Black Quotidian: Everyday History in African-American Newspapers

July 5, 1947

On July 5, 1947, the Cleveland Call and Post ran two pieces regarding evictions. Simeon Booker, Jr., reported on a wave of evictions in the city’s Central Area. “Hundreds of Central Area families, trapped in a vicious housing shortage, are nervously awaiting the first move of greedy, money-hungry landlords this week following the hesitant signing of the new rent control bill by President Harry Truman,” Booker wrote. ”The entire area is tense, as explosive as a ‘keg of dynamite’...a terrific undercurrent is sweeping the already-overcrowded section as one of the ghastly fears—the threat of eviction—hovers over the roofs of many rickety tenements.” (Click to view PDF.)

The second article focused on the family of Percy Moore, who had been evicted from their Central Area home (2625 E. 61st Street). The article described how a bailiff and workers arrived to remove the Moore’s belongings from their residence: “They gathered the desks and the chairs, the beds, the baskets of dishes, the lamps, the trunk, and carried them from the house. This spelled the tragic doom of the Moore family. The mighty fear that haunts hundreds of families in Central Area had enwrapped their clan in its tentacles. They had become the hopeless victims of eviction. Hopeless because they have no place to go. Not even a room to sleep” (click to view PDF)

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