Cleveland, situated on Lake Erie at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, was once a prosperous industrial center with a population almost one million inhabitants, but during the past 30 years, the city has suffered a decline in employment and tax base. Today, Cleveland's population has dropped to roughly half a million and, with many of its steel, shipping, automobile and oil refinery plants closed, unemployment is high. There also has been a major change in the city's demographic composition: as the total population declined over three decades, the black population doubled, creating problems for the traditionally segregated neighborhoods. The symbolic significance of the Cuyahoga River, apart from representing Cleveland's dying industrial base and despoiled environment, is that it has served as a natural barrier between the races, with the black communities on the East Side and the white communities on the West Side. Since, the 1970s, however, there are significantly fewer segregated neighborhoods, so that, on the East Side, one can find isolated pockets of ethnic groups of European descent, and on the near West Side, across the river from the central business district, the population is mixed. Still, the western suburbs remain predominantly white.

This report is part of the collection of scanned historical documents available to the public.