Anderson Hitchcock

We've Always Been Free: Poems, Reveries, Short Stories, Photos and Other Musings of Growing Up in Chagrin Falls Park, Ohio Anderson Hitchcock

Chagrin Falls Park, Ohio, this bucollic town set in the rustic fields of Northestern Ohio continue to represent the dreams and aspirations of a group of African American pioneers who fought not only the harships and vissitudes of this rural existence, but had to at the same time fight racism and prejudice that kept them separated and to a great extent isolated from the lives of those folks that lived all around and consipred to keep them down and when possible retake control of the one hundred and ten acre parcel of land.

Valiantly, and with the organizational genius of their forefathers and mothers, they built a community, a village a town that could attest to their drive, determination and courage. Charin Falls Park, Ohio is about thrity miles outside of Cleveland, Ohio in Geauga County, although it was gerrymandered away from Cuyahoga County, which has a large African American community and annexed by Geauga County, which meant no representation for the residents of Chagrin Falls Park. It remains that way to this day.

This book was written to begin to draw attention to the plight of these individuals and this community. The objective here is to assist the residents in obtaining designation for this community as a historic black town. To provide protection for the history of this town, and more importantly to provide direction for the maintenance of this town continuation of this community through economic assistance programs.