CLEVELAND, Ohio – More than 100 years ago this month, a Black man was killed by an angry white mob, who chased him through the streets of Cleveland after he was accused of taking some cherries from a farmer’s tree.
That man and that killing will be commemorated in Cleveland this weekend, part of a larger, nationwide effort to remember the past while informing the future.
The man’s name was John Jordan, and he is the only known victim of a lynching in Cuyahoga County, according to the Equal Justice Initiative, an Alabama-based nonprofit that works to end mass incarceration and racial injustice.
For more than a decade, the organization has been encouraging and supporting communities – mostly in the South but also in the North – to come to terms with racial terror that occurred in their towns.
The organization’s Community Remembrance Project works with local groups to research and commemorate victims of lynchings. More than 80 historical markers commemorating lynching victims have been installed across the United States, including several in Ohio.
The newest marker will be revealed Sunday on the grounds of Elizabeth Baptist Church in Cleveland’s Slavic Village neighborhood.
“We do have to remind ourselves of these tough parts of history,” said Elizabeth Baptist Church Pastor Richard Gibson. “We can also celebrate that there has been progress.”
The church, on Cleveland’s East Side, is about 6 miles east of where Jordan was shot, near the corner of Lorain Avenue and West 98th Street on Cleveland’s West Side, after he was chased for miles by a mob.
Cleveland architect David Wilson, special projects director for the Black Environmental Leaders Association, the local group that is leading the effort to memorialize Jordan’s death, said the marker’s exact location isn’t as important as what it represents.
“It needs to be in the community. The location itself isn’t as important as making sure the story is out there,” Wilson said. “This is a story that is much larger than a place. It connects us to a much larger societal conversation about racial violence and the impact that has over generations.”
The church location was chosen in part because Gibson strongly advocated for it.
“It’s a tremendous honor for us to house the marker,” said Gibson, who believes the sign’s symbolism ties in with the neighborhood’s larger civil rights history.
He acknowledged, however, that some people in the community questioned the placement.
“Some people in the neighborhood asked, ‘Why have it here? It’s not a positive telling of history,’” said Gibson, a former history teacher. “I view it differently.”
The marker recounts the story of Jordan (sometimes spelled Jordon), whose death on June 27, 1911, was covered by Cleveland’s four daily newspapers, the Press, the Leader, the News and The Plain Dealer.
The accounts vary, but this much seems to be agreed on: Jordan and two other Black men were accused of stealing cherries on the morning of June 27 from John Decker’s orchard in what was then Brooklyn Township (modern-day Cleveland, near West Boulevard and Clinton Road).
“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,” according to the historical marker.
“As many as 500 local white residents, wielding shotguns, revolvers, and clubs, chased the Black men a mile or more through the West Side,” the marker says. “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.’”
What is a lynching?
The shooting death may not meet what some consider the classic definition of a lynching – that is, it is not a hanging.
The method of killing, however, is less critical than the terror it causes, according to the Equal Justice Initiative, which defines lynchings as “violent and public events that traumatized Black people throughout the country and were largely tolerated by state and federal officials.”
In a 2015 report, the organization documented more than 4,000 lynchings in the United States between 1877 and 1950.
But it’s only recently that Jordan’s story has come to light.
In 2020, a group from Cleveland’s Center for Community Solutions, a local think tank, gathered to discuss the movie “True Justice,” the documentary that tells the story of Bryan Stevenson, the lawyer who founded the Equal Justice Initiative. Prompted by the film, the group resolved to learn more about lynchings in Ohio, and in particular, the one that occurred in Cuyahoga County.
They reached out to the Equal Justice Initiative, which encouraged them to conduct their own research and develop their own community-led process for recognizing and memorializing the incident.
The Black Environmental Leaders Association took over the project in 2022, organizing a trip in 2024 to Montgomery, Alabama, headquarters of the Equal Justice Initiative. The organization operates several sites in Montgomery related to lynchings in the United States, including the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice.
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which opened in 2018, is an open-air pavilion that features more than 800 steel blocks hanging from the ceiling -- one for every location in the United States where a lynching occurred.
The block for Ohio features 15 entries – including Christopher Davis, killed in Athens County in 1881; William Taylor in Erie County in 1878; and Henry Howard in Coshocton County in 1885.
Wilson said he hopes the new marker in Cleveland – and the recounting of Jordan’s story – spark renewed conversation in the community.
“We hope it’s not the end of the dialogue,” Wilson said. “There is a need, maybe even a demand, to take a hard look at the lessons of the past and really grapple with them and come to a place of understanding and healing. The more we’re able to have the conversation, the more we come to that understanding.”
Remembering John Jordan
The Black Environmental Leaders Association will host a historical marker dedication Sunday commemorating Cleveland lynching victim John Jordan. The organization will collect soil from the site that will be included in an exhibit at the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama.
The event starts at 12:30 p.m. on the lawn at Elizabeth Baptist Church, 6114 Francis Ave., Cleveland. The event is open to the public, although attendees are asked to RSVP: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSchuA2xU2j1bYNMT_2RtmHaTTiLMS88b5ERv9eoCiRaiuhJ1g/viewform