Feb 18, 2025 - History
Photos: 100 years of Black history in Cleveland
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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.





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.



