What started as a small enclave around Lee and Seville roads in old Miles Heights would eventually become a groundbreaking community for Blacks living in the Cleveland area. Most African Americans who moved to Northeast Ohio as part of the Great Migration were often subjected to widespread discrimination, espeically in terms of housing options. And, as the great suburbanization wave took hold of urban communities across the country after World War II, most Blacks were shut out of the suburban surge of homebuilding. Dynamic entrepreneurs, community members, and politicians, however, fought the racist system and created their own boom in a vibrant neighborhood over decades. This book tells that story.
From one of the first Black mayors in Ohio — Arthur Johnson — to the creation of the Cuyahoga County Real Estate Brokers Association, an all-Black realtor association (because the Cleveland Real Estate Board prohibited Black membership until 1963), to the Taborn Realty Company’s “Lorenzo” model home, enterprising, creative, resourceful neighbors fought a system for decades to create supportive community entities that allowed the area to thrive amidst blatant inequities and regular efforts to destroy the community.
The book highlights the actions of individuals to build their community into Cleveland’s leading middle-class Black neighborhood, once known as “Mudville” because it didn’t have paved streets. The collaborative project is an important addition to Northeast Ohio’s collective understanding of our past. It features stories of long-time residents and community organizations such as the Seville Homes Community Center, maps that help the reader visually understand the area’s development, and primary sources that capture the new houses and developments as they took root in the neighborhood. Today, Greater Cleveland can proudly point to so many individuals in Lee-Seville and Lee-Harvard who built a community while so many tried to tear it down.
Interested in purchasing the book? You can order through the Cleveland Restoration Society.
