Cleveland's Hough neighborhood sits on Lake Erie's southern shore, at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River — land once home to the Erie people.

On this day in 1966, a white bar owner in Hough refuses a black customer a glass of water, then posts a sign making refusal explicit. Nearby black residents gather and attack the bar. Police arrive and fire tear gas at the crowd. Bedlam ensues across the neighborhood. Snipers target police and fire fighters. Police shoot out streetlights. Mobs seize tear gas and a fire pumper.

National Guard troops are called in but the uprising continues for six days. Four black people are killed, hundreds injured and 275 arrested. City officials blame black nationalists and communists.

Cleveland later elects their first black mayor, but faces five decades of decline.