1961 SPECIAL REPORT: "RACISM IN CLEVELAND"

By the 1950s, a remarkably self-conscious racism had taken hold in Cleveland. Various white leaders acknowledged in private that they knew that race prejudice and discrimination were wrong and would have to change, but they attributed their own persistence in discriminatory practices to their own cultural upbringing, to personal preferences, and to the unproven “fact” that their customers or the general public would not stand for integration and social equality. Another common rationalization was that African Americans somehow were still undeserving of equal treatment, often bolstered with anecdotes intended to illustrate how the black community, in demanding equal treatment through the NAACP, the Urban League (see URBAN LEAGUE OF GREATER CLEVELAND), or the FUTURE OUTLOOK LEAGUE, had not yet measured up to the self-help standards established by white ethnic communities. Instead, such comments reflected the prejudices of the speakers and their lack of knowledge about individuals and institutions in the African American community, especially those which worked steadily and quietly behind the scenes, like the black churches. This lack of awareness and understanding of the black community had disastrous consequences during the 1960s when overcrowded schools, inequities in housing, and job discrimination became the major issues prompting the formation of a local civil rights organization, the UNITED FREEDOM MOVEMENT, and when riots rocked HOUGH in 1966 and GLENVILLE in 1968.

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