CLEVELAND -- July 23 marks the 50-year anniversary of one of Cleveland's deadliest nights.
The Glenville shootout claimed the lives of at least 10 people, including three police officers and a civilain. Riots stemming from the shootout left more than $2 million in damage on the Glenville neighborhood. Worse, it left a blemish on the city of Cleveland's relations between police and African-Americans.
Everyone involved in the Glenville shootout had reason to bury the moment. But WKYC has unearthed the story, speaking with police who were there, black nationalists who lived in the city at the time and an author who penned it all in a newly released book.
Supervising Investigative Producer Chris Cantergiani sat down with Cleveland lawyer and author Jim Robenalt, who penned Ballots and Bullets: Black Power Politics and Urban Guerrilla Warfare in 1968 Cleveland, which was released this month.
This six-part series takes a deeper look at the Glenville shootout, from the racial tension leading up to that night, to the aftermath that dissolved Carl Stokes' political career.
One episode will be released every Wednesday over the next six weeks.
Episode One: The Setting
Hear Episode One here:
Episode 2: The Time
Episode Two details how the FBI worked with the Cleveland Police Department’s Subversives Unit to track black nationalists. The pot was starting to boil in Cleveland’s ghettos, and secret files now declassified show how the government tracked Sababa Akili, Don Freeman and Fred Ahmed Evans.
Find out more about how Evans became involved with the black nationalist movement, why Martin Luther King, Jr. began focusing on getting Carl Stokes elected as mayor of Cleveland, and what the FBI’s covert COINTELPRO operatives were up to.
Hear Episode Two here:
Episode 3: The Fuse
As 1968 gets underway Mayor Carl Stokes has the support of the white business community in Cleveland. Tensions are running high between black nationalists and white policemen following the 1966 Hough Rebellion. The fuse is lit.
The "Cleveland: Now" movement starts raising millions of dollars to rebuild the city. Hubert Humphrey campaigns for president alongside Carl Stokes, highlighting the program as shining example for America. Then tragedy intervenes. Fred Ahmed Evans takes $10,000 intended for inner city youth programs and purchases scores of guns and ammunition to attack the police.
Hear Episode Three here:
Episode 4: The Battle
It's July 23, 1968. Fred Ahmed Evans and his Black Nationalist group have been purchasing rifles, shotguns and ammunition with money from Mayor Carl Stokes’ “Cleveland: NOW!” antipoverty program. This episode explores the events leading up to the first shots and the chaos that ensued. We’ve got exclusive interviews with Cleveland police officers who were part of the gun battle, and hear about questions that still remain unanswered more than 50 years later.
Listen to Episode 4 here:
Episode 5: The Trial
"This is just the beginning." Those were the words Fred Ahmed Evans told a black Cleveland police officer in the back of a squad car on the night of July 23, 1968. Evans referred to what he believed would be a multi-city rebellion, kicked off by the uprising he had just started. The problem was Evans and his group started the revolution a day early. In other cities, nationalists believed the war would start on July 24 and the fact that Evans and his band had been put down decisively caused others to pause.
In this episode we will follow Fred “Ahmed” Evans to the city jail and explore his confession and its meaning.
We will also dig into long suppressed FBI files and notes to look at the police investigation and discuss the two trials in 1969 that resulted in guilty verdicts and Evans receiving the death penalty.
Listen to Episode 5 here:
Episode 6: The Legacy
In the final episode of Ballots and Bullets, we examine the political aftermath of the race violence in Cleveland 50 years ago, and how it connects to the horrific shooting of police officers in Dallas in the summer of 2016.
This raises the question we asked at the start of this series: Why are there still such high tensions between African-American citizens and police?
We walk through this minefield with you, hopefully to reach some understanding both as to how our damaged past explains where we are today, but more importantly, why some of the thinking 50 years ago about American racism may hold to the key to a brighter future.
Listen to the final episode here: