1966 U.S. Civil Rights Commission Hearings in Cleveland: Police-Community Relations

In the civil rights commission's hearings on police-community relations, Cleveland residents and community leaders described encounters with officers and the handling of local crime. The commission questioned Cleveland Police Chief Richard Wagner at length. 

Listen to all the testimony below. Audio is courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration. 

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Part One

• Roy Littlejohn, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights staff attorney
• Clarence H. Holmes, attorney and Cleveland NAACP board member
• Nona Bailey, Hough resident
• Rev. Robert V. Parks, Church of God and Christ

Part Two

• Johnny Bruce, Cleveland resident a Division of Streets employee
• Margaret Weathers, first vice president of the Hough Community Council

Part Three

• James E. Malone, director of the surgical research labs at Western Reserve University
• Glen Marks, Hough resident and Ohio Crankshaft Company machinist
• Gerald S. Gold, former attorney-in-charge of the Legal Aid Defender's Office
• Booker T. Eddy, civil rights demonstrator

Part Four

• Rev. Vincent Haas, pastor of Conversion of St. Paul
• Harold B. Williams, U.S. Office of Education consultant

Part Five

• Stanley T. Lekowich and Lowell Johnson, Cleveland Community Relations Board
• John A. Ronayne, attorney and retired New York City Police Department inspector

Part Six

• John McCormick, Cleveland director of public safety
• Richard Wagner, Cleveland police chief
• Gerald Rademaker, deputy inspector of police