February is Black History Month

Black Trailblazers, Leaders, Activists, and Intellectuals in Cleveland:
a pathfinder to Black local history

As most readers of this blog know, our Cleveland Memory Project showcases tens of thousands of historical images from the Michael Schwartz Library's Special Collections. One of the very first of these exhibits featured Black Clevelanders, and we celebrated Cleveland Memory's 20th anniversary a couple of years ago by reworking and renaming that original site. Far beyond the original collection of images, the site is a pathfinder to our extensive collections focusing on Black Clevelanders and Black Cleveland history, providing context to these pictures through articles, e-books, audio interviews, speeches, oral histories, and carefully curated links to essential off-site reading. 

A 2020 analysis found Cleveland to be the most ethnically and racially diverse city in Ohio. While Cleveland Memory cannot attempt to serve as a comprehensive history of the Black experience in our city, we are happy to offer this rich sampling of materials that collectively enable us to describe a broader story of half the city's population.  We invite you to explore, and to share your favorite sites for us to add to this constantly-growing resource.

Visit Black Trailblazers, Leaders, Activists, and Intellectuals in Cleveland