Peer-reviewed Articles and Chapters
“‘A Wonderful World?’ C&S’s Georgia Plan, Urban Renewal, and Historic Preservation in Savannah, Augusta, and Macon,” Georgia Historical Quarterly, 109, no. 1 (Spring 2025): 38–72.
“Through the Ivory Curtain: African Americans in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, before the Fair Housing Movement.” Journal of Urban History 49, no. 6 (November 2023): 1312–1341. Read
“Digital Storytelling and University-based Community Engagement in Cleveland,” in Engaging Place, Engaging Practices: Urban History and Campus-Community Partnerships, ed. Robin F. Bachin and Amy L. Howard (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2023), 70–95.
Meshack Owino and J. Mark Souther, “Building Global Citizenship through the African Digital Humanities: The MaCleKi Collaborative,” in Identity Transformation and Politicization in Africa: Shifting Mobilization, ed. Toyin Falola and Céline A. Jacquemin (London: Lexington Books, 2022), 191–210.
“Making ‘The Garden City of the South’: Beautification, Preservation, and Downtown Planning in Augusta, Georgia,” Journal of Planning History 20, no. 2 (May 2021): 87–116. Read
“‘Green Spots in the Heart of Town’: Planning and Contesting the Nation’s Widest Streets in Georgia’s Fall Line Cities,” Georgia Historical Quarterly 104, no. 4 (Winter 2020): 286–322. Read
Meshack Owino and J. Mark Souther, “‘Curating Kisumu’ and ‘Curating East Africa’: Academic Collaboration and Public Engagement in the Digital Age,” History in Africa 47 (June 2020): 327–357. Read
“Jewish Suburbanization and Jewish Presence in the ‘City without Jews,'” in Cleveland Jews and the Making of a Midwestern Community, ed. Sean Martin and John J. Grabowski (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2020), 162–182.
“‘The Best Things in Life Are Here’ in ‘The Mistake on the Lake’: Narratives of Decline and Renewal in Cleveland,” Journal of Urban History, 41 (November 2015): 1091–1117. Read
“A $35 Million ‘Hole in the Ground’: Metropolitan Fragmentation and Cleveland’s Unbuilt Downtown Subway,” Journal of Planning History, 14 (August 2015): 179–203. Read
“Acropolis of the Middle-West: Decay, Renewal, and Boosterism in Cleveland’s University Circle,” Journal of Planning History, 10 (February 2011): 30–58. Read
“Suburban Swamp: The Rise and Fall of Planned New-Town Communities in New Orleans East,” Planning Perspectives, 23 (April 2008): 197–218. Read
“The Disneyfication of New Orleans: The French Quarter as Facade in a Divided City,” Journal of American History, 94 (December 2007): 804–811. Read
“Into the Big League: Conventions, Football, and the Color Line in New Orleans,” Journal of Urban History, 29 (September 2003): 694–725. Read
“Making ‘America’s Most Interesting City’: Tourism and the Construction of Cultural Image in New Orleans, 1940-1984,” in Southern Journeys: Tourism, History, and Culture in the Modern South, ed. Richard D. Starnes (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2003), 114–137.
“Making the ‘Birthplace of Jazz’: Tourism and Musical Heritage Marketing in New Orleans,” Louisiana History, 44 (Winter 2003): 39–73. Read
Review Essays
“Down South in/of Dixie: Rethinking the Tourist South,” Reviews in American History 43, no. 1 (March 2015): 116–125. Read
“Building and Rebuilding New Orleans: Nature, Artifice, and Transformation,” Journal of Planning History 6, no. 4 (November 2007): 338–352. Read
“In the Shadow of the Suburban Dream: Black Struggles on the Urban Fringe,” Reviews in American History 33, no. 4 (December 2005): 594–600. Read
“Landscapes of Leisure: Building an Urban History of Tourism,” Journal of Urban History 30, no. 2 (January 2004): 257–265. Read
Encyclopedia Articles and Entries
“Urban Tourism in the U.S. since 1800,” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History, Oxford University Press, February 2018, doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.573.
“Urbanization of Leisure,” in Encyclopedia of Recreation and Leisure in America, Vol. 2, ed. Gary S. Cross (Westport, CT: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2004), 383-391.
Entries in the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, ed. John J. Grabowski, case.edu/ech: Beachwood; Bedford; Bedford Heights; Bratenahl; Chagrin Highlands; Crayton, Leroy; Cuyahoga Heights; Doan’s Corners; Downtown; East Cleveland; Euclid; Euclid Ave.; Gates Mills; Glenwillow; Haggins, Isaac Sr.; Highland Heights; Hough Area Development Corp.; House of Wills; Hunting Valley; Marotta, Vincent G.; Mayfield Heights; Mayfield Village; North American Systems, Inc.; North Randall; Oakwood; Orange; Pepper Pike; Richmond Heights; Slaughter, Fleet; Solon; South Euclid; Wade Park Allotment; Warrensville Heights; Williams, Eugene; Wills, J. Walter, Sr., Woodmere. All published 2019-2020.
Other Non-peer-reviewed Articles and Essays
“Digital Summer School 2024: Green Book Cleveland,” The Metropole (Urban History Association), July 2, 2024.
Context essays on Augusta, GA, Columbus, GA, Macon, GA, and Greenville, SC, in Robert K. Nelson, LaDale Winling, et al., “Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America,” edited by Robert K. Nelson and Edward L. Ayers, American Panorama: An Atlas of United States History, 2023, dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining.
“What Happened to Northeast Ohio’s ‘Chemical Shore’?” Belt Magazine, May 29, 2020, beltmag.com/northeast-ohio-chemical-shore-union-carbide-dow-chemical/.
“MaCleKi: Engaging the African Public in their History, One Story at a Time” (with Meshack Owino), Items: Insights from the Social Sciences (Social Science Research Council), December 3, 2018, items.ssrc.org/parameters/macleki-engaging-the-african-public-in-their-history-one-story-at-a-time/.
“The ‘Messiah’ Mayor Who Believed in Cleveland When No One Else Did: Carl Stokes, the First African American to Lead a Big City, Was Both a Realist and a Showman,” Zócalo Public Square, March 22, 2018, www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2018/03/22/messiah-mayor-believed-cleveland-no-one-else/ideas/essay/.
“‘People Were Saying Nice Things About Cleveland Again’: Reflecting on Carl Stokes and City Image,” The Metropole (blog), Urban History Association, October 5, 2017, themetropole.blog/2017/10/05/people-were-saying-nice-things-about-cleveland-again-reflecting-on-carl-stokes-and-city-image/.
“From ‘The Mistake on the Lake’ to ‘Defend Together’: The Long (and Amusing) History of Trying to Rebrand Cleveland,” Belt Magazine, October 3, 2017, beltmag.com/mistake-lake-defend-together-long-amusing-history-trying-rebrand-cleveland/.
Location narratives on Green Book Cleveland, greenbookcleveland.org:
Blue Grass Club; Burton’s Bathing Beach; Camp Merriam; Cedar Gardens; Elberta Beach; Handy Farm; Hanna Lounge; Jack’s Musical Bar; John C. Jackson Farm; Kyers Service Station; Lake Shore Country Club; Metropolitan Theatre; Mrs. Hulse’s Dining Room; Puritas Springs Park; Roberts Bike Shop; Silver Lake Park; Skippy’s; Summit Beach Park; Vass Picnic Grounds; Victoria Park. All published 2021-2024.
Stories on Cleveland Historical, clevelandhistorical.org:
Bluestone Quarries: Euclid Township’s “Bluestone Rush” Boomtown; Brith Emeth Temple/Ratner School; Central National Bank Euclid Avenue Office: “Modernity Prevails”; Christ Our Redeemer A.M.E. Church: Cleveland Heights’ Oldest House of Worship; Cleveland’s Greenhouse Industry: “Gardens Under Glass”; Cleveland’s Second Downtown: East 105th Street and Euclid Avenue; Cleveland Trust Tower: Marcel Breuer’s Only Skyscraper; Club Azteca: A Center for the Mexican-American Community; Coventry P.E.A.C.E. Park: A True Coventry Yard; Coventry Village Library; The Downtown Subway Plan: Sinking a Six-Decade Dream; Dugway Brook: Cleveland Heights’ Bluestone Stream; Erieview: Cleveland’s “Surrogate Downtown”; Fenn Tower: “The Campus in the Clouds”; Fenway Hall Hotel: Hotel Living in University Circle; Forest Hill Church, Presbyterian; Forest Hill Park Footbridge; Grant Deming’s Forest Hill; Greek Town: Onetime Heart of Cleveland’s Eastern Mediterranean Communities; Halle Building: Alfred Pope’s Terra-cotta Showcase for Downtown Shopping; Hart Building: A Cast-iron Landmark of the Furniture Trade; Heights Hardware; The Home in the Sky: “A Doll’s House for Grown-Ups”; The House of Wills: Ohio’s Largest Black Funeral Home; Kinney & Levan: The Nation’s Largest Housewares Emporium; The May Company: Ohio’s Largest Store; M. M. Brown’s Mayfield Heights; Maplewood Beach Hotel: Euclid’s Short-lived Shore Resort; Monticello Modern: Midcentury Architecture in Forest Hill; New Amsterdam Hotel: A Lost Monument to Cleveland’s “Chewing Gum King“; Pla-Mor Roller Rink: Cleveland’s Black Skating Mecca; Public Square: Two Centuries of Transformation; Rose Building: “The New Center”; Saint Maron Church: A Spiritual Center of Lebanese Cleveland; St. Paul’s Episcopal Church; Society for Savings Building: Cleveland’s First Skyscraper; Thomasville Quail Plantations: The Hanna and Wade Winter Retreats in South Georgia’s Red Hills Region; Warner and Swasey Observatory: Cleveland’s “Plumb Line to the Heavens”; Western Reserve Building: Weathering the Shifting Winds of Downtown Property Markets; Willie Pierson: A Builder of the Black Metropolis. All published 2012-2025.
“The Other Forest Hill: Grant Deming’s Garden-Suburb Allotment,” View from the Overlook (Cleveland Heights Historical Society) 32 (Fall 2012): 1–11. Read
Mark Souther 