Akron (/ˈækrən/) is a city in and the county seat of Summit County, Ohio, United States. At the 2020 census, the city proper had a total population of 190,469, making it the fifth-most populous city in Ohio and 136th-most populous city in the United States. The Akron metropolitan area, covering Summit and Portage counties, had a population of 702,219.[3] It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau in Northeast Ohio about 40 miles (64 km) south of downtown Cleveland.
After being first settled by Miner Spicer in 1810,[4] the city was founded by Simon Perkins and Paul Williams in 1825 along the Little Cuyahoga River at the summit of the developing Ohio and Erie Canal. The name is derived from the Ancient Greek: ἄκρον : ákron signifying a summit or high point. It was briefly renamed South Akron after Eliakim Crosby founded nearby North Akron in 1833, until both merged into an incorporated village in 1836. In the 1910s, Akron doubled in population, making it the nation's fastest-growing city.
A long history of rubber and tire manufacturing, carried on today by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, gave Akron the nickname "Rubber Capital of the World". It was once known as a center of airship development.[5][6] Today, its economy includes manufacturing, education, healthcare, and biomedical research; leading corporations include Gojo Industries, FirstEnergy, Huntington Bank, and Charter Spectrum.
Notable historic events in Akron include the passage of the Akron School Law of 1847, which created the K–12 system; the popularization of the church architectural Akron Plan, the foundation of Alcoholics Anonymous, the Akron Experiment into preventing goiters with iodized salt, the 1983 Supreme Court case City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health; and portions of the 2014 Gay Games. A racially diverse city, it has seen noted racial relations speeches by Sojourner Truth in 1851 (the Ain't I A Woman? speech), W. E. B. Du Bois in 1920,[7] and President Bill Clinton in 1997.[8] In 1914, Marcus Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association in Akron.[7][9] Episodes of major civil unrest in Akron have included the riot of 1900, rubber strike of 1936, the Wooster Avenue riots of 1968, and the 2022 protests surrounding the killing of Jayland Walker.
The first settler in the Akron area was Major Miner Spicer,[10] who came from Groton, Connecticut. He built a log cabin in the forest in 1810, and became the region's first citizen.[4] In June 1811, Spicer sent for his family, who came that same year by ox teams accompanied by Capt. Amos Spicer and Paul Williams.[11]
In 1811, Paul Williams settled near the corner of what is now Buchtel Avenue and Broadway. He suggested to General Simon Perkins, who was surveyor of the Connecticut Land Company's Connecticut Western Reserve, that they found a town at the summit of the developing Ohio and Erie Canal. The name is adapted from the Greek word ἄκρον (ákron), meaning summit or high point.[12] It was laid out in December 1825, where the south part of the downtown Akron neighborhood sits today. Irish laborers working on the Ohio Canal built about 100 cabins nearby.