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Cory United Methodist Church is an icon of Cleveland’s civil rights movement. As one of the city’s largest Black-owned churches during the 1960s, Cory hosted events for national, local, and grassroots organizations such as the Fair Employment Practices Committee, NAACP Cleveland Branch, Cleveland Chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and United Freedom Movement. Over 75 years later, Cory UMC continues its long tradition of community programming that promotes equity and education. Originally designed by architect Albert F. Janowitz to house the Anshe Emeth Beth Tefilo congregation, the building served as the Cleveland Jewish Center from 1922 to 1945. The Methodist congregation purchased it in 1946. Since 1961, the building has also been home to the Glenville Recreation Center. Cory UMC was designated as a local landmark by the Cleveland Landmarks Commission in 2012.
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Carl Stokes was born in Cleveland on June 21, 1927. Recognized for his trailblazing service as a public official, Stokes is one of the few American politicians whose career spanned all three branches of state government. Over 30 years, he served 3 terms as an Ohio legislator (1963-1967), 2 terms as Cleveland’s mayor (1967-1971), and 8 years as a municipal court judge (1983-1994). In 1972, he became the first Black anchorman for a television station in New York City. After a decade working in television, Stokes returned to Cleveland to work as an attorney for the United Auto Workers. In 1994, President Bill Clinton appointed him U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Seychelles. While serving as Ambassador, he was diagnosed with cancer. Carl Stokes died, in Cleveland, on April 3, 1996.
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The Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church (GABC) organized with 250 members on December 16, 1945, at a Phillis Wheatley Association meeting. Led by its first pastor, Rev. John Rollins Plummer, the congregation raised $47,000 to purchase the Jewish Synagogue at East 105th Street and Tacoma Avenue from the Beth Hamedrosh Hagodel Beth Israel Congregation in 1946. It later purchased a parsonage, land for parking, and created a Federal Credit Union. Tragically, Rev. Plummer was killed in a car accident on October 22, 1951. The church’s lower auditorium was remodeled and dedicated as J.R. Plummer Memorial Hall. Honoring its missionary and pastoral care foundations, the church built a $3M senior citizens complex nearby. An endowment fund, instituted by its pastor’s savings in 1995, ensures that this commitment to civic leadership endures.
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