Cleveland NAACP President Dr. James E. Levy
Ohio To Drop Race Labels On School RecordsIn the 1940s and 50s, the Cleveland NAACP spearheaded nation efforts to eliminate discrimination in housing, employment and education, as well as in public places such as amusement parks.
Jet, March 31, 1955
Racial labels on the records of Ohio school children will be discontinued beginning with the 1954-55 school year, it was announced in Cleveland by NAACP President. Dr. James E. Levy. The NAACP had protested school district reports listing children according to race.
Euclid Beach Park, for example, has a history of aggression against African-Americans. Dating back to the turn of the 20th century the park had a policy of admitting blacks only on certain days, and they employed a private security force to deal with "unwelcome guests."
These policies reached a head in the summer of 1946 when the American Youth for Democracy, the United Negroes and Allied Veterans of America, and the National Negro Congress came together to send small numbers of black and white people together into the park together. Attendants were beaten by policeman, and in one case an officer shot himself in the leg during a scuffle.
Cleveland City Council passed legislation to revoke the license from any park that was found to discriminate. Euclid Beach got around this law by selling the dance pavilion to an independent business entity that could run it as a private club.
Euclid Beach Park is closed for the season.
Sources:
Cleveland Memory Project
Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
Jet Magazine
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