Understanding the Collection
Cleveland Voices contains a wide range of interviews of varying provenance. Interviews are organized into dedicated collections. This guide provides an overview of the different types of collections.
Read the GuideResearch Guides
African American Experience
Cleveland Voices includes many interviews with African American men and women, who recount their experiences and accomplishments in the Cleveland area, illustrating themes of both struggle and success.
Read the GuideWomen's Experience
Women’s experiences in history too often remain untold. Cleveland Voices features interviews with many women, highlighting their varied experiences, from raising families to piloting airplanes, participating in politics, and much more.
Read the GuideFeatured Collections
Protest Voices
The Protest Voices series is a collection of oral history interviews with Catholic peace activists in Northeast Ohio. Interviews were conducted during the Protest Voices: Using Activist Oral Histories to Teach Historical Thinking Undergraduate Summer Research Award in 2016, focusing on Anti-Vietnam protests and Catholic activism surrounding US- involvement in El Salvador in the 1980s. Clips were then associated with Ohio Department of Education Social Studies Content Standards at…
LGBTQ+ Cleveland
This collection features oral history interviews with LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Same-Gender Loving) community members, leaders, and activists in the greater Cleveland area. Interviews explore the history of Cleveland’s LGBTQ+ communities, groups, organizations, places, and spaces both past and present. Interviews in this collection were conducted by Riley Habyl, a graduate student at Cleveland State University Department of History, beginning in the summer of 2023.…
Near West Side Community Activism
The interviews in this series were conducted by Bali White, a graduate student in the Cleveland State University Department of History. The collection reflects a collaboration with Michael Fiala and the Cleveland Catholic Worker. Along with a core focus on housing justice work on Cleveland’s Near West Side (including advocacy for affordable housing through the Near West Housing Corporation, Ohio City Near West Development Corporation, and Cuyahoga Community Land Trust, and hospitality and…
Featured Interviews
Charles V. Williams interview, 08 February 2020
Charles V. Williams is a longtime advocate for the Black Deaf community at both the local, state, and national levels. In this second of two interviews, he discusses his advocacy in the Black Deaf community from the 1970s to the present, including volunteering at the Cleveland Society for the Blind, his efforts for greater inclusivity in the provisions of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, getting closed captioning added for the 1980 Democratic National Convention, creating an interpreter training…
Ed Ferenc Interview, 06 August 2014
This interview was conducted as part of Cleveland State University's 50th anniversary commemoration. Ed Ferenc is a lifelong Clevelander. Born on the city's east side, Ferenc moved Seven Hills where he attended Shiloh Junior High and Normandy High School. Ferenc initially enrolled at CSU as an Electrical Engineering student but soon switched his major to Communications. He was part of the campus radio station WCSU and began working at WMMS while still a student at Cleveland State. At WMMS Ferenc…
Jearl Walker Interview, 01 October 2014
Jearl Walker is a professor in the physics department at Cleveland State University, joining the faculty in 1973. Walker is originally from Fort Worth, Texas and attended MIT in Boston for his undergraduate studies. After graduation he enrolled at the University of Maryland where he earned his PhD and landed a book deal for his technical report titled, The Flying Circus of Physics. Walker became well known for his unorthodox teaching techniques that have involved walking on hot coals, dipping…