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| 1940-1949: A Decade of Hope |
| 1940 |
"This district, covered with dilapidated
houses was inhabited mostly by Negroes and had long been notorious as a breeding place for
crime and disease. Akron civic leaders had talked many years about doing something to
improve conditions there – but all they did was talk."
~ Grissmer, Akron and Summit ~ |
| 1949 |
Civic Enterprise
- Akron’s black residents were forced to reside in worst
districts
- Akron Council of Negro Women acquired an eleven-room house
on Wooster Ave to house black working girls. Home was administered similar to YMCA –
organization motto – "Lift as we climb"
- More than 12,000 new Negro citizens in Akron since 1940
– only 75 new homes built and occupied by Negroes
- The Negro Directory and the Akron Informer came into being
Individual Accomplishments:
- George Stevens – Negro Philanthropist – donated to the Akron Foundation
- Herbert R. Bracken – Akron’s first black teacher
- Esther Spruill – pioneered preschool education – opened day care center on
Perkins Street
- Jessica Brazil – Negro soprano – Akron native
- Julia Perry – Negro composer – Akron native
- Emmer Lancaster – Advisor on Negro Affairs to the Secretary of the U.S. Department
of Commerce
- Luther R. Johnson, Jr. – first Negro assistant law director
- Martha Averett – first Negro nurse in Akron’s city hospitals
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