Abstract

In this 2025 interview, East Cleveland native and Executive Director of the East Cleveland Public Library, Mr. Carlos Latimer, reflects on his childhood in the city during a period of thriving schools, recreational facilities, and dense family-centered neighborhoods. He describes the educational path that included Shaw High School, followed by college and an early career at the Cleveland Public Library, where he gained administrative experience and later pursued a master’s degree in library science. Latimer explains the library’s evolving mission, emphasizing expanded technology access, early literacy, performing arts programming, and social-service functions that fill gaps left by the absence of other local nonprofits. He details partnerships with the school district, Tri-C, and the Cuyahoga Land Bank, as well as the library’s role as a trusted institutional anchor during periods of economic decline and demographic change.

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Interviewee

Latimer, Carlos (interviewee)

Interviewer

Mays, Nicholas S. (interviewer)

Project

East Cleveland

Date

10-9-2025

Document Type

Oral History

Duration

60 minutes

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.

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