The Rise and Fall of Community Organizing in Cleveland, Ohio 1975-1985
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Cleveland State University EngagedScholarship@CSU Cleveland Memory Books 3-2013 Democratizing Cleveland: The Rise and Fall of Community Organizing in Cleveland, Ohio 1975-1985 Randy Cunningham Follow this and additional works at: https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/clevmembks Part of the United States History Commons How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! Recommended Citation Cunningham, Randy, "Democratizing Cleveland: The Rise and Fall of Community Organizing in Cleveland, Ohio 1975-1985" (2013). Cleveland Memory. 17. https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/clevmembks/17 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Books at EngagedScholarship@CSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Cleveland Memory by an authorized administrator of EngagedScholarship@CSU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DEMOCRATIZING CLEVELAND Randy Cunningham Cunningham, Randy., Democratizing Cleveland. Cleveland, Ohio: Arambala Press, 2007. EISBN: 978‐1‐936323‐17‐3 This digital edition was prepared by MSL Academic Endeavors, the imprint of the Michael Schwartz Library at Cleveland State University January 2013. Permission for MSL Academic Endeavors and Cleveland Memory Project to reprint granted by the original rights holder. Democratizing Cleveland Democratizing Cleveland The Rise and Fall of Community Organizing in Cleveland, Ohio 1975-1985 by Randy Cunningham Arambala Press Cleveland, Ohio Copyright 2007 Randy J. Cunningham All rights reserved. Requests for permission to reprint or to make copies, and for any other information, should be addressed to the publisher: Arambala Press P.O. Box 14268 Cleveland, Ohio 44114 [email protected] www.arambalapress.com ISBN 978-0-9797206-0-4 Printed in Cleveland, Ohio by Orange Blossom Press 1935 West 25th St. Cleveland, Ohio 44113 Cover photo by Maria A. Schaefer. Permission granted by the Cleveland Press Archives, University Library, Cleveland State University. hear sometimes people talking about how the police need to I do, how the councilmen needs to do, how the mayor or governor or some other official needs to do. There was a sense that we need to do, and I think that that’s what organizing ... helps people to recognize because there’s something that we need to do. - Hugh Kidd, Union Miles Part 1: Origins of Community Organizing in Cleveland .................... 1 Chapter 1 Cleveland: You Gotta Be Tough ............................. 3 Chapter 2 See. Judge. Act ......................................... 10 Chapter 3 Establishing A Model .................................... 22 Chapter 4 Building the Groups ..................................... 34 Chapter 5 Pols and Activists ....................................... 54 Part 2 Campaigns ............................................... 71 Chapter 6 The Battle Against Redling ................................ 73 Photos ....................................................... 9-92 Chapter 7 Putting the Community into Community Development .......... 93 Chapter 8 Give us a Billion Dollars! ................................. 103 Part 3 The Decline of Community Organizing in Cleveland ..............125 Chapter 9 The Movement Unravels ................................. 127 Chapter 10 Legacies ............................................. 144 Chapter 11 Notes for the Next Time ................................. 150 ii In 1980 I moved to Cleveland to go to graduate school. I soon decided that academia was not for me and I left my program. I got a job with a neighborhood non-profit housing corporation called the Near West Housing Corporation. The corporation was a spinoff of Near West Neighbors in Action. Working for Near West Housing pitched me into the middle of the ferment of the community organizing movement in Cleveland. Today in Cleveland, neighborhood organizations describe themselves as an “industry”, or a “sector” of the economy, little different from a normal business or corporation. When I started in 1981, we consciously described ourselves as a “movement”. We operated as a ready reserve for our mother community organization. I attended block club meetings, helped Near West Neighbors in Action prepare for conventions, leafleted neighborhoods, and participated in actions, or “hits” as they were called. Two of the actions I took part in, the SOH10 stockholders hit, and the Hunt Club hit, were two of the more infamous actions of the community organizations of Cleveland, and two of the most important in determining the fate of the movement. I always thought that there were good stories waiting to be told about this movement. Telling those stories was the goal of mine in writing this history. This is the first history of community organizing in Cleveland. I hope it is not the last, and I look forward to it being surpassed. Cleveland has a fascinating social movement history, the surface of which has not even been scratched. There are many stories to tell, and I hope others will join in telling them. iii It is hoped that this history of community organizing will return to the community at least a fraction of what I have gained from working in Cleveland's neighborhoods. It could not have been written without the interest and cooperation of the veterans of this era of community organizing. I hope they find that it does the period justice. I want to start by acknowledging the invaluable help of the staff of the Archives of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland and the Archives of the Western Reserve Historical Society. In particular, I wish to single out Chris Krosel of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland for her help with finding documents and for sharing her knowledge of many of the topics and events covered in this history. A special thanks goes to Lynn M. Duchez Bycko, Special Collections Associate of the Cleveland State University Library, for helping me hunt down the front cover photograph for this book. A number of people read the manuscript in part or in its entirety through its many drafts. They insured that I did not leave the field of non-fiction. They are Dr. Robert Kleidman, Cleveland State University; Dr. Dennis Keating, Cleveland State University; Dr. Randy Stoecker, University of Toledo; Dr. Robert Fisher, University of Connecticut; Dr. Todd Swanstrom, St. Louis University. Additional readers were Bill Callahan, Tom Gannon, Joe Mariano, Charles Murray, Chris Krosel, Rev. Bob Begin, Kate McGuiness, and Frank Ford. I want to especially thank Tom Gannon and Frank Ford. Tom showed an early interest in the project, read drafts, and was always available to answer any questions I may have had. Frank provided a meticulous reading of one of the final drafts of the manuscript. The product benefited greatly from the breadth and depth of his knowledge of Cleveland, its neighborhoods, and its community organizations. We also love to talk about this subject, and I benefited as much from these freewheeling conversations as I did from the actual written comments. Frank, along with Kenia Colon of Neighborhood Progress, Inc., helped organize a committee made up of experienced neighborhood activists and veterans iv of the events described in this book who reviewed the manuscript and provided invaluable help and suggestions in its development and editing. The committee members were Frank Ford, Kenia Colon, Larry Bresler, Phil Star, Norm Krumholz, Tom Gannon, Inez Killingsworth, Joe Garcia, Mark Seifert, Rob Kleidman, and Linda Hudecek. Thanks to my copy editor Pat Fernberg for straightening out the mess I gave her. I want to thank Dr. Robert Kleidman for his help in writing a grant to the Aspen Institute, and the cigars we smoked when it was awarded. I especially want to thank the Aspen Institute for its support, which made it possible to transcribe the interviews for the project. It is now time to acknowledge the people who really made this book possible: those whom I interviewed. They are Larry Allen, Gloria Aron, Chuck Ackerman, Thomas Andrzejewski, George Barany, Mabelee Barker, Rev. Bob Begin, Dan Berry, Rene Berry, Paul Buccino, Sharon Bryant, Len Calabrese, Bill Callahan, John Calkins, Pat Carney, Janice Cogger, Lana Cowell, Leola Criswell, Peggy Croftcheck, Neil Conway, Alma Cooper, Pitt Curtiss, Henry Doll, Fran Dostal, Ted Dostal, Kate Monter Durban, Ken Esposito, Harry Fagan, Frank Ford, Tom Gannon, Joe Garcia, Holly Gigante, Ramona Golden, Denise Gordeev, Bill Gruber, Norm Harrison, David Hoehnen, Linda Hudecek, Kathy Jaksic, Ron Jaksic, Helen Jones, Ken Jones, Marita Kavalec, Eileen Kelly, Hugh Kidd, Inez Killingsworth, Pat Kinney, Sandra Kluk, Ken Kovach, Bernice Krumhansl, Norm Krumholz, David Leighton, Vince Lombardi, Gail Long, Mark McDermott, Sharon McGraw, Kate McGuiness, Charles Murray, Barbara Nagy, Karen Nielson, Michael O’Brien, Ruth Ann O’Leary, Judi Opalach, Barb Pertz, Bob Pollack, Ann Pratt, Bobbi Reichtell, Dan Reidy, Joanne Roberts, Helen Knipe Smith, Phil Star, Melinda Smythe, Lenny Strimpel, Pearl Toth, Sarah Turner, She1 Trapp, Wesley Walker, Thomas Wagner, Charlotte Wells, Marlene Weslian, Doug Van Auken, Diane Yambor, Dorothy Zeigler. I want to give special attention to the interviews of Harry Fagan. Harry Fagan was dying of cancer when I was starting my research. I spoke to him briefly, but he was too sick to be interviewed. He did give me a lead on finding a series of interviews that were conducted by Earl Landau in 1983 before Fagan left Cleveland. I was able to conract Earl Landau, and he sent me what I consider a set of tapes worth their weight in gold. The day I picked those