The Hough Rebellion: The Difficulties with Remembering

The Hough Uprising of 1966, also known as the Hough Rebellion and popularly known as the Hough Riots were several days of civil unrest in the Hough neighborhood of Cleveland Ohio which resulted in millions of dollars’ worth of property damage and multiple deaths. The cause of the Hough Uprising has been attributed to the effects of poverty, in particular housing, and police brutality. Since 1966 multiple scholars have examined the Hough Uprising in relation to different issues, they were studying whether it be urban planning, civil rights organizations or urban unrest at the national scale. This independent study will look at how and why the events of Hough are taught the way they are today in the Cleveland area. To do this properly there first must be a baseline understanding of the historical context surrounding Hough in the 1960s. Context must also be established for the types of environments these students live in and the issues they face every day. Many factors determine what is currently taught in American classrooms regarding history, one of the most important being teachers themselves. To truly understand the how and why of Hough I spoke to five teachers from around the Cleveland area about their experiences. The results of these conversations show that they care considerably about teaching this part of Cleveland history in spite of factors working against the Hough Uprising from being taught