The Cleveland Restoration Society unveiled a new addition to its Civil Rights Trail Thursday in honor of the 1966 Hough Uprising that claimed the lives of four Black residents but spurred political progress for the city’s Black community.
The five-day Hough Uprising began July 18 after a white bar owner denied a Black patron a glass of water. It lasted until July 24.
"This disgruntled patron left and later returned and taped the owners derogatory statement, which included a racial epithet, to the bar's door," said Ronnie Dunn, executive director of The Diversity Institute at Cleveland State University. "That incident was a match that ignited the kindling of decades of systemic racism, segregation and social injustice."
A riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the negro poor has worsened over the last twelve or fifteen years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met.Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. -- March 14, 1968
The uprising was a "natural reaction" to the racial disparity felt by Cleveland's Black community, Dunn said, and brought on influential political action soon after with the election of Mayor Carl Stokes in 1967.
"The Hough uprising, then, was not just a tragic episode in our city and nation's history," Dunn said. "It was a catalyst for change. It was an accelerant to political power within the Black community and underscored the necessity of addressing systemic racism at its root."
Pastor Kellie Sullivan of New Life at Calvary Church grew up nearby on 105th Street and Superior Avenue. She said she always asked herself and members of her community about what happened in the Hough neighborhood in an attempt to uncover a fuller story.
"Even as a teenager, I could see the lasting effects of that fateful day in July 1966," Sullivan said. "In many areas, when you would walk around this neighborhood, it looked like a war zone."
Sullivan still wonders what might've happened if the fires never burned, if the National Guard was never called and if that white bar owner offered the Black customer a glass of water, but she said there are more pressing questions to ask.
"The most important question is what will we do now? How do we come together to rebuild?," she said. "The folks that were here in 1966 came together and they made a decision, and they said, we must rebuild the legacy of the uprising. It's not one of destruction, but one of resilience and recovery and renewal. We must remember those who fought for this community."
In her remarks at the unveiling of the marker, Ward 7 Councilmember Stephanie Howse-Jones said the uprising and political progress afterward should remind residents that civil rights must be fought for.
"I will tell all my brothers and sisters all across Cleveland to gather with people to make demands on all of the people that represent you. From there, you should vote in your interest and then after the vote," Howse-Jones said. "Hold them accountable for the things that you ask for."
The marker sits at the corner of Hough Avenue at East 79th Street. Dunn said it serves as a reminder that though the road to racial equality may be long, it is one worth travelling.
