Do you know of anyone who has taken the time or care to save a
piece of history? Why would anyone want to? Would you? I would.
A couple of years ago I started a grassroots organization that
has a lot to do with history. We named our group RESTORE CLEVELAND
HOPE. Back before the Civil War Cleveland was one of the cities
that had many citizens who were actively involved in the abolitionist
movement. Partly because of its geographic location (the lake
with Canada right on the other side and the canal) and because
of the free blacks and free whites who settled here and helped
freedom seekers passing through. Yet unlike Springboro or Ripley
or Oberlin we Clevelanders don’t know or celebrate that
part of our rich history even though the UGRR code name for Cleveland
was “hope”. So there is this beautiful red brick house
standing empty and forlorn in the University Circle area right
there in the midst of the museums and Case western University
and University Hospital. It is the only pre civil war house left
and the people who built it were anti- slavery activists. We want
to save this house, restore it and turn it into an Underground
Railroad teaching Center. We want to remind everyone what went
on here 200 years ago and why in some secret circles Cleveland
was nicknamed HOPE. We want people to recapture the spirit of
our UGRR activists days, when some people came together to do
the work of freedom. Sometimes choosing to do the right thing
is easy almost automatic (a no-brainer) sometimes choosing to
do what is right takes a lot of thought and a lot of courage.
