Hopefully, your calendar is already marked for the fifth annual Civil Rights Hall of Fame induction ceremony at 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 3, in the Ohio Statehouse Atrium. A reception will follow in the Statehouse Rotunda.
The Ohio Civil Rights Commission began honoring Ohio’s civil rights leaders with an annual Hall of Fame Ceremony in 2008. Here’s a glimpse at this year’s seven exceptional inductees:
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Prior to becoming an attorney, Alexander “Sandy” Spater was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal, where he worked as a community development specialist. Later, Spater worked in a low-income housing program in Corinth, Miss. As an attorney in his own firm and at Spater, Gittes, Schulte & Kolman, he litigated civil rights cases in Ohio and around the country. He has lectured on various civil rights issues and has testified before the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.
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Anison James Colbert was born in the Youngstown area and was a pioneer in the funeral service industry, becoming the first African-American in Ohio to receive a national funeral director’s license. Colbert is well-known for his disaster relief work in the Xenia area after the devastating 1973 tornado. He established and served as director of Concerned Citizens of Xenia, which addressed issues such as finding employment for low-income and minority citizens.
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Charles O. Ross joined The Ohio State University in 1970 and served as the inaugural chairperson of the Black Studies Department. Ross engaged in mass community mobilization and grassroots activism at the university and in the community during a period of social upheaval in Columbus. He was instrumental in raising community awareness on issues such as targeted law enforcement and excessive force. He was an advocate for the recruitment and retention of African-American students, faculty, and staff and urged diversity on the university’s Board of Trustees.
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Lawrence Eugene “Larry” Doby joined Jackie Robinson in breaking the major league baseball color barrier in 1947 when he joined the Cleveland Indians, becoming the first African-American in the American League. Doby was an All-Star center fielder seven consecutive times, and he and teammate Satchel Paige became the first African-American members of a World Series-winning team when the Indians claimed the title in 1948. He was also the first African-American player to hit a home run in the World Series and the All-Star Game. In 1978, he became the second African-American manager in the big leagues. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998.
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Marjorie Perham began running The Dayton Tribune in 1961. In 1963, she took over as publisher and editor of The Cincinnati Herald. In more than three decades at the Herald, she became a respected figure in the Cincinnati community through her newspaper work and involvement in numerous civic organizations. In 1982, she became the second African-American to serve as a trustee of the University of Cincinnati. She has chaired the board of the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center.
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Pastor Robert Lee Harris has been an advocate for the disabled since he contracted meningitis at an early age, leaving him paralyzed in both legs and his left hand. Pastor Harris is an accomplished artist with more than 30 years of visual art and video production experience. He is the community relations coordinator for BRIDGES for a Just Community and has worked for 13 years as education coordinator for the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission. His many awards include the Victory Award, the Ohio Humanitarian Award–Employment Equality, and the Maurice McCracken Award for Peace and Justice.
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Judge Sara J. Harper was the first African-American woman to graduate from Case Western Reserve University Law School. While president of the Cleveland NAACP, Harper fought against strip searches of females arrested for minor traffic infractions. A former prosecutor, she was the first woman to serve on the judiciary of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and she co-founded the first victims’ rights program in the country. In 1990, Harper became the first woman to win a seat on the Ohio Court of Appeals, and in 1992, she became the first African-American woman to serve on the Ohio Supreme Court.