THE PLAIN DEALER . SUNDAY, MAY 9, 1999 5-D OURCENTURY 1966

ATA GLANCE City approves an income tax The city’s six nights of rage After a dramatic debate in City Council on Nov. 28, became the 103rd city By Fred McGunagle with an income tax. It was 0.5 percent. Jack Russell, former City Council president, “Burn, baby, burn!” told his colleagues:“I predict if this is passed, They’d heard that phrase shouted a lot of people in these chambers will be miss- on television in city after city. Now, ing next year.” But Charles Carr, the majority as older residents watched in horror, leader, told them, “You took an oath to repre- rampaging young blacks shouted it as sent the people of this city all the time, not just they poured out their rage and frus- when it is easy.” tration. The audience of 175 — mostly city employ- It was July 18, a Monday night, and ees — cheered Carr. They cheered louder Hough was ablaze. Not all of it at once when the vote was announced as 23-10, one — a storefront here, an abandoned more than the two-thirds needed to make the tenement there, then another store- ordinance effective Jan. 1. front. Angry youths hurled rocks at The tax had been recommended by the firefighters and police. “Black power! Little Hoover Commission, a group of busi- ness and civic leaders named by Mayor Ralph Black power!” they shouted. Locher to find a way out of the city’s financial At E. 85th St. and Hough Ave., a crisis. Locher also accepted a number of effi- mob pulled hoses from firemen. Snip- ciencies, such as raising Muny Light rates to ers fired at police and, it seemed, ev- the same level as the Illuminating Co.’s. erybody and nobody. Looters shat- tered store windows, ran in and • helped themselves. Shaken by his close call in the 1965 elec- A police helicopter hovering over- tion, Locher shook up his Cabinet. He fired head reported fires and looting every- Urban Renewal Director James Lister, who where, but firefighters were ordered was good at starting projects but not at finish- back to their stations until the area ing them. Locher had trouble finding someone was secured, and police could grab to take the job, but settled on Barton Clausen, only one or two looters while dozens who had been a critic of the program as edito- more ran off with their booty. rial director of Channel 3 WKYC. Police set up a mobile command Rumor had it that Locher might be offered a post at E. 73rd St. and Hough and job in President Lyndon Johnson’s adminis- shot out the streetlights to make it tration to ease him out of the way. When asked harder for snipers to see them. They about the rumors by Russell, Locher replied, shepherded 26-year-old Joyce Arnett “I have every intention of being the chief ad- into an apartment building to get her ministrative officer next year.” out of the gunfire. Panicking, she Carl Stokes, meanwhile, was building sup- leaned from an upstairs window to port for another run in 1967, particularly among business leaders miffed at Locher’s call her children.A bullet struck her tough stand against utilities.At year end, Mar- in the head and she fell dead. tin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leader- In the light of dawn on Tuesday, ship Conference announced that Cleveland safety forces added up the totals: One would be a target city in its drive to elect black Hough resident dead and three public officials. wounded; seven police, one fire- At 4 a.m. Thursday, a fire at the fighter and eight others injured by University Party Center on Cedar • rocks or bottles; damage that would Ave. turned into an inferno. Henry Sidney Peck, a Western Reserve University take days to total. Towns, who lived across the street, sociology professor, proposed organizing anti- Dazed storekeepers surveyed the loaded his family into his car to head war protesters around the country to march wreckage of their businesses. “I’m for his in-laws’ house in East Cleve- on Washington in April 1967. His idea grew getting out,” said Al Rosenberg, a land. Finding the street blocked by into the Spring Mobilization Committee to white druggist. “There’s nothing for police and fire equipment, he roared End the War in Vietnam. me here anymore.” R.S. Milner, the off across a lawn. Police poured 21 black manager of a white-owned shoe shots into the car, wounding his wife, • store, said, “They are burning up brother and two sons — the wife and a Southpaw fireballer Sam McDowell their homes and their jobs. They are 3-year-old critically. pitched back-to-back one-hitters as the Indi- burning up their payday and hurting The violence continued on Friday ans jumped off to an early lead in the pennant our own people.” night. Early Saturday, Benoris Toney, race. Then he injured his shoulder and Many residents had a different a 29-year-old father of five, got a pitched inconsistently the rest of the season. take. “We showed we ain’t scared of phone call from a friend asking for a In September, he struck out 14 Tigers in six them,” said a youth. An older woman ride home and left to pick him up. As innings, in view of the single-game record. Then he reinjured his shoulder and had to chimed in, “You reap what you sow he passed 12100 Euclid Ave., three leave the game. He finished the season with a —- the Bible says that.” Another ob- white men in a car fired a shotgun at 9-8 record and a league-leading 225 strike- served sarcastically, “We’ve done the him. He died the next day, the fourth outs. city a favor. Look at all the urban re- and final victim; all were black. Two Like McDowell, the Indians started fast and newal we’ve accomplished.” white Murray Hill residents were ar- tailed off. Sonny Siebert won 16 games, in- The trouble had started with a dis- rested. One was acquitted after two cluding a no-hitter, and Rocky Colavito hit 30 turbance outside the 79er Cafe at trials; charges against the other were home runs, but the Tribe finished fifth. Birdie 7900 Hough. It was ostensibly about dropped. Tebbetts resigned as manager in August and the owners’ refusal to serve people Sporadic fires and shots continued George Strickland finished the season. water — because, the owners said, Saturday night. On Sunday, torrential In midseason, frozen-food magnate Vernon they poured it out and used the rains drove everyone from the Stouffer bought the Indians for $8 million, glasses for their own wine. Police re- streets. The riot was over after 240 with a promise to keep them in Cleveland. sponded to an early call by breaking fires and four deaths in six nights that • up the crowd, but it reassembled and left Hough looking like bombed-out police failed to respond to four more London. The supermarkets and drug- Leroy Kelly gained 1,141 yards rushing and calls from the owners.By the time stores that hadn’t been burned re- led the NFL with 15 touchdowns. Ernie Green they did, the crowd was raging up and opened, allowing residents again to gained another 750 to help fill the void left by down the street. Jim Brown’s retirement. But the Browns fin- buy necessities. ished second to the New York Giants in the Tuesday night was a repeat of Mon- A stricken city asked: “Why did it Eastern Division. The Giants, in turn, lost the day. Now Mayor Ralph Locher called happen?” for the National Guard. By morning, NFL championship to the Green Bay Packers, Police Chief Richard Wagner 275 guardsmen had arrived, the first who went on to defeat the American Football blamed agitators and especially of 1,700 under the command of Col. League champion Kansas City Chiefs in the Lewis Robinson’s JFK (Jomo Free- Robert Canterbury. They were too first Super Bowl. dom Kenyatta) House for youths.It late to help Percy Giles, a 36-year-old was,Wagner charged, a “bomb • lakes sailor who had volunteered to school.” A hastily called grand jury help a friend protect his business.He Alex “Shondor” Birns, who had beaten a agreed that outsiders and agitators was shot and killed on Hough Ave. at gambling charge in 1965 when Judge Hugh were to blame. Corrigan threw out the search warrant that 8:55 p.m. was the basis for the evidence, wasn’t so lucky Guard patrols brought peace dur- Residents saw some strangers with in 1966. He was convicted of making false ing the day Wednesday. At night the out-of-state license plates were statements to the Internal Revenue Service. fires broke out again, and they spread among the rioters, but said most of One of Birns’ associates,Donald “the Kid” to other neighborhoods.At 3:30 a.m. the rioters were neighborhood youths King, was also in the news. The future wild- Thursday, Sam Winchester, 54, was spoiling for a chance to vent their haired boxing impresario was convicted of walking to catch a bus at E. 116th St. rage against the system. As a black second-degree murder for stomping one of his and Kinsman Ave. when he was shot lawyer, referring to the kerchiefs the employees to death. to death. youths wore over their pomaded hair, put it: “There is no Negro leadership. Twelve police and 12 others were PLAIN DEALER FILES The leadership in Hough today is the injured. By now, the riots in West Scenes from six days of anger and destruction: Top, the National Guard on LOOKINGATAYEAR Chicago had eased and the national ‘do-rag’ kid.” patrol; a major fire burns on Crawford Rd.; and Deanne Towns sits in the Jan. 12: A Louisville draft board refuses to media were pouring into Cleveland, consider a request to grant a draft exemption to the dismay of the Chamber of Com- McGunagle is a free-lance writer front seat of a car after she was wounded as she and her family tried to to heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad merce. in Cleveland. escape the rioting. Ali. In April, Ali is stripped of his title for re- fusing to join the armed forces. Jan. 27: Astronauts Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee are killed when their Apollo I spacecraft catches fire on the launch- pad at Cape Kennedy, Fla. A new verdict for Sam Sheppard June 28: Israel wins the Six-Day War with “The massive, pervasive and preju- Although Blythin barred prospec- was the Warren Court, which was In the first trial, Coroner Samuel its Arab enemies. dicial publicity attending petitioner’s tive witnesses from the courtroom, taking strong stands on defendants’ Gerber had said a bloody impression Aug. 1: Black power advocates H. Rapp prosecution prevented him from re- they could read verbatim testimony rights. on Marilyn’s pillowcase showed the Brown and Stokely Carmichael call for a black ceiving a fair trial consistent with the in the newspapers, as well as stories The second trial began Nov. 1, with death weapon appeared to be a surgi- revolution in the . Due Process clause of the 14th about evidence that was never pres- the jury sequestered from the begin- cal instrument; Sheppard was a sur- Amendment.” ented in court. Jurors were not se- ning. Judge Francis Talty set strict geon. Gerber did not mention the Aug. 30: Thurgood Marshall becomes the questered until deliberation, and then rules for the few reporters allowed in bloodstain now. On cross- first black to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. That alliterative statement, read by the courtroom. Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark on they were allowed to make unsuper- examination, he had to say he had Oct. 16: Singer Joan Baez is arrested during vised phone calls. The prosecution case went quickly. searched the nation and could find no June 6, made Sam Sheppard legally For reasons not made clear, Susan an anti-war protest in California. an innocent man 12 years after he Walter Winchell broadcast a report surgical instrument that matched the that a New York woman said she had Hayes was not called to testify about bloodstain. Dec. 21: Louis Washkansky of South Africa, was convicted of murdering his wife, her affair with Sheppard and his talk borne Sheppard’s child. The court the world’s first heart transplant patient, dies Marilyn. He had spent 10 of those of divorcing his wife. The case went to the jury after 18 days after receiving the heart of a 25-year- years in prison. said that when defense attorney Wil- Unlike Corrigan, F. Lee Bailey had lunch on Nov. 16. The verdict came at liam Corrigan protested that 20 ju- 9:20 p.m.: not guilty. old woman. Speaking for eight of the nine jus- an expert defense witness —Dr. Paul rors could have heard it, Blythin Leland Kirk, who impressed the jury Sheppard started to jump to his Born: Boris Becker, Sandra Bullock, Pam- tices, Clark recited a list of errors by should have done more than say, ela Anderson. trial judge Edwin Blythin. with his analysis of blood spatter in- feet, but his lawyers restrained him “Well, even so, Mr. Corrigan, how are dicating the killer was left-handed; until the judge left the courtroom. Died: American poets and authors Carl The judge let newspapers publish you ever going to prevent these Sheppard was right-handed. He Then he stood and called for his wife, Sandburg and Langston Hughes; film stars the names and addresses of jurors be- things in any event?” found blood that was neither Sam’s Arianne — just like a fictional Rocky Spencer Tracy, Vivien Leigh, Basil Rathbone, fore the trial. “As a consequence, Many of the “errors” had been nor Marilyn’s and said Marilyn had 10 years later, standing in the ring Claude Rains and Jayne Mansfield; American anonymous letters and telephone standard practice in 1954, and had bitten the killer’s hand, causing it to calling, “Adrienne.” nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, calls, as well as calls from friends, been upheld by appeals courts under bleed heavily; Sheppard had no ex- Jack Ruby, magazine magnate Henry Luce. were received by prospective jurors.” the laws in effect at the time. But this ternal bleeding. — Fred McGunagle