Cleveland "Cleve" Lowellyn Robinson (December 12, 1914 - August 23, 1995) was born in Swabys Hope, Jamaica. After serving as a local constable and an elementary school teacher, he emigrated to the U.S. in 1944. When he arrived he took a job in Manhattan dry goods store and very soon became active in District 65. In 1947 he owned his own shop, he went on to become a steward, and then a full-time organizer for the union. He was elected vice-president in 1950 and later in 1952 became secretary-treasurer. He held that position until he retired in 1992. When District 65 was affiliated with the retail, wholesale and department store workers union, Robinson held the positions of international vice-president and executive board member of that union. After disagreements with the retail, wholesale and department store workers union District 65 pulled out and organized the National Council of Distributive Workers of America. Cleveland Robinson was elected president of the new body. In 1981, District 65 was affiliated with the United Auto Workers. At that time the union had 33,000 members in 37 states, Canada and Puerto Rico.
Cleveland Robinson was a stalwart of the civil rights movement. He was the chairman and one of the key organizers of the August 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. In 1971, he helped to found the council of Black Trade Unionists, successor organization to the NALC, and served as its first vice-president.
His first wife was Sue Eliza Robinson, they had two sons and a daughter. When she died in 1976 he married again to Doreen Mcpherson Robinson. Cleveland Robinson was suffering from glaucoma for many years, and was legally blind in 1970. His level of commitment and activity was in no way impaired by this disability. He never lost touch with his Jamaican origins and traveled to the island often, keeping up a keen interest in a number of Jamaican-American political, cultural and fraternal organizations.
Cleveland Robinson died of kidney failure in New York City in August 1995.
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