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“Lifting As We Climb”: The Cincinnati Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs (CFCWC) was organized May 6, 1904, during a meeting called by Mary Fletcher Ross at the Allen Temple A.M.E. Church. Gathering together eight existing African-American women’s clubs, the CFCWC sought to unite in their work promoting “the betterment of the community.” At a time when both government and private philanthropies overlooked the needs of Black Americans, CFCWC members helped to organize the city’s first kindergartens for Black children, taught in Cincinnati African-American public schools –including the Walnut Hills Douglass and Stowe schools—and raised money for the Home of Aged Colored Women. Since 1904, the Cincinnati Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs has ensured the civic and constitutional rights of all African Americans while meeting the needs of their city.
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In 1911 local doctors founded the St. Clair Hospital. The home adjacent to the hospital served as a residence home and training school for nurses. In 1940, the hospital was converted into a convalescent home. In 1948, Mr. and Mrs. William J. Garrett, an African-American couple, transformed the facility into a hotel. The Hotel St. Clair, which closed in 1976, accommodated African Americans who were not permitted to stay in white hotels. It also served as a social gathering place for members of Columbus’ black community.
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The Lincoln Theatre, originally known as Ogden Theatre Lodge, opened on Thanksgiving Day in 1929. Developer Al Jackson was spurred to build the theatre because African-Americans were segregated from the other area theatres. Among the bands that have played at the Lincoln was the Eckstine Band, which launched the careers of a number of legendary jazz stars such as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Sarah Vaughn. The Lincoln Theatre retained a high level of integrity during a period of unequaled African-American cultural, social, and economic strength in Columbus.
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Dunbar, or Corsica Hollow, was an African American neighborhood on the western edge of Madisonville. Its streets and lots were laid out in 1886 after Mahlon and Anna Leonard subdivided their 10-acre tract near Duck Creek and sold lots to African Americans. Many early Dunbar residents were from the South; some born there prior to emancipation. Prominent early citizens included Harriet Deatherage, Elihu Parks, Gandison Embry, Thomas Duett, and James Murphy. Dunbar was home to the New Mission Missionary Baptist Church, founded in 1907. Originally meeting in a one-room building, the extant congregation relocated to Ravenna Street in 1963. By the late 1920s, Dunbar had about forty houses, a grocery run by Henry Lowman, and a hair salon run by Flora Hector. (Continued on other side)
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James E. Campbell was governor of the State of Ohio from 1890-1892. From 1913-1924, he served as president of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society, which later became the Ohio Historical Society. His daughter Jessie Campbell Coons named Campbell Memorial Park for him in 1929 after educator Minnie R. Shrum deeded the land for the Shrum Indian Mound to the Ohio Historical Society. The park and mound were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.
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This nation’s landmark case on the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures began in Cuyahoga County. In 1967, for the first time in history, African-Americans both argued and heard a case at the U.S. Supreme Court. Defense attorney Louis Stokes and assistant prosecutor Reuben Payne debated limits on police searches before the first African-American Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall. The Supreme Court held that Officer Martin McFadden’s frisk and seizure of guns from suspects on Euclid Avenue about to rob a jewelry store was constitutional. They upheld Cuyahoga County Appellate Court Judges Joseph Silbert, Joseph Artl, and J.J.P. Corrigan and adopted the rule trial Judge Bernard Friedman issued: Police may search for weapons if they have a reasonable suspicion that a suspect is armed and dangerous.
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Bethel A.M.E. Church was the first African American church in Worthington. Black residents joined Worthington’s established churches as early as 1847 or worshipped together in their homes. Peter Banks with D.H. Taborn, Charles Kiner, J.T. Horton, and James Birkhead organized the A.M.E. congregation in 1896. Rapid growth moved their meetings to the Worthington Town Hall by 1897. A lot was purchased from Millie Alston on September 24, 1897, and a house relocated to serve as Bethel Chapel. Local carpenter Chester Hard constructed a new building that was dedicated as St. John A.M.E. in 1914. The church has served as the religious and social hub of Worthington’s Black community for more than a century. While St. John A.M.E. Church retains their original location, worship services moved to 7700 Crosswoods Drive in 2004.
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Here in 1963 congregants of Beth Israel-The West Temple, led by Louis Rosenblum, Herb Caron, and Rabbi Daniel Litt, founded the Cleveland Committee (later Council) on Soviet Anti-Semitism, the first American organization created to advocate for freedom for Soviet Jews. In 1970 this work led to the formation of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ) under the leadership of Louis Rosenblum. The UCSJ, whose national office was located here 1970-1973, became the largest independent Soviet Jewry organization in the world. By the turn of the 21st century, the efforts begun here helped 1.6 million Jews leave the former Soviet Union. (Continued on other side)
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