Racial Discrimination At Euclid Beach

The trouble at Euclid Beach during the summer of 1946 started on the night of July 27.  That evening, an interracial group representing the Communist American Youth for Democracy (AYD) were refused entry to the dancing pavilion and, upon protest, ejected from the park. Groups picketed in front of the park the following week. "We went to Normandy Beach together, what's the matter with Euclid Beach" and "Hitler and Humphrey believe in super race," read two of the signs. Some of the picketers wore their military uniforms as they walked back and forth in front of the park's main gates. Cleveland's black newspaper, the Call and Post, editorialized against these "Gestapo methods at Euclid Beach." "Hitlerism in Cleveland," the editorial argued,"is just as dangerous as it was in Europe." Another editorial two weeks later took aim at Julian Vago, the Euclid Beach Police officer later convicted of assault in the beating of Luster. "Herr Vago,"it reads, "is the champion promulgator of the same prejudice and intolerance for which boys like Albert Luster fought and died." Park owners responded to the increasing criticism by placing the blame squarely on "well-known Cleveland Communist leaders, both white and colored."