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Lawrence O. Payne (1892-1959) was a Cleveland councilman and lawyer. The Columbus, Ohio native arrived in Cleveland after having served in the Army in France during World War I. He graduated from the Cleveland Preparatory School in 1922, and from John Marshall Law School in 1923. Among his accomplishments, he was Cleveland's first African-American assistant police prosecutor. He was elected to city council in 1929, and was instrumental in helping win the admission of African-Americans to the School of Nursing, and as interns at City Hospital. Also as a councilman, Payne supported a larger police force and a permanent policewomen's bureau, and advocated the separation of first-time and habitual offenders and enlarging correction farms, according to the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. In 1940, he co-founded P. W. Publishing Co. with William O. Walker, and published the Cleveland Call & Post, He was also an appointee to the State Parole Board. Lawrence Payne is buried in Lake View Cemetery.
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