Church members, residents and community leaders filled the lawn of Elizabeth Baptist Church Sunday afternoon for the installation of a marker dedicated to the life of John Jordan, believed to be the only documented victim of lynching in Cuyahoga County. Jordan was killed by a white mob in the early 1900s at what is now known as West 98th Street and Lorain Avenue.
Installing the marker concludes years of collaboration by Cleveland’s Black Environmental Leaders (BEL) and the Equal Justice Initiative, which has memorialized documented victims of lynching at more than 80 locations around the country in recent years.
BEL is a nonprofit organization focusing on environmental justice and climate activism with a mission to “advocate, incubate and inform.”
SeMia Bray, co-executive director of BEL, praised the tireless work of the members of the dozens of people who contributed to the success of the project.
“Today is a manifestation of five years of work,” Bray said. “Lasting progress is possible when communities build power, speak truth to power and create coalitions that shift the balance of power, that result in real change in the lives of those directly impacted.”
A project five years in the making
Last September, many of BEL’s members traveled to Montgomery, Alabama, to the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) Legacy Sites. Each site works together to create a visual timeline of the history of slavery, from the first slave ships that arrived in Alabama to the state of African-Americans today. The “twin” memorial will be placed in the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. The museum and memorial confronts the country’s history of racial injustice, including slavery and lynchings.
EJI’s Community Remembrance Project is designed to locally memorialize documented victims of racial violence and to educate communities about the history of racial injustice. The project consists of three parts: community conversations around racialized violence and healing, collecting a soil sample from the location of where the lynching occurred and the placement of a marker.
Pastor Richard Gibson of Elizabeth Baptist Church said he is proud to know that the church will forever be connected to memorializing Jordan.
“It is an honor to provide a location for the historical marker. The marker offers an opportunity for us to constantly remember the sacrifices of the past and to chart a course forward with exemplary love and equity,” Gibson told Signal Cleveland. ”The marker will be placed in a Slavic Village and in a city that continues to face racial and cultural barriers. The marker should spur observers to positive action.”
‘Justice is not defined by geography’
While the tragedy did not occur at the location of Elizabeth Baptist Church, BEL’s co-executive director, David Wilson, and Pastor Gibson advocated for the marker to be placed at the church.
“Healing must be rooted in community,” Wilson said. “While the events of 1911 did not take place on this exact site, this location matters. This church sits in a neighborhood with a rich civil rights history, and the stories we tell here will echo through time.”
As Wilson spoke, children went to each person in the audience, asking if they would like a cup of ice water. The temperature registered at 91 degrees.
Project manager of the Equal Justice Initiative Remembrance Project, Mia Taylor, told the intimate crowd: “We must say never again to racial bigotry, violence and lawlessness.”
Elected officials, including Ohio Sen. Nickie Antonio, Ohio Rep. Terrence Upchurch, Ohio Rep. Tristan Rader and Cuyahoga County Council Member Meredith M. Turner, attended the installation and honored BEL’s efforts.
Pastor Gibson, the youth at Elizabeth Baptist Church and members of BEL unveiled the marker to applause from the crowd.
“This is an incredible moment for us historically,” Gibson said. “As we go forward, we must learn from our past to create more good history to make our present and future better.”
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A Cleveland commemoration more than 100 years in the making
The story of John Jordan’s life and his death will become part of a national museum documenting African American life.