CLEVELAND — The Smithsonian is partnering with Clevelanders to help preserve Black history. This is a two-year-long effort that’s being called the Cleveland Partnership. Smithsonian curators will collect family documents, photos, or other heirlooms that will be preserved and digitized to better help understand Northeast Ohio Black family histories.
It’s said history repeats itself if forgotten.
“Sometimes, I think in the city of Cleveland, we take our history for granted,” said Regennia Williams.
Williams holds many titles as a historian at the Western Reserve Historical Society and the President of the African American Auxiliary, but her latest role is Director of the Smithsonian Cleveland Partnership. A new effort to curate and preserve Black Clevelander's family histories.
“We need hearts and minds and we need documentary evidence because without that body of evidence, you really don't have history,” Williams said. “Maybe you have hearsay, gossip, but when the evidence is there, you get at something that resembles the truth or at least prevents the balance.”
Williams spoke to News 5 about this new partnership in the pews of the first historical Black church located on Euclid Avenue, East Mount Zion Baptist Church. In the 1950’s, Euclid Avenue had predominantly white-only churches. Mount Zion Baptist Church is known for its green stones, but two years ago, Pastor Brian Cash wanted Cleveland to learn about the rich history beyond its four walls and the people who built the parish into what it is today.
“Folks were dying and we weren’t getting their stories,” said Cash.
So, Cash started the Green Stone Museum. Photos and important news clippings about the church and its conception are displayed throughout the room. However, what makes the museum unique, are the oral stories of former parishioners that circle the room. Cash even turned their stories about their lives, families, and accomplishments into a book called; “Stories Behind the Stone.” Many of whom in the book Cash said were a part of the Great Migration out of the south looking for a new start in the north.
“So many of the treasuries of history gets buried and gets buried before it gets told,” said Cash. “So our goal is to make sure that that history that treasure doesn't continue to go to the cemetery.”
That’s exactly what the Smithsonian wants to do with the Cleveland Partnership.
“It’s families, it’s people who have special documents in their homes, could be bibles, could be documents, could be birth certificates, and death certificates,” Williams said. “Things that are special to understanding an individual's family's history.”
Cash believes East Mount Zion Baptist Church's Green Stone Museum may have been the inspiration behind the Smithsonian's new project.
“It’s important because so much of African American History in America has been lost,” said Cash.
Williams and Cash said it’s now up to the entire Cleveland Black community to continue preservation efforts beyond Euclid Avenue.
“We want to make sure people’s histories are put in books digitized and put online and have access for generations to come,” Cash said.
Williams said this partnership can’t be done without the help of volunteers. There will be a Zoom meeting happening this Saturday at 10 a.m. to explain the next steps and how people can begin participating. Eventually over this two-year process, the Smithsonian will be coming to Cleveland to meet with collectors and help digitize any findings on an appointment basis. More information and how to join the upcoming Zoom can be found by clicking here.
