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A native of Coshocton County, William Green (1870-1932) began his working life as a coal miner at age 16 and rose rapidly in the leadership of the United Mine Workers of America. Twice elected to the Ohio Senate, Green served as president pro tempore during his second term. He was instrumental in enacting Ohio’s first worker’s compensation law in 1912, at a time when progressive-era ideals conflicted with an impersonal industrial system where workers enjoyed few rights and little security. Green, one of the outstanding American trade union leaders of the twentieth century, served as president of the American Federation of Labor from 1924 until his death in 1952.
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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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James W. Rankin served four consecutive terms (1971-1978) in the Ohio House of Representatives. Born and raised in Cincinnati, he graduated from Withrow High School and The Ohio State University’s School of Social Work. While working in Cincinnati’s Seven Hills neighborhood, he ran for office to “involve the disadvantaged in the governmental processes that affected their lives.” He won his first bid and served the next seven years as a state representative for the 69th House district, later the reapportioned 25th district. Representative Rankin fought passionately for civil and human rights in education and public policy. He served on the Reference, Human Resources, and Finance committees. When Rankin died of pneumonia, aged 52, the Cincinnati Enquirer proclaimed him a “Friend of the Poor.”
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United Colored American Cemetery is among the earliest in situ African American cemeteries in Hamilton County. The 11.6 acres in Madisonville were purchased by the United Colored American Association (UCAA) after the legislated closure of their earlier Avondale cemetery. Many Avondale burials and headstones were moved prior to the new cemetery’s dedication on May 30, 1883. Designed by Adolph Strauch, United Colored American Cemetery features the looping roads and picturesque elements typical of his designs at Spring Grove and Eden Park. After the dissolution of the UCAA, Cincinnati mayor Charles P. Taft asked Union Baptist Church to take ownership and maintenance of the cemetery. Union Baptist assumed ownership in 1968 and burials continued until 2019. United Colored American Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2022.
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On May 28, 1961, the Kol Israel Foundation, a Cleveland organization of Holocaust survivors, dedicated this monument in remembrance of the attempted genocide against the Jewish people by Nazi Germany during World War II. The monument is believed to be one of the first of its kind in the United States. Human remains, ashes and artifacts reclaimed from three concentration camps are buried beneath the monument. (Continued on other side)
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Established during the Great Migration and intense segregation in Columbus, The Big Walnut Country Club (BWCC) was one of the first Black country clubs in the United States. Conceived in 1925 and incorporated two years later, the club encouraged and promoted aquatic and athletic sports by providing the means and facilities otherwise not available to the Black community. Members enjoyed golf, swimming, archery, tennis, badminton, boating, dining, and dancing on the nearly 20 acres of land between the Big Walnut and Rocky Fork creeks. The club was a social, professional, and political hub for Central Ohio’s growing Black population in the decades leading to the Civil Rights Movement. The BWCC closed in 1963. Gahanna purchased the land in 1970 and opened its first public park, Friendship Park, the following year.
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This block of W. 29th Street was home to Cleveland’s vibrant LGBT community and central to the development of the modern LGBT civil rights movement. In 1988, the Striebinger Building, at 1418 W. 29th, housed Cleveland’s Lesbian-Gay Community Services Center, which addressed the needs of the LGBT community. Cleveland’s first Pride Festival since the mid-1970s was held on the block in 1989, and in 1990 Cleveland’s first Pride Parade culminated here. During the HIV/AIDS crisis, The Living Room and ACT UP were located in the Striebinger Building and gave support to those with HIV/AIDs and provided a platform for political activism. It was on this block where many people could find their voices to “come-out” and advocate for their rights and their humanity. (Continued on other side)
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Women’s suffrage–the right for women to vote–was part of the women’s rights movement in the United States from the mid-1800s through the early 1900s. In 1912 and 1914, women’s suffrage was on the state ballot in Ohio. Both times, the issue failed statewide but passed in Lakewood. Led by Bernice Pyke, Lakewood women participated in the Suffrage Party of Greater Cleveland and gained support for their cause. Lakewood’s City Council put the suffrage issue on the local ballot in 1917. The male voters of Lakewood passed it, allowing women to vote in municipal elections. In 1919, Ohio ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, which was added to the U.S. Constitution in 1920 and granted women the right to vote in all elections. The Lakewood League of Women Voters was chartered in 1922 and remains active a century later.