Cleveland State University will host a dynamic talk and panel discussion highlighting the 50^th anniversary of the “Long Hot Summer” of 1968 which transformed American politics, while bringing to a head numerous social issues impacting American society. The event is co-sponsored by CSU’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs as well as Thompson Hine.

The program will be held Monday, April 9 from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the Moot Court Room at the Cleveland Marshall College of Law on Campus. Preregistration is not required.

It will feature a keynote address by author and historian James D. Robenalt. He will discuss his book, Ballots and Bullets: Black Power Politics and Urban Guerrilla Warfare in 1968 Cleveland, which traces Cleveland’s political and social climate in 1968, as well as the events that led the city to become ground zero for the civil rights and black power struggles and urban unrest that typified the “Long Hot Summer.” This year marks the 50^th anniversary of the dramatic police shootout on July 23, 1968 in the Glenville neighborhood that left 10 dead, over 15 wounded and sparked days of heavy rioting.

A panel discussion following the address will include Robenalt, who is also a partner with Thompson Hine, Walter Beach, former Cleveland Browns player and an assistant to Cleveland Mayor Carl Stokes, and Imam Mutawaf Shaheed, a founding member of the Muntu Poets. Both Beach and Shaheed were eyewitnesses to the events of July 23, 1968. The panel will be moderated by Lee Fisher, Dean of the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, and will be followed by closing remarks from Roland Anglin, Dean of the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs.

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