Feb 18, 2025 - History

Photos: 100 years of Black history in Cleveland

Sam Allard

Black man in tie reads to children on couch — Mayoral candidate Carl Stokes reads to his children Cordi and Carl in October 1967. Photo: Bettman Archive/Getty Images

We are celebrating Black History Month by remembering some of the most pivotal local moments of the past century.

We've sifted through hundreds of archival photos that captured the Black experience in Cleveland over the decades.

Zoom in: Many of these photos are from the Bettman Archive, which includes more than 18 million photos documenting U.S. history since the Civil War.

The archive is now operated by Getty Images, to which Axios subscribes.

Larry Doby swings at pitch in 1955 — Larry Doby swings at a pitch at Cleveland Municipal Stadium in 1955. Doby was the first Black player in the American League. Photo: Hy Peskin/Getty Images

Group of people outside building in 1958 — The NAACP national conference meets in Cleveland in July 1958. Photo: Universal History Archive/Getty Images

MLK speaks at church — Martin Luther King, Jr. speaks at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Cleveland to raise money for the drive against segregation in 1963. Photo: Bettman Archive/Getty Images

People looting a store in 1966 — In the plain view of police, residents loot stores during the Hough Uprising of 1966. Photo: Bettman Archive/Getty Images

Black athletes in suits before microphone in 1967 — A group of prominent Black athletes gather in Cleveland on June 4, 1967 for the "Ali Summit" to protest the Vietnam War draft. Seated in the front row, from left to right: Bill Russell, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown and Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Standing behind them are: Carl Stokes, Walter Beach, Bobby Mitchell, Sid Williams, Curtis McClinton, Willie Davis, Jim Shorter and John Wooten. Photo: Robert Abbott Sengstacke/Getty Images

The intrigue: The above photo was snapped by Robert A. "Bobby" Sengstacke, whose uncle was the owner and publisher of the Chicago Defender newspaper.

Sengstacke spent more than 50 years photographing Black Chicago.

Election night in Cleveland 1967, Carl Stokes waving at podium — Carl Stokes on election night, 1967. He became the first Black mayor of a major American city. Photo: Bettman Archive/Getty Images

A black security guard standing in a bus lot — A security guard stands near rows of yellow school buses in Cleveland in 1979. Desegregation busing, as ordered by a Cleveland Court, began on Sept. 10 of that year. Photo: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images

A defiant protester stands before a line of police officers at night at crosswalk — A defiant protester stands before police officers downtown on Dec. 29, 2015. Citizens protested the failure to indict officers who shot Tamir Rice. Photo: Angelo Merendino/Getty Images

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Photos: 100 years of Black history in Cleveland

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