The Shakerite VOL 91 ISSUE I

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CAMPUS AND CITYBirdseye view of Shaker Heights. Photo by David Vahey.THE TRUE STORY OF THE INTEGRATIONOF SHAKER HEIGHTSRACE HAS PLAYED A MAJOR ROLE IN SHAPING THE ‘SUBURBAN DREAM’Chethan Chandra Campus and City EditorThe story of the integration of ShakerHeights is a tale well-entrenched inCleveland history. Almost everyonewho lives in Shaker has a vague ideaof what happened. The myth goes likethis: First we were segregated, andthen people came together and made a dedicatedeffort to integrate throughout the 1980’s and ’90s.Now, the whole suburb is integrated, and althoughthere are some conflicts regarding race, Shaker isoverall an inspiring example to the nation.But how true is this story, exactly? Most of The6Shaker Historical Society’s records on integrationare not available online, so finding primary sourcesrelated to integration mid-pandemic is difficult. Ifone searches “integration” on the society’s website,only one link comes up: a 1999 University of Minnesotadissertation of nearly 300 pages that documentsthe history of Shaker integration.The dissertation, by Dr. Cynthia Mills Richter,is titled “Integrating the Suburban Dream: ShakerHeights, Ohio” and tells a story spanning centuries.It includes quotes from audio recordings of activists,excerpts of articles and references to books.VOL. 91 ISSUE I
According to Richter’s work, the story of integrationbegan two centuries ago. “Residents ofShaker Heights have aspired to create an ideal communitysince the 1820s when a Shaker communitydeveloped on this site,” she wrote.At first, Shaker Heights comprised members ofThe United Society of Believers in Christ’s SecondAppearing, more commonly known as “The Shakers.”A Christian sect founded circa 1747, they believedin the public ownership of land and equalitybetween men and women. They were also againstmarriage and sex, and very few are alive today as aresult.Decades later, two wealthybrothers named Oris Paxtonand Mantis James VanSweringen began buying landin Shaker Heights. Throughoutthe early 19th century,they developed their land intoa planned community. Theirsupposedly utopian plan excludedBlack, Catholic andJewish people.The Van Sweringen Companyemphasized its idealsthrough a series of ads inan old newspaper called theCleveland Topics. “On everyfamily’s horizon is a rainbow,”read one ad, “and for many thepot of gold at the rainbow’send is Shaker Village.”The ads were nestled among articles on golf andpolo, opera and art, bridge, antiques and weddingannouncements. The Cleveland Topics catered towealthy and aspiring middle-class readers — preciselythe sort of people who were buying suburbanhomes in record numbers in the 1920s.However, race truly became a factor in Shaker’shistory when the Great Migration began. The GreatMigration, spanning the entire 20th century, refersto the mass-migration of 6 million Black southernAmericans from the south to the north of the UnitedStates. “The Great Migration had a dramatic effecton Cleveland,” Richter wrote. “In the ten years“These southernnegroes are notwelcome here.Please do not deludeyourself, or deludethem.”between 1910 and 1920, the African American populationof Cleveland increased 308 percent.”The dissertation cited The Cleveland Advocate,a Black newspaper, which reported on the migrationin 1917. “It is a REGULAR EXODUS. It is withouthead, tail, or leadership,” the paper published.Before the Great Migration, Cleveland had beenknown for its progressive history of abolitionism,civil rights work, lack of residential segregationand integration of public schools. However, historianKenneth L. Kusmer dates the sharp increasein racial tension and institutional discrimination inCleveland to 1915 because of the Great Migration.White Clevelanders, particularlythose in suburbssuch as Shaker Heights,were alarmed by the GreatMigration. For example,in 1925 an editorial waspublished in the ClevelandTopics. “Cleveland’s coloredpopulation has increasedfrom 8,500 to 50,000 in thepast ten years. More areon the way. Cleveland’s coloredpopulation in the old,regular, well ordered daysaffords absolutely no key toor suggestion of the natureof this new population or ofthe problem it presents. . .It is the serious problem ofa vast accretion of new and totally different peopleof an opposite race…These southern negroes are notwelcome here. Please do not delude yourself, or deludethem,” the author wrote.As a result of this racial tension, Clevelandersgradually began to segregate. “We can see increasingconcentration of African Americans in certainareas of the city resulting in a crisis-level housingshortage, dramatically inflated rents, and deterioratinghousing conditions in this section,” Richterwrote.Richter included the words of poet LangstonHughes, who moved to Cleveland in the early 1920s:“We always lived, during my high school years, ei-1925 EditorialCleveland TopicsSpring 2021 THE SHAKERITE 7
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The Shakerite VOL 91 ISSUE I

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