Ballots And Bullets WKYC

In the final episode of Ballots and Bullets we examine the political aftermath of the race violence in Cleveland fifty years ago, and how it connects to the horrific shooting of police officers in Dallas in the summer of 2016.
This raises the question we asked at the start of this series: Why are there still such high tensions between African American citizens and police?
We walk through this minefield with you, hopefully to reach some understanding both as to how our damaged past explains where we are today, but more importantly, why some of the thinking fifty years ago about American racism may hold to the key to a brighter future.

"This is just the beginning." Those were the words Fred Ahmed Evans told a black Cleveland police officer in the back of a squad car on the night of July 23, 1968. Evans referred to what he believed would be a multi-city rebellion, kicked off by the uprising he had just started. The problem was Evans and his group started the revolution a day early. In other cities, nationalists believed the war would start on July 24 and the fact that Evans and his band had been put down decisively caused others to pause.
In this episode we will follow Fred “Ahmed” Evans to the city jail and explore his confession and its meaning.
We will also dig into long suppressed FBI files and notes to look at the police investigation and discuss the two trials in 1969 that resulted in guilty verdicts and Evans receiving the death penalty.

It is July 23, 1968. Fred Ahmed Evans and his Black Nationalist group have been purchasing rifle, shotguns and ammunition with money from Mayor Carl Stokes’s “Cleveland: NOW!” antipoverty program. This episode explores the events leading up to the first shots and the chaos that ensued. We’ve got exclusive interviews with Cleveland Police Officers who were part of the gun battle, and hear about questions that still remain unanswered more than 50 years later.