Cleveland High School Desegregation

When the federal government first agreed to desegregate, Cleveland High School was built on federal property. The Brownsville schools were later moved out of Brownsville to Lake Highland Park before being integrated completely in 1970-1971. On that day, Cleveland High School had become an 'integrated high school' since it housed boys from Lorain High (a historically black college) as well as girls from South High and Lorain Central in Northeast Ohio, and Northern High in Cincinnati. This marked a key cultural shift for Cleveland.

During the decade preceding World War II, Cleveland looked toward its neighborhoods along public transit routes as key economic generators. Public transportation was expensive to build and maintained in Brownsville and so the city declared war on car ownership. In August 1946 construction started on Avenue A streetcar system taking passengers through downtown. It opened on August 6, 1947 and took 4 years for cars and buses to be replaced by streetcar lines. Near East 43rd street station, two stations were connected across Olentangy River making them very busy during rush hour with bus service called 'The Reds'. Bus and streetcar lines continue to the same end through today, but because the city's population began declining between 1950 and 1990 no bus service continues beyond their current terminus at East 33rd Street.