Black History

Nelson T. Gant was a successful strawberry farmer and entrepreneur in Zanesville. A local foundation is seeking to honor him with a statue.

Corey Favor replaces Regina Campbell, who left the organization in 2025.

Previously the district moved dozens of bodies in the 1950s, but full skeletal remains of a 9 to 10-year-old girl were found during construction of a new high school in 2020.

Black history in central Ohio is not confined to museum exhibits or distant landmarks. It’s woven into houses on quiet streets, classrooms on a busy campus and buildings that residents pass every day without a second thought.

The Urbana Black Heritage Festival will give west-central Ohioans the chance to celebrate the powerful legacy and lasting contributions of past Black residents.

Kalen Howell wants to revitalize the small city of Urbana’s historically Black neighborhood and preserve the history hidden there.

Black cemeteries across Ohio have been abandoned or paved over. That leaves the legacy of pioneers like Pleasant Litchford in risk of disappearing.

Brown-Harris Cemetery was lost for years before a headstone was found in 2004. Even then, the cemetery was untouched until the city of Dublin surveyed the land in 2020.

Lloyd Smith, 66, was among the first group of Black children to be bused to the all-white Westwood Elementary School in Lima, Ohio in the early 1960s.

Cincinnati Public Schools students from the group Speak Up and Speak Out presented a list of demands to the school board Monday night. The group was...