{"id":117,"featured":0,"modified":"2026-03-04 21:31:58","latitude":41.53016523293999995303238392807543277740478515625,"longitude":-81.629362106323014813824556767940521240234375,"title":"African American Cultural Garden","subtitle":null,"fullsize":"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/afam-view_962fdde869.jpg","address":"Martin Luther King Jr Dr, Cleveland, OH","zoom":15,"creator":["Mark Tebeau"],"description":"The African American Cultural Garden was dedicated in 1977 following years of effort by local community leaders such as Booker T. Tall. For many years the African American Cultural Garden&#039;s construction lay mostly dormant as the delegation developed plans and raised money for the garden along Martin Luther King Jr Drive. <br />\r\n<br />\r\nCleveland has a long history of African American settlement but mass migration from the South increased Cleveland&#039;s African American population considerably between 1890 and 1920. In 1900, about 6,000 African Americans lived in the city. By 1920, the number had grown to almost 35,000. Most of the African Americans who arrived in Cleveland came from the South; especially from Georgia and Alabama. Upon reaching Cleveland, many settled in the area along Central Ave. between the Cuyahoga River and E. 40th St. This was also the home to many Italian and Jewish residents at the time. <br />\r\n<br />\r\nAfrican Americans kept arriving in Cleveland even after the first great migration and World War I. Coupled with natural growth, the number of African Americans living in the city more than doubled between 1920 and 1930 to reach a total of 72,000. During the second great migration from the South, Cleveland&#039;s African American population grew from 85,000 in 1940 to 251,000 in 1960. By the early 1960s they made up over 30% of the city&#039;s population; a vast increase from the 1.6% of 1900. <br />\r\n<br />\r\nAs the suburbanization of the rest of the city&#039;s population accelerated, the African American community expanded to the east and northeast of the Central-Woodland area, particularly into Hough and Glenville. Cleveland&#039;s African American population stabilized in the 1970s and 1980s. In the 70s, fair housing programs and laws made it possible for middle-class African Americans to move to the suburbs. <br />\r\n<br />\r\nWhen the African American Cultural Garden was dedicated in 1977 there were plans to honor six prominent African Americans: Richard Allen, founder and first bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church; Garrett Morgan Sr., inventor (of the safety helmet, gas mask, and a traffic light with a caution signal) and founder of the Cleveland Call &amp; Post newspaper; Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin and was awarded the Medal of Freedom in 1976; John P. Green, an elected official in Ohio who introduced the bill in 1890 that made Labor Day a holiday in Ohio; Jane Edna Hunter, who established the Phillis Wheatley Association to assist unmarried African American women and girls who had newly migrated to the North; and Langston Hughes, a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance who spent part of his youth in Cleveland. His poetry and prose offered evocative portrayals of African American life in America.<br />\r\n<br />\r\nIn his poem &quot;Dreams,&quot; Langston Hughes writes:<br />\r\nHold fast to dreams,<br />\r\nFor if dreams die,<br />\r\nLife is a broken-winged bird,<br />\r\nThat cannot fly,<br />\r\nHold fast to dreams,<br />\r\nFor when dreams go,<br />\r\nLife is a barren field,<br />\r\nFrozen with snow.<br />\r\n<br />\r\nIn 2003, the late Cordell Edge, a longtime Glenville resident, was appointed to engage a committee to develop the African American Cultural Garden. Mrs. Edge began a journey to cultivate and renew interest in the Garden and hired a landscape architect to develop a design within the specifications of the Cleveland Cultural Garden Federation. Later, Mayor Frank Jackson organized a task force to develop and implement a plan for the garden. In 2016 the first major element of the plan was dedicated. This element, called the Past Pavilion, depicts corridors within slave castles along the western coast of Africa. Present and Future Pavilions are planned to complete the garden as funds are raised.","sponsor":null,"accessinfo":"West side of Martin Luther King Jr Dr, just south of St Clair Ave overpass. Nearest parking is along garden&#039;s upper terrace on Wheelock Rd 600 feet south of St Clair.","lede":null,"website":"<a href=\"http://aaacg.org\">aaacg.org</a>","related_resources":[],"factoids":[],"files":{"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/afam-view_962fdde869.jpg":{"id":1278,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"African American Garden","description":"The Pan-African flag flies above the African-American Cultural Garden. | Center for Public History + Digital Humanities","thumbnail":"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/afam-view_962fdde869.jpg"},"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/cphdh-afam-fundraisersign_0e5366d615.jpg":{"id":1279,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Garden Fundraiser, 2005","description":"This sign was erected at the African-American Garden in 2005 to advertise a fundraising drive for the garden. | Center for Public History + Digital Humanities","thumbnail":"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/cphdh-afam-fundraisersign_0e5366d615.jpg"},"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/cphdh-afam-bookertwash_8122b45f8e.jpg":{"id":1280,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Booker T. Washington, American Garden","description":"A bust of Booker T. Washington was added to the American Colonial Cultural Garden in 1970, before the African-American Garden existed.  Over the years the bust has often been a target for vandals, some motivated by the racial tensions that once existed in the neighborhoods surrounding the gardens.<br />\r\n | Center for Public History + Digital Humanities","thumbnail":"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/cphdh-afam-bookertwash_8122b45f8e.jpg"},"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/afam-oneworld2007_7310ecddc9.jpg":{"id":1281,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"One World Day, 2007","description":"Pictured are participants in the festivities at the African-American Cultural Garden during One World Day 2007.  | Center for Public History + Digital Humanities","thumbnail":"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/afam-oneworld2007_7310ecddc9.jpg"},"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/original/800006-jeffdavis-asacredplace_945205fe52.mp3":{"id":1282,"mime-type":"audio/mpeg","title":"&quot;A Sacred Place&quot;","description":"Jeff Davis describes how he believes the African American Garden could be a positive force within the community. | Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection"}}}