More than a century ago, in 1911, John Jordan and two friends were caught helping themselves to a west side farmer’s cherry crop. The farmer and his farmhand chased the trio. The chase soon turned into a mob, who pursued Jordan for more than an hour across more than three miles before fatally shooting him at West 98^th Street and Lorain Road. It is not known what happened to his two friends.

This past Sunday, June 22, the Black Environmental Leaders Association (BEL), working with the Center for Community Solutions and the Montgomery, Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), unveiled a historical marker at Elizabeth Baptist Church, commemorating the 1911 lynching of John Jordan—an event that had been largely forgotten in the city's history, and giving Jordan his long-overdue justice.

The unveiling of the John Jordan historical marker"We are looking to inform people about not only what happened in 1911, but also about what does an honest conversation around racial violence look like," explains BEL co-director David Wilson. BEL is leading Jordan’s memorial effort in Cleveland.

BEL is a diverse network of leaders within every sector of the green economy, established in 2020 by the late Jacqueline E. Gillon, co-founder and co-director, to share environmental and racial justice data and resources to strengthen the marginalized position of Black communities.

There were 16 known lynchings in Ohio. The St. Elizabeth marker memorializing John Jordan in the Kinsman neighborhood is the fourth EJI marker in Ohio through EJI’s Community Remembrance Project.

The historical markers commemorate victims of racial terror lynchings—sharing the narratives of the victims and the history of racial violence in the area.

Wilson says people often don’t know the true definition of a lynching.

“A lot of people, when they think of lynching, they think of people being hanged by a noose on a tree, but it’s a much broader definition that EJI has, which was developed over the years of doing all of this incredible documentation,” Wilson explains. “John Jordan was shot and killed by a mob of around three to five hundred people who had gathered.

“They would have literally strung him up, had it not been for the intervention of two policemen who came in and used strenuous measures to pull him out of there and put him in a squad car,” Wilson continues. They didn't even realize—or maybe they did realize he was fatally shot and then had to transfer him to the hospital where he died immediately.”

Equal Justice Initiative's marker at Elizabeth Baptist Church honoring 1911 lynching victim John JordanThe other Ohio markers are in Oxford, memorializing the 1877 lynching of Simeon Garnet and the 1892 lynching of Henry Corbin; in Athens, memorializing the 1881 lynching of Christopher Davis; and in Coshocton County, to memorialize the 1881 lynching of Henry Howard.

EJI has erected more than 80 markers across the United States in the past 10 years; soil has been collected from approximately 700 terror lynching locations, which are displayed in the EJI Legacy Museum in Montgomery; and more than 900 high school students have submitted Racial Justice Essays.

Local involvement

Wilson says the mission to remember Jordan began in 2022 when the Center for Community Solutions approached BEL about creating an EJI Community Remembrance Project marker. In 2023, BEL applied and was accepted to bring a marker for Jordan to Cleveland, and the group subsequently formed a local coalition.

“In September of last year, our coalition members took a trip to Montgomery, Alabama, to visit the Equal Justice Initiative legacy sites, which was a really powerful experience,” recalls Wilson. “Since then, we've had two public events tied to the Community Remembrance Project.”

Wilson says the Montgomery trip reaffirmed BEL’s commitment to bring the marker to the Cleveland community.

“The most impactful part of the trip for me was walking in the footsteps of both our ancestors and Civil Rights leaders who paved the way before us,” Wilson says. “The river boat ride up the Alabama River—where tens of thousands of Africans were trafficked—to the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park is an experience I will never forget.”

The victims’ stories documented through the Community Remembrance Project since 2015 are widely unknown, including the story of John Jordan in Cleveland.

Building bridges

The memorial's location at Elizabeth Baptist Church carries deep significance, says Wilson. In addition to church pastor, Rev. Dr. Richard Gibson being a coalition member and one of the people who traveled to Montgomery, Elizabeth Church is located next to the historic Sidaway Bridge in the Kingsbury Run area.

A 1970 photo of the Sidaway Bridge after the 1966 Hough Uprising when planks were removed.The pedestrian bridge that spanned the Kinsman and Polish-settled Jackowa neighborhoods was dismantled in 1966 during the Hough Riots and the Civil Rights movement.

“Members of the Slavic Village community literally took the bridge apart plank by plank, as kind of a symbol of the racial tension of the time,” says Wilson. Efforts over the years to rebuild the bridge have failed, but Wilson says he sees the decisions made 59 years ago at Kingsbury Run as lessons learned that can be applied to future race relations moves.

"This is a project that could bridge through the history and provide a moment of understanding, reconciliation, and healing—that is a key part of this project," Wilson says, emphasizing the John Jordan marker is just the beginning for BEL’s involvement.

“Black Environmental Leaders Association would never take on a project that ends with a marker going in the ground," he says. "It is that continued dialogue and conversation that we are hoping to spark.”

Wilson gives a nod to the late Gillon, a passionate environmental justice advocate and leader, for her vision in the need for BEL to continue the dialogues and ensure future generations know these stories.

Jacquie GillonGillon was also a member of Elizabeth Baptist Church and a tree in her memory is planted just a few yards from the location of the John Jordan Community Remembrance Marker.

“Jacquie Gillon embraced the humanity and mutuality in all of us,” says Wilson. “She convened what would eventually become BEL by bringing people together to pursue meaningful change. She knew that it took both collaboration and authentic engagement to advance the work of environmental and economic justice.”

Wilson says Elizabeth’s and Gibson’s involvement, as well as the programs and conversations BEL has initiated are exactly what Gillon would advocate for.

“As part of Black Environmental Leaders Association, we have funding to do [student] scholarships for continued education in areas within the environment through our Jacquie Gillon Scholarships,” says Wilson.

“We [want] to raise additional awareness and funds to keep the conversation going, make trips down to Montgomery, have programs to learn more, and to connect to the history of Civil Rights,” he continues. “There is a powerful connection between Alabama and Cleveland [as leaders] in the Civil Rights movement and era throughout the generations.

Eventually, Wilson says he’d like to extend those lessons to Africa, “where we are making that kind of global connection and experience for folks,” he says. “It's different when you hear about it than when you are there and experiencing it.”

The history of the Civil Rights movement in Birmingham and Montgomery made perfect sense after he traveled to the sites he learned about. “You're flying into Birmingham and visiting the sites that you read about in the history books,” he observes. “But, you’re feeling it in a very tangible way.”

BEL members created the organization AI²value proposition, which stands for Advocate, Incubate, and Inform in environmental and economic justice. Wilson says the EJI Community Remembrance Project touches all of the AI² areas.

“The marker is more than just a plaque—it is a call to memory, a call to conscience, and a call to action,” he says. “This dialogue is important because it presents an opportunity to confront the past through restorative truth-telling and reinforces the belief that communities like ours can find healing through remembrance and action.”