Shaker Heights School District is unveiling a newly refurbished school Friday with a ribbon cutting and plaque to honor the building, which was once a cornerstone in civil rights history.
The Ludlow building, which has been refurbished into a preschool, was used for a Cuyahoga County education program for years. In the 1960s and 1970s, the building had a deep history of integration.
In 1970, the district implemented tactics to improve school integration, such as a voluntary busing program.
“There were some people who were, you know, violently opposed. But there was also a lot of excitement. This passed the school board unanimously,” said historian Laura Meckler.
This measure came after a decade of other integration efforts, such as redrawing district lines to change student demographics.
Meckler, the author of “Dream Town,” a book about the district’s integration history, said Black and white residents banded together to integrate Shaker Heights’ Ludlow neighborhood.
“There were a lot people — at least people living in Shaker — who wanted to sort of be part of the solution,” Meckler said.
Shaker Heights closed Ludlow in 1987, according to the Ludlow Community Association. After that, the building was used by the Positive Education Program.
Decades later, graduates of the 1960 Ludlow kindergarten class are back for Ludlow’s revitalization and unveiling.
“Who do you know that has an elementary school reunion that brings people together?” Anthony Willis said. “It's obviously a tie that binds.”
The reminiscing of playground memories sounds like an ordinary class reunion. In fact, Dianne Calaway Howard said her time at Ludlow felt ordinary.
“We just thought we were just ordinary kids that our parents were trying to see have a good education. And we all got along, Black, white,” Calaway Howard said.
As kids, they didn’t realize they were part of an intentional integration, Jennifer Franklin said.
“For us, it was just school. We didn't know how special it was. I think you don't realize it until you leave and you see the life or the schooling that other people had that you then appreciate,” Franklin said.
Lauren Seymour credits the parents of the neighborhood for creating a well-integrated place.
“[I] certainly knew that there were parents in this community that were instrumental in making this a different kind of place,” Seymour said.
Eugene Combs said he understood there was social unrest across the country, but as a Black man, he said he never experienced racism until he left Shaker Heights after graduation.
“It was total inclusion,” Combs said. “Everybody was considered equal. Kids were considered equal.”
Nancy Geiser also faced a tough reality after graduating.
“I remember when we were seniors, they told us, 'You're going to leave Shaker and you're going to go to college or move away and you are not going to be in a place that's anything like this,'” Geiser explained.
Now, some of these classmates, like Deborah Sanborn, wonder if these efforts resonate years later.
“I wish that the experiment could have grown and more people could have learned from it,” Sanborn said.
Like his classmates, Bruce Koscheck said he’s worried that racism and division has grown since his Ludlow days.
“We thought — our generation thought — or at least this school thought, we had it licked,” Koscheck said. “Just doesn't seem to have worked out, like I said, in society.”
But as construction comes to an end and a new Ludlow enters the picture, Willis said the students of tomorrow can learn from their experiences and get back on track to a more integrated society.
“I’m proud. I’m here today because of that movement,” Willis said. “The pushback that I see coming from some people against the way for what we built is sad and I hope it corrects itself.”
