THE PLAIN DEALER . SUNDAY, MAY 16, 1999 5-D OURCENTURY 1967

ATA GLANCE Stokes wins over a city

By Fred McGunagle The wild celebration had spilled out into W. 6th St. and Superior Ave. when Ralph Locher arrived. The main floor of the Rockefeller Build- ing was a madhouse, with happy sup- porters of jammed to- gether, cheering. Bands played and flashbulbs popped. Detectives had to lower their shoulders to push through the mass of humanity, with Locher pressing be- PLAIN DEALER FILES hind. The few who noticed him looked Police climb over protesters at Oberlin startled, then grinned even more College. broadly. “I want to congratulate Carl Stokes for winning as he has,” Locher told Clevelanders join the crowd when he finally reached the stage. “ is a great city anti-war protests which will become greater in the years ahead.” Eleven busloads of Clevelanders joined thousands of other Vietnam War protesters — The crowd — mostly black but with between 35,000 and 150,000, depending on a number of whites —- cheered more who did the estimating — for a march on loudly. Somebody started a chorus of Washington in October. On one side were paci- “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow,” over- fists, “flower children,” black nationalists and looking years of hard feelings. An- college students from Maine to Texas. On the other knot forced its way through the other were 6,000 troops, with 20,000 on alert at crowd toward the stage. It was Stokes nearby bases. and his wife, Shirley, to shake hands Among the first to be arrested was author with Locher. As Locher left, Sal Gum- Norman Mailer. Among the last were 240 mings’ Dixieland Band started play- “barefoot hippies and mini-skirted teenage ing outside, and the crowd danced in girls” who briefly broke through the lines into the Pentagon. “The purpose was to confront the street. the warmakers and we did this,” said Sally In the largest vote ever for a Cleve- Chaney of Cleveland Heights, a member of land primary, Stokes had won the SANE and Women Strike for Peace. Democratic mayoral nomination with A week later, students surrounded Navy re- 110,000 votes to 92,000 for Locher cruiters at Oberlin College and refused to let and 8,500 for Frank Celeste, the for- But the ballots still un- them out of their car until police rescued them counted were from black with tear gas and fire hoses. About 100 stu- mer Lakewood mayor. Although precincts. Slowly, Stokes dents staged a sit-in at Peters Hall. Locher had piled up big margins in climbed closer. When the Former Alabama Gov. George Wallace, a some wards — winning North Broad- unofficial count was candidate for president in 1968, declared in a way 10-1, for example — a sizable complete, it was 129,825 November speech in Cleveland that opposition number of whites had voted for for Stokes, 128,238 for to the war was treason and that war protesters Stokes. Blacks had voted solidly for Taft. Stokes walked out should be jailed. Stokes. In Hough, site of the previous in front of his happy but year’s riots, the mood was happy and exhausted followers. “I • calm. Black militant Fred “Ahmed” can say to all of you,” he The war was having another effect, how- Evans was standing at E. 89th St. and said, “that never before ever. The Growth Board reported in May that Superior Ave. with some of his fol- have I ever known the employment in Northeast Ohio stood at a re- lowers to make sure it stayed that full meaning of the words cord 1.1 million. Unemployment was down to way. As a police car cruised by, ‘God bless America.’ ” 2.7 percent.A total of 71 manufacturers had Evans raised his arm in a salute. Stokes quickly an- moved into the area in the previous year, “Peace!” he said. bringing 865 new jobs. Only five had moved nounced his choices for out, but those took away 1,300 jobs. safety director, Joseph But the election was far from over. McManamon, a lawyer In December the 5-year-old Growth Board, The city charter had changed once a job-retention organization, and the 119-year- and former policeman; more to partisan elections. In six and police chief, Inspec- old Cleveland Chamber of Commerce merged weeks, Stokes would face Seth Taft, a into a new organization. Reflecting the opti- tor Michael Blackwell, a young civic leader who was the colorful veteran of the mism of the day, it was called the Greater grandson of President William How- Cleveland Growth Association. department. Both were ard Taft. Taft challenged Stokes to a white. series of four debates and Stokes im- • But his inauguration The University-Euclid Urban Renewal mediately accepted. was thrown into doubt Project, scheduled to take five years, reached Stokes moved quickly to round up when the first day of the its fifth birthday in February with few of its key support from the Democratic recount showed him los- goals attained, largely because the city was Party and the Cleveland Federation ing 1,000 of his 2,500- lagging in land acquisition and rehabilitation. of Labor, both of which had backed vote margin. Older projects such as Gladstone and East Locher in the primary. He assured The final tally showed Woodland were also well behind schedule. Stokes ahead by 1,679. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban nationality newspaper editors that he Development froze Cleveland’s urban-renewal would not take orders from Martin He took the oath the following Mon- funds, halting plans for new projects such as Luther King Jr., who had organized day, as required by the charter, in the Near West Side and Fairfax. A. Dean voter-registration drives in black front of 1,000 people jammed into the Swartzel, HUD’s regional director, declared: neighborhoods. council chamber. “Our cities are the “Cleveland’s plan was essentially good. But battleground on which American civ- The debates showed little disagree- plans are merely things on paper. You have to ilization is now engaged in a struggle ment, though Stokes favored the sale have an organization to carry them out. There for survival,” he told them. is where the failure was, in managerial capac- of Muny Light and Taft opposed it. ity and ability.” Taft called for programs to solve the The following night, The Plain The Businessmen’s Interracial Committee poverty and housing problems that Dealer reported, “some 6,000 people joined in the criticism. Its chairman, as Mayor had brought on the riots. Though he — suburban matrons, Cleveland la- Ralph Locher couldn’t help noticing, was was warmly received in usually Dem- borers, Negroes and whites — cele- Ralph Besse, president of the Illuminating Co., ocratic nationality neighborhoods, he brated through the early hours of the who was steaming at Locher’s refusal to raise issued strict orders against race- morning at Public Hall to inaugurate Muny Light rates to match CEI’s. “They can oriented campaigning and fired cam- the new mayor with the first such in- say what they want in the national magazines paign workers who violated them. about us,” Locher told a council committee. augural ball in the city’s 171-year his- “Urban renewal is part of a great forward A Plain Dealer poll a week before tory.” They paid $5 to $100, which thrust for the city.” the election showed Stokes with 50.14 was used to buy clothes for needy percent and Taft with 49.86 percent. children. • The outcome would be decided on The Indians had a rookie manager, Joe Ad- whose supporters turned out in In Paris, Le Monde called Stokes’ cock, with instructions to stress fundamentals. greater numbers. election “an important victory for The team was fundamentally bad, finishing supporters of integration.” Time last for the first time since 1914. Steve Hargan On Sunday, a snowstorm struck magazine put him on its cover, noting was the top pitcher at 14-13, and first baseman Northeast Ohio, dumping 24 inches the election of “Carl Burton Stokes, Tony Horton the top hitter at .281. Attendance on Ashtabula County. Despite the great-grandson of a slave, over Seth fell by 27 percent to 667,000 — lowest in the wintry weather, the turnout two days Taft, grandson of a president.” It majors, according to Russell Schneider’s later was heavy. The candidates noted the “double-breasted suits, “Cleveland Indians Encyclopedia.” At sea- sweated out the count at their head- son’s end, President Gabe Paul fired the be- quarters. So did reporters from as far monogrammed (CBS) shirts and An- PLAIN DEALER FILES fuddled Adcock and hired Alvin Dark. away as Sweden. tonio y Cleopatra cigars” of the Two ex-Browns — Paul and Jim — were “stage-handsome Stokes.” From top: Carl Stokes on the campaign trial, above, and with his wife, voted into the Hall of Fame. The 1967 Browns Taft took an early lead. By mid- Shirley, at the victory celebration, and with the men he defeated — Ralph won the Century Division, one of four now in night, with the vote mostly in, he led Taft told Time that Cleveland was Locher, left, and Seth Taft. the National Football League, but were by 21,000. At 2 a.m. King and Ralph “the least bigoted city in America.” crushed by the Green Bay Packers, 52-14, in Abernathy of the Southern Christian Business and civic leaders, who had the first round of the playoffs. Milt Morin and Leadership Conference joined Stokes winced at national coverage of the Ghetto residents, too, saw a new era Paul Warfield scored on Frank Ryan passes and Cleveland’s urban- arriving. They had elected a black at the Rockefeller Building. At 2:30, McGunagle is a Cleveland free- for the two Browns touchdowns. they got word that Taft was going to renewal failure, basked in its revived mayor. Soon all their problems would lance writer. Clevelanders got a chance to see the top make a victory statement. He didn’t. “image” as a bastion of brotherhood. be behind them. sport in most of the world in the summer. The Cleveland Stokers — known as the Stoke City 11 back in England during the rest of the year — took the field, er, pitch, at the Stadium. At- tendance averaged just over 5,000 for six home soccer games. LOOKINGATAYEAR • As the year began, the government- appointed Commission on the Year 2000 re- Jan. 12: A Louisville draft board March 9: Svetlana Alliluyeva, Aug. 30: Thurgood Marshall be- Born: Boris Becker, Sandra Bul- refuses to consider a request to grant ported on what life was likely to be like at the daughter of the late Soviet dictator comes the first black justice of the lock, Pamela Anderson. turn of the millennium. Among the develop- a draft exemption to heavyweight Josef Stalin, defects to the United U.S. Supreme Court. ments: international rocket travel, abundant boxing champion Muhammad Ali. In States. thermonuclear energy, farming in the oceans, April, Ali is stripped of his title for re- Oct. 16: Singer Joan Baez is ar- Died: Poets and authors Carl Sand- rested during an anti-war protest in burg and Langston Hughes; film stars mining on the moon, laboratories in space — fusing to join the armed forces. June 28: Israel wins the Six-Day California. Spencer Tracy, Vivien Leigh, Basil and decision-making by computer. War with its Arab enemies. Cleveland would be part of “Chipitt,” a me- Jan. 27: Astronauts Virgil Grissom, Dec. 21: Louis Washkansky of Rathbone, Claude Rains and Jayne tropolis stretching from Chicago to Pittsburgh, Edward White and Roger Chaffee are Aug. 1: Black power advocates H. South Africa, the world’s first heart Mansfield; American nuclear physi- which would be second in population only to killed when their Apollo 1 spacecraft Rapp Brown and Stokely Carmichael transplant patient, dies 18 days after cist J. Robert Oppenheimer; Jack “Boswash” on the Atlantic Coast. catches fire on the launch pad at Cape call for a black revolution in the receiving the heart of a 25-year-old Ruby; magazine magnate Henry Kennedy, Fla. . woman. Luce.