Karamu House, Garrett Morgan, Jesse Owens and Carl Stokes.
Karamu House
In 1915 Russell and Rowena Jelliffe opened the Neighborhood Association on Cleveland's east side, the beginning of Karamu House. It is the oldest producing Black theater in the United States. Langston Hughes, who went to Central High School in Cleveland and wrote his first jazz poem there, later developed and premiered many of his plays at Karamu.
Garrett Morgan
The inventor Garrett Morgan built a safety hood that protected its wearer from smoke. In 1916, when workers were trapped in a water intake tunnel beneath Lake Erie, he and his brother used the hoods to go in and bring men out. In 1920 he founded the Cleveland Call, a weekly newspaper that later merged into the Call and Post, and in 1923 he patented a three-position traffic signal, selling the rights to General Electric.
Jesse Owens
Jesse Owens was nine when his family moved to Cleveland during the Great Migration in search of better opportunities. Charles Riley, his track coach at Fairmount Junior High, encouraged him. He drew national attention running for East Technical High School. At the 1936 Olympics in Berlin he won four gold medals, setting Olympic records in each of his individual events.
Carl Stokes
Carl Stokes grew up in Cleveland's Central neighborhood. On November 7, 1967, he was elected mayor, one of the first Black mayors of a major American city. In office he opened city hall jobs to Black residents and women, and he worked to restore the Cuyahoga River after it caught fire in 1969.
Black Cleveland Today
Cleveland's east side, from Karamu House in Fairfax outward, carries this history, and Black-owned restaurants, salons, shops and brands are part of everyday Cleveland.
Shop Black-owned businesses in Cleveland on CashBlack.
Photo Credits
Karamu House on East 89th Street. Photo: Christopher Busta-Peck, CC BY-SA 1.0, Wikimedia Commons Cleveland City Hall. Photo: Erik Drost, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons