page_title: Glenville shootout
section_title: Night of July 23–24
hierarchical_section_title: Glenville shootout / The Glenville Riots / Night of July 23–24
caption_attribution_description: English: A map of Superior Avenue in 1968 in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States, showing stores looted (in black) and looted and burned (in red, with black slash) during the Glenville Shootout and ensuing three days of rioting. Base map from OpenStreet Map. Information on arson and looting from van Vliet, W. James. "Merchants Remove Valuables, Abandon Stores, Police Charge." The Plain Dealer. July 26, 1968, pp. 1, 8. This map was created from OpenStreetMap project data, collected by the community. This map may be incomplete, and may contain errors. Don't rely solely on it for navigation.
context_page_description: The Glenville shootout was a gun battle that occurred on the night of July 23–24, 1968, in the Glenville section of Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States. Gunfire was exchanged for roughly four hours between the Cleveland Police Department and the Black Nationalists of New Libya, a Black Power group. The battle led to the death of three policemen, three suspects, and a bystander. At least 15 others were wounded.
  The gun battle sparked the Glenville Riots, which began on the evening of July 23 as the gun battle was winding down, and continued through the evening of July 26–27. During the first day of the riots, the African American mayor of Cleveland, Carl Stokes, refused to allow white police officers to patrol the area. When African American leaders in the neighborhood were unable to quell the violence, Stokes sent the Ohio Army National Guard and the rest of the Cleveland Police into the area to stop the violence. The riots ended early in the morning on July 27. Losses due to the riots were about $2.6 million, and proved to be the political death knell of Mayor Stokes' Cleveland: Now! redevelopment effort.
context_section_description: Crowds began to gather on Superior Avenue, a major city thoroughfare two blocks north of the gun battle, almost as soon as the shooting started. As police vehicles began racing down Superior Avenue to reach E. 120th Street, E. 123rd Street, Lakeview Road, and E. 124th Street, the crowd began throwing rocks at police and jeering them. At 9:15 PM, Mayor Stokes called Ohio Governor Jim Rhodes to inform him that a riot in Cleveland was likely. The governor called Major General Sylvester Del Corso, Adjutant General of the Ohio Army National Guard, and had the National Guard placed on alert. By 9:30 PM, the crowd numbered close to a thousand, mostly young adult, teenage, and pre-adolescent African American males. About this time, the Glenville riots broke out. A Molotov cocktail hit a marked police vehicle, causing it to burst into flames. A commercial panel truck, driving down Superior Avenue, was stopped by the crowd, the white driver brutally beaten, and the truck overturned and set afire. A black Cleveland Police officer, Herbert Reed, was pulled from his vehicle and savagely beaten. Two television news vehicles were also set aflame.
  Mayor Stokes went on television to inform the public about the shootout and potential riot. He taped a brief message at WKYC-TV, telling people about the gunfight, and asking them to stay out of the area and remain at home. The mayor's message was broadcast shortly before 11:00 PM on all local television stations. Most Clevelanders learned of the incident after the mayor's message interrupted a baseball game between the Cleveland Indians and the Baltimore Orioles.
  As they had done during the Hough riots, Cleveland Police withdrew from the area and formed a perimeter cordon. The mob moved west almost 1 mile (1.6 km) along Superior Avenue, looting stores. An entire block of buildings at E. 105th and Superior burned to the ground. The rioters also moved 1 mile (1.6 km) north, reaching St. Clair Avenue. Small bands of rioters and arsonists even moved into Hough as far west as E. 55th Street.
  About midnight, Mayor Stokes formally requested National Guard assistance in quelling the riot. More than 4,000 Guardsmen were mobilized, and 1,500 were sent to Cleveland that night. Through the early morning of July 24, area firefighters attempted to respond to blazes, but were pelted with rocks and bottles. They then stopped responding unless given a police escort. During the night, fire departments responded to 15 fires set by vandals, as well as several false alarms and a handful of non-riot related fires. At 3:00 AM, about 200 Ohio Army National Guardsmen, assisted by 24 Cleveland Police officers, began patrolling Glenville.
  During the night, 28 African Americans were arrested, three-quarters of them for looting.  According to eyewitnesses, about midnight, two white men in an automobile shot at three young black men waiting for a bus at E. 79th Street and St. Clair Avenue.  Twenty-two-year-old Clifford Miller was hit in the head, and died. Thirty-year-old African American security guard James C. Haynes was found dead from multiple shotgun wounds behind a building at 8203 Superior Avenue shortly after midnight. He may have been killed by police.
caption: Businesses looted (in black) and looted as well as burned (in red with slash) along Superior Avenue between E. 100th and E. 125th Streets during the first night of the Glenville riots.
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