by Rose Vance-Grom, with Brendan McMasters, Gryffon Simmons, and CJ Jacobs
The ‘Round Howard Street UnClass is hoping to shine a light on the underrepresented and important history of the music and people that made up the community there. In doing so, it is impossible to ignore the destruction of that community by the development of the Innerbelt that began in the late 1960s. The Innerbelt Neighborhood Stories project, which began in 2022, collected stories from residents who had lived in the neighborhoods removed by the construction of the Innerbelt. Our group wants to conduct similar oral history interviews with folks who have memories of jazz and music on Howard Street.
Oral history provides people with a chance to add their own voices to the historical record, especially when they have been left out of the record otherwise. For her PhD dissertation entitled, The Contribution of Blacks in Akron, 1825-1975, Dr. Shirla McClain conducted fifty-one interviews with local Black Akronites. These interviews, conducted in 1974-75, were crucial for Dr. McClain to write the history of Blacks in Akron. She found that historically Black Akronites had been left out of the official narratives and records, so she had to turn to these oral history accounts to reconstruct those lost stories. Many of the men and women that she interviewed in the mid-1970s were elderly, and their histories would have died with them if not for those interviews.
Unfortunately, many of the people who would have lived memories of jazz on Howard Street are likely to have already passed. Maybe you don’t remember going to the Hi Hat Lounge or the Cosmopolitan Club, but maybe you remember your parents or even grandparents talking about that scene. Our group is hoping to connect with people who either have memories of Howard Street or have family histories of that area to share. If you have memories that you would like to share about jazz and music on Howard Street, please contact roundhowardstreet@gmail.com.
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