November 6, 1999

CLEVELAND—One of the "frequently asked questions" about the National Council of Churches' 50th Anniversary Celebration is why Cleveland was chosen as the venue.

There's an easy answer -- it's where the Council was founded in 1950. But why was Cleveland chosen for the NCC's constituting convention in the first place? The answer to that question is somewhat more complex - and gives insight both to the NCC's history and to the realities of those times.

"For starters, we had to meet above the Mason-Dixon line, as no interracial gathering could be accommodated in the South," said video producer Al Cox, who grew up in and around Cleveland and has been closely involved with the Council all its life.

The new National Council of Churches, with 29 founding communions, brought together 12 predecessor agencies, including the International Council of Religious Education, based in Chicago. Most other predecessor agencies had their headquarters in New York City. Cleveland is roughly equidistant from each city.

"Travel was by train in those days," Cox noted, "and Cleveland, then reputed to be the nation's sixth largest city, was a major stop on rail lines between New York and Chicago." A thriving center of the arts and academics, including a major ecumenical seminary close by at Oberlin (a key stop on the Underground Railroad), Cleveland already was a popular destination for ecumenical meetings, he said.

Cox, born in Mayfield, Ohio, joined the Council's Christian education staff in July 1951. His father, the Rev. Alva I. Cox, served pastorates all around northeastern Ohio and was a Methodist Church delegate to the NCC's founding convention.