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Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, one of the largest African American churches in Cleveland, was founded in February 1931. In 1950, the congregation constructed a new building on Quincy Avenue. The Olivet Institutional Baptist Church ministerial leadership and its congregants were ardent supporters of the civil rights movement. Combining social and political action with the ministry, Olivet supported sit-ins to integrate lunch counters and public facilities in the South and participated in social activism in Cleveland. During the pastorate (1952-1973) of Reverend Odie M. Hoover (1921-1973), Olivet became a key voice in the civil rights movement. In 1964, Rev. Hoover accompanied Dr. King to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The O.M. Hoover Christian Community Center, dedicated by Dr. King in 1966, symbolized Olivet’s commitment to community building and civil rights. (Continued on other side)
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The building at 1380 E. 6th Street, designed by Walker and Weeks, served as the Cleveland Board of Education 1931-2013. During the 1950s and 1960s, the segregation of Cleveland Public Schools was the center of the city’s civil rights movement. Parents, like Daisy Craggett and Eddie Gill, protested relay classes and intact busing. The United Freedom Movement, a coalition of 50 civic, religious, and parent organizations, initiated demonstrations, sit-ins, and pickets, to galvanize the fight for education equality. On April 7, 1964, Reverend Bruce Klunder, vice president of Cleveland’s Congress of Racial Equality, was accidentally killed by a bulldozer at the future Stephen E. Howe Elementary School while he lay in a construction ditch to protest school re-segregation. His death ignited an April 20 boycott in which 85-95% of Cleveland’s Black students participated. (Continued on other side)