Arambala Press

A New and Improved Democratizing Cleveland
is now available!

I just picked up the latest press run of Democratizing Cleveland: the rise and fall of community organizing in Cleveland, Ohio 1975-1985. This is a new and improved version of the book that corrected some spelling and name errors. I want to thank the many people who patiently waited for their orders to be filled. I hope you find the book to be worth the wait.

I especially want to thank Mari Schaefer for her forbearance. Mari was the Cleveland Press photographer who took the cover picture, without which I was not going to publish the book. The picture was taken outside of the present day Renaissance Hotel, during the SOHIO stockholder’s hit in April of 1982. It is common to portray activists as grim faced speakers of truth to power. This photograph countered this stereotype, with a photo portraying the joy of activism. I had located the original in the Cleveland Press archives at Cleveland State University, recorded its location in the files and then forgot about it until press time. Come press time, I could not find it. It was at large in the archives. So, archivist Lynn Duchez Bycko began to toss the collection for the escaped photo, while I contacted Mari, who now works at the Philadelphia Inquirer, to see if she had any old copies or negatives. We finally found the photo at the archives, and we went to press. And wouldn’t you know that I misspelled Mari’s first name in the credits! Mari is finally getting her corrected copy. Mea culpa.

Finally, I want to thank Sean Martin, Associate Curator of Jewish History at the Western Reserve Historical Society, for inviting me to speak to his class, Ethnicity and Local History, at Case Western. Presentations are often a very humbling experience for a writer. You are interested – even passionate – about your topic. Will your audience, especially a captive one like a class, share your enthusiasm? I can report a success. Most of the students stayed awake through it. Thank you, Sean, for the invite.

No matter what holiday season you are celebrating this year – Christmas, Kwanzaa, or Hanukkah - or you are just secular like me, I want to thank you all for all your support in the past year and wish you a very happy end of the year. It will be fascinating to have a former community organizer in the White House. Who would’ve ever imagined that!

Randy Cunningham

Editor/Publisher

Arambala Press

December 2008

Democratizing Cleveland now at a library near you.

There is no substitute for getting a book into a local library system. Well, maybe having it picked up by a major New York publisher, being invited to talk about it on C-Span or having it reviewed in the New York Times Book Review might be close – but, as they say – fat chance.

I say that there is no substitute for getting a book into a library system, because I look upon public libraries as local bastions of democracy. They promote the right to be informed. Therefore, what could be a better match than a book on a democratic community organizing movement in Cleveland, with one of the glories of our democracy – the public library.

Democratizing Cleveland is now available at the Cleveland Public Library System, the Cuyahoga County Public Library system, Westlake libraries and is coming soon to Lakewood. I hope that many more systems will pick it up over the coming months.

- Randy Cunningham