“Ballots and Bullets: Black Power Politics and Urban Guerrilla Warfare in 1968 Cleveland”

Local author, attorney and historian James Robenalt will discuss the roots of the violent uprisings in Cleveland in the late 1960s, including the Hough Riot (1966) and Glenville Shootout (1968), and their political aftermath. His talk, titled “Ballots and Bullets: Black Power Politics and Urban Guerrilla Warfare in 1968 Cleveland,” will take place Tuesday, Jan. 22, from 4 to 6:30 p.m. in Kelvin Smith Library, Dampeer Room.

About the event

Cleveland was a uniquely important city in the Civil Rights movement, hosting critical speeches by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X’s first “Ballots or Bullets” speech, and Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s speech “On the Mindless Menace of Violence” at the City Club, which was delivered the day after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. RSVP for the talk through the Kelvin Smith Library CampusGroups page. This event is co-sponsored by Kelvin Smith Library, the Social Justice Institute, the Department of Political Science and the Department of Sociology.