60th anniversary of Cleveland Hough neighborhood riots is this week, July 18-24, 2026...The George Floyd riot in 2020 followed in Cleveland... By Clevelandurbannews.com, Ohio's Black digital news leader
A historical statue in Cleveland's Hough neighborhood on the city's largely Black east side, a reminder of the Hough Riots of July18-24, 1966 By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief CLEVELAND, Ohio -This week marks the 60th anniversary of the Hough Riots, which took place from July 18-24, 1966, on Cleveland's largely Black east side. The original civil unrest began on July 18, 1966, after a White bar owner refused to serve a glass of water to a Black customer. During the riots, four Blacks were killed, and 50 people were injured. There were some 275 arrests and numerous incidents of arson and fire bombings. The riots would come during the national Civil Rights movement and two years before the assassination of the Rev. Dr Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. City officials of Cleveland first blamed Black nationalist and communist groups for the riots in Hough, but historians generally dismiss these claims today, arguing that the cause of the Houg...