Woodland Avenue photograph

In the 1930s and 1940s, an area east of the Cuyahoga, traced by Central, Scovill and Woodland Avenues, was the heart of Cleveland's African American community. During and after the First World War, industrial demand and a shortage of southern European immigrants led Cleveland's factories to hire African American labor. From 1910 to 1930, the African American population grew sevenfold, as participants in the Great Migration fled the South. The Central Avenue ghetto consolidated; schools became segregated as white families moved eastward; their curricula were frequently changed to manual training from arts and sciences. Cut off from downtown over the course of the 1950s by construction of the Innerbelt Freeway, the area was prepared for urban renewal. This site is now part of Cuyahoga Community College campus. Reverse reads: "Land of the Junk Yard and Tired Horse. Woodland Avenue at East 29 Street. There are always junk wagons to be seen in this area, and broken down horses. Ident. 60 State Picture Book page 45 upper. Location: Cleveland Ohio. Credit: Ohio Writers' Project. Caption: Woodland Avenue at 29th Street, Cleveland