Black Lorain

Novelist Toni Morrison discusses her venture into playwriting in Albany, New York, on December 23, 1985. Getty Images.

Lorain, Ohio served as one of the popular destinations for Southern African Americans during the Great Migration in the early twentieth century. Demographics suggest that Lorain grew dramatically with the influx of the non-white populations in the 1940s. The Lorain native, Toni Morrison, portrays new Black residents' hope for living in the town in her Lorain-based novel, The Bluest Eye:

"In that young and growing Ohio town whose side streets, even, were paved with concrete, which sat on the edge of a calm blue lake, which boasted an affinity with Oberlin, the underground railroad station, just thirteen miles away, this melting pot on the lip of America facing the cold but receptive Canada—What could go wrong?"

Since the Great Migration when Morrison's parents moved to Ohio, Lorain as one of the booming Rust Belt regions has been a home of those who are underrepresented populations--people of color, working class, and immigrants. While the town represents economic "growth, hope, uneven development and institutionalized racism," Morrison's depiction also reveals that the meanings of "nation, identity, home and community are, . . . mutually constructed and unique, depending on location and lived materialities" [see Katherine McKittrick's "Black and 'Cause I'm Black I'm Blue: Transverse Racial Geographies in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye," 126]. In other words, the history of Lorain, particularly in the twentieth century, represents the larger course of American history that is defined by the tensions between the opposing forces that oppressed African Americans to maintain white dominance and that fought for racial justice to pave the way for the diversity that Lorain today demonstrates.

Let's remember that Lorain was not a Sanctuary for African Americans. At the dawn of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, Lorain seemed to have served as a sanctuary for African American migrants from the South because of its economic opportunities and long history of Black political organizing. However, Lorain was not immune to the rampant racism in practice such as anti-Black violence, redlining, and race-based discrimination at work and school.

In Lorain, Black residents' freedom was limited. In every sector of living in the town--from education to housing, they faced racial discrimination whether these practices were systemized by institutional policies or practiced by individuals who used their privileges against Black neighbors. Although we should not simplify tensions and dynamics caused and mediated by systemic racism, the white resistance to racial equality in Lorain was unfailingly noticeable. For example, Manuel Yancy in Call and Post points out Lorain's failure to prevent racial and religious discrimination in housing, according to his editorial published in Call and Post on December 2, 1961.

"Monday, November 20, Oberlin became the fourth city in the nation to enact a fair housing ordinance, prohibiting racial and religious discrimination in housing. Oberlin has been one of the most liberal cities for Negroes in the United States. It is a pity that Lorain, which is so near, is so different. We are way behind in our line of thinking as a city."

In considering the early history of Ohio that restricted African American citizenship and rights through the notorious Black Laws, mandatory segregations, mob violence, and consequent lynchings in the nineteenth century and beyond, the state of Ohio achieved to some extent racial equality in the following century. Nonetheless, comparing the antebellum and Reconstruction periods to the recent history to highlight "advancement" is preposterous. In addition, advances in civil rights were not equal in all areas of public accommodations, education, employment, and housing, if we name a few, no need to mention the differences among cities and towns in the state. Likewise, Oberlin's progressive policy above does not represent mainstream Ohioans' support for the change in the discriminatory housing policy. Rather, this change provoked the white fear of "racial mixing" and occasionally caused further violence against African Americans in nearby towns including Lorain. The report on the twentieth-century African American civil rights movement in Ohio, conducted by the National Park Sevice and the United States Department of the Interior in 2019, examines the Multiple Property Document (MPD) to illustrate the history of the civil rights movement and the changes as a result of the movement. The report concludes that, despite the advancement of civil rights in terms of apparently racist operations of public and private institutions, prejudice against African Americans and other people of color remains persistently in everyday practice performed by groups and individuals who fail to recognize the deep-rooted white supremacy and xenophobia.

Racism was rampant everywhere in Ohio, as Ohioans responded to the nationwide wave of civil rights movements. After a period of decline during the Jim Crow years, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) emerged again during the 1910s and 1920s, revealing white supremacist responses to the Great Migration to many cities in Ohio. This reversal also suggests that many people in the nation- and state-wide became involved in reform movements supporting middle-class, Protestant values that considered non-whites and foreigners a danger to their core values during the first half of the 20th century. The KKK could find new supporters by inciting these fears and concerns. According to the Ohio History Connection, the KKK was especially strong in Ohio. For example, in Summit County the Klan claimed to have fifty thousand members, making it the largest local chapter in the United States. Many of the county's officials were members, including the sheriff, the Akron mayor, several judges and county commissioners, and most members of Akron's school board. The Klan was also very popular in Licking County, where the group held its state konklave (convention) in 1923 and 1925. More than 70,000 people attended each event. The KKK revived again during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. And the Klan continues to exist in the twenty-first century, although it has shrunk significantly in both numbers and influence.

"Ku Klux Klan wedding portriat." Richland County, Ohio, in 1920s. Ku Klux Klan in Ohio Small Picture Collection. Courtesy of the Ohio History Connection

Detroit, Michigan. Riot at the Sojourner Truth homes, a new U.Sn federal housing project, caused by white neighbors' attempt to prevent Negro tenants from moving in. Sign with American flag "We want white tenants in our white community," directly opposite the housing project. Courtesy of Library of Congress.

Lorain was surrounded by "sundown towns." Sundown towns, also known as sunset towns, gray towns, or sundowner towns, are all-white municipalities or neighborhoods in the United States that practice a form of racial segregation by excluding non-whites through combinations of discriminatory local laws, communal intimidation, and/or mob violence. The term came from signs posted that people of color had to leave town by sundown. As this image of the sign in Detroit suggests, this practice was not restricted to the southern states. The Center for History and Social Justice at Tougaloo College recently published a database on sundown towns. Their interactive map reveals that the surrounding towns and suburbs in Lorain County--Avon Lake, Avon, Sheffield Lake, Williamsburg, Amherst, South Amherst, and Vermilion--have a history as sundown towns. [click the image and then a town's name to see testimonies.]

Cite this page (Chicago): Morales, Karina. "Black Lorain." LCCC African American History Project. Accessed December 13, 2024. https://sites.google.com/view/lccc-aa-project/black-lorain?authuser=0.

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