Cleveland Community and EJI Dedicate Historical Marker Memorializing Lynching

More than 100 church members, residents, and community leaders gathered on the lawn of Elizabeth Baptist Church in Cleveland last week to dedicate a historical marker memorializing the racial terror lynching of John Jordan on June 27, 1911.

While many names of lynching victims were not recorded and will never be known, John Jordan is the one documented victim of racial terror lynching in Cuyahoga County between 1865 and 1950.

Black Environmental Leaders, a local nonprofit organization focusing on environmental and economic justice with a mission to “advocate, incubate and inform,” partnered with EJI’s Community Remembrance Project to memorialize John Jordan.

Leading up to the marker installation, BEL organized trips for Cleveland residents to visit EJI’s Legacy Sites in Montgomery and facilitated conversations and public education events.

“Today is a manifestation of five years of work,” Black Environmental Leaders co-executive director SeMia Bray told Signal Cleveland. “Lasting progress is possible when communities build power, speak truth to power and create coalitions that shift the balance of power, that result in real change in the lives of those directly impacted.”

EJI Project Manager Mia Taylor spoke to the audience at the June 22 unveiling ceremony about EJI’s commitment to changing the narrative about race in America and the essential work required to recover from our history of racial injustice. “We must say never again to racial bigotry, violence, and lawlessness,” she said.

Elected officials, including Ohio Sen. Nickie Antonio, Ohio Rep. Tristan Rader, and Cuyahoga County Council Member Meredith M. Turner, attended the dedication and praised BEL and residents for their community remembrance efforts.

EJI was presented with a special commendation for honoring the life and legacy of John Jordan and recognizing our “stewardship and dedication to the truth within Cleveland’s past.”

“Although nothing can truly bring back the life of John Jordan, this memorial marker will now serve as the reminder of his life and legacy, as to never forget the violence that once unfolded resulting in his death,” the senatorial citation reads. “May we all remember, reflect, and devote ourselves to a better future for all Clevelanders and the state of Ohio.”

At the invitation of Elizabeth Baptist Church Pastor Richard Gibson, the church’s youth members worked together to loosen the tape securing a cover around the marker as the audience encouraged them. When they finished, the pastor asked everyone present to gather around the marker, take hold of the cover, and unveil the marker in unison.

“This is an incredible moment for us historically,” Pastor Gibson said. “As we go forward, we must learn from our past to create more good history to make our present and future better.”

The Lynching of John Jordan

On June 27, 1911, hundreds of white people formed a mob that brutally lynched a 35-year-old Black man named John Jordan in Cleveland. The mob shot and beat Mr. Jordan to death following a prolonged chase after a white farmer accused Mr. Jordan and two Black companions of stealing cherries from an orchard near the present-day intersection of West Boulevard and Clinton Road.

In this era, hundreds of Black people were killed in lynchings that began after false allegations or accusations of minor crimes. Black people were burdened with a presumption of guilt and dangerousness that left them vulnerable to mob violence.

At around 9:30 am, a white farmer confronted Mr. Jordan and his companions at an orchard, knocking one of them to the ground. As they started to leave, the farmer armed himself and began assembling a mob, claiming that Mr. Jordan had threatened him with a gun during the altercation.

As many as 500 local white residents wielding shotguns, revolvers, and clubs chased the Black men a mile or more through the West Side. While his companions escaped, the mob cornered Mr. Jordan near Lorain Avenue while yelling “Lynch him” and “Hang him up.”

As Mr. Jordan attempted to defend himself, the lynch mob shot him in the abdomen and then beat him repeatedly. Mr. Jordan died minutes later. Authorities made no attempt to arrest those who killed Mr. Jordan. Instead, a police lieutenant justified the lynching by claiming “it had to be done.”

Lynching in America

Over 6,500 Black people were the victims of lynching in the U.S. between 1865 and 1950. After the Civil War, violent resistance to equal rights for Black people led to decades of abuse and exploitation meant to intimidate people of color and enforce racial subordination. Lynching emerged as the most notorious and public form of racial terrorism and went beyond hanging to often include death by gunshot, beating, and other horrific means.

Beginning in 1910, close to six million Black Americans fled the South’s mob violence and Jim Crow segregation, arriving in the Northeast, West, and Midwest as refugees and exiles from racial terror. Racial terror lynchings committed outside the South in states like Ohio featured many of the same characteristics as Southern lynchings.

White mobs and their defenders particularly relied on the stereotype of innate Black criminality to justify deadly attacks against Black people, especially in the face of accusations by white community members. Like many lynchings, the killing of John Jordan was not just a response to perceived resistance to the racial order but was a message to the entire Black community that racial hierarchy would be violently enforced.

Although many victims remain unknown, at least 16 Black victims of racial terror lynching have been documented in Ohio.

Community Remembrance Project

The Community Remembrance Project is part of our campaign to recognize the victims of lynching by collecting soil from lynching sites, erecting historical markers, and developing the Legacy Sites in Montgomery.

EJI believes that by reckoning with the truth of racial violence, communities can begin a necessary conversation that advances healing and reconciliation.