For example, the personal papers of retired U.S. Rep. Louis Stokes fill more than 200 boxes in storage at the Western Reserve Historical Society. Nishani Frazier, the associate curator of the historical society's African-American Archives, said it will cost at least $100,000 and a lot of her time to catalog and preserve them.
And 175 boxes contain the personal papers of Zelma George -- opera singer, Cleveland Job Corps director and civil rights activist.
As a delegate to the United Nations in 1960, she was instructed to cast the American vote opposing independence movements in European colonies, including those in Africa. When the resolution passed anyway, George stepped away from the American delegation and applauded with members of Third World delegations.
George died in 1994. The historical society suspects her papers include letters from her contemporaries, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X, Frazier said.
Another collection that is locked away is that of Icabod Flewellen, a pioneer in the national movement to create black history museums and founder of Cleveland's African-American Museum.
Flewellen, who died in 2001, frequently said there was a reason he remained a bachelor: "I'm married to black history." He started by collecting newspaper clippings when he was 13. Late in his life, scholars from across the country visited his home to pore over his collection.
Now it sits in storage at the East Cleveland Public Library, where it will remain until the library can raise nearly $350,000 for renovations that will include a room to house the voluminous collection, said Greg L. Reese, the library's executive director.
Flewellen's papers alone occupy 476 cubic feet. In addition, his collection includes hundreds of pieces of art, photos and posters and scores of record albums and books.
"It would be wonderful if we could have a Cleveland African-American museum to have all the collections in one location," said Reese. "That's what I am hoping will happen down the line."
That was Flewellen's vision when he founded the museum in his home in 1953. He moved it to the former Treasure House Library on Crawford Road in Hough in 1984 and bought the building for $1 three years later.
Flewellen ended his association with the museum several years before he died. It never became the showcase of black history he wanted it to be. Little remains of Flewellen's dream except its authoritative-sounding name - African-American Museum.
| The Cleveland Plain Dealer's Susan Ruiz Patton and Olivera Perkins, with help from Cheryl Diamond and Richard Peery, have written the thought-provoking "Archives, artifact scattered over region"
posted in articles on February 16, 2004 2:06 AM | t (0)
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