Blog post outline:
Written
primary source 1:
MLA citation: Bonda, Alva T. “Letter from Alva T. Bonda to Mr. Richard Peters”. July 15, 1969. MS 4501, 63, 4. Western Reserve Historical Society. March 31st, 2017.
Letter from Alva T. Bonda, she asks for a donation of fifteen thousand dollars to go toward PAL. PAL is the Police Athletic League, which is a group looking to gain respect for Police officers in the areas where they would usually be downgraded. As talked about in this letter, the main purpose for PAL is "to restore respect for law and order in deprived area where a police officer is frequently regarded as an enemy...to replace fear and hate with understanding and trust...to enroll them in programs of vocational guidance, citizenship instruction, and leadership training." Mainly targeting the "underprivileged youngsters move from idleness to meaningful activity."
Letter from Alva T. Bonda, she asks for a donation of fifteen thousand dollars to go toward PAL. PAL is the Police Athletic League, which is a group looking to gain respect for Police officers in the areas where they would usually be downgraded. As talked about in this letter, the main purpose for PAL is "to restore respect for law and order in deprived area where a police officer is frequently regarded as an enemy...to replace fear and hate with understanding and trust...to enroll them in programs of vocational guidance, citizenship instruction, and leadership training." Mainly targeting the "underprivileged youngsters move from idleness to meaningful activity."
Written
primary source 2:
MLA citation: Wiles, Daniel B. “Memorandum letter from Daniel B. Wiles to Richard T. Baker, George S. Dively, George J. Grabner, Thomas F. Patton, John W. Reavis and John Sherwin”. June 30th, 1969. 4501, 63-68, 4. Western Reserve Historical Society. April 28th, 2017.
Provided for us here is the information regarding the Cleveland NOW! project and what they are doing to help in the society. Also in the document Daniel B. Wiles is addressing the facts about the complaints he has received from members of the afro committee. For example, "we are opposed to the grant consideration given to the Afro Set headed by Harllel Jones for the purposes of expanding Afro Set headquarters." This a one of the complaints received, they address the question and respond giving them the reason to why it was so called not considered for a grant. "No proposals were submitted by Afro Set on Harllel Jones; and of course, therefore, none were considered." They politely responded with the reason to why there seemed to be some confusion, there was never a proposal sent in to consider. This is not the only thing from this document that helps us understand Cleveland NOW! and what they do. As stated in the document, "Cleveland NOW! participates in the funding of 19 day care centers, 15 of them operated in churches." This shows was Cleveland NOW! was up to and it also shows the good that they were doing for the community.
This is a good document to the research about Cleveland NOW! because it gives solid evidence towards the good that it was doing for the city. Funding 19 different day cares shows a lot, and it shows how much they care for the people. It is truly amazing that we had a group like this, especially at this time because it was a hard time for the Cleveland area and the city had to work together to make sure we were able to build.
Written
primary source 3:
MLA citation: Wiles, Daniel B. “Memorandum to George Grabner”. February 2nd, 1968. 4501, 63-68, 4. Western Reserve Historical Society. April 28th, 2017.
Document from Daniel B. Wiles, goes on to explain the decision made by Mayor Stokes to ask Mr. Dean C. Ostrum to become chairman. Originally he was Vice President and General Council of Ohio Bell. This was not the only person that was invited to be a part of this action. "After this a list of invitations were released by Mayor to prominent civic leaders to become members of the council. Also explained in this paper is that Director Dolph Norton was a main reason to why the 722,988.28 dollars was raised in order to be able to supply operating costs of the 36 programs ran by Cleveland NOW!. "It is my understanding that the Greater Cleveland Associated Foundation through its Director Dolph Norton the responsibility of raising the $722,988.28 estimated to be the 1969 costs for operating these 36 programs."Although he was not able to come up with the total amount that was needed to be paid, he came up with a solid portion of what was needed. He was able to raise an accumulated amount of 415,564.00 dollars to help put towards the funding of the programs. Project A.F.R.O. was a 12 week long cultural and educational project offering employment to 23 youths paying 50 dollars a week and 12 adults being payed anywhere between 75-150 dollars per week. In total costing 31,000 dollars for the entire project and helping many.
Written
primary source 4:
MLA citation: Wells, Arthur J. "Letter to Daniel B. Wiles”. June 4th 1969. 4501, 63-68, 4. Western Reserve Historical Society. April 28th, 2017.
Another program is talked about to help the youth of the Cleveland area. The program addressed will go by the name of the "Summer Jobs Program", this program would be going on for 13 full weeks, made to help and make sure that people will be able to grow up and function in a job situation. This is made to be a life lesson and a learning experience, so that the kids or whomever don't give up on seeing that they can do stuff in their lives and move onto places. There were three colleges that were helping in the participation of this program. Those being Cleveland State University, Baldwin Wallace and Cuyahoga Community College. "Monies will be paid to the three participating colleges (Cleveland State University, Cuyahoga Community College, and Baldwin Wallace) by check from this account and copies of checkstubs will be available for your inspection upon request."
The important message to understand is that it showed that we were doing something as a city to make sure we could help those who needed help. The fact that these three major colleges were helping as well is pretty amazing. Being a student of Cuyahoga Community College, knowing that the school was a help to the community and a program this big is awesome. Not only was this program really helping the society but it was supplying jobs, 18 coaches would be hired and either payed 2.75/hour or payed 110 dollars for a 40 hour work week. Supplying jobs to those who need the extra money while helping those who needed help.
Written
primary source 5:
MLA citation: Wiles, Daniel B. “Letter to William Hale from Daniel B. Wiles”. June 17th 1970. 4501, 63-68, 4. Western Reserve Historical Society. April 28th, 2017.
Letter From Daniel talks about how he is going to be sending more money to the Mr. Hale to help with the University of Life. "We are, therefore, attaching check for 6,550.00 from Cleveland NOW private funds which is one-half of the original amount funded." Supplying the program with half of the money requested to start them off and if successful the rest would be funded to ensure that the program can move onward. "Best wishes on the success of your program", this showed that Cleveland NOW! cared for these groups, they wanted to help as much as they could. The importance of this letter, even though it is short, it shows what Cleveland NOW! was about. They were for the society, they wanted things to get better and when they saw a program that they thought had potential they helped where they could. Knowing that so many groups formed from the Cleveland NOW! project is tremendous and just so satisfying to know what was going on in this time period.
Written
primary source 6:
MLA citation: Stokes, Carl B. “Cleveland NOW! Report to the Citizens of Cleveland”. March 23rd 1970. 4501, 63-68, 4. Western Reserve Historical Society. April 28th, 2017.
"At that time this community embarked on a program involving all of us in working toward the improvements of our city." Though-out this document it talks about Stokes plans to help the community. "In preparing the program, experts determined that the total rehabilitation of Cleveland would take 10 to 12 years and cost $1.5 billion over and above normal city expenditures." He addressed the situation about the reform of the city of Cleveland. Summing up that everyone was going to have to help if they wanted to get this done and improve. "Cleveland: NOW! represented our first joint step. Different segments of the community took on different tasks." Also in this document it explained how Cleveland NOW! was one of the first steps towards the creation of a new city. "In the final analysis it is the people who must decide the next phase of Cleveland: NOW! and it will depend upon them whether or not they will succeed in continuing a second phase to raise the city to a level of excellence of which we can all be proud." Stating what he believes in, which happens to be the truth, if you want something to change there has to be more than one person trying to accomplish the task in hand. This document helped and still helps the community today in being able to be educated on the topics and actions taken at this time to recreate the city of Cleveland.
Photographs
(4-5): Pictures 1-8 all came from the same box (box 4), the reasoning for these pictures is because each and everyone one of them are pictures of actual newspaper articles during the time period of this project and Carl B. Stokes. The pictures are self explanatory, some of them not having what I talked about with my primary sources but still being crucial information that helps us understand what was going in at the time. If it be just in society or even from the newspapers how the press was reacting to situations going on.
Western Reserve Historical Society. Box number 4, MS number 4501, Folder 63-68
Western Reserve Historical Society. Box number 4, MS number 4501, Folder 63-68
Western Reserve Historical Society. Box number 4, MS number 4501, Folder 63-68
Western Reserve Historical Society. Box number 4, MS number 4501, Folder 63-68
Western Reserve Historical Society. Box number 4, MS number 4501, Folder 63-68
Western Reserve Historical Society. Box number 4, MS number 4501, Folder 63-68
Western Reserve Historical Society. Box number 4, MS number 4501, Folder 63-68
Western Reserve Historical Society. Box number 4, MS number 4501, Folder 63-68
Picture of Carl B. Stokes, the First Mayor the be African American in a Major city.
Carl B. Stokes headquarters, where he ran for Mayor for the City of Cleveland. Sign saying Stokes For Mayor.
Secondary
sources (3) online articles, books, journal articles.
Case Western. STOKES, CARL B. -. The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Article. Case Western University. May 2013. May 2017. http://ech.cwru.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=SCB2
This article just gives us the outline of what Carl B. Stokes was about. It talks about how he was as a person and the stuff he achieved in his life. Not only was he the first African American of a major city, he was a man willing to fight for his country. Mr. Stokes joined the United States Army at the age of 18 willing to go in and die for his country. As Mayor he served 3 terms, until he lost the election in 1965, being throw out of office. There is a reason he was around for 3 terms, he was a great man only looking for the advancement of Cleveland. With the funding and the amount of time he put into youth programs, evolving the city and etc, he established Cleveland as it is today. He forever changed the vision that people had on the city of Cleveland.
The truly amazing thing about Mr. Stokes is that he was a man that was there for change, not just because he could be. Instead of just being someone who didn't do anything for the society, he stepped up and came to help the city of Cleveland when it needed help. "He was awarded 12 honorary degrees, numerous civic awards, and represented the United States on numerous goodwill trips abroad by request of the White House. In 1970, the National League of Cities voted him its first black president-elect." He was a man that not only changed such a major city, but a man who also helped the fight for equality for all races. He showed that the African American community was fully capable of being put into the same boat as any other race and doing just as good if not better in some circumstances.
Berry, Toni. The Afro Set. Cleveland Historical. Article. Cleveland Historical. December 12, 2016. April 2017. https://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/777#.WQ57JVPyuCQ
In this article, it goes into detail about what exactly the Afro Set program was. This article mainly just helps to inform the society about the back round and events that happened with the program. This was allowed and carried out by Mayor Carl B. Stokes, in the purpose of granting grants to programs in need and making the urban experience a more enjoyable process. Not only did this create jobs for youth, it sold African American cultural items as well. Sadly though, most African Americans that were a part of this were seen as violent and harmful even though it was not a majority of them, it was only a couple of people acting out.
Conclusion:
This research has not only widened my mind to what has happen in Cleveland but it has completely informed me on so much that I had no clue about. Well for starters I had no clue that Cleveland was the first city to have an African American Mayor. Coming into this project, I had absolutely no clue about any of this, and that Mr. Stokes even existed. To be able to flip through and look at documents that were actually around at this time (even though technically it is not that old) was amazing, I got to hold history with my own hands and conduct a research not done yet. It amazes me that so many are in the dark about Cleveland's history. I asked a solid 10 of my friends if they have even heard about any of the things talked about and they did not. So many times now-a-days we are learning about stuff that did not even happen in the United States, missing out on all of this crucial information about the city I grew up so close to.
In a way, yes I do believe that civil rights has improved, you do still see a lot of racist actions. Although, the steps that have been made in the last 40-50 years is incredible. I can't even begin to imagine the hard times people had to go through in the 1900's, it almost makes me sick to think about how many people believed that, that was the way to treat human beings. I believe that in today's society racial equality is getting better and better. You do not see as much as you use to.
