Stacy Clark-Warren Interview, 11 November 2025

Abstract

In this 2025 interview, Stacy Clark-Warren reflects on her lifelong connection to East Cleveland, where she attended public schools, graduated from Shaw High School in 1985, and later returned to live and serve after spending time elsewhere in the Cleveland area. Clark-Warren discusses her family’s migration history from Alabama and Georgia to Ohio, describing how her parents’ East Cleveland home became an important support center for relatives and friends migrating north in search of opportunity. She recounts memories of growing up in what she describes as a close-knit and thriving suburban Black community, emphasizing neighborhood safety, strong schools, recreation, and cultural life during the 1970s and 1980s. Clark-Warren also reflects on the city’s transformation during the 1990s, including population shifts, housing changes, disinvestment, and the impact of the crack cocaine crisis, while maintaining optimism about East Cleveland’s future revitalization through partnerships and economic development. Throughout the interview, she highlights her professional career in information technology and public-school administration, as well as her commitment to civic engagement and public service, including her 2025 campaign for East Cleveland City Council.

Interviewee

Clark-Warren, Stacy (interviewee)

Interviewer

Mays, Nicholas S. (interviewer)

Project

East Cleveland

Date

11-11-2025

Document Type

Oral History

Duration

113 minutes

Recommended Citation

"Stacy Clark-Warren Interview, 11 November 2025" (2025). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 757021.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/1457

Related Resources

East Cleveland @ Cleveland Voices

Transcript

Nick Mays [00:00:00] My name is Dr. Nicholas S. Mays. Today is November 11th and we are joined by Ms. Mrs. Stacey Clark Warren for the East Cleveland oral History Project. Mrs. Stacey Clark Warren is a lifelong East Clevelander, Shaw High School graduate and retired director of information technology for the Cleveland Public school system, which is now CMSD. [00:00:30] Across 35 years in public education and community service, and even a recent campaign for City Council, Mrs. Clark Warren has witnessed both the heights of East Cleveland's tight knit suburban years as well as the challenges that follow. Today, she continues to champion the city and its future potential. Welcome, Mrs. Stacey Clark Warren.

Stacey Clark Warren [00:01:03] Thank you. Thank you. It's good to be here.

Nick Mays [00:01:06] Can we start with your full name, age and date of birth?

Stacey Clark Warren [00:01:11] My full name is Stacey Clark Warren. My age is 62 years young. My date of birth is [...] 1963.

Nick Mays [00:01:30] Thank you. Okay, Mrs. Clark Warren, our first topic of the day is going to be early life and family roots. First of all, introduce us to your family, your parents and your siblings.

Stacey Clark Warren [00:01:51] My parents, my dad, John T. Clark, and my mom, Lenore Clark. Her maiden name is Walker. Both of my parents, my dad is originally from Georgia, which they say Milledgeville, Georgia. It's a little small town in Atlanta, near Atlanta, rather very small town. My father was the youngest. My father was the youngest of seven, seven siblings. [00:02:23] All of the siblings, including my dad, they're now deceased. My mom came from a small family, excuse me, she was a family of three. My mother was the second oldest and she had her sister, her brother, which is my uncle. I never knew my uncle. He was the same. Cease upon me being born. [00:02:44] He died rather young. My mom's brother, she's originally from Birmingham, Alabama. My parents met in Cleveland, Ohio. My father migrated from the south to the north by way of him coming here at an early. At a teenage age, he actually came to Cleveland. No, I take that back. He actually went to Philadelphia. [00:03:12] He stayed with an uncle in Philadelphia at the age of 16. So he left the south because he was not happy with what was going on in the South. My dad was born in the 30s and so was my mom. So he migrated, went and stayed with his uncle in Philadelphia. By way of Philadelphia, he wind up coming to Cleveland. [00:03:40] So Cleveland, he made his roots in Cleveland, put his age up to get a job. Once he put his age up, he got drafted into the service. So he was drafted into the service. He went to the army. He spent approximately two and a half years in the service and he Was he left the service on honorable discharge. [00:04:06] So upon him leaving the service, he wind up during the time when he was in the service, he married. He married his first wife. They had no children. Then him and my mom met. So when him and my mom met, him and my mom, they dated. And upon them dating, my mom had. [00:04:29] Actually, I am the second, second of four siblings. I have an older brother who is now deceased. I am the second. I have a sister that's next to me and then I have a brother. So it's four of us, two boys, two girls. Upon my parents meeting, my mom had already had a child, which is my oldest brother. [00:04:51] But my dad raised my brother as his own. He raised my brother as his own child. So that's the dad that my brother knew. He called him dad. We always call my father Daddy. So it was four of us. I can remember our times with my father and mom. We grew up at that time. [00:05:18] We lived in Cleveland. We lived off of 115th. I remember those years being a toddler, kind of doing my toddler days. It was a very nice house, warm. My father was a family oriented man. As a matter of fact, I could remember my mom as well, one of her cousins staying with us. [00:05:54] And we had like. It was an attic, I believe it was an attic that we had that was finished. So they would live up in the attic. And then it would become like a revolving door. Somebody would stay up there, they would get a job, move, then somebody else would come in. I remember some of my father's nephews staying here. [00:06:14] One of my mom's first cousins living with us. So our home was always welcoming. It was always welcoming with my parents. And I can recall they used to have like, they would have card parties, very warm. [My]arents were hard working. Well, my dad at the time, my mother, she was the house. She was the housewife. [00:06:39] She was the one that always stayed at home. And then I can recall my mom didn't know how to drive either. So my father was the driver. I can recall those days. And then at 5 years old, you know, we wind up moving to East Cleveland. It was one of those. [00:06:56] The American dream is what I called it. The American dream is where you have someone that always. My mom wanted her own. She wanted her own home. And I called it the American dream. Women always believed in having a home with a picket fence. And we actually had a fence in the yard. And they wind up doing away with the fence because the home that my parents purchased in the city of East Cleveland, it's a duplex home. So the side that we lived on was our home. And then the other side was their rental income. And I can recall we moved there. I was. And we moved to East Cleveland in 1968. [00:07:39] I was five years old. And I can recall, as a matter of fact, the first day of school, I was so excited to go to kindergarten. We went to school, me and my brother, we had gone to school. And I'm like, we got lost. I'm like, how can we get lost going to Chambers. And all we had to do is come out the door and walk down the street. And I was crying and boohooing because I'm like, we're lost, we're gonna never get home. I can recall saying that to my brother and he would tell me, be quiet, we gonna get home. And my mother knew that we should have been home at a certain time. So of course she got worried. But we did, we finally made it home. And I was like, how can we get lost? And we only around the corner from the school. But we did, we got lost. We winded up the block, around the block of the radius, which was still not far. But my brother, he was, he was, he's the oldest, he was the big brother. [00:08:44] He was very, he was talented. My brother, he was very talented, artistic, very good in math. He was always my go to person when I could not do. And math was one of my strong points, math and science. But yeah, so those years were good because in East Cleveland at the time, in the 60s, I can recall prior to us moving to East Cleveland, East Cleveland was predominantly white. So in 68, around in 68, in the 70s, that's when pretty much East Cleveland--the whites were moving out and the blacks were moving in. On my street that I actually grew up on, we had one white family that still lived on the street on our street, which is Baldwin. They still live there. And we all, we went to school, all of us there were siblings there. And I graduated with one of the girls from, from the home that sat on Baldwin as well. My dad worked during that time when we moved to East Cleveland as well. As I stated earlier, my mom did not know how to drive. So my father was like, you're gonna have to learn how to drive. So what he did is enrolled her in driver's ed. He also was teaching her how to drive. I can recall and I can recall the first car that My, my dad purchased for my mom. It was a Mustang and it was a convertible. It was a convertible Mustang. My father loved, he liked big cars. So my dad liked those big cars. 

Like I could recall and our trip, we always had a family trip and our family trip was to go visit my grandmother who still lived in Milledgeville. So that's where our roots was in Milledgeville because she was the pillar of the family on my dad's side. So we would always go down to Milledgeville and visit my grandmother. And that was an exciting time because, because my cousins playing with my cousins, they would try to get me to walk barefoot though. But I couldn't walk barefoot in the red dirt and stuff. I'm like, no, I couldn't. And I still to this day cannot walk barefoot. I'm a person that gotta have something on my feet. So good times. My father also always wanted us to know who our family was. He was very family oriented to know who your family and where you came from. So it was times. We had a lot of relatives here in Cleveland as well. We still do. We would visit, I can remember we would go visit our cousin, my dad's cousin, older couple, they lived on the west side. Gladys, I can remember Gladys and I can't recall of her husband but. But we will always go visit them. And then it was good. We would. I don't know if you recall there it used to be a, a big old buffet place. We would go on Sundays. It was called the Forum downtown. Kind of puts you in the mind of kind of like the hometown buffet because it was buffet style where you would go and have dinner. I could, I can remember recall of those times too. Going downtown to the Forum. Just going downtown to during Christmas and during the holidays to go downtown to Higby's to visit Mr. Jingling. I can remember all of that. Mr. Jingling. Downtown was, was nice. It was the pillar too. To go downtown as a young people, as a young kid to go to Woodworth. We go to Woodworth to sit around the counter to get that float, that root beer float. I can remember the root beer float also getting the hot dogs downtown was always a great experience. [00:13:12] And then my, my grandfather, he worked at the baseball field. I remember I wasn't a baseball buff but he would take us to the baseball game. So those were nice, nice, nice times. Family, just knowing who your family is, knowing where you come from. As I stated, my dad was the youngest of his sibling. [00:13:39] It was seven. And of his siblings. Yeah. Because of the siblings, all of our cousins, my first cousin, they were older than us. So a lot of their children are now my age. So we grew up with my second, what we call second cousins. We were close with them. And my first cousins, they were a lot older. But my father, he was the baby and everybody loved my dad. My father was the. They called him Uncle John. Uncle John. He grew up with them. So he was the, like I said, the youngest of his siblings. So. And then his nieces and nephews, a lot of them lived with us when we moved to East Cleveland. We had at that time, my cousins at the time came from down south from Georgia. By way of my dad. They would that our home in East Cleveland became kind of. I caught it kind of somebody mentioned this when my father was in the hospital transitioning and they said, wile, you know, tell us about your dad. And I said, well, I never looked thought of it that way, but one of them was saying, had mentioned and said, you guys kind of put you in that mind of like the underground Railroad. I'm like. I said, I never thought of that. But by way, a lot of his cousin from the south migrated, came through our home, got on their feet, got a job, moved out on their own, and then we would get another family that came. So there were many a times we were sharing beds and transitioning, moving around in our home to make, you know, to make it comfortable for everybody because we only lived in, we lived in. Our home was a three bedroom. It's a three bedroom. So by way of bringing families in that had more than three or four children, we had to accommodate.

Nick May1s [00:15:47] When did you realize that your dad in your home, your mom and your dad in your home was a pillar in a phenomenon, right? Migration, right. When you think about the great migration, right. One of the major pillars was the people who received you, family and friends in the north that supported you when you got there, maybe you stayed with them, they got you a job and see you, connected you to the local church or local business, got you a job and then you got on your feet, then you moved on. That's essentially what your dad was doing. So your dad was your, your parents was a part of that. When did you realize?

Stacey Clark Warren [00:16:37] I didn't realize that until middle school. Middle school age. When I was in middle school, that's when it kind of hit me because one of our cousins, he wind up coming and he wind up living with us, he wind up staying with us. So I was in middle school and his name is David. David wind up Coming. And the next thing I know, he lived with us. I was in middle school. He went to school and graduated. He graduated from Shaw High School. So he came, stayed. Once he graduated, my dad got him a job where he worked. He was able to move out on his own and be independent because at the time when he came up, he was school age. So he got enrolled in school school, and he lived with us until he graduated. And once he graduated, he wind up moving, like I say, moving out. And he made Cleveland his home.

Nick Mays [00:17:40] What did your dad do for work?

Stacey Clark Warren [00:17:42] My father was a metal finisher. He worked at Cleveland Pneumatic. Cleveland Pneumatic made airplane gears. So that's where he worked. That's where my dad worked. My mom. My mother wind up going to school. She went to college. She graduated from community college with an associate's degree. She wind up actually becoming a library technician. So that's what my mom did. And she worked for Cleveland public schools, as a matter of fact. She worked at Cleveland public schools and then in the. I want to say I started in 87. They went through a big layoff in the late 80s, and my mom had got laid off. And at that time she was laid off. She became trying to think, no, she was not. No, she was. She. She had got laid off. And she wind up working, finding a job, working at the developmental handicap facility that used to be in East Cleveland for infants and toddlers. It was a daycare that she worked it and she really enjoyed it. She loved it. She became one of the. They were called grandparents coordinator, where she worked in the classroom with the the students and stuff. And she really enjoyed that. So she retired from there. 

Nick Mayes [00:19:26] Wow. So as we pivot, I want to talk about your childhood and in East Cleveland, what was daily life growing up in East Cleveland? Tell me about you, your friends, school from, you know, elementary, you know, middle school and high school.

Stacey Clark Warren [00:19:54] It was always something to do elementary. In elementary school, I can recall because I went to chambers. I can recall my teacher. As a matter of fact, I can remember my teacher from kindergarten, Mrs. White. And during that time in elementary school, It was. You had friends that you. That actually, I have friends that became lifelong friends from elementary school, throughout middle school, high school, as well as college. But in elementary school, it was a time to meet and grow and play. We always were playing because recess was the fun part. You would have recess. Excuse me, you would be outside and you would go outside and you would play. We would even go outside. I can recall. We would Go outside even during the winter time. [00:21:00] We put our winter coats on, have our hats on. It was never a time where you did not go outside for recess unless it was like raining really, really bad or either it was below zero or the snow was up to your knees or something. But I can't recall we did. We would be outside, we would play. Those were good times. I can remember becoming a. At that time they didn't have. I don't know if they had girl Scouts, but we were called Campfire Girls. And I remember doing Campfire Girls. What we would do. It was because now all of the. All of the ones that was a part of that, the Campfire Girls, I knew them throughout high school. We would meet at each other's. How campfire went. We would meet at the parents home and we would have like arts activities, various things that we would do and we would have. We would go on field trips. We would have like little field trips and stuff. So those individuals, I'm still friends with them. We've had some. One of them. She's passed away. She lived around the corner for me. But those were good times. We had a pool. I can recall the pool in the back of the. The back of the school chambers. We were. We had a pool back there that we would be able to go swimming. That was nice. We had swimming. I could recall being in middle school. I mean, I'm sorry, in elementary school is when I went to camp. I started going to camp in the fifth grade. I would go to overnight camp. That was fun because you met other people and you met other people and it was very diverse. It was very diverse. I can recall of those. My sister at the time, she. I went by myself alone. I can recall I went alone. My sister was a mama's girl. I was a daddy's girl. So my sister was a mama's girl and she did not want to go. So eventually when she got in the fifth grade, that's when she went. So she. She went to Campfire Girls and we went alone. At that time I was in middle school because we're two, two, two years behind. Well actually 18 months. But great, great wise. So we went to camp together. Those were fun, fun times to go to camp. [00:23:39] I can recall going to the sixth grade is when they started what they called extended school year. An extended school year. We went on. We had like more field trips that we went on. We also had camp in the summer in school. What school? I think at that time we got out early maybe like the beginning, beginning of May, but we was extended to like maybe to the end of June or the beginning of July. Summers were always fun because we were always outside playing. We was always outside playing kickball, riding our bikes. I can recall riding bikes. And then I became very fond of playing jacks. I was the queen of, of jacks. I can remember that. Then my cousins who would come up, who would come up from down south, we would play jacks and we would all that was fun. Jax, I really enjoy jacks now. Ask me now if I know how to play. I probably could because as a matter of fact, somebody gave me some jacks. I have a. It's like a. It's a souvenir. It's in a box with the ball as well as with the jacks. And I have not played one though. But jack's was something that I really enjoyed. I am, I enjoyed kickball. I just, I did. I enjoyed being outside. We was always outside. It was never a time, but you knew you had to be home. Well, elementary school, we always played in our yard because our yard was really big. It was a nice size yard. 

So we would play in the yard. And then I had friends that I met when we moved on the street street that we lived on Baldwin by my parents. I can recall my friends, they're my friends to this day. They lived next door in the duplex which was a twin of the home that my parents purchased. And I can recall when we were coming up and leaving, they licked out their tongues at us and we became friends. We actually became the best of friends. I call them my cousin, my cous girls because I've known them since 1968 when we moved to East Cleveland. And then thereafter they wind up moving and their parents purchased a house two about two streets over from where we live. So we are friends to this day still.

Nick Mays [00:26:04] What schools did you attend up to Shaw?

Stacey Clark Warren [00:26:07] I attended Chambers, I attended Kirk and I attended Shaw High School.

Nick Mays [00:26:14] In our conversations offline, you spoke of fond memories being biking, swimming, movie theaters, the Parks.

Stacey Clark Warren [00:26:25] Yeah, the movie theaters. The parks.

Nick Mays [00:26:28] Could you talk about that.

Stacey Clark Warren [00:26:29] Yeah, as a matter of fact, when I learned. I was learning how to ride a bike in elementary school. Middle school is when I got a bicycle. I had got a 10 speed. So in middle school I did. I got a bicycle. It was, it was a 10 speed. One of those. It was a bike. Yeah. Or was that high school? No, middle. No. Yeah, that was high school is when I got a 10 speed. In middle school I had a banana bike. Those banana Bikes. So I had the banana bikes and now they make the fancy banana bikes, right? The big ones. But I did, I had a banana bike. We would ride our bikes around in the neighborhood. We would ride them in the neighborhood. We, we didn't veer too. I really could not leave my house with riding a bike until I got in high school. So in high school is when I got a 2 in speed and we would ride up to the park. We would ride up to Forest Hill park and that was a, that was a ride because it was uphill, because I lived downhill. So we would ride uphill and then we would come downhill. And I was always riding with my friends who actually lived on Elm. So we were, I would ride with them and we would go swimming. It was, we were always doing something and it was always either we were going swimming. That's when they, we would go swimming in the summertime because that's. They had. And then I was always either I was going to camp too. Because I can recall in elementary school, going into middle school, they had the camp up at Nela Park. [00:28:12] So Nela park had a camp and my mother always had us involved in something in the summertime. So we would go to camp up at Nela Park. In Neela park, we would swim at the camp as well. There you meet. I've met lots of, I've met lots of people from elementary school, like I say middle school to high school. And then I still have, like I say, some of those individuals from middle school, from, I'm sorry, from elementary school, were still friends. I still. We may not see one another on a day to day basis, but when we see each other we talk. But I do have a friend. And then I met my best friend, which I call my bff. I met her in middle school. Now she went to a different elementary school. We met in middle school. So during those times in East Cleveland, classroom size was nice sizes too because when I graduated from high school, we had over 500 kids who come out of to graduate in my graduating class compared to now in the city of East Cleveland you have about 400 kids total in the district as a whole.

Nick Mays [00:29:29] What year did you graduate?

Stacey Clark Warren [00:29:31] I came out in 1981.

Nick Mays [00:29:32] 81? That's interesting. I spoke to someone and they graduated in 1981.

Stacey Clark Warren [00:29:43] Yeah, Danny came out in 81. That's how me and, me and Danny met in middle school. I met Danny in middle school. Danny Barnes Roosevelt. Yeah, we met in middle school. And I go, that's when East Cleveland. A lot of people were moving from other kind of. We had a big influx of Cleveland Cleveland coming into East Cleveland, a big influx of kids.

Nick Mays [00:30:06] You had said the city was. I don't know, I may be destroying, so please forgive me. But it was something that you said that I put in quotes, and it was this. East Cleveland was just Shaker and Solen before Shaker.

Stacey Clark Warren [00:30:31] And so East Cleveland, yes, East Cleveland. If you. When you looked at East Cleveland, we were that suburb. East Cleveland was on the map. We were in comparison of your Shaker and your Solon. Everybody was leaving. Pretty much what happened now in your late 90s and your early 2000s, Solon didn't have. Solon was a small city now in comparison. Now it's big because they had all that rural area. It was more rural than it was. You had your. Your older homes because you can now see the differences where you have your older homes and then you have those newer homes in some Solon. But East Cleveland in comparison, we were on the map. We were in comparison to Shaker as well as your soul. And a lot of people were coming from other places to come to the city of East Cleveland, and to attend Shaw High School. Because during those time we had the band, Mr. Fulton, we had the band. And everybody said then too, in East Cleveland, they said at Sean, we had the pretty girls. We had the pretty girls. They call them the pretty girls, right? And that's what my husband, who he is a rebel, he went to John Adams and he was saying, yeah, they used to come down to East Cleveland to get the girls to come see the girls in East Clerk Cleveland. In East Cleveland at the time, during those times, in the 70s, starting in the 70s, because I got to show in 76. So 77, I apologize. No, it was 77. So during those times in 77, that's when we had the basketball team. We had our basketball team was good. Our swim team, wrestling. Our athletics were really good. It was what they say, like the kids say, it was popping. It was popping during the 70s, right? So in the 70s, that's when we had. That's what we had. We did. We had the team, the basketball team.

And then during the time. In the police force, too, was still a little. The police force was predominantly still white. The police force in, like, I know in the 60s and kind of your early 70s, we still had a police force of predominantly white. They knew who lived in East Cleveland. If they saw you to come into the City of East Cleveland. And they knew that you didn't live there, they would follow you right out. They would follow you right, right out of East Cleveland. And they were, it was, they were strict. And that was during the times, in the 70s. During those times, that's when we had, we didn't have a mayor. We had city managers. That's when we had city managers. But East Cleveland, that's where, when I got to Shaw In 77, we had Corb Lounge. This is the old Shaw; we call the old Shaw. So the old Shaw we had, the Corb Lounge is where. That's where everybody went to gather. And that's where you dance. That's where you learned how to dance. And people said, well, you know, if you came from Shaw, you learned how to hand dance. And that's where I learned how to hand dance. I learned how to hand dance from Shaw High School.

Nick Mays [00:34:15] How would you describe the city of East Cleveland in those years? And yeah, let's start with that. How would you describe the city of East Cleveland? So socioeconomically, businesses.

Stacey Clark Warren [00:34:36] We had. oh, my goodness, we had businesses. We had grocery stores, we had many banks. We had car dealerships, we had eatery places, restaurants. Because I can remember, which is still, well, it's not under that owner, but Best Steak in Gyro, which still sits on the corner of Forest Hill and Euclid. We had Burger Kings that was sat on Euclid. We had Wendy's. We Taco Bell wasan't any thing at that time. We had Pick and pay. We had amp Pick and pay. We had Save More. We had credit unions, we had, I can recall, Key Bank, Society Bank. We had USA Bank. The school was during my time, like I say, the old Shaw, because the new Shaw came up, I want to say the late 80s or so When they rebuilt the school, they rebuilt Shaw High School and they rebuilt the middle school. Because when they rebuilt the middle school as well is when they called it, that's when my children went there. Heritage Middle School. That didn't even sound right, Heritage Middle School. But they did wind up renaming it back to Kirk Middle School. So they renamed it back to Kirk Middle School. But East Cleveland was flourishing because during that time is when you had people that was moving into the city of East Cleveland. You had working people, working families that moved to the city of East Cleveland during the late 90s is when you saw the--I call it kind of the shake up. That's when you saw the change, where changes started happening in the city of East Cleveland, that's when people were just pretty much kind of just was giving us up. Left a lot of homeowners, some of them may have just, they just kind of walked away from their home. So the home became just depleted, worn down. Because during the time the. So you figure if you walked away, more than likely it could have possibly been a foreclosure or you just walked away and say, I'm just done. So--that's what started to happen in the city of East Cleveland, because in the 90s that I'm trying to think, because I moved, I moved back to East Cleveland in 92. In 90, 92 is when I came back to the city of East Cleveland because I was living off of, I was living in Cleveland off of Miles, where they had started rebuilding in Cleveland, doing revitalization of building because I was in the new development of town homes right off of Miles. So I lived over there. Then my parents, you know, they were getting older. So with my parents getting older, you weren't, they were not finding reliable tenants. So it helped me and my family as well as helping my parents as well.

Nick Mays [00:38:16] How many years did you live outside of East Cleveland?

Stacey Clark Warren [00:38:20] I left, I went off to college in 81. I came back to Cleveland in 87. I want to say I stayed in a. I went to the University of Akan, so I stayed there after I graduated and I worked. And I wind up coming back to Cleveland like in 87. So actually about 86 is when I came back to Cleveland, but I moved back to East Cleveland in 91.

Nick Mays [00:38:48] I want to, I want to pivot to post Shaw, but in order to do that, I want to get through Shaw.

Stacey Clark Warren [00:38:54] Okay.

Nick Mays [00:38:55] What is your fondest memories about Shaw and what was the significance or the impact of Shaw in your life now that you can think about it. So two part question there. Take me to, you know, take me to your experience in Shaw and then, and then kind of think back and talk about the impact or the importance of Shaw in your life.

Stacey Clark Warren [00:39:22] Shaw is when I got to Shaw, ninth grade. You got, you're young, trying to find your way ninth grade. But it became more pivotal for me, more of an experience once I got in 10th grade. That's when, you know, developing and growing to find out what it is that I wanted to do. What, what is it that you want to do? Right. In your 10th grade year, it's you, you're growing. You're meeting people at at the school. Because the school was huge. I mean, Shaw High School was huge.

Nick Mays [00:40:13] Like a college campus I heard.

Stacey Clark Warren [00:40:14] It was. It was huge. Shaw was huge because we had the new part of Shaw. And you had the old part of Shaw. You had the old building and the new. Because they did have the new part. That's where they had the culinary arts over in that area.

Nick Mays [00:40:30] And you don't mean the new, new building. You mean. No, the first building that was built.

Stacey Clark Warren [00:40:34] It was the first. Right. It was. You had the old part of Shaw, which we called the old building. But then they built a new--like an annex part that was the newer part. And you could tell the differences because the old was the old break; in the new building that's where you had the Corb Lounge. And that's behind there is where we had the swimming pool over in that area. And then two is where we also. In what was fun memories for me, I was in the band. I played. I actually was in the band. I played the trumpet. So I was a trumpet player and in the band. Those were good memories because Mr. Fulton, he was a band director. When I say a band director, Mr. Fulton was a band director. And the band was huge. We was always our band. At the time, during the 70s and the 80s, we were at least 2 to 300 strong. As far as a band. Band members in the band.

Nick Mays [00:41:42] It's like university, like college.

Stacey Clark Warren [00:41:44] We were huge. We were like 2 to 3, 200 to 300 strong. We also had the drum major. And then you had the majorettes. Yeah, we were. We were big. The band was huge. It was huge in comparison to what you see now as far as bands in schools, teachers were very adamant about you being successful. Because that's when I developed the sense of knowing what it is that I wanted to do. Going to college. At that time, I was looking at nursing. I started out in nursing. The one side, I graduated from high school, but I wind up finishing up in business. But high school was good memories. I would attend. It was nice where you develop. They would have dances. Attending the dances, going to the basketball games, the football games were nice. And of course, we had rivalry schools. Right. Glenville was one of our rivalry. Same color, red, black and white. Glenville, same colors, right. So we had rivalry schools. And it would be interesting to see how those things played out when you would have games and stuff. But high school was a good time of developing into becoming, knowing that one day you're going to be an adult. And that's why I said, wow, now I am, I'm an adult. Responsibilities, right, okay. But those were good days. Good days.

Nick Mays [00:43:33] Between Shaw and family and your parents, how were you prepared for college or life after high school? You talked about, you briefly talked about teachers. Did you you know you were going to college? Did you want to go to college or. For a lot of people, it's a societal thing. That's what you just do.

Stacey Clark Warren [00:44:05] You go to college, right? I did not know that I was gonna go to college and I really did. I didn't prepare myself like I should have. I felt in high school it was one of those with me, I did enough to get by, I could have done better. And I believe that's one of the reasons. Not even, not. That's why when I became a parent, I was really adamant on my children about studying, getting good grades, and doing what you need. Needed to do. I was a talker. That's what my problem. I, I became the talker. And that's what they were saying, talking and trying to be like the, the class, not really the class clown, but the social butterfly. Like that social butterfly. So I said, I did. I told my, my kids, I believe that's why I was on them and being very adamant about school with them; my parents, and they weren't the force to say hey or pushing you to say that you, you, you go to college, you get a job, do this, this. That my parents really did not, truly, especially my dad. My dad did not instill that in us. My mom, on the other hand, it was really pretty much my aunt. And I think what I said, if I had to do it, things all over again, I said what I would have done is gone to a community college, go there, get your, your gen EDS out of the way, and then proceed to go to a four year college if I had to do it all over. Because your first year in college and what I, what I look at now, you spend a lot of money to go off to college, but you're taking like general ed classes, right? So you're taking like the basics all over again. And you really don't. I thought that I knew what I wanted to do, but truly I did not. So I spent almost a year and a half doing nursing to come to find out that was not, not a fit for me.

Nick Mays [00:46:23] Did you take any of the programs--I hear that they had at Shaw?

Stacey Clark Warren [00:46:31] I did not. I was in general. I was in General ed classes. So I was in the concentration of more math, science. But they did have vocational classes. And during that time, they did have STNA when I was in high school. So that probably would have been a better road map for me in reference to the nursing track; possibly, because they had vocational ed, which was stna. They had welding, they had cosmetology, they had auto mechanics, they had clerical and stenography, and it was some others But they did. We did have vocab.

Nick Mays [00:47:28] So you graduate again. What year do you graduate?

Stacey Clark Warren [00:47:31] 1981.

Nick Mays [00:47:33] Did you go to prom and kind of do the whole.

Stacey Clark Warren [00:47:36] I did. I went to prom. That was. I actually went to prom twice. I went to prom 1980. And then. Because I went to a prom with a gentleman who asked me to his prom as his date in 80, and then I wind up going to my prom in 81. So it was nice. Prom was enjoyable. That was an enjoyable experience. Prom, you know, getting your prom dress. Because I got mine specially made. Mine was made. And I. The gentleman that I. The guy that I was dating at the time, he was my escort to prom. So during those days, you didn't rent a car. You kind of went in either your dad's car or friend's car. It wasn't no renting of the cars, but with him, he had a vehicle. So we went in his vehicle. And it wasn't one of those like they do the whippedy doo of now; how they do, you gotta rent a car, you gotta have a special car. That's not what we did. We just went in a car.

Nick Mays [00:48:42] Were you guys doing the school shirts and sweaters? The class of 1981. Best in the West. I don't know, you know, whatever.

Stacey Clark Warren [00:48:46] Yeah. We had what they call Senior Day and Senior day was supposedly they had day. They had a day where you supposed to cut class. I didn't cut class, though. It was supposed to be a cut class day, right? Where you didn't go to class or something like that. And then we had like Senior Day pictures day. So senior as a senior, it was a time of reflection and a time to say, I'm a senior, okay? Because even at Corb Lounge at the Core Blount, it was a area just for seniors, so you felt big and bad. I'm a senior. So it was only for seniors that were able to go to a certain area where it wasn't any other underclassmen that should be a part of that area.

Nick Mayes [00:49:36] Was it sitting on a stage?

Stacey Clark Warren [00:49:37] Yeah, it was like a stage. Yeah, it was like. Like they had. It was a lounge area. So that lounge area was really mostly for seniors. But then it was days. Like I said, when I got there in 77, I was a ninth grader. You go into the lounge, it would be packed. It would be so many people in the lounge. And that's the thing. You would actually have students from other schools thinking that they could come to corb Lounge. But at the time, Mrs. Pernell, oh, she knew who went to Shaw. She would get you up out of there.

Nick Mays [00:50:15] Now, you graduated with Mr. Danny Barnes.

Stacey Clark Warren [00:50:17] I did.

Nick Mays [00:50:18] Same year.

Stacey Clark Warren [00:50:18] Yes.

Nick Mays [00:50:19] Do you remember seeing him, for example, at the graduation?

Stacey Clark Warren [00:50:24] I remember Danny Barnes, yeah. Seeing him at graduation, being in Corb Lounge as well. And then I can recall now, in high school, what became a good. Another outlet that we did skating. We would go roller skating. Oh, my God. And I was telling my daughter. I said I can remember backwards skating. I can remember hopping. And I said, I can't jump. I can't. I can't even put on a skate now. But those were good times. I could recall Danny when we were all go skating. He didn't know how to skate. And then he became a skate skater. Those were the good days, too. We would all go out. We would go roller skating out at usa, out Euclid, at USA Skates.

Nick Mays [00:51:17] Okay, so now we're gonna pivot and discuss education. Post Shaw education. Where did you go to college? And. And why did you ultimately decide to go to college?

Stacey Clark Warren [00:51:39] I would. I attended the University of Akron. I applied to. I can't recall. I. I think the University of Akron was my choice because that's where my aunt attended. My mother's sister, she attended the University of Akron. Akron. So I think it was one of those. Whereas family history, right. Following someone else's footsteps. And my aunt actually lived in Akron, so I actually wind up moving in with my aunt. I did not live on campus. Excuse me. My freshman year, I moved in with my aunt, which she was on the. She was actually over in. Off a gent road over in the Copley, what they call the Fairlawn area. So she was out in the Fairlawn areas where she lived. So I moved in with her. She was very welcoming. So I stayed there with her with my aunt my freshman. My freshman year. So college, my first year, I found out, like, oh, my God. College was. I found my first year to be a little tough it was tough. Akron University, predominantly white college. White school was predominantly white. Here I am, a black female coming from an all predominantly black high school, going into this diverse environment, which I had jobs where I worked in a diverse environment. But going to college is where I did come against some racial kind of disparities, especially in a lecture hall. I can recall, I'm like, oh, my God. I had one class. I can recall this. It was a lecture class that I had. And you were not. It was just varying. I was like, oh, you really couldn't know anyone. You get to really meet anyone unless you sat next to someone that's. You got to know those individuals. And within the lecture hall. The lecture hall, you. To me, it was. I found it to be impersonal because there were so many people in the lecture hall. So I'm like, how the professor gonna know who you are? Because I believe at the time, the professor had a. [00:54:12] What did they call him?

Nick Mays [00:54:13] Graduate assistant.

Stacey Clark Warren [00:54:14] Graduate assistant that had a graduate assistant that helped him in the lecture hall because it was such a large class. So he was pretty much known by a number and not by individual. So that was my freshman year. Met people from various cities. Like I say, my decision at the time, I said, you know, go off to college, it was always okay, you can go to college, get a good job or come out to be productive in life. My experience being in college, when I went off to college, those were fun years. Independency. You were independent because mom and dad wasn't there. So my second year is when me and some friends, we wind up getting together and we moved into a house. And I can recall the house that we moved into and our landlord at the time, gentlemen. And I can recall Patrick. That was his name. I can't think of his last name, but I can recall having convers conversations with him. He grew up in a family. White male. He grew up in a family where his parents were prejudiced. I said, oh, wow. So good conversation. I said, so conversation started. And he became very fond of us, you know, we were all black females. And he. I said, wow. I said, so in your family, were you taught. I said, were you taught to be racist or did you just become racist? How did that. I said, if your parents were racist, were you taught to be racist And he said, yes, they were taught to be racist. I said, wow. I said, oh. I said, well, that's not how it was in my home. I said, even though my father dealt with it because you had the color and that's what he did the color and the white, and he was tired of that. And I said, well, that could have happened in my home with my parents teaching us to be racist, but that was not taught in our home. But my father always said, your opinion is your opinion. My opinion is my opinion. I can't teach or tell you how to be. You have a mind of your own. And that I always honored and thanked my dad for that. Because there are individuals that are raised in a home to think, think the way that their parents think, because this is how you're raised and this is what you're taught. But my dad was not that type of person. But Patrick, we became. He was a nice gentleman. And then he was saying as he grew, got older to develop a mind of his own, he developed relationships with blacks. He had black friends. And I'm like I said. So I said, I'm sure how your parents reacted to that. It was probably not good. We didn't get into a deep conversation about that.

Nick Mays [00:57:48] So you. How many years did you attend the University of Akron?

Stacey Clark Warren [00:57:52] I attended there five years.

Nick Mays [00:57:53] Okay.

Stacey Clark Warren [00:57:54] I was there five years.

Nick Mayes [00:57:55] And you graduated in what year and with what degree?

Stacey Clark Warren [00:57:58] I graduated from there in 86. I graduated with a bachelor's degree in industrial management.

Nick Mays [00:58:07] So you graduate. What's next?

Stacey Clark Warren [00:58:08] After that? I came out and doors were not welcoming, or opening for me to go out into the workforce. And that's where I got a little discouraged. I'm like, man, you go to college, you get your degree, you come out in the workforce, can't get a job. It was hard for me to obtain a job You know, they were saying when I would go for interviews, have my resume that I had work. I'm sorry, I had the book experience, but no work experience. I said, well, afford something, someone the opportunity to give them that experience--to walk into the door and help; during those time, I felt it was very prejudice at the time; being black, and as well as being a female to get a job in that field. Had I known what I learned later; it's all people were saying, had I done internship, which I didn't learn about that until after I was in my senior year, which a lot of them do internship during their junior year. Internship gives you that experience. And that's why I tell. If I tell young folks, if you can get that experience of interning within your field, that is hope to get you into the door. Because I have a girlfriend who daughter and as well as my daughter, a girlfriend of mine who daughter went into into accounting and she wind up getting an internship. And who, whom she interned with with. She had a job after she was done; with my daughter, same thing. My daughter went into construction management. She did an internship with the company. After she did her internship with them, she was able to land a job with them. I told her, I said, man, she started out and, and that was the thing. I said, wow, these young folks starting out, some of them they're starting out with six figures on, you know, off the, off the bat, you know. I said, well, I was always told too, I was taught that you have to, you got to crawl before you can walk.

Nick Mays [01:00:51] When did you have your. Your children and how many children did you have in the midst?

Stacey Clark Warren [01:00:57] I had started. I had my first child at the age of 27. I started my family at the age of 27. I got married, me and my husband. I got married. So I have two daughters and I have two bonus children. Me and my husband. With my husband, I have two. My two daughters. And then we wind up raising his two children children, my daughter and son. So I called them my those are my bonus kids. And I said they're my children. I never say those are my stop. Those are my children that just in birth them. So I have a total of four children and I have a total of nine grandchildren and one on the way.

Nick Mays [01:01:43] Okay, so in terms of career, walk me through your career path. Your early position is director. No. What was your first official profession or career job?

Stacey Clark Warren [01:02:02] My first job with and my career path has been with cmsd. So my official. I started with CMSD as an office assistant 

Nick Mays In what year? 

Stacey Clark Warren I started in 1987--September of 1987. So I started as an office assistant I; and that is I tell people, is nothing but a glorified administrative assistant position. [01:02:33] I started as an office assistant I with CMSD in the Department of Psychological Services under the Division of People Personnel. I was actually the first office assistant I to be hired within cmsd. So I started in that department as an Office Assistant I. I stayed with that division for seven years. So after the seven years I wind up taking on the position with as an Office Assistant I still with the Department of Information Technology; at that time, Office Assistant I. I transitioned from an Office Assistant I. I came out of the union going into a position that was not even union called as a specialist three but I was still considered administrative assistant like an executive at that time. At that time I that's when we had like a staff of 182 within our division within the department as a whole. And that's when I also under my leadership at the time I wind up having two student assistants that worked with me under me. So then I do before y2k; y2k was the big thing when everything was supposed to fall computers and everything, right. Y2K is when we transition in the the division we had transition transition our network from a 3090 to the net to a different network platform. So we were transitioning and then that's when we went to a different. We went to a new HMS system, our human Management system. That's when we had the old dawns, the AS100. So with the AS100 that's when I became. I was promoted to the title of a Program Analyst 3; and it was the title I was given to also get my salary increase. So that was a transition for me. So I went to a Program Analyst 3. Upon the Program Analyst 3 I became a trainer. I became a trainer to train individuals on using the AS 400 for using the purchasing piece. So I became a trainer for the purchasing. That was very interesting. I got training one day and I was sent out to the wolves the next day. So that was an experience and it was enjoyable. I enjoyed the training because we trained custodians, we trained secretaries, we trained principals, assistant principals or whomever wanted to be trained on the PL system. So that was. I really enjoyed that. Then became a adult ed teacher working in the adult Education department under Lori. I remember Lori and she wind up leaving CMSD and when she left that's when pretty much adult ed kind of dissolved. I was doing Microsoft training in the Microsoft platform. I was training with Words and Excel. So I did training with that. Then after the AS 400 we kind of was starting to change and revolve doing some different things as well. That's when I was promoted to--after the training after we did all of the training for the purchasing piece and that stopped. That's when I wind up going into the department working under IT Security. So at the time of IT Security the director whom I reported to at the time she was a black female. So we. I reported to her and I became at the time I was was called an IT specialist and I worked on in the identity world of creating accounts creating accounts on the as 400; we were; at the time we all. We had a consultant. The consulting company that was our managing our network was IBM So I learned a lot working under, working with them. That's when I was involved and got was experience, was actually working under them, was trained and taught how to work on servers. So I started working on servers, knowing how to build a server, bring a server back up, things of that nature. So I learned a lot from them. That's when we also went into our email system had changed. We started using Lotus Note. So I started becoming involved with working with other leadership members, learning various things because I told them I wanted to absorb as much as I could. The more you absorb, the more beneficial it is to you on your resume as well. So it's just learning, you know, learning more. So at that time I stayed in that position for some time. And then I became doing 2011. We went through several transitions within our division with various directors. And then in 2011 is when we had to all that was under the new education plan under Eugene Sanders. We had to all reapply for our jobs. That was a time of where they wanted to get rid of people, a time to shorten their worst their workforce. So we had to reapply for our jobs. Not only did I have to reapply, I had to write my job description. So I had to write my job description. And it was a time where everybody was on edge of not of uncertainties, not knowing whether or not they were going to have a job and people were. There was not a good spot space for a lot of people. And I can recall people asking me how did I feel about that time frame. I said, I'm a believer. And I said, God is in control and he's going to handle the situation. I said, as far as I'm not being cocky, but I know my job. So I said I didn't feel threatened. I felt that if it was my time to possibly move on somewhere else, that would be my time to move somewhere else possibly because we become comfortable and complacent. And when I interviewed, I had to interview for my position. And when I interviewed, as well as putting a resume, I had not put a resume together. And I had been with them at that time. 87, I started in 87, so that was some time. I had been with them more than 10 plus years. So I said, I always said, and someone would tell me, you know, God, God can close one door, but he can open up another door. Better for you, you know, than what you actually have. So I went for the interview and I thought I was going to be. I was nervous in the beginning, but the interview went well and My direct report at the time we became close. She told me that I did really well. I said oh well good. I said that was a pat on my back. And she said of the other candidates that they interviewed, no one came close to my interview. I said well that was good. So that was like a relief to say, okay, I have a job.

Nick Mays [01:12:09] What was the position that you were re interviewing at the time?

Stacey Clark Warren [01:12:10] I was reapplying for a programmer. For a programmer position as a specialist.

Nick Mays [01:12:18] So what's the next position after?

Stacey Clark Warren [01:12:21] So after that I stayed in that position for quite some time. We wind up. When did we. We moved from. We were over at the Woodland Data Center. So when we moved from the Woodland Data center that's when we. The division was evolving again. That's when new. That's when the district went from directors to chiefs I call them. You know, you have the chiefs and we the Indians. So that's when they went to the chief and then you had deputy chiefs and then you had executive directors. So my former director who I reported to, she became an executive director. So the position of the director opened in within the department. So they were grooming me for the director's seat. I became the director. We moved over to east 2015. 15 I want to say 2015. So I stayed, I stayed in that position. When I got over to the East Professional Center I became the director in my position. At the time I was called called a. I was called a identity management specialist. So I was called an IT security specialist. That's what my title was prior. So I went into the director seat. And when I went into the director's seat they did me well. So I received a pay increase, took on more and more response capabilities as a director. However, at the time my former position was still vacant. It was still open and they had already hired an engineer prior to me going into that seat. So the engineer came on board. Then we had two individual older gentlemen that were computer operators. But those position was kind of non existent because we were no longer doing any type of operating of any equipment anymore. Only thing that was in existence was the AS100 steel. So they were still monitoring that system pretty much a lot of the things. That's when we started evolving, moving things. At the time we were moving things from the colo location into the cloud. That's when they were going virtual and we became a Microsoft shop too. So we became more of the Microsoft shop, moving a lot of things into the cloud. So we became more cloud Based then I stayed in that position as the director. I decided I was working. I did not have the staff to do the work that needed to be done. So at the end of the day I had to make sure that things were being done the way that it needed to be. I can recall at that time is when we; they purchased a new HMS system. We went from the AS400, we went to Workday. So it was an implementation of Workday. So doing that implementation of Workday there were. Workday is a cloud based app too. So that's a cloud based application that came into our environment. We were supposed to be a part of that implementation, but we wind up being pushed out. So the security department was pushed out of that. We didn't have too much of a say so of things within that area. So I was still, I was working like 16, 17 hours. That was a lot. Five days a week. There would be some days I would come home. My husband, he worked in the evenings, I come home, he gone to work and we. That's just how my day was. And, and I'm like, oh, I can't continue to run this race. So I stayed in that position. I did the director position for about. I did that for two and a half years. So I wind up deciding, made a decision that what was best for me as well as I start having some health challenges as well. I made the decision that it was best for me to step down. So I, yeah, it was best for me to step down from that position because it was, it was just a lot. It was a lot because we moved over there in 2015. I lost my dad in 2014, so I was still grieving the loss of my dad too. So going through some personal challenges as well as some health challenges, I felt that it was best. And I thank God that my former position was not filled so I was able to go back to my own position. So during that time is when they decided they wanted to restructure the department. So when they went through a restructuring, that's when they decided to move the position from a director to an executive executive director seat. So. And that was fine by me. So when I retired, I retired under the position as a IT specialist. And that was fine by me. And people were saying, oh, you needed to stay in the position. And I told them, I said, I know, I said, but God has something else for me.

Nick Mays [01:18:31] So what year did you retire?

Stacey Clark Warren [01:18:33] I retired in 2023, the September 1st of 2023.

Nick Mays [01:18:45] So I want to return to East CLEVELAND in the 1990s, in fact, you return to East Cleveland yourself. Literally to take care of your parents.

Stacey Clark Warren [01:18:53] Yes.

Nick Mays [01:18:54] How had East Cleveland changed by the early 1990s? What, what's the. What are you seeing in terms of the decline?

Stacey Clark Warren [01:19:13] The decline came because what. My daughter, My daughter was born in the night. She was born 1990. My first child, 1990. The 1990s was still pretty good in East Cleveland. I want to say the mid-90s is when the change started to occur. That's when you saw. Start seeing prostitutes in the city. You start seeing crack cocaine came in and destroyed our city. That's what I was saying with the basketball team. That was awesome. In 77. 77. A lot of those guys, a lot of them that had promising careers, some of them got hooked on the crack cocaine. One of them, I can remember, remember he lived around the block from me, around the corner, a street over from me. Good looking guy. When it hit, it hit when him very attractive. Next thing you saw, you knew something. He looked like a skeleton. And I'm like, oh my God. Things. That's when things started changing, changing. People started moving out of the city. That's when they were leaving. A lot of them were left going to Euclid, South Euclid, Richmond. A lot of people went to Richmond and they started going to the suburbs where two predominantly white and now predominantly black. Because Richmond, Richmond was a place where it was predominantly white. Now it's predominantly black. I was talking to one of my daughter's teacher and my son, he, Mr. Coleman, he was, he coached too. He was an assistant coach with the football team. He left East Cleveland and wind up going over to Richmond. And he was saying because at the time prior to the population was like half, half you have 50% black and pretty much 50% whites. Well, when once he got there, he said it was like 99.9% black upon him leaving and going over to the Richmond. So things changed and things changed in East Cleveland. We know a lot of things start happening too within our local government. Things change within that corruption within our police force corruption. So change started occurring and people were seeing it, I guess. And I wasn't really involved in pretty much the political realm. I really wasn't even attending any. I didn't even attend any of the council meetings when my change children was going; as a matter of fact, when my children was in school, because my kids attended the elementary school, the middle school as well as the high school. My youngest is the only one. My youngest Daughter is the only one that did not graduate from Shaw High School. The youngest, she attended John Hay. She was accepted into John Hay because Cleveland became open enrollment and so did East Cleveland. They were open enrollment as well. So my daughter, she did go to Kirk, the youngest one, but she attended. First she attended Regina High School. She did attend Regina High School, but then Regina High School wind up closing. So when they closed, she was accepted into the John Hay Science and Medicine School. And that's where you had to have an interview and they went on your grade, your grades. There was a criteria base in order for you to be accepted. So she was accepted there. So she attended John Hay Science and Medicine and graduated from there. [01:23:41] But changes occurred in East Cleveland with, as I say that people leaving the city. Then supposedly you were, I guess they were having investors that were supposedly buying property in the city of East Cleveland. But the investors, I don't think they were really investors. It's just people that want to buy property. You know, you have some people it by property and then they become slum landlords and you have some individuals, like people that live on my street, the street that I actually grew up on. There's two homes that is like catacorner of me. A lot of the individuals in the city of East Cleveland. You have the elderly population relation too. You have our seniors. So the one gentleman I grew up with, his. His children, he was older and he had a daughter that was my son's age, younger. The house was left to her, her and her sister, they lived there for a while, but then she got married. Her husband was in the service and they just left the home. They just walked away. So when they walked away, there was then, I think she was. She did rent it out for a little bit. People were living in it, living in the home, but there was no upkeep that was being done on the home. So it was an influx of people moving in, moving out, moving in, moving out. And then the other home, his. He wind up passing away. The husband passed away first and then the wife passed away. And when she passed away, same thing. The house became vacant. So as it became vacant, no one. There was a gentleman, I believe, on the third floor, but he wasn't a relative. So I guess it was some relatives or someone came up, they cleared the house out and it just sat there. It became just depleted and dilapidated because there was no upkeep of the homes. Beautiful homes that were on our street. A lot of the homes now that are there. I grew up with the seniors that live on my end so;me of them, the seniors, I grew up with their children, like I can say what. Down the street from me, him and his wife, they still have their.They're in their home. The Herbert's, they're still in. She's. She's there. Her mom is deceased. Her. Her mom was in her 90s when she passed away. Across the street from me there is a home. Home that grew up with my girlfriend who lives in Atlanta. Her grandmother owned. Lived in the home. But of course, when her grandmother got up in age, she wind up moving to a senior citizen. So she sold it. She sold the home. That home is there. It's still. It's just standing, but it's looked like it's about to. It's on its last leg. So we got like three, three in a row that are not doing. Doing good. The two, the three homes. Then it was one of the homes when a mom passed away; I grew up with them, the Woodrows; when their mother passed away, they didn't want any dealings with the house. And I was like, wow. Because I thought the home was in great shape because I know she had recently had a new roof put on and had some other work done. But the only thing about that house, it was a side by side, but it was smaller, much smaller than our home. They did not have a driveway. They did that. And that's the only thing. They did not have a driveway to that home. They parked on the street or were parked, parked around in the back, but they did not have an adjacent driveway to that home.

Nick Mays [01:28:06] So kind of moving to today. So that's the 90s and a part of that is the 2000s. 2010s. Right. Today there's revitalization efforts going on. Where are you at with the. Some people support it, some people don't support it. And then there's people who support it with caveats. It's nuanced. Right. They want to see what they call responsible development, especially with respect to external forces and organization institutions developing in East Cleveland.

Stacey Clark Warren [01:28:53] I look at revitalization in East Cleveland is going to be needed. That's the only way that we're going to be able to survive and to bring in. I look at it, you need to be able to bring in working people, working families. We're in the middle with us being in the middle. We're adjacent to the career path of here, which is your hospital, Case Western Reserve, the university. We're right there near them. So what they've started they did the revitalization of Circle leaves where they built those. They built the homes right in that area. Of course people are saying well they're expensive. You're not going to be able to get a home under 300,000 newer homes. These newer homes are going up at 350 or more. Right. But it's going to bring revenue into your city. It'll bring revenue into a city. But it needs to be a collaborative effort. It needs to be a collaborative effort with your local, with your council as well as with your residents. Because you don't want to push residents out. Especially our seniors. Those who homes are paid off and now they are just paying property taxes. But you have to be careful. Reason is too. They're on fixed incomes. So I don't want my continually to have my property taxes constantly go up and then you're going to force me to move out of my home. That should not be. It needs to be a cap level too. Whereas I heard at one point it's a possibility that. But this is with the county. It has nothing to do with the city. The county. I don't know if it's a legislation but I did hear some conversation that possibly they were looking at seniors property tax taxes being capped or at a certain amount or not having them to pay property taxes. That would be beautiful. What happens too is in the city when you're talking about revitalization and then those that are here that wants to do remodeling of their homes, meaning your seniors or it's too to get any type of assistance or funding like through hud there is always income guidelines. Some of them we don't need it because we're above that income. Like me myself a grant that they currently have right now I'm over the income but I look at myself I don't make but I'm over the income. So it needs to be something to assist those who's in the middle. Help to assist those in the middle. Because I said from a standpoint this is where we've chose. This is where we've chosen to live. This is a community that we believe in and this is where we want to stay and have our roots to still be here. But you have to be able to offer us something as well. Like I say revitalization. We're going to have to be able to do revitalization. I said east Cleveland is going to be on a comeback. I was telling people from a. It's from a standpoint of renew, rejuvenated, and revive; we need a revive Cleveland and other cities. Look what they're doing currently right now in South Euclid. South Euclid is putting up new, new homes and they're putting up the homes. You see them in between the older. They're putting them everywhere. In the city of South Euclid, I had not been down. I went to a play down in the area on kiramu. I had not been up that. That road. They did a revitalization through there, through the Fairfax area. Look what has happened in Fairfax.Look what happened over at Huff. So I said, if these places are can do it, why can't we? We can do the same thing. East Cleveland is a desert right now. We have no banks, we have no grocery stores in our city. We have no drugstores. We don't even have a pharmacy in the city of East Cleveland. We have to do some type of revitalization in order to be sustainable. We have to be able to bring investors in as well. In order to bring your investors in. They want to see what you have. What do you have right now to offer? We don't have anything to offer.

Nick Mays [01:33:44] What is it about East Cleveland. Why do you want to stay? This is a question that I asked that I've been asking throughout the interviews.

Stacey Clark Warren [01:33:54] It's a community that I believe in. I believe that we can thrive as a community. But it, we have to be united. It's been division and it's been division for quite some time where it's becomes a me, a me and a I. You can't be a me and a I. You have to be a team and you have to be a team player. As a team player, we need to work together collaboratively. Everybody has an opinion, but we have to come together. The meeting of the minds in meet common goal. At my age, I tell people right now, I'm not that old. I'm 62. But at this point in my life, for me to go somewhere else to get a new home with a new mortgage and I'm retired. I want to be able to live a comfortable lifestyle now. I've always been one. I don't want to live above my means. I want to live comfortable. East Cleveland is where my roots are. East Cleveland is still. It's. It's beautiful. East Cleveland is beautiful. We can bring East Cleveland back to what it needs to be sustainable for everybody to be able to live comfortable. But we need to be united and be able to bring regions. We need to be able to Bring the resources that is going to be needed in the city of East Cleveland. Working together collaboratively. You have to have a plan though too. You just can't just think you're just going to come in and it's going to change in a day. It's not, it's not going to happen like that. You need to be able to have conversations, build relationships, to be able to build partnerships and to be able to work together. I always say collaboratively, you need to have the transparency. And that's what we have not had, the transparency. And we need to be able to. When we bring monies into the city, we need to be able to have a plan of how we're going to use that money within our city. Those are things that have happened where monies have been given to the city. They have not had plan of how they were going to spend the money. And to be able to execute it as well. You have to have a plan and then you have to have a plan with it and be able to execute it and have a solution.

Nick Mays [01:36:33] How many years have you and your family owned the home that you live in East Cleveland?

Stacey Clark Warren [01:36:37] Since 1968.

Nick Mays [01:36:42] What do you think outsiders most misunderstand about East Cleveland and East Clevelanders? Maybe misconceptions.

Stacey Clark Warren [01:36:59] I think the misconception is that they wanted things that pretty much the stereotype of everybody that lived there that were poor, uneducated, and that was that we're ignorant. The ignorance. And you can have it. I tell people as what recently has happened with now East Cleveland is going into receivership. So we are going into receivership because of the fiscal emergency of us being in fiscal emergency for over 30 plus years. You have some individuals with the current ORC 118.29; the language we, you know, I can read it and you can read it and we can all interpret it various ways, you know, and someone. It was a conversation that I had with a supporter who was a supporter of Shabazz saying that we're giving up. We're just giving our city up and giving it back to the white people. That's a conception and misconstrue information also. It's where too they're saying that we're selling our land. I said, well, what land do we own? We don't own the land. You own the property that sits on the land. You're paying property taxes. And that's just a misconception of where our people need to investigate and read for themselves. As opposed to hearing it from someone and they want to tell them as well as in reference to the receivership where they're saying we will not have any power. All of the power from the military mayor to the council will be taken away. As well as us as residents, we will not have a say. So, well, this is the first of receivership, honestly, excuse me, they're coming in to look over our finances, to have and rec, make recommendation and give hardcore a recommendation saying no, you can't do that because you don't have it. And that's the problem that we have in the city of East Cleveland where we have all of the outsiders just giving their input. But you don't live in the city. So also you can have an outsider that wants to tell you certain things, but you're not here; you're, you're not here in the city to see the day to day. So it's good for someone from the outside to tell you what should or could happen. But they don't live here to know what is truly happening now.

Nick Mays [01:40:25] In 2025, you ran for council person at large. What motivated you to seek elected office?

Stacey Clark Warren [01:40:34] What motivated me is when I did I start becoming, I started attending the meetings. When I retired in 23, I started going to the council meetings; and as I attended the council meetings and what I saw that was a representation of our community, I felt that there was a need; that we needed change. I felt that the individuals that sat on council, some of the individuals, they were not in the best interest for the city. They were more self preserved and more of I not wanting to work as a team and not being the working with administration. And it was always the pointing of fingers and saying this, this and that. So I always said too, you have to learn and seek and find things for yourself as opposed to listening to the nuances and just all of the rigmarole that was going on one. So I'm like, oh, I knew there was two seats that were coming available. And I said, and it was people that was nudging me and pushing me. And I'm like, huh? I said, no, God. I said, I haven't prayed about that one yet. I hadn't. And I did. I, I prayed about and I said, said lord, is this what you want me to do? You know, is this what I should be doing? And not only that, I was saying to myself, this is the city where I live. This is the city what I know that have needs, a lot of needs. There's a lot of work that we know that need to be done. But the main thing is that we need team players. We need intellectual people. We need people that are going to be collaborative, that are going to be transparent in integrity. I stood on my platform is where I stood on pride. I was saying the pride of EC. My pride of EC was my people. It was about respect, dedication and excelence. We need those things and be able to bring those to the table and work together as a team. That's working with your administration because you have your administration, your council who legislates. Those things were not happening. Meetings were not being held. I said, you have that, Robert, rules of order. Meetings were not being held, followed the way that they should be. It was just no order, no type of order. Where I said, I meetings, you have your new business. And I said, normally, you do your old business and you do your new business. It was like they were just all over the place and meetings. I was saying too, our meeting should not be no four hours. It should be about the business. And that's what I said. It's. It should always be about. About the business. And it should be about your community and in residence. And I just felt that with me, I felt that I can be a part of the council to help and assist and to move us forward with the change that is needed in the city of East Cleveland. We, as I looked on, it became very saturated, though, with the two seats. It was two seats available for council at large, and it was eight of us that was running for this to running for two seats. So one was an incumbent, and then another one was one that we did not want to get back in either. We did not want that individual to become council at large. We needed some new, new ideals, a path forward to be able to. You know, to be able to. You know, there are going to be times where you have to pivot too. So to be able to know how to. What you need to do when it comes time to do the pivot, we need people that would be able to also work together with the administration to hold them accountable as well. So I had mentioned it to my husband and I. He was like, you gonna run? I'm like, yeah, I think I am. And I did. And it was an experience. And although I did not win, it was an experience. And I tell. Told everyone it was God's plan. God had already ordained and decided whom he was going to choose to fulfill those two seats that were open. And it's not that. And like I. I told people. I Said even though I did not win, I'm still going to be a warrior for my city, and for my community, and for my people. So I have not stopped and I'm not going to stop. I'm still going to be that individual for the community in which I live.

Nick Mays [01:46:08] What did the campaign teach you about East Clevelanders? Their concerns?

Stacey Clark Warren [01:46:13] I learned a lot about politics, but...

Nick Mays [01:46:16] the people, the people, their con, their concerns, their hopes and resilience.

Stacey Clark Warren [01:46:26] The people that were really nudging me, they. They were like you. They were saying, oh, my God. And they were telling me that I would be a good candidate, you know, a good person to sit on council. Those. And it was a great lift. Also encouragement, you know, encouraging me and the encouragement.

Nick Mays [01:46:55] Because you hear from the people on the campaign, right

Stacey Clark Warren [01:46:59] When I was going about going around campaigning, they were like, we need change. And they wanted women. They said, we need. We need women in those seats. But that didn't happen. We got two men, as a matter of fact, on council, come January 1, 2026, it will be four men and one women. One woman. It's four men, one woman. And we'll see. Because I said it's about accountability, holding everybody accountable. Accountable as well. Based on. But we all were. I put it like this. All of us were good candidates. But from a standpoint, I saw where the politics did come in, because in East Cleveland, they call. You have uphill and you have downhill. I love downhill. Right up the hill is where you have still a lot of. You have white people that still live up the hill, right? The support Sandra received for the campaign, she got a lot of her support from uphill. In looking at. During that time, as I was canvassing and going out campaigning, I can recall that the canvasser who put everything together, a white female who lives uphill, had put together the campaigning of the support for the two men. So when she sent people out, she was saying, wanted them to say, these are the two candidates. And actually those are the two that were endorsed by Sandra. So that's where I found that, well, you had eight of us. And when I saw the literature, I said, well. And I just asked, I said, well, why couldn't we include everybody's literature as opposed just doing those two. And I was told that she felt that those were the most viable for the seats. And I'm like, oh, okay. So that's when I saw the pol. The politic show right there. The differences.

Nick Mays [01:49:28] In wrapping up. What do you say to future generations of East Clevelanders, what message would you give to them?

Stacey Clark Warren [01:49:49] My message would be get involved. Get involved in your community. Get to know who represents us from your administration to your council, your voice. We all think that our voice is not important, but it is. It is important. Also. As far as voters, we need more vote. Your voting rights. You need to exercise your right to vote. In the city of East Cleveland, we have over, what, 13,000 population, maybe a little less. Those that came out to vote was only 1300, not a lot. We need to exercise our rights to vote. The community in which you, where you live, should be the epitome of things that you want to see. You have individuals where they say, my voice does not count. Your voice does count. Every voice count, Every vote count. And people say, my vote does not count. It won't count if you don't vote. And I'm seeing the differences of our. I call the millennial babies. Those millennial babies are the ones who feel that they vote does not count. And it does. Every vote counts. But you have to get involved. You have to. You could be a change maker, too. Changes is going to come in the city of East Cleveland, but we all have to stand united and not be divided. We have to be. We have to be in unison. You have to be in unison.

Nick Mays [01:51:55] When people look back at your story, your legacy, what do you want? What do you most want them to remember about you and East Cleveland.

Stacey Clark Warren [01:52:11] That I was a voice for my people. And I. I am a change. I. I am a change maker. I want to be a change maker and to know that my heart was in it for my people and especially for those who are not able to speak for themselves where I am the voice for them.

Nick Mays [01:52:34] Wow. Well said. Mrs. Stacy Clark Warren. Thank you for sitting down. Thank you for this contribution. Thank you for your contribution.

Stacey Clark Warren [01:52:45] Thank you.

Nick Mays [01:52:45] Thank you for your work, your passion, your love, your. The campaign. And thank you for contributing to this, to this project.

Stacey Clark Warren [01:52:58] Thank you for this opportunity. It was great. Thank you. It's been a pleasure.

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