Browse Interviews

Near West Side resident Kathleen McDonnell recollects her arrival to the Near West Side and her efforts as a community organizer. McDonnell shares her involvement as a mediator for Cleveland Mediation Center and as an educator on mediation in Euclid High School. She shares her experience dealing with a hazardous waste recycling facility in a residential area and the arrival of lawyers to pressure the Northeast Chemical Corporation to relocate operations away from the neighborhood. McDonnell…

Gloria Aron is a long time Detroit Shoreway community resident. From her first taste of grassroots activism in the struggle to desegregate Cleveland Public Schools, Aron has continued to devote her life to giving back to her fellow man. Aron talks about how there are two sections of Detroit Shoreway and that adequate low-income housing is a major issue plaguing her community. She also discusses why she holds community development organizations in such low-esteem.

Alexander Cook was an editorial cartoonist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He also taught art in Cleveland Public Schools for approximately 25 years. By focusing on his teaching career, he mentions busing desegregation and the noticeable change in students' work ethic and discipline. Cook also makes a distinction between suburban schools and city schools. He served in World War II and describes the experience of being one of the first troops in Japan after the dropping of the atomic bombs.

Joanne Lewis, a native Clevelander, describes what it was like growing up in Cleveland and later Cleveland Heights. She describes what her father did for a living, which provided her and her family a decent lifestyle. She recalls what she used to do for fun like going downtown, using the streetcars, and drinking milkshakes. She talks about the WPA and the various projects it worked on, including Cain Park. She describes her many travels around the world. She also discusses her involvement in the…

Diana Woodbridge grew up in Tucson, Arizona, and Shaker Heights, attended college at Miami University, and taught school for a short time in Painesville, Ohio. She discusses the struggle for fair housing in the Heights in the 1960s-70s and the formation of two key organizations: Forest Hill Housing Corporation and Heights Community Congress.

Susan Kaeser lived in Wisconsin through graduate school. She earned a master of urban planning degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, during which time she met Cleveland City Planning Director Norman Krumholz. Krumholz brought her to Cleveland to serve as a city planner. When she arrived in Cleveland in 1976 she lived first in the Ludlow neighborhood near Shaker Square before moving to Cleveland Heights in 1979. In the interview she discusses how she became a community activist, the…

Gerald Hughes is an African American Clevelander who served within the Cleveland City Schools for many years. He describes his various positions at various schools. He also points out differences and similarities these schools experienced. He recalls how it was to work with the PTA and how important it is to have an active parent base. He recalls the challenges that busing brought to the school district. He then discusses what it was like to live in Cleveland Heights and his fond memories of…

Lana Cowell, a transplant from Youngstown, Ohio, discusses fighting for integration in Cleveland Heights. She begins by talking about her father and how he owned Idora Park in Youngstown. She then explains the push for integration in Cleveland Heights. She describes how the Housing Center at Cleveland Heights began at St. Ann's Church and gives an extensive background. She also discusses, in great detail, the Heights Community Congress. She briefly mentions the business districts of Cleveland…

In this 2012 interview, Geoff Mearns talks about growing up in Shaker and moving back. He spent his high school years in Shaker Heights in the 1970s, and then moved back to raise his kids there. His mother was on city council and then became the first woman to be mayor in Shaker Heights. He talks a little bit about her, as well as his father's involvement in desegregation in Cleveland Schools. Mearns also discusses changes taking place in Shaker today, especially the widening socioeconomic gap…

Venerine Branham discusses her relationship with Louis Stokes, her memories of Cleveland growing up, Carl Stokes, and the desegregation of Cleveland schools.

Venerine Branham, an educator and school administrator in the Cleveland area, talks about growing up in Cleveland housing projects. Throughout the interview, she talks about childhood friends and neighbors Carl and Louis Stokes. Other notable topics included in the interview are desegregation, busing, and the Hough uprising of 1966. At the end of the interview, she reflects on her teaching career and the pleasures of working with children.

James Lanese discusses growing up in Lyndurst and attending private school in Cleveland. Lanese also shares information about his teaching career in a vocational program, and his involvement in the desegreation of Cleveland City Schools. This interview was led by Carol Malone with the assistance of her students, Markita, Angela, Thomas, Debreonya, Jamaal, and Kjimmy.

James and Delia Lanese, both graduates of Cleveland State University (CSU), talk about their experiences inside and outside of the school. He graduated in 1971 and she got her degree in 1970. Both pursued careers in education, Delia became a teacher and Jim eventually became an administrator and adjunct college professor, stopping to work on desegregation along the way. They explain how Vietnam caused problems and headaches for the couple, including a concern of the draft. Finally, they talk…

This 2005 interview of Dargan Burns is a follow up to an earlier interview. In this later interview, Mr. Burns discusses in greater deal his friendship with Martin Luther King, Jr--how, when and where they met, and relates very personal stories about King that illuminate King's personality and magnetism as a young minister going to school in Boston in the early 1950s. In the second part of this interview, Burns discusses his involvement in Cleveland's historic Church of the Covenant. Burns…

In this 2005 interview, Dargan Burns, an African-American discusses his involvement in integration efforts in Cleveland from the 1950s to the present. Burns, born in South Carolina, fought in the Army in World War II, and was educated at the Hampton Institute and Boston University. At BU, he met and became a friend of Martin Luther King, Jr.. He was also a friend of J. Harold Brown, who was very active in Karamu House. In 1954, Burns joined the then white elitist Church of the Covenant as one of…

Judge Burt Griffin discusses in great detail the battle to stop highway construction through the Shaker Heights-Cleveland Heights area, which was seen as a threat to those communities and to the ecological and environmental balance of the Shaker Lakes nature preserve. Griffin discusses the battle, which was driven by grassroots activists (and largely by women), in the context of Shaker Heights' unique history. Details on activist strategies; relevant financial, legal and environmental…

Martha Eakin of the Shaker Lakes Nature Center discusses her mother, Jean Eakin. Jean was a major figure in the battle against highway development through the Shaker Lakes in the 1960s. The grassroots campaign, often referred to as "the freeway fight," was started by Jean Eakin and quickly grew to involve numerous citizens, politicians, and community groups. The role played by Cuyahoga County Commissioner Albert Porter, a major proponent of highway development, is also discussed at length. After…

Pat Stanzel is a lifelong Cleveland resident. She was a "Rosie the Riveter" during World War II. She discusses her time working as the only female in various research labs after the war. After she married she went on to teach and was a teacher at a number of schools in Cleveland. During the busing program designed to desegregate the Cleveland schools, the teaching staff was desegregated first and she was transferred to a school on the east side where she was the only white teacher. She discusses…