LOVELAND MAGAZINE

News and Events from the Loveland, Ohio Area

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Since 2004

Tag: NAACP

  • BROWN HONORS LIFE OF SOUTHWEST OHIO CIVIL RIGHTS PIONEER, ELSIE STEWARD YOUNG, ON SENATE FLOOR

    BROWN HONORS LIFE OF SOUTHWEST OHIO CIVIL RIGHTS PIONEER, ELSIE STEWARD YOUNG, ON SENATE FLOOR

    In Case You Missed It: Last night, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) honored the life and memory of Ohio civil rights champion, Elsie Steward Young, on the Senate floor.

    “Miss Elsie is a legend in Southwest Ohio. Her courage and her leadership made a difference for children not only in her community, but all over the country.” said Brown on the Senate floor. “Our thoughts are with her three surviving daughters and two surviving sons, her 36 grandchildren, and all her family and friends and loved ones. We know her legacy will live on, through both the lives of all the students whose education she made possible, and through the future generations of young people she inspires to stand against injustice, wherever they see it.”

    Brown’s full remarks, as prepared for delivery, can be found below.

    Last week, we lost an Ohio champion for civil rights, Miss Elsie Steward Young, of Highland County, Ohio, just after her 105th birthday.

    Miss Elsie is a legend in Southwest Ohio. Her courage and her leadership made a difference for children not only in her community, but all over the country.

    In 1954, after the Supreme Court issued its landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision and ordered an end to segregation in America’s schools, the two all-white primary schools in Hillsboro, Ohio refused to integrate.

    The district continued to send Black students to a single all-Black school, which was in shambles.

    I remember the stories my mother would tell me, of growing up in Mansfield, Georgia – she said she knew all about busing.

    They would bus the Black students past the newer, better-kept white schools, to the segregated Black schools that were falling apart.

    That’s what was going on in Hillsboro, Ohio.

    And Elsie Steward Young wouldn’t stand for it.

    Miss Elsie and a group of mothers took matters into their own hands, and became the Marching Mothers of Hillsboro.

    Every single day for two long years, they marched for miles to the town’s all-white primary school.

    Every day, they were sent home.

    But they carried on, and eventually, the community and the state and the country noticed. They joined with the NAACP to file a lawsuit against the Hillsboro Board of Education, which made it all the way to the Supreme Court – and they won.

    Because of Miss Elsie and her fellow mothers’ advocacy, the Court ordered the schools to integrate, and paved the way for integration in other northern cities.

    Her activism shows us what ordinary citizens can achieve, when they join together to fight for justice.

    It’s a reminder of how far we have come – and how much work we still have to do, to achieve justice and opportunity for ALL children in our country.

    Three years ago, Elsie Steward Young was inducted into the Ohio Civil Rights Hall of Fame. And that fall, we honored the Marching Mothers of Hillsboro and the children—now adults—who marched with our office’s Canary Award, at our annual Ohio Women’s Conference.

    Then-Senator Harris, now Vice President Harris, was supposed to speak, and we were going to present Miss Elsie with the award. But we both had to stay in Washington at the last minute, because of Supreme Court votes.

    So many Ohioans at the conference told me later that, frankly, I’m not sure I was missed that much – not with Miss Elsie there. She not only filled the void, she provided so much energy with her forceful, inspiring words.

    And that was at 102 years old.

    Throughout the conference, people were lining up to get pictures with her. When a video played, depicting the bravery and determination of the marchers, and when Miss Elsie spoke accepting the award, there was scarcely a dry eye in the audience.

    She talked about how she and the other mothers only did what any mother would have done for their children.

    So many Ohioans will miss Elsie Steward Young. Our thoughts are with her three surviving daughters and two surviving sons, her 36 grandchildren, and all her family and friends and loved ones.

    We know her legacy will live on, through both the lives of all the students whose education she made possible, and through the future generations of young people she inspires to stand against injustice, wherever they see it.

    I ask all my colleagues to join me in honoring Miss Elsie Steward Young – Ohioan, mother, determined champion for civil rights.

  • “Ms. Civil Rights” Cincinnati activist Marian Spencer honored with statue at Smale Riverfront Park

    “Ms. Civil Rights” Cincinnati activist Marian Spencer honored with statue at Smale Riverfront Park

    “The case started when Spencer’s sons heard a radio ad inviting children to Coney Island to meet a local TV personality. She telephoned to ask if the invitation applied to all children and was assured that it did; however, when Spencer added, “We are Negroes,” the Coney Island representative admitted the invitation did not extend to Negro children. Spencer was banished from the front gate by a guard brandishing a gun on the Fourth of July 1952. Spencer filed suit and subsequently won the case, which desegregated Coney Island.” – Wikipedia

    by David Miller – photos by Alex Eicher

    Cincinnati, Ohio – The life of Civil rights activist Marian Regelia Alexander Spencer was honored with a statue at Smale Riverfront Park on Sunday June 26 – the eve of her birth date. It is Cincinnati’s first statue of a named woman. It depicts Spencer holding the hand of a young girl and the girl holding hands with a young boy. The three are in a not-closed circle that leaves space for another child to grab Spencer’s left hand and the boy’s right hand to close the tight circle.

    Spencer was the first Black president of the Woman’s City Club of Greater Cincinnati in 1970. The organization spearheaded the private fundraising for the statue. It is located at the John G. & Phyllis W. Smale Riverfront Park in the Cincinnati Parks Foundation Women’s Committee Garden.

    (Story continues below photos)

    • Camille Haamid (center) model for the sculpture of Spencer
    • Alice Schneider Women’s City Club

    The sculpture was designed by Cincinnati Natives, Tom Tsuchiya, and Gina Erardi.

    Spencer was the first Black woman to be elected to the Cincinnati City Council and once served as vice-mayor.

    She fought for the desegregation of Coney Island and YWCA summer camps and pools nationwide She was the first African American woman to be elected president of the Cincinnati chapter NAACP.

    Spencer died at the age of 99, on July 9, 2019, and was the granddaughter of a former slave. She was active in the civil rights movement to desegregate schools and end discrimination and became the first female president of the Cincinnati NAACP chapter. She also served on the University of Cincinnati board of trustees.

    Spencer was born in the town of Gallipolis, Ohio in 1920. She lived in the home of her grandfather, a freed slave from West Virginia, with her twin sister, Mildred, two brothers, Harry and Vernon, and her parents. The home was built after her grandfather moved to Gallipolis. She became a member of the NAACP at age 13. In 1938 Spencer graduated from Gallia Academy High School. She was co-valedictorian with her sister and a member of the National Honor Society.

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    • Tom Tsuchiya
    • Tom Tsuchiya and Gina Erardi
    • Edward Spencer
    • Emcee Courtis Fuller shakes hands with Edward Spencer

    After graduation, she moved to Cincinnati to attend the University of Cincinnati as a scholarship student with her sister and fellow scholarship student, Mildred Malcolm. While at the University of Cincinnati, Spencer campaigned for the college prom to be open to all students. That was the start of her struggle for equality for all Greater Cincinnatians.

    Spencer earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Cincinnati in 1942. In 1940, she married Donald Andrew Spencer, Sr., a Cincinnati teacher and real estate broker. They raised two sons, Donald Jr. and Edward Alexander.

    Tom Tsuchiya, who created the piece with Gina Erardi a Woman’s City Club member, and the Marian Spencer Statue Committee Chair Alice Schneider proposed the statue in 2019. Spencer died later that year at age 99.

    Spencer’s career included numerous achievements as well as many awards and honors for her contributions to human service organizations and civic volunteer work. Among them are Cincinnati Enquirer Woman of the Year Award; Brotherhood Award, National Conference of Christians and Jews; YWCA Career Woman of Achievement Award; and Humanitarian Award, Freedom Heritage Foundation of Columbus, Ohio.

    She was an active member of the Board of Trustees of Planned Parenthood of Cincinnati in the 1990s and subsequently served on the Planned Parenthood Foundation Board. In 1998 Spencer was named a “Great Living Cincinnatian” by the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber.

    In 2010 the Cincinnati Public Schools renamed an elementary school in Walnut Hills, Cincinnati the Donald A. and Marian Spencer Education Center. In 2016 the Cincinnati City Council voted to rename the 100 block of Walnut Street between Theodore Berry Way and Second Street at The Banks “Marian Spencer Way.” In 2018 the University of Cincinnati named a new residence hall on its main campus “Marian Spencer Hall.” 

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    • Jan-Michele Kearney Cincinnati Council
    • Hamilton County Commission President Stephanie Summerow Dumas
    • Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley
    • Singer Kathy Wade 
    • Emcee Courtis Fuller

    Marian Spencer described herself as a fighter. “All people should be equal,” she said. “There should be equality, above everything. Given equal opportunity, we all arrive at the same place.” She was named a Lifetime Achiever by Applause! magazine and co-chaired a YWCA $3.8-million fund-raising campaign in Cincinnati. “Without difficulties that people met and overcome, we are less strong,” Spencer said. “We’ve had our share.”

    The bio statements and quotes in this article are attributed to Cincinnati History and Archives of the Cincinnati Museum Center and Wikipedia – the Free Encyclopedia.