Cleveland Restoration Society uses thesis by Goucher alumna to designate a historic site
Shelley Stokes Hammond MAHP ’12 (left) grew up in a Cleveland neighborhood named Ludlow. In 1957 Ludlow would become known as the place where the garage at the new home of a professional African American couple was bombed in an effort to scare them out of town because of the color of their skin. Years later, it would become a historic site on the Civil Rights Trail in Cleveland. What came after this event is truly inspiring.
Citizens from the Ludlow Community Association (LCA) came together to integrate the suburban neighborhood of Ludlow Elementary School. In the face of violence and prejudice, this group of individuals continued to work for over fifty years to maintain and protect equal access to homeownership and a good education for people representing several ethnicities and religions.
Hammond’s thesis, Recognizing Ludlow — A National Treasure; A Community That Stood Firm for Equality, was written in 2012 for her Historic Preservation graduate program at Goucher College. In 2018 it was cited by the Cleveland Restoration Society as documentation to support consideration of the Ludlow neighborhood as a historic site on Cleveland’s African American Civil Rights Trail. Her thesis, therefore, was a key contributor to the efforts made over the course of a decade to finally have the Ludlow neighborhood declared a historic site. On Thursday, October 20, 2022, a historical marker unveiling ceremony was held at the intersection of Hampton and Corby Roads – the site where the aforementioned bombing occurred. Hammond was invited as one of the featured speakers at the ceremony to share her reflections on her time in Ludlow and her passion to have it recognized. View a clip of Shelly Hammond's news interview on the day of the historical marker unveiling.