The Hough Area Development Corporation (f. 1967) was formed in Cleveland, Ohio, in the wake of the Hough Riots by DeForest Brown in conjunction with African American professionals and neighborhood leaders to aid in bringing economic prosperity to Cleveland's Hough neighborhood. Dedicated to African American self-determination, the group initially met in secret to prevent competition for dollars and outside attempts to control it. The group received $62,000 from Cleveland Mayor Carl Stokes's Cleveland: NOW! fund in 1967, and in 1968, the Office of Economic Opportunities gave HADC $1.6 million, establishing the trend of federal funding which would last until the early 1980s.
The Hough Area Development Corporation promoted African American business entrepreneurship and better housing. Among its early programs were the Handyman Maintenance Company which took hardcore unemployed people from Hough's neighborhood, trained them, and put them to work as maintenance men, and Community Products Inc., which put former welfare recipients to work manufacturing rubber parts for cars. The Hough Area Development Corporation also petitioned and picketed McDonalds' for ownership of two restaurants in the neighborhood, which the group managed for several years before selling due to losses.
The centerpiece of the Hough Area Development Corporation was the Martin Luther King, Jr., Plaza -- a shopping center with townhouses on its roof -- which was developed, constructed, and managed by African Americans. A later project, a 100-acre Industrial Park, did not come to fruition but sparked plans for the Midtown Corridor Project.
The organization faced criticism of its work in the early 1970s, first by United States Congressman William E. Minshall (R - Lakewood) who questioned Hough Area Development Corporation's tax-exempt status, and then by the Cleveland Plain Dealer which questioned their effectiveness (See Container 25, Folder 492). The organization survived these challenges and continued its work into the early 1980s when federal funds were cut off. The organization depended on local foundation grants for a number of years, but funds were exhausted and its staff laid off in 1984.
The Hough Area Development Corporation Records, 1967-1985 and undated, consist of board minutes, correspondence, clippings, legal papers, financial records, reports, and the working papers of the corporation's offices.
This collection is useful for understanding an African American neighborhood improvement organization in Cleveland, Ohio, which had its roots with the Great Society and its demise under revised federal policy during the administration of Ronald Reagan. The Martin Luther King, Jr., Plaza is one example which illustrates both the housing and minority business issues expanded upon in the collection, such as job training, black pride, economic self-determination and self-help in housing issues. Those studying the development of Cleveland's Hough neighborhood in the decades following the Hough Riots, particularly efforts to develop and expand economic and housing opportunities, will find this collection useful.
The collection is arranged in nine series.
The researcher should also consult MS 4609 Hough Area Development Corporation Records, Series II; and PG 374 Hough Area Development Corporation Photographs.
Processed by Richard W. Hite and Daniel J. Linke in 1988.
None.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 4222 Hough Area Development Corporation Records, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Hough Area Development Corporation, 1987.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.