Brothers standing hand-in-hand. Merle M. McCurdy (1912-1968) stands to the right of his older brother, Foster McCurdy (1910-1978). The first child, a girl, of the McCurdy family was still born (1909).

Life for Merle began on the shores of Lake Erie in the port city of Conneaut, Ohio. Situated in the northeast corner of Ashtabula County, the city of 11,000 residents that Merle grew up in, played a significant role in the transport of iron ore from dock to rail. Andrew Carnegie, the well-known industrialist, was instrumental in the development of this transportation hub. In 1898, he purchased over 5,000 acres of Conneaut’s harbor and made a significant financial investments in modernizing the ship yard equipment and infrastructure before selling it to J.P. Morgan who created U.S. Steel in 1901.

Sources

Bureau of the US Census. (1913). Thirteen Census of the United States, Table 1: Population-Ohio, Population of Minor Civil Divisions: 1910, 1900, 1890 (Vol. 3). Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.

Treese, L. (2003). Railroads of Pennsylvania: Fragments of the Past in the Keystone Landscape. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books.

Evelyn Gertrude (Foster) and LeRoy “Roy” Nelson McCurdy, Merle’s parents, were married in Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada on July 20, 1907.

Both the Foster and McCurdy families had roots in the Ohio, before moving to Amherstburg. Prior to the Civil War, both families participated on the Underground Railroad by helping those leaving the bonds of slavery in the United States to Canada or otherwise offering assistance upon freedom seekers’ entry into a foreign land. Following the Civil War, both families had relatives who worked on ships carrying cargo into the United States. The marriage of Evelyn and Roy McCurdy would see a portion of these two families re-establish connections with Ohio, with Lake Erie being the common bond and connection with their cousins to the North.

Source

Journal Entry and Affidavit: Marriage of Roy McCurdy and Evelyn Foster, No. 22310 (Ashtabula Court of Common Pleas 1926).

Serving on a Great Lakes ore freighter as a cook enticed Roy McCurdy, dressed in a bow tie, and Evelyn McCurdy to move from Amhertsburg, Ontario to the port city of Conneaut, Ohio around 1909.

The McCurdy story in the United States is one of fortitude and strength and captures the spirit of other so called 'fugitive slaves' following the same trail to freedom in the 1800s. Roy was the great grandson of Nasa McCurdy, who was released from slavery by Rachel Kennedy in Greene County, Pennsylvania in the 1790s.

Note: The early history of the McCurdy family and how they helped the freedom seekers create schools and establish African Methodist Episcopal churches throughout Western Ontario is well documented in the McCurdy collection found within the Archives of Ontario.

Sources

Franklin County Recorder. (1795, June 17). Franklin County PA Deed Book 3: Manumission of Nasa McCurdy by Rachel Kennedy. Chambersburg, PA: Franklin County

Frost, K. S., & Tucker, V. S. (Eds.). (2016). A Fluid Frontier : Slavery, Resistance, and the Underground Railroad in the Detroit River Borderland. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.

Greene County Recorder. (1797, March 23). Greene County PA Deed Book 1: Manumission of Nasa McCurdy by Rachel Kennedy. Waynsburg, PA: Greene County

Foster (top row, fourth student from left to right) and Merle (bottom right) McCurdy both attended the Dean Avenue School in Conneaut, Ohio.

An African American student who attended the Conneaut Schools described the high quality teachers who taught “a lot about real brotherhood long before civil rights began. [The teachers] were 50 years ahead of their time.”

Sources

Ruffin, R. (1989, April 5). Letter to Brenda (McCurdy) Rhodes [Letter]. Conneaut, Ohio.

Ike Ruffin Remembers Conneaut High Well. (1989, March 9). The HomeTown News.

In the autumn of 1921, the McCurdy family traveled to Amherstburg, Ontario to visit the birthplace of Merle’s mother, Evelyn (Foster) McCurdy. This photo, dated “September 3, 1921”, was taken during that journey when the McCurdy family stopped to visit relatives living in Cleveland, Ohio.

Evelyn (Foster) McCurdy’s grandfather, Levi Foster, was born on March 29, 1811 in Stark County, Ohio, before moving to Perrysburg, Ohio, a known stop on the Underground Railroad located south of Toledo. In 1838, Levi moved his family to Amhertsburg, Ontario where he opened a livery stable. Active in the anti-slavery debates, Levi helped to organize the True Band Society of Amherstburg to assist freedom seekers who fled slavery in the United States to Canada. Upon Levi’s death, in April of 1875, Levi’s sons, including Evelyn’s father, George H. Foster, continued to run the horse stable.

Sources

Levi Foster Obiturary. (1875, April). Amherstburg Echo. Retrieved from http://tubman.info.yorku.ca/educational-resources/breaking-the-chains/the-detroit-river-essex-county-and-the-underground-railroad/levi-foster/levi-foster-primary-documents/

Colored Celebration in Sandwich. (1867, August 5). Chicago Tribune, p. 2

Evelyn (Foster) McCurdy standing to the left at the Foster farm in Amherstburg.

By 1921, the Foster homestead was in a state of disrepair due to death and, in turn, loss of income. Evelyn’s mother, Sarah (Smith) Foster died in 1899, leaving her husband to raise his young family on his own on the farm. Prior to Sarah’s death, George H. Foster, was working as a porter on the Great Lakes fleet. In 1902, George passed away, leaving Evelyn and her younger sisters to live with their Aunt Gertrude “Gertie” Bush. The McCurdy Family’s journey to the Foster Farm in Amherstburg, Ontario in the autumn 1921 was to aid in the home’s restoration.

For more information on the life of George H. Foster review page one of the December 19, 1902 issue of the Amherstburg Echo.

Source

Iron Steamship Onoko. (1882, May 1). Buffalo Morning Express, p. 2.

The Fosters (left to right): Evelyn (Mrs. Leroy McCurdy), Sarah (Mrs. James R. Lee), Philo Smith, Gertrude Bush (Mrs. William), George H. Jr, and Madeline (Mrs. John E. Murrell, DDS).

Following in their father’s footsteps, the male children of George H. and Sarah J. Foster worked as cooks in the shipping industry, one of the few jobs available to those of African descent within the Great Lakes Fleet. Eventually, members of the Foster Family would rise to the level of 1st Steward.

Sources

Miller, A. (1999). Tin stackers : the history of the Pittsburgh Steamship Company. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press.

Various articles found in the Amherstburg Echo and Echo Soundings.

Working for the Pittsburgh Steamship Co. and its major receiving port in Conneaut, Ohio, Roy’s work on the Great Lakes would keep him away from his family for lengthy periods of time. At the time when this class picture was taken of Merle (1926), the strain caused by his frequent absences was too much, and Evelyn filed for divorce.

Source

Ashtabula County Court of Common Pleas. (1926). Case No. 2231

Despite the divorce of his parents, and the impeding economic depression that would sweep the county, the McCurdy Family remained in Conneaut. The family survived on the child support awarded Evelyn by the Court in the divorce, Merle’s mother supplementing the family’s income worked as a seamstress.

Source

Bureau of the US Census. (1930). Fifteenth Census of the United States, Population Schedule-Ohio-Conneaut. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.

A 1931 graduate of Conneaut High School, according to The Tattler yearbook, Merle was an active student and participated in a number of extracurricular activities including Glee Club, Football, Senior Boys Club and Track. The Senior Class predicted that Merle would fulfill his dream to become a police officer, “where the city’s Mayor would declare him a hero for his crime fighting skills” (p. 81).

Source

Conneaut High School. (1931). The Tattler. Conneaut, OH.

A graduate of the class of 1931, Merle McCurdy is seated in the first row and sixth in on the right side.

Newspaper clipping of the names associated with the1931 graduating class photo of Conneaut High School featuring Merle McCurdy.

Merle would initially follow the employment path of his father, Roy, and other family members. For a brief time, he worked on the ore boats that served the dock-to-rail steel production centers of U.S. Steel, then located near Youngstown, OH and Pittsburgh, PA.

Photo of Merle (far left) and his fellow cooks on one of many ore boats that operated on the Great Lakes.

Written on the back of the photo by Merle, “All our jackets & aprons were dirty, but luckily dirt does not show up in a picture.”

Merle McCurdy dressed in a cook’s attire on the deck of an ore ship on the Great Lakes.

Merle’s career on ore ships was short lived. Pressured by the economic constrains generated by the Great Depression, the Pittsburgh Steamship Co. in 1932 reduced its iron ore shipping volume by ninety percent. Hoping that the market erosion due to the steel industry would be short-lived, the company reassigned many of its experienced sailors to shipping jobs previously opened only to African Americans such as porters, cooks, and stewards.

Merle was suddenly out of a job and with few options available, he moves to Cleveland, OH. He finds work as a bellhop at the Hollenden Hotel, a downtown luxury hotel that was frequented at the time by popular celebrities and industrialists.

Source

Miller, A. (1999). Tin Stackers : the history of the Pittsburgh Steamship Company. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press.

It was at the Hollenden Hotel that Merle fell in love with Rosetta “Rosie” Scott who operated the hotel’s elevator.

As described in the Pittsburgh Courier, Merle’s initial attempts to engage Rosie were disrupted by “fleeting departures” as she would always disappear from sight while operating the elevator’s controls whenever he tried to approach. Merle persisted, and was finally able to strike up a conversation with Rosie, a task he later described as one of his more “difficult undertakings" (McKeever, 1959, p. 2).

The couple wed in 1937 and lived in Cleveland with Merle’s mother, Evelyn, who had married Clarence Cowan five years earlier.

Sources

Cuyahoga County Courthouse. (1971). Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-2013: Cuyahoga: Marriage Records 1933, vol 169. Salt Lake City, UT: Genealogical Society of Utah. Retrieved from https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9392-B5ZP-P?i=18&cc=1614804

McKeever, D. (1959, June 6). Brilliant Prosecutor Practices Golden Rule. The Pittsburgh Courier, p. 2

Living in Cleveland on East 87th St with Merle’s mother, Merle and Rosie started a family of two daughters, Myrna (right) and Brenda (left).

In the early 1940s Merle explored several occupations, including real estate, to support his new family but had long aspired to work in law enforcement. Stricken with tuberculosis, a bacterial infection that typically impairs the lungs, he spent a significant amount of time recovering at a sanitarium. For Merle, this ended his dream of becoming a police officer.

Sources

Bureau of the US Census. (1940). Sixteenth Census of the United States, Population Schedule-Ohio, Cleveland. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.

Conneaut High School. (1931). The Tattler. Conneaut, OH.

McCurdy Rhodes, B. by Dana, R. (Personal Communication, March 22, 2015).

Merle is pictured (left) with his brother Foster, dressed in uniform. Standing to the right is Myron and Bruce Thomas Cowan is knelling.

While recovering from tuberculosis at a sanitarium, Merle roomed with Myron C. Hoff, who was also afflicted with the same condition. The two became fast friends and dreamed of ways that they could help each other in their future careers. Myron would later attend law school at (Case) Western Reserve University in Cleveland and began his law career in 1943 after passing the Ohio Bar Exam.

Sources

McCurdy Rhodes, B. by Dana, R. (Personal Communication, March 22, 2015).

Supreme Court of Ohio. (n.d.). The Supreme Court of Ohio Attorney Directory. Retrieved from https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/attorneysearch/#/search

Merle operating an electric streetcar bound for downtown Cleveland’s Public Square. Streetcars during the 1940s and 1950s in Cleveland, like many other major cities of its time, would be eventually replaced by trackless trollies and buses as the primary means of public transportation.

Ironically, George D. McCurdy, Merle’s grandfather, passed away on October 26, 1919 of an apparent heart on a streetcar in Cleveland’s Public Square.

Sources

Cooley, P. (2016, July 14). A Visual History of Streetcars and Trolleys in Cleveland. Cleveland.com. Retrieved from http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2016/07/a_visual_history_of_streetcars.html

Cuyahoga County, Bureau of Vital Statistics. (1919, October 26). George D. McCurdy Death Record: File No. 57297-9004.

Written on the back of the photo: “Merle & Best Friend, Elmer Selman – Grad from Western Reserve.”

In 1947, Merle graduates from (Case) Western Reserve’s College of Law, and is admitted to the Ohio Bar on July 31, 1947. He is still living at 2200 E 87th Street in Cleveland, an integrated neighborhood comprised of wealthier African American and Jewish families during this time. Brenda McCurdy Rhoads, Merle’s daughter, recalled living next door to the Goldberg family who treated them “wonderfully”.

Sources

McCurdy Rhodes, B. by Dana, R. (Personal Communication, April 2015).

Supreme Court of Ohio. (n.d.). The Supreme Court of Ohio Attorney Directory. Retrieved from https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/attorneysearch/#/search

Written on the back of the photograph from right to left “Merle, SI Minor, & Garrett Morgan.”

After graduating from the Western Reserve in 1947, Merle worked briefly for Myron Huff and then for five years as a partner for Norman Shelby Minor, a famous Cleveland criminal defense lawyer who served seventeen years as a Cuyahoga County Prosecutor.

During his career Minor participated in approximately 5,000 cases and mentored several prominent African American lawyers, who later in life would make a lasting impact on local and state politics and the law. In addition to Merle, Minor guided the renowned Stokes brothers. Carl Stokes became the first African American mayor of a major U.S. city (Cleveland) in 1967 and served three terms as the first African American Democrat for the Ohio House of Representatives. Louis Stokes was the first African American U.S. Congressman elected from the State of Ohio, and he and his brother Carl would also establish a successful law firm known for taking on high profile and civil rights cases.

Sources

Case Western Reserve University. (2018, May 11). Stokes, Carl B. Retrieved from https://case.edu/ech/articles/s/stokes-carl-b

Case Western Reserve University. (2018, May 11). Stokes, Louis. Retrieved from https://case.edu/ech/articles/s/stokes-louis

Kennedy, R. (1961, August 17). Letter to President John F. Kennedy on the Nomination of Merle McCurdy for the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

Norman S. Minor, Noted Defense Lawyer, Is Dead at 67. (1968, May 16). The Plain Dealer, p. 21.

Merle’s brother, Foster “Doc” McCurdy returned to Cleveland after serving in the Army during World War II with renewed concerns about continuing labor issues and racism in the United States. On April 27, 1949, Foster was sentenced by Judge James C. Connell to ten days in jail and fined $500 for picketing the Judge’s home after lengthy jail terms where given for persons who picketed a company who refused to recognize a Union. Later that same year, Foster attempted to bring entertainer, Paul Robeson to perform and give a talk in Cleveland. Robeson was an outspoken critic of President Truman for failing to promote civil right issues of the day, such as integrating the armed forces and putting an end to lynching in the South. According to Robeson, during a meeting at the White house, “President Truman said it wasn’t politically expedient to do something about lynching at that time” (The Baltimore Sun,1948, p. 2).

Sources

Jail, Fines for Picketing of Judge’s Home in Strike. (1949, April 28). St. Louis Post-Dispatch, p. 14.

Terror Tactics Used, Paul Robeson Charges. (1948, May 3). The Baltimore Sun, p. 2.

Merle McCurdy shaking hands with Cuyahoga County Prosecutor, Frank T. Cullitan.

In 1952, Merle accepted an appointment as an Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor. Louis Stokes, in his autobiography, “The Gentleman from Ohio,” explained that he and his brother, Carl, were hired to fill the void left upon Merle’s departure from Minor’s office. When McCurdy and Minor found themselves as adversaries, “the courtroom would fill to overflowing with lawyers and others eager to witness a battle of two courtroom masters” (2016, p. 40).

Source:

Stokes, L. (2016). The Gentleman from Ohio. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press

Glimpse of the Cuyahoga Prosecutor’s office in 1954 during time of the first Sam Sheppard trial. Prosecutor Frank T. Cullitan is seated in front row to the far right and standing behind him to the far right is Assistant Prosecutor Thomas J. Parrino. Merle McCurdy is located on the far left.

Long-time attorney, Gerald S. Gold conveyed that both McCurdy and Parrino were the two best trial attorneys in Cleveland in the Prosecutor’s office at that time. They were so good, that Parrino was put in charge of handling the infamous Dr. Sam Sheppard case. Merle, however, as an African American, was not permitted to participate in the Sheppard case.

While legal scholars of the time state that the Prosecutor’s Office in Cleveland was not an “apartheid-type” system, concerns were raised that white jurors would have difficulty convicting a white defendant prosecuted by an African American. Likewise, similar concerns existed with white prosecutors seeking to try cases at that time involving an African American defendant. This concern would have been magnified with a high-profile case involving Dr. Sheppard.

Sources

Gold, G.S. by Dana, R. (Personal Communication, April 23, 2015).

Sheehan, Cuyahoga Common Pleas Judge B. et al. by Dana, R. (Personal Communication, April 2015).

Photograph of Merle McCurdy and Dorothy Kilgallen, an American journalist at the New York Journal-American who covered the Dr. Sam Sheppard trial.

F. Lee Bailey, a lawyer who served in the re-trial of Sam Sheppard, heard Kilgallen speak to a group that the Trial Court Judge in Dr. Sheppard’s case declared that the defendant was “guilty as hell” (Ostrow, 1966, p. 6) before the trial and that the case against Sheppard was “open and shut” (Ostrow, 1966, p. 6). Bailey used this statement as a basis to assert that his client was entitled to a new trial based on the Judge’s bias before any evidence was even presented in the case.

Source

Ostrow, R. (1966, March 1). Judge in Dr. Sheppard Trial Accused of Bias. Los Angeles Times, p. 6.

Photo of Merle McCurdy and his longtime friend, Myron Huff, performing a stage routine at Idlewild’s El Morocco Club, a popular after hour’s night club.

Coined the “Black Eden” in the 1950s and 1960s, Western Michigan’s Idlewild was a unique vacation resort town that, during the era of segregation, was one of the few areas that allowed African Americans to acquire property and retreat. At its peak, it is estimated that this resort area served over 25,000 summer guests on the 4th of July in 1959. The boon eventually subsided with “the passing of the Civil Right Acts of 1964, the many rebellions that followed in 1968, the Vietnam War, a national recession in the early 1970s, and the inability of seasonal business owners in Idlewild to be competitive with other outlets in the United States” (Stephens, 2001, p.11).

Sources

Hart, J. (1960). A Rural Retreat for Northern Negroes. Geographical Review, 50(2), 147-168. doi:10.2307/211505

Stephens, R. (2001). Idlewild: The Black Eden of Michigan. Arcadia Publishing

Rosie and Merle McCurdy relaxing on the beach at the Idlewild Club House in Idlewild, Michigan.

Built in the early 1920s, the club house was the center of activity for this vacation resort. From the 1950s to the 1960s, the club house and other nearby night spots showcased the talents of many well-known and upcoming black entertainers including Louis Armstrong, William “Count” Basie, “Peg Leg” Bates, James Brown, Sammy Davis, Jr, The Four Tops, Aretha Franklin, Della Reese, and Stevie Wonder.

From the personal collection of Brenda (McCurdy) Rhodes (unsent postcard written to a friend):

“We are having a good time in Idlewild, Mich. We go swimming every day. We went horseback riding and fishing too. We are staying in a cottage. Well, I have to go to bed now so I have to say goodbye.”

Source

Walker, L., & Wilson, B. (2002). Black Eden: the Idlewild Community. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press.

Detective William Lonchar, Detective John Doyle, Merle McCurdy, and Norman Stern (left to right).

Described by Gerald (“Jerry”) S. Gold, a prominent Cleveland defense attorney, as “smooth as silk in the courtroom”, Gold had his first murder trial against McCurdy. McCurdy won the trial and Gold’s client was convicted of murder. Gold would later file a motion for a new trial and convinced the Judge to reduce the charge to manslaughter, which angered McCurdy. Regardless, they became close friends and played golf regularly at Cleveland’s Highland Park golf course.

Years later the two would find themselves again working together, this time on the same side. In 1960, McCurdy served as Cuyahoga County’s first Legal Aid Public Defender. Gold was asked if he might be interested in the Chief’s Assistant’s job. Although a significant reduction in pay, Gold accepted the chance to work with Merle.

Sources

Gold, G.S. by Dana, R. (Personal Communication, April 2015).

Miller, C. (2006). A Passion for Justice: A History of the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, 1905-2005. Cleveland, OH: Legal Aid Society of Cleveland.

The McCurdy family receives news of Merle’s appointment as U.S. Attorney.

(Clockwise, starting far left) Roy McCurdy, Joseph C. Drew, Rosetta Scott, Brenda McCurdy (Rhoads), Merle McCurdy, and Myrna McCurdy Drew.

Merle’s continued success corresponded to a campaign promise made during John F. Kennedy’s campaign for President in 1960 to appoint more African Americans to federal government posts.

Sources

Gates, Jr., H. L. (2013, November 18). How Black Was JFK’s Camelot? The Root. Retrieved from https://www.theroot.com/how-black-was-jfks-camelot-1790898936

McCurdy Rhodes, B. by Dana, R. (Personal Communication, March 22, 2015).

On Friday, October 6, 1961, Merle McCurdy was sworn in as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio by Federal Judge James C. Connell, the same Judge who jailed Merle’s brother, Foster, in the late 1940s for picketing the Judge’s house during a Union labor dispute.

A crowd of two hundred gathered to attend Merle McCurdy’s swearing ceremony. As Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy, was on the West Coast, and unable to attend the ceremony, Assistant Attorney General, William A. Geoghegan was present. Georhegan stated that, “Mr. McCurdy did not receive this post because of his race. Nor was there any thought that he might be passed by because of it. He was named only after full investigation had determined that he was well qualified” (The Plain Dealer, 1961, p. 6).

Also in attendance, was Andrew T. Hatcher (left), Associate White House Press Secretary and Dr. Robert Weaver (standing next to Merle), administrator of the Housing and Home Finance Agency. President John F. Kennedy attempted to name Dr. Weaver to a full position within his Cabinet, but was he blocked by southern politicians who objected to an African American serving the White House. President Lyndon Baines Johnson elevated Robert Weaver to a full cabinet position in 1966, naming him Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

Sources

200 Attend Swearing in of McCurdy. (1961, October 7). The Plain Dealer, p. 6.

Gates, H. (2013, November 11). How Black Was JFK’s Camelot? The Root. Retrieved from https://www.theroot.com/how-black-was-jfks-camelot-1790898936

Nearly fifty years from his birth, Merle is joined at his swearing-in ceremony from one of his teachers from Conneaut High School. Fifty years ahead of her time, this unidentified teacher of Merle’s, lived to see one of her students - a great-great grandson of a former slave, ascend to one of the highest positions in the United States.

U.S. Representative, Charles Vanik can be seen in the middle of this photograph, wearing a bow tie.

By November of 1961, Merle had rounded out his staff of Assistant U.S. Attorneys. Noted from left to right: Merle M. McCurdy, Bernard J. Stuplinski (Merle’s Chief Assistant), Dominic J. Cimino, Burt W. Griffin, Charles M. Diamond, and Gerald J. Celebrezze.

Burt Griffin, later Judge Griffin of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, was a hold-over from the Eisenhower Administration. When hired in the late 1950’s, this son of a former Republican Judge was told of the pleasure the office had at receiving his resume, given that it was facing pressure to hire an African American attorney. The conversation left an impression on Griffin who felt the joke was on them because they just hired a “Jewish Democrat.” Griffin would later serve on the Warren Commission that investigated President Kennedy’s death.

Absent from this photograph is Merle’s former Legal Aid Chief Assistant, Gerald S. Gold. Before Merle’s appointment, the two had talked about joining a private partnership, but, even in 1960s Cleveland, Merle thought it was impossible for two attorneys of different races to start an office seeking paying clients. In addition, Merle indicated that he wanted to leave the Public Defender’s office in the good hands of his long-time friend, Gerald S. Gold.

Sources

Gold, G.S. by Dana, R. (Personal Communication, April 23, 2015).

Sheehan, Cuyahoga Common Pleas Judge B. et al. by Dana, R. (Personal Communication, April 2015).

Merle McCurdy shaking hands with Robert F. Kennedy.

Within eight months of his swearing-in ceremony, a witness in the House Un-American Activities Committee identified Merle’s brother, Foster, as a Communist. Working as a deputy in the Cuyahoga County Clerk’s Office, Foster denied any involvement in the Communist Party. He gave no further comment, as advised by Merle serving as a U.S. District Attorney.

The following day, Foster acknowledged some of his earlier activities in the late 1940s, but denied ever joining the Communist Party, stating that his refusal to join contributed to his divorce of his first wife, Mamie, ten years beforehand.

Robert F. Kennedy issued a statement indicating that it looked fully into the McCurdy Family background, were familiar with the allegations made against Foster, and that the administration had “no question about [Merle’s] loyalty, integrity and ability.” The controversy obviously caused a strain in the two brother’s relationship, Merle is quoted as saying: “Whatever my brother did occurred years ago. At that time I was not aware of any of his activities except what I read in the newspapers. We had long since gone our separate ways” (The Plain Dealer, 1962, p. 19).

Sources

Bobby has No Doubts on McCurdy. (1962, June 5). The Plain Dealer, p. 19.

Witness Names 16 Clevelanders as Reds. (1962, June 5). Akron Beacon Journal, p. 30.

On July 3, 1962, Merle McCurdy addressed a convention held in Atlanta, Georgia for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a convention attended by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, who Merle is pictured with along with Ralph D. Abernathy. In his speech, Merle noted the strides that African Americans had made in a short period of time that included the appointment of former NAACP General Counsel, Thurgood Marshall, to the Federal Bench. Merle indicated that these strides did not come by accident and that it took the “power of the ballot” and “vigilance and fortitude” by persons willing to fight injustice and protect citizens from an invasion of their rights.

Source

McCurdy, M.M. (1962, July 3). Speech for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. A copy of this address can be found in the Merle McCurdy Archives of the Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland, Ohio.

In January of 1964, Merle celebrated his 27th wedding anniversary with Rosie. The Hollenden Hotel was scheduled for destruction and Merle, always the romantic, salvaged the hotel’s elevator control where they first met.

Merle McCurdy (left) and Nathaniel “Nate” R. Jones (right) shaking hands.

In 1962, Merle hired Nathaniel “Nate” R. Jones, the first African American as Assistant U.S. Attorney. Initially, Merle felt uncomfortable appointing a member of his own race to this position. However, Robert F. Kennedy made it clear that the appointment of highly qualified minorities in these positions was exactly the reasons for Merle’s appointment in the first place.

When Merle was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to serve as General Counsel to National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (commonly known as the “Kerner Commission”) in 1967, Nate would join his team as Assistant General Counsel. Created in response to the racial violence that in America’s urban centers during the 1960’s, including Cleveland's Hough neighborhood, the Commission investigated and reported on the cause of violence. While persons like J. Edgar Hoover blamed these riots of “communist sympathizers”, the Kerner Commission’s report came to a different conclusion. Distributed in March of 1968, the report determined that the cause of the rioting was from poverty that existed in the inner-city, a concern as relevant today as it was fifty years ago.

Nate Jones would go on to become General Counsel for the NAACP, and, later, was appointed Judge to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Sources

Jones, N., by Dana, R. (Personal Communication, December 4, 2015).

Fisher, A. (2018, July 30). Nate Jones & Lyndon B. Johnson Administration. National Archives, Lyndon B. Johnson Library.

Merle is buried at Cleveland’s Highland Park Cemetery, near the golf course where he and Gerald Gold played golf. Foster, Merle’s brother, in 1978 would join his brother in death at the same cemetery.

On the morning of May 6, 1968, Merle went with his long-time friend, Myron Hoff, to obtain their B-12 shots, a treatment the two men received for years to boost their energy. Their regular doctor was not in, and Merle proceeded with his injection. Myron was not comfortable with the situation and refused treatment. Later that day, as Merle was at Cleveland-Hopkins Airport, preparing to travel to Washington, D.C. for his new job as Consumer Counsel, he collapsed, dying of an apparent brain aneurysm.

Source

McCurdy Rhodes, B. by Dana, R. (Personal Communication, March 22, 2015).

“A Fruitful Life and Much Loved” ~ Epitaph in memory of Merle as inscribed on his gravestone.

George M. Steinbrenner, then President of the American Ship Building Company, later owner of the New York Yankees, and friend of Merle, announced that he would name a ship for his fallen friend, the “Merle M. McCurdy”. A significant and honored event, it was the first ship on the Great Lakes Fleet to be named for an African American.

Steinbrenner stated the following on the occasion: “We feel this is a most appropriate gesture, and one of which the entire Great Lakes industry should be proud. This ship should serve to remind many people, that this ideal which McCurdy exemplified is in fact a real one and that it is our duty to see that such opportunities are always available regardless of race, creed, or color.”

Photo features from left to right Bernie Stuplinski, Merle’s former Chief Assistant, Theodore Garrison, Brenda (McCurdy) Garrison, Merle Garrison, Cathleen Drew, Sharon Drew, Rosie McCurdy, and Myrna (McCurdy) Drew.

Source

Ship Will Carry Name of Merle McCurdy. (1968, November 26). Baltimore Afro-America, p. 28.

Originally named the William B. Dickerson, the Merle M. McCurdy was built at the Great Lakes Engineering Works in Esorse, Michigan on the Detroit River across from Essex County, Ontario near the town of Amherstburg. Over 600’ in length and a part of the “Morgan Class” of ships within the fleet of the Pittsburgh Steamship Company, the McCurdy was capable of hauling 12,000 tons of iron ore. The Morgan class of ships was the backbone of shipping on the Great Lakes for decades.

The decline of the steel industry in Northeast Ohio and Western, PA combined with improvements in shipping technology, coal powered ships like the McCurdy ended. By 1985, the McCurdy was laid up and sold for scrap in Ashtabula County, the County of Merle’s birth. In 1988, suit was filed in Federal Court by the U.S. Attorney who alleged that the salvage team violated the Environmental Protection Act by failing to properly dispose of the asbestos on the ship as it was being dismantled in Ashtabula Harbor. The Merle M. McCurdy was later transported across Lake Erie to Canada, where the scrapping job was finished in Port Colborne, Ontario in 1988.

Sources

Hagan, J. (1988, May 14). U.S. Sues Firm Over Ore Boat Asbestos Job. The Plain Dealer, p. 26.

Miller, A. (1999). Tin Stackers : the History of the Pittsburgh Steamship Company. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press.