For one Hough resident’s birthday, an annual celebration of community

Louis McCoy has spent close to 75 years living, volunteering, and working in the Hough community. So maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise that his “Hough Reunion Gathering” brings approximately 200 of his childhood friends and their families to celebrate his beloved Hough community – and McCoy’s birthday – each July.

Staying connected

McCoy, a self-described organizer, met up in the mid-1990s with Norva Jackson, a friend from his childhood, and they started discussing long-lost childhood friends and how they could get some of them together to honor their pasts and future. McCoy had kept an old phone book, and he started reaching out to those he had contact numbers for to have them pass the word around.

He’s also saved a photo collection dating back to 1968 that he brings each year to the celebration, because there’s always someone new who has not seen it. For McCoy, his vision for these gatherings is not just bringing groups of people together; he also wants it to be a time for reflection.

“A lot of the people that come to my gatherings are people that I have known since we were teenagers. Most of us now are in our 70s,” says McCoy.

It’s about keeping up that longstanding sense of community and their connection to Hough. “I don’t have a picnic to have a lot of people come. I have a lot of people that know each other. I’ve got guys to go to that picnic I’ve known since I was 12. So, I’m not looking for numbers as much as I’m looking for the right people.” An important part of the gathering is sharing and witnessing stories. “Many of them were incarcerated youths and have stories to share about their experience and where it’s brought them today,” he says.

Every year for the past 20, the party is held in late July at Rockefeller Park along Martin Luther King Drive in Cleveland. It is always scheduled near McCoy’s July 26 birthday, and that’s by design. For him, there’s no better way to commemorate his birth.

This year, Tyrone Jackson (no relation to Norva) sat with his friend Nicole Buck near smoky barrel grills containing hotdogs, ribs, salmon, and chicken as they reminisced about their times together at the old Addison Junior High School on Hough Ave.

“This is a good time to see friends you haven’t seen in many years and their children,” says Tyrone Jackson.

Hough looking back, looking forward

McCoy’s summer party is also a time to reflect on the neighborhood.

The neighborhood riots of 1966 are still on the minds of many. McCoy credits his ongoing passion for staying connected to his time working with the Hough Development Corporation (HDC), which started to help revitalize the community in the late 1960s after the riots.

“I worked at the Hough Development Corporation in the 60s after the riots,” says McCoy. “I knew people who worked there, and they got me a job. HDC sent me to Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The college had an economic development program to train young people to work in voter registration and participate in community outreach programs. That learning experience is something I never forgot and still propels me to advocate for my community.”

With the tireless efforts of the late Fannie Lewis, Ward 7 councilwoman for Hough starting in 1979, Hough literally rose from the ashes after the devastation of the 1966 riots. Once a thriving community with hardware and grocery stores, butcher shops and entertainment venues, the riots devasted the neighborhood, causing millions of dollars in damage.  Among other improvements, Lewis advocated for funding through the city for the construction of Lexington Village on E. 79th near Hough Ave. and many of the new homes and mini mansions that are scattered throughout the neighborhood.

After going through these difficult years, sustaining the fabric of the Hough community is particularly important. “The event McCoy has started establishes and sustains that sense of community,” says  Ronnie A. Dunn, Ph.D., associate professor of Urban Studies in the College of Education and Public Affairs at Cleveland State University. “It helps people stay connected [to each other], as well as staying connected to the Hough community.”

McCoy feels it takes even more than a yearly event to keep the crew engaged. So, once a month before the pandemic hit, he would invite a group for breakfast at Angela’s Family Restaurant on St. Clair Ave. in Cleveland. Those get-togethers stopped due to Covid-19 safety concerns, says McCoy.

Pandemic or not, there’s still work to be done. “I still live near Hough, but I’m not happy with some of the progress,” says Tyrone Jackson. “We need more stores to buy quality food. We need more activities for the kids. And neighborhood cleaning projects. I’m in the process of trying to move back to the house in the neighborhood I grew up in.”

Getting her groove on listening to Earth, Wind, and Fire at this year’s party, Norva Jackson recounted her days in Hough as a youth and the changes that forced her to leave.

“I grew up on 65th and Hough Ave. This event has more of an impact on the people than the community,” says Jackson. “These are people who I’ve known for 60 years. It refreshes the soul to see people you haven’t seen in 40 years. Some years our kids and grandkids show up. My mom’s house is still standing. I live in Cleveland Heights, but I’d move back to Hough now that my kids are grown. I moved away because of the schools. “

McCoy was caught off guard after discovering many of his childhood friends would not move back to Hough if the opportunity arose. He, however, is as devoted to the neighborhood as ever.

“I’ll be here each year celebrating as long as I can to remind anyone who will listen how important this community has been to Cleveland’s Black population,” he said.