As part of Black History Month, we honor Charles V. Carr, a gravel-voiced, skillful and wily 30-year Cleveland councilman who helped make the city a force in black politics in the 1950s and 1960s.
Born in Texas in 1903, Carr came to Cleveland in 1918, briefly attending East Tech High School. He graduated from Fisk University and John Marshall Law School. In 1945, Carr became councilman for Ward 17, an area that roughly encompasses the Central neighborhood.
The following year, he helped pass a civil rights ordinance that revoked the license of any public business convicted of discrimination against blacks. He also led the battle in 1947 to integrate Euclid Beach Park, fought for fair housing ordinances in 1959 and played a key role in passing the city's income tax in 1966.
"I hope to see the day when it will be recognized that what is in bad taste in dealing with one citizen is in bad taste in dealing with another," he told 600 well-wishers 'in 1960 after becoming 'council's first black majority leader.
Carr lost his council seat in 1975 but served on the Regional Transit Authority's Board of Trustees until his death in 1987 at age 83.
"Carl B. Stokes was the nation's first big-city black mayor, and George L. Forbes became the most powerful politician ever to reside at City Hall," Plain Dealer columnist Brent Larkin wrote, "but it was Carr, the grandson of a slave, who made it possible."