Lanterna Rally

Author: Leonard Nathaniel Moore

Publisher:

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 782

ISBN-13:

Abstract: This dissertation examines the growth and development of Cleveland's black community from 1945-1971. Part I, "The Search for Power," is essentially a community study of black Cleveland from 1945-1967, while Part II, "The Limits of Power," looks at the historic mayoral career of Carl B. Stokes, the first black mayor of a major American city. The twenty-six year period after World War II represented a period of increased militancy and political ascension for Cleveland's black poor. With the large influx of southern migrants paralleling the structural changes in Cleveland's economy, the atmosphere greeting those in search of better living and working conditions was anything but the promised land. Upon arrival black southerners found a constrained housing market, large-scale job discrimination, inferior educational policies, and unfair police protection. But the black poor did not sit idly by during this period of increased repression. Inspired to some extent by the southern drive for voting rights and integration, they employed various protest strategies in their quest to enjoy the full measure of their civil and political rights. By staging rallies, conducting sit-ins, picketing, and by holding rent strikes, they brought much needed attention to their socio-economic. Later, when the black poor resorted to violent protest, city officials could no longer ignore their complaints. While many members of the community employed extra-legal protest methods, there was also a strong emphasis placed upon voter registration and participation. Although blacks in Cleveland had long held the right to vote, the small percentage of the population often did not allow them the opportunity to place meaningful pressure on local politicians. But even when blacks gained representation in Cleveland City Council, black councilpersons rarely took a strong civil rights stance. As conditions for the black poor continued to deteriorate in the 1960s they began to strategize at the voting booth, with hopes of placing in office politicians sympathetic to their experience. The chief recipient of this political consciousness was Carl Burton Stokes, a native Clevelander, who was quite familiar with the conditions of the working-poor. Throughout his early political career as a State Representative, Stokes built up quite a reputation as an advocate for the black poor. This signaled to black voters that he did not represent a sell-out risk to the city's political and business establishment. As the first black mayor of a major city, Stokes considered his election a logical extension of the civil rights movement. Upon taking office in 1967 he pledged to use his power to improve the lives of black Clevelanders through scattered-site public housing, a reformed police department, and increased job opportunities, undergirded by the total redevelopment of Cleveland's neglected inner-city. But in carrying out his political agenda Stokes faced considerable opposition. Throughout the course of his two-term four-year tenure Stokes was constantly opposed by a city council which blocked much of his legislative agenda, and an equally defiant police department which effectively resisted many of his reforms. Stokes also received consistent criticism from many members of the black middle-class who successfully contested Stokes' efforts to place public housing in their communities. Moreover, the black middle-class was also steady in its disapproval of Stokes' favorable relationship with local black nationalist figures. With these obstacles in place Stokes was largely unsuccessful in achieving his political goals. He gained firsthand knowledge of the limits of black power.