Voices from a painful but not-so-distant past echo from a documentary that's part of an exhibition in Cleveland Public Library's Brett Hall in downtown Cleveland.
The family of Booker T. Eddy talks about how police beat the father and Veterans Affairs staffer while he was protesting segregated schools in 1964. Rochelle Gilbert-Cage, who attended Cleveland schools in the 1960s, speaks about overcrowded schools and only being able to attend school for half a day along with thousands of other Black children.
The exhibition and documentary are part of a public history campaign called Relay Cleveland, an exploration of school desegregation in Cleveland. The name comes from the practice Gilbert-Cage describes of Black children attending school on a relay schedule, where they received only half a day of school, instead of a full day.
Leah D. Hudnall, Relay Cleveland's campaign director, walked Ideastream Public Media through the exhibition in December. The campaign comes 50 years after a federal judge ordered school desegregation in the landmark Reed V. Rhodes case in 1976.
"This whole story is about, what have we learned from the last 50 years, and what did it take to get to 1976?" she said. "It took a lot."
The exhibition starts in the 1930s, when tens of thousands of Black families arrived in Cleveland through the Great Migration. It leads up to the present moment, when Cleveland Metropolitan School District is implementing a major consolidation plan called "Building Brighter Futures" with many buildings sitting half-empty after years of enrollment decline.
"So when we talk about 'Building Brighter Futures,' we gotta go back to 1963, 1964. Parents were rightfully upset because they say it's a misuse of taxpayer dollars to build new schools in segregated neighborhoods when we have perfectly good schools in other neighborhoods that need more children," Hudnall explained.
Those parent-led protests occurred as the district sought to build new school buildings in majority Black neighborhoods, which they argued would continue segregation. The district also maintained an "intact busing" policy throughout the 1960s, after the relay policy ended, Hudnall said. Black children and their teachers were bused intact, or together, to majority-white schools, then bused home at the end of the day.
"We have video recordings, audio recordings of seniors now who were children then who still break down in tears about the racial slurs that they heard when they arrived at what they call the 'receiving school,'" Hudnall said, adding that areas like restrooms and cafeterias were still segregated in the years leading up to 1976.
Even after the judge's decision in 1976 that resulted in students being bused throughout the city to address school segregation, the district faced years of challenges. During that time, the district experienced budget crises driven by failed levies, white flight and infighting on the school board, Hudnall said. Ohio mandated a mayoral-appointed school board in 1998.
Hudnall is a third-generation Clevelander, parent of two children and a former Cleveland school board member. She said much of the progress toward desegregation was driven by parent activism. She said that's one lesson that current school leaders and parents should take away from the exhibition.
"When is the last time that a John Marshall (High School) parent has actually sat next to an East Tech (High School) parent?" Hudnall said. "...There's power in coming together."
Much of the art in the exhibition comes from people with connections to Cleveland schools, Hudnall said. A vintage school desk painted by current Cleveland student Joshua M. Gary depicts school buildings divided by a river.
"He (Gary) said that that is to him what stuck out the most, that there's still a East side, West side divide," Hudnall said.
The Relay Cleveland exhibition is on display through the end of February.
