Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Glenville shootout that devastated Cleveland. I see no reference in the Plain Dealer to this historic time in Cleveland.

It’s a time that should be remembered because it remains a significant part of our past, particularly our history of race relations and why Cleveland has had so many problems in the last 40 years.

We forget that we are what we were.

The mistakes of the past give birth to the errors of the future and even today as the city struggles with the horrors of shootings and killings that seem so senseless I see reflections of 1968.  Yet, the outcomes are predictable because we haven’t worked to cure the basic causes of poverty and ignorance.

I would ask you to look – even make a copy – of the review article about 1968 that I wrote a short time ago. Part of it deals with the Glenville shootout and that period of racial conflict.

My feeling is that we are headed into a period that may reflect 1968 but with somewhat different disturbing and violent behavior.

It can be found here.

Another article examining the 1968 Cleveland eruption is available in the Nation magazine at this link with ability to download article:

http://www.thenation.com/archive/detail/13231875