital access to the works and papers of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Excellent search function allows students to research Cleveland oriented material.
Rest in Peace Citizen Hauser by Susan Miller RealNEO 11/15/2008
Rest in Peace Citizen Hauser
Submitted by Susan Miller on Sat, 11/15/2008 – 16:36.
Ed Hauser died suddenly November 14, 2008. Northeast Ohio has lost its most ardent, studied and tenacious citizen activist. Information regarding funeral arrangements will be in the Plain Dealer tomorrow.
This is a photo of Ed gathering signatures for his campaign to secure Whiskey Island as public greenspace on our lakefront for all time.
What follows is a nomination written by Martha Eakin and me, edited by Ohio Environmental Council’s director, Keith Dimoff, for Cleveland’s Biodiversity Alliance awards in 2007.
Sustained not by deep pockets but by dogged determination, “Citizen” Ed Hauser has worked diligently toward his goal of seeing all of Whiskey Island made into a park. Since 1998, Ed has made saving Whiskey Island a fulltime job. And a fulltime job it has been because the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority (CCCPA) has planned to move its operations to the land across the river for 9 years, determined to take a portion of Whiskey Island for gravel storage and docking facilities.
With the lakefront plan languishing on the drawing boards and public access to the lake limited, Ed remained steadfast in his effort to save Whiskey Island as a contiguous group of properties – the park, the marina and the Coastguard Station. The Coastguard Station has experienced significant deferred maintenance and could have been slated for demolition, but Ed continues to shine his light on the property, demanding that the buildings be restored and brought to public use by the City of Cleveland. He has invoked the National Historic Preservation Act to save the Huletts, the iron ore unloaders that tell the story of the rise of Cleveland’s industrial heritage. Ed intends that the Island be able to tell the story of Cleveland to us and to future generations.
Ed was not deterred by being told “Ed, it’s not going to happen, everybody is opposed to it. The issue is over with.” Ed’s extensive experience with the ways of government has taught him that he cannot rest until the land becomes part of the Cleveland Metroparks, ensuring that it will remain permanently protected public greenspace.
Ed has maintained a watchful presence over multiple layers of government with regular attendance at CCCPA, Cleveland Planning Commission, Cleveland City Council, and Cuyahoga County Commissioner’s meetings. He has interacted with Cleveland’s Law Department, Landmarks Commission, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the Ohio State Historic Preservation Office, Cleveland Metroparks, Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Cuyahoga Valley Initiative, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who oversee the Ohio Coastal Management, and every elected official involved with these 20 acres of beautiful greenspace along the lakefront and riverfront. He joined with the League of Women Voters on their CCCPA Study bringing to the public a relevant report for anyone who wants to know more about the publicly funded body. When ODOT became involved in the City’s Lakefront plan, Ed monitored and raised awareness regarding the many possible environmental effects of the Innerbelt Project. He has engaged more than 2,100 people to sign postcards of support for the plan for Cleveland Metroparks to take over this historic property.
Ed’s efforts have saved Whiskey Island as public greenspace. The Island is the heart of the city, where the river meets the lake. It is tied to the creation of the Ohio and Erie Canal. It is a haven for birds and their watchers and for hikers. It allows for access to a natural beachfront from inner-city neighborhoods. For its history, its historic lifesaving station, for keeping its natural habitat, not dredging and bulkheading, it allows for a natural beach in the city which is important for recreation and is the only place to launch non-motorized watercraft. Whiskey Island is the beachhead for sustainability and its champion, Ed Hauser, is a powerhouse of citizen action in our region.
Ed’s activism was documented on film: Link to Blue Hole Film, Citizen Hauser.
He will be missed.
Cleveland Scene Article on Ed Hauser 12/10/2008
No Man Is An Island
But Whiskey Island Backers Will Never Forget Ed Hauser
Cleveland Scene Magazine December 10, 2008
Anyone who cares that the place where the Cuyahoga River pours out into Lake Erie remains undeveloped – one of the few areas where a person can walk along the shore and touch the water – owes a debt to the late Ed Hauser. There’s no telling how many people he introduced to that scrap of land known as Whiskey Island, either by taking them on tours or by calling attention to the place during the many years he dedicated to preserving it. While the city of Cleveland duked it out with the county over control of the property, Hauser’s was the loudest and most substantive voice arguing for its preservation as a park. With the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority coveting it for westward expansion, and the city fighting for control but making no promises about its future, Hauser fought against steep odds and eventually won. Whiskey Island, the peninsula bordered by the old river channel to the south, the Cuyahoga to the east and Lake Erie to the north, is now known as Wendy Park. Thanks to Hauser, it’s going to stay that way. That was one of several battles Hauser took up in his 10 years of activism following his layoff from an engineering job at LTV steel.
Ed Hauser, who fought to preserve Whiskey Island, is dead at 47 Plain Dealer 11/16/2008
Ed Hauser, who fought to preserve Whiskey Island, is dead at 47
April McClellan-Copeland, Plain Dealer Reporter
Plain Dealer, The (Cleveland, OH) – November 16, 2008
For the past 10 years, Ed Hauser threw his entire life into saving the green corner of Whiskey Island, a peninsula with grassy fields and meadows on Lake Erie at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River.
As the head of Friends of Whiskey Island, Hauser collected signatures on petitions, attended too many public meetings to count and spent money from his retirement plan in a campaign to preserve the 20 acres as a park and block expansion plans by the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority.
Hauser, 47, died Friday morning. The Cuyahoga County coroner’s office ruled he had a heart attack, spokesman Powell Caesar said.
Known as “Citizen Hauser” and the “Mayor of Whiskey Island,” Hauser enjoyed seeing people use what became the county-owned Wendy Park in 2005, which has a marina, beach restaurant and sand volleyball courts and became home to several festivals.
“I was astounded at how many people were enjoying it on Labor Day,” said his sister, Sylvia Hauser, 51, of Streetsboro. “If it hadn’t been for my little brother . . .”
Cathy Stahurski, Ed Hauser’s girlfriend of 11 years, said she was with him when he became ill at 4 a.m. Friday morning. She said his back was hurting and he was sweaty, but he did not want to see a doctor.
She finally persuaded him to go to the hospital with his sister, but he died in the car.
Stahurski said Hauser was an engineer who was laid off from LTV Steel Co. 10 years ago. After that, he threw himself full time into being an activist.
Besides Whiskey Island, he also served as a citizen watchdog on port authority activities, championed a steel museum in Steelyard Commons and was vocal about Cleveland’s lakefront plans.
It wasn’t unusual to see him at a public meeting about the proposed Medical Mart.
A 2006 documentary called “Citizen Hauser” chronicled his dogged activism.
“Ed Hauser made this world a better place, not always with his causes, but with his attitude towards people,” Stahurski said. “Even his enemies liked him.”
Elaine Marsh, co-founder of Friends of the Crooked River, said there will be activists who come after Hauser, but no one will be able to fill his shoes.
“I believe he was the quintessential environmental activist,” Marsh said. “He was persistent, he did unbelievable research and he used that research in very thoughtful ways.”
Hauser was the fourth of five children born to Walter and the late Theresia Hauser. He graduated from Maple Heights High School in 1979 and Cleveland State University in 1990.
He loved to kayak, and could often be found in Lake Erie off Whiskey Island. He moved from Cleveland’s West Side back into his childhood home in Maple Heights in May.
Michael D. Roberts, a free-lance writer in Orange, got to know Hauser last year as he worked on a story about the port authority. He called him “the most influential activist of the last decade in this town.”
Services for Hauser will be Monday at 7:30 p.m. at Vito-Nero Funeral Home, 6130 Turney Road, Garfield Heights.
Fracking news from the Youngstown Vindicator
The politics of confrontation by Brent Larkin August 21, 1985
Sunday Magazine piece about Cleveland politics in the 1970s and 1980s by Brent Larkin