Hough Riots Remembered
By Dr. Zachery Williams
Historical Memory:
Beginning on this date in 1966 and extending for six days until July 23rd, one of the most damaging urban rebellions occured in the Hough neighborhood of East Cleveland, Ohio. Known as "Rough Hough," or "the jungle," at the time, unrest due to continuing deplorable social conditions of underdevelopment and poverty, culminated into a tenderbox of frustration, pain, anger, and cries for self-determination.
The following statistics record the aftermath:
1) 4 dead
2) 30 Critically injured
3) 240 fires
4) 30 arrested
5) continuing resentment
6) Millions in property damage
Needless to say, the more things change, the more things stay the same. Not much has changed in East Cleveland and one wonders if Americans, locally or nationally, can truly come to grips with the terror and unresolved legacy of its nation's racial past.
In 1966, one panel charged to investigate the riot, argued that "communists," were responsible for the massive uprising. Another, found that socio-environmental factors, not the least of which were racism (social, environmental) were really to blame. The latter explanation was closer to the fact of the matter.
Forty years later, Hough residents and East Clevelanders have yet to recover from this tragedy. The greater tragedy, however, is the neglect of the residents of this section of the city-their broken, yet dignified humanity still impervious to the view of so many around them. Before there was Katrina, there was Hough. After Katrina, there still remains poverty in Nawlins and there still remains lingering inequality in Hough/East Cleveland.
To gain more insight into contempary remembrances of the riot, click on the following link to NewsChannel 5(http://www.newsnet5.com/video/9531420/index.html) and watch a video narrated by anchor Leon Bibb. Also, know that the Cleveland Call an Post (Acclaimed Black Newspaper) is doing a 2 Full-page spread on the anniversay of the riot.
Other background information on the Hough community and the riots of 1966, go to the following links:
1) http://www.nhlink.net/ClevelandNeighborhoods/
2) http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hough_Riots
Considering the situation in the Middle East and the Hough anniversary-closer to home- the old Negro spiritual is perhaps applicable as we remember and never forget:
"God showed Noah, the rainbow signWon't be water, but-Fire next time..."
Perhaps James Baldwin was prophetic in the writing of his monumental 1963 The Fire Next Time. I wonder, though, if anybody listened.....
In Remembrance,
The Intellectual Pragmatist
-- Dr. Zachery Williams
Department of History
University of AkronAkron, OH 44325
330-972-2402mailto:330-972-2402zrw@uakron.edu
"Of all of our disciplines, history is best qualified to reward our research"
Malcolm X
