The Greater Cleveland Project (1976-1981) was a non-profit organization whose stated purpose was to ease the implementation of court-ordered desegregation in the Cleveland, Ohio, public schools. Federal Judge Frank J. Battisti ordered the desegregation as part of his decision in Reed v. Rhodes, wherein a student, Robert Reed, filed suit with other parties against the Cleveland Board of Education, the State Board of Education, and the governor, James Rhodes. The Greater Cleveland Project formally organized in May of 1976, having grown from an ad-hoc committee within the Greater Cleveland Inter-Church Council. To achieve its goals, the Project dispensed information about desegregation, held seminars, and gave lectures to citizens and educators to promote non-violent desegregation of the schools. Prominent in the leadership of the organization were Leonard Stevens and Daniel Elliot, as well as Jordan Band, Stanley Tolliver, and Francis Hunter. In 1978, two years after the original court order, Judge Battisti ordered the formation of the Office on School Monitoring and Community Relations at the suggestion of the federal court's Special Master and the leadership of the Greater Cleveland Project. This group was formed as an independent entity whose mission was to report directly to the court concerning the progress of Cleveland's school desegregation. Judge Battisti chose Leonard Stevens and Daniel Elliot to direct the organization. The Greater Cleveland Project was funded initially by the Greater Cleveland Inter-Church Council. Shortly thereafter it was funded by the Cleveland Foundation and the George Gund Foundation. Additional funding later came from the federal government's Emergency School Aid Act. The organization ceased operation in May of 1981 when federal and local funding was not renewed.
From the guide to the Greater Cleveland Project Records, 1976-1981, (Western Reserve Historical Society)
