Glenville Shootout: 50 Years Later

Fifty years ago – July 23, 1968, at about 8:30 at night, gunshots rang out, and in the space of a relatively few minutes, the history of Cleveland was forever changed. What became known as the Glenville shootout cost seven people their lives – three of them members of Cleveland’s police department. More than a dozen other officers, and many citizens, were injured in the subsequent firefight, which left scars on the legacy of that neighborhood; on its newly elected African American mayor; and for many years, on the city. We looked back at the Glenville shootout in this series of reports, including a look at certain events during the years that led up to that night of July 23, when violence erupted in an increasingly impoverished neighborhood, on the edge of a racially charged city.