Today in Labor History, July 23, 1968: The Glenville shootout between a Black Militant organization and the Cleveland Police Department occurred.
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Today in Labor History, July 23, 1968: The Glenville shootout between a Black Militant organization and the Cleveland Police Department occurred. Three white cops, three black nationalists, and one black bystander died. The militant organization was called the Black Nationalist of New Libya, led by Fred (Ahmed) Evans. The organization formed in order to combat white supremacy, discrimination, and racist violence against black residents. Evans, who survived the gun battle, and who never fired a shot, was later convicted of murder by an all-white jury, in a trial marred by illegalities and bias. He died of cancer in 1978, while serving a life sentence.
The shoot-out precipitated a riot five-day riot in which two more people would die. Carl Stokes, the African American mayor of Cleveland, refused to allow white police officers to patrol the area during the riots. However, when the local black leaders were unable to quell the protests, Stokes sent in the National Guard. Stokes was the first African American mayor of a major U.S. city.
Leading up to these events were decades of racial discrimination and violence against the black community. In 1966, riots in the Hough neighborhood of Cleveland led to four deaths. In 1964, even after black civil rights groups canceled a planned protest march, white residents still assaulted any African American resident they saw on the streets, while the predominantly white police force stood by and did nothing.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #cleveland #Riot #racism #police #policebrutality #acab #fredevans #blacknationalism #prison #BlackMastodon
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