THE PLAIN DEALER . SUNDAY, MAY 23, 1999 5-D OURCENTURY 1968 ATA GLANCE Glenville goes up in flames Blood, protest By Fred McGunagle and upheaval Burning and looting spread across Only once in the 87 years of the City Club the nation. Chicago, Boston, Pitts- Forum has a speaker been promised that there burgh and Baltimore were in flames. would be no questions from the audience. It At least 24 people had been killed, may have been the most dramatic forum ever. 1,000 injured and 700 arrested. Five The date was April 5, 1968, the day after thousand soldiers were ordered into Martin Luther King’s assassination. The Washington, D.C. speaker was Robert F. Kennedy, brother of the Cleveland was calm. assassinated president and himself a candi- Mayor Carl Stokes was waiting to date for president. give a speech at Roehm Junior High “The victims of violence are black and School in Middleburg Heights on the white, rich and poor, young and old, famous evening of April 4 when he got word and unknown,” Kennedy told a hushed audi- that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King ence. “No one, no matter where he lives, or had been assassinated. He told the what he does, can be certain who next will suf- audience, hurried to his car and fer from some senseless act of bloodshed.” alerted his Cabinet as he sped back to Two months to the day later, Robert Ken- City Hall. nedy was dead, the victim of an assassin’s bul- All three television stations inter- let. rupted their programming to carry the mayor’s emotional plea: “I appeal • to all Clevelanders to maintain racial A man shot to death during the week of the peace as a testimony to martyred Glenville riots wasn’t counted with the vic- civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther tims, though it turned out later that he was King Jr.” murdered because He then drove to black neighbor- he was black. Folk hoods and spent the night calming singer Tedd crowds on street corners. So did other Browne had ap- black leaders, including members of the Indians and the Browns. peared on the Jack For three nights, while other cities Paar and Mike burned, Stokes cruised the streets, Douglas television talking headstrong youths into going shows and sung at home. Cleveland’s calm was hailed President Lyndon around the nation. Johnson’s inaugu- Business leaders congratulated ral ball. He was themselves on having backed the found in his car at right man. Stokes had “kept the lid the top of Cedar on.” Hill, where he had Taking advantage of the opportu- been shot while nity, Stokes started a program called Tedd Browne waiting for a traffic “Cleveland Now” to raise $11 million light. from businesses and individuals and Bishop-elect William Cosgrove was the prin- up to $1.5 billion from foundations PLAIN DEALER FILE cipal celebrant at the crowded funeral Mass. and the government for housing and As Browne’s casket was carried out, the words social programs. The response was Fires burn out of control on July 23. Below left, Fred “Ahmed” Evans. Below right, a riot-equipped Cleveland Police of Bob Dylan filled the church: “Yes, and how enthusiastic. Blacks were overjoyed. officer stands guard on July 24 at E. 105th St. and Superior Ave. while firefighters extinguish a blaze. Bottom, many deaths will it take till he knows that too Even when the National Guard had to police officers leave a memorial service for slain colleagues. many people have died? The answer, my be called into Akron in July, they friend, is blowin’ in the wind ...” “kept cool for Carl.” The case would be solved eight years later. Then came the night of July 23, a Tuesday. • It came out later that the FBI had It was a tumultuous spring. On the same reports that an uprising was planned for Cleveland, Akron and Youngs- day that 87,000 people marched in New York town. In particular, police were to protest racism and the war in Vietnam, watching the house of Fred “Ahmed” 2,000 gathered for a similar demonstration on Evans on Edmonton Ave. But two the Mall in Cleveland. The national protests cars of white detectives, rather than came to a violent climax in August, when Chi- moving around as had been advised, cago police beat demonstrators outside the were parked in view of Evans and his Democratic convention in Chicago. followers. They responded by appear- The election was peaceful but close. Ohio’s ing with rifles and bandoleers. The 20 electoral votes helped Republican Richard tinder was in place. Nixon, who had been Dwight Eisenhower’s The match was struck at 8:25 when vice president, edge Democrat Hubert Hum- a police tow truck, responding to a phrey, Lyndon Johnson’s vice president. complaint made earlier in the day, John Gilligan had ended Frank Lausche’s stopped on Beulah Ave. to pick up an long political career with an upset victory in abandoned auto. Shots rang out. Sud- the Democratic Senate primary, but Republi- denly, bullets were flying every- can William Saxbe defeated Gilligan in No- where. It was urban warfare. Evans’ vember, largely because Gilligan trailed other men took over a minister’s house on Democrats in Cuyahoga County. Lakeview Rd. and fired at police who A redistricting led to a shake-up in Con- raced to the scene with sirens gress. Louis Stokes, the mayor’s brother, was screaming. In the next hour, seven people were spread looting. elected from the redrawn 21st District. “We merchants are being sacri- Charles Vanik, who had represented the 21st killed — three policemen, three sus- pects and a civilian who apparently ficed to appease the looters,” said District for 14 years, ran against Frances P. Benjamin Weiss as he surveyed his Bolton, who had represented the 22nd District tried to drag a wounded policeman to safety. Then Evans sent word he wrecked furniture store on St. Clair. for 28. Vanik won. Cleveland voters passed wanted to surrender and came out Ave. Mayor Carl Stokes’ $100 million bond issue for with his hands high. “I begged the National Guard and water pollution control. “If my rifle hadn’t jammed, I would the police to help me, but they said • have killed you three,” he told his ar- they weren’t allowed,” said Leonard resters. “I had you in my sights when Kramer at his looted clothing store on After 35 years, Ernest Bohn, “the father of the trigger jammed.” E. 105th. public housing,” retired as director of the Mayor Stokes went on television The American Civil Liberties Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority. again. “Go home if you are on the Union and others praised Stokes’ han- Bohn had drawn criticism in recent years for streets,” he pleaded. “If you are in- dling of the uprising. Chief Blackwell sticking to “old-fashioned” projects such as side, stay inside and keep your doors said an informant told him afterward Dike-Park (now King-Kennedy), then under locked so that we can contain the situ- that if white police had gone in “they construction at E. 66th St. and Woodland Ave., ation.” would have been mowed down” by and in particular for not building in white This time, it didn’t work. In what snipers with tripod-mounted machine neighborhoods. one witness called “instant insanity,” guns. The CMHA board chose as director Irving burning and looting spread along the But public sentiment turned Kriegsfeld, who as director of the civic group main streets of Glenville. By daylight, against Stokes — especially after it Plan of Action for Tomorrow’s Housing had four more were dead. More than 200 was revealed that Evans’ African Cul- been one of Bohn’s critics. Kriegsfeld immedi- people suddenly were homeless. tural Shop had received $10,000 in ately moved to put public housing in white Stokes had called for the National Cleveland Now funds. areas and ran into a firestorm. Guard at the onset of violence. Now, The Rev. DeForest Brown, presi- on Wednesday morning, he met with dent of the Hough Area Council, said, • police and guard officials and then “The funds allocated to Ahmed were with black leaders. He ordered a cur- part of a sincere effort to give him A year after Joe Adcock led the Indians to a few and 24-hour ban on liquor sales. and his associates the opportunity to last-place finish, manager Alvin Dark raised The black leaders urged him to allow work in a positive way in the commu- the 1968 team to third place. The team batting blacks to enforce it while police cor- nity.” But police said Evans admitted average was only .235, with 131 home runs in doned off the area. using some of the money to buy guns. 161 games. But Luis Tiant won 21 games and Over objections of the guard, he Gradually, calm returned. The last led the league with an earned run average of agreed. “The program is primarily in of the guardsmen left on Sunday. 1.60. Sam McDowell won 15 while, as usual, the black community and the black Hundreds of police marched to St. leading the league in strikeouts and walks. community will handle it,” he said. John the Evangelist Cathedral for the Cleveland, Cuyahoga County and the state But then he decided black police funeral of their slain comrades. Mon- paid $120,000 for a study of the feasibility of a should be allowed in the riot area, signor A. James Quinn told them, domed stadium. The architect in charge sug- and black reporters — but not white “Martyrdom was a possibility they cially on City Council.