Black History Month | 8 Inspiring Black Men from Cleveland

Keymah Durden III, Randy McShepard & Damien Forshe  

• Three best friends that grew up in Cleveland’s Lee-Miles neighborhood
• Co-Founders of Rid-All Green, focused on growing food, creating jobs, and building healthy, green neighborhoods
• Dedicated to bringing urban farming to Cleveland
• Durden is an environmental educator who has lead programs and activities both nationally and internationally. He is currently involved in projects in Ghana, Kenya, Belize, and Israel. 
• McShepard is also the Co-Founder and Chairman of PolicyBridge, a public policy think tank serving the Northeast Ohio region. 
• Read about Forshe in Time’s 100 most influential people in the world

 

Bobby Womack (1944-2014)

• Born and raised in Cleveland’s Central Avenue neighborhood
• Singer, guitarist songwriter 
• Wrote songs for the Rolling Stones, Wilson Pickett and Janis Joplin
• Preformed guitar back up for Sam Cooke, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin
• Launched a solo career that reached its peak in the 1970s
• In 2009, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Frank Robinson

• Born and raised in Cleveland
• Played outfield for the Cincinnati Reds and Baltimore Orioles 
• After a playing career, he was hired in 1975 by the Cleveland Indians as a Coach, making him the first black manager in MLB history
• Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1982

 

Louis Stokes (1925-2015)

• Born and raised in Cleveland
• American attorney, civil rights pioneer and politician
• Served 15 terms in the US House of Representatives 
• Was the first African American congressman elected in the state of Ohio
• In his retirement, Stokes worked as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University

 

Jim Brown

• Born and raised in Cleveland
• Athlete, actor, activist
• One of the Cleveland Browns greatest players(1957–1965)
• Every season Brown played, he was voted into the Pro Bowl, and he left the league strong by scoring three touchdowns in his final Pro Bowl game
• Brown retired in July 1966, after nine seasons, as the NFL’s all-time leading rusher
• In retirement, Brown pursued acting starring in Dirty Dozen and Ice STation Zebra. 
• Most notably, Brown was the first African-American to announce a televised boxing match in the United States