Black Cincinnati Travels: A Friend in High Places: Happy Birthday, Ted Berry!

Hey, Cincy Massive (that's people in Jamaican slang)! Welcome to November! After a business lunch Friday, I decided to have some me time, Skechers® and all, and go down towards the Ohio River and walk east along Eastern Avenue to the Theodore Berry International Friendship Park.

This park was named after Theodore M. (Ted) Berry, Cincinnati's first African American mayor from 1972-1975. He was born November 5, 1905 in Maysville, Kentucky and was the class valedictorian of Woodward High School. He was also the first African American to hold that honor in Cincinnati. In his senior year, he won an essay contest with an entry submitted under the pseudonym Thomas Playfair after an all-white panel had rejected his initial entry. Berry worked at steel mills in Newport, Kentucky, to pay tuition at the University of Cincinnati and then at its law school.

From 1947 to 1961, Berry served on the NAACP Ohio Committee for Civil Rights Legislation where he worked on equal employment and fair housing issues. He was also involved with the Urban League of Greater Cincinnati.

In 1960, Berry acted as President John F Kennedy's personal advisor to Nigeria as the country gained its independence.

In 1965 President Lyndon Johnson appointed Berry to head the Office of Economic Opportunity's Community Action Programs that included Head Start, the Job Corps and Legal Services. Berry returned to Cincinnati in 1969 and was appointed to City Council in 1971. He was elected mayor in 1972 and served for four years as Cincinnati's first African-American mayor.

Berry died October 15, 2000, just weeks shy of his 95th birthday. He is interred at Spring Grove Cemetery.

The park, inspired by a child's friendship bracelet, was completed in 2003, and is an award winning collection of sculpture and flora representing six of the seven continents of the world. Various artists and landscapers from Cincinnati and Cincinnati sister cities of Munich, Germany, Nancy, France, Harare, Zimbabwe, Gifu, Japan, Kharkiv, Ukraine, Liuzhou, China, and New Taipei, Taiwan collaborated on these pieces. The sections of the park are divided into gardens, representing the flora and fauna of each continent. Walking through this urban wonderland really transported me on a cruise without leaving the 'Nati.

In addition to the park, two other monuments exists in this city-Ted Berry Way at The Banks entertainment and dining district and the Theodore M Berry Head Start center in the West End.

The walk from the Banks to the park takes about half an hour using the Ohio River Trail, but if you are up for a good walk, hey, go for it!