City of Cincinnati Apologizes for Sins of Past City Leaders who Carried Out Racist "Master Plan" in the West End

Cincinnati city leaders are apologizing for the sins of politicians past, saying the dismantling of one of Cincinnati’s historically Black neighborhoods for the sake of a highway was wrong, racist and created long term damage to the Black community felt to this day.

"The lower West End, the Kenyon-Barr district, was home to a vibrant and beautiful Black community. A community that, because of the city of Cincinnati's actions in the middle of the 20th century, because of deep-seated institutional racism, was torn apart," said Mayor Aftab Pureval during a June 13 press conference at City Hall.

“We apologize to the West End’s families and communities, to the West End itself, for the city’s destruction and displacement of the community."

The "Master Plan"

Councilmember Scotty Johnson organized the public apology, saying structural racism was planned and took place in the same City Hall from which he stood behind a podium.

“That is why this press conference, the apology, had to come from right here in this building," he said. "The planning to devastate and destroy took place in this building and now the apology to rebuild and prayerfully get to reconciliation has come from this building.”
About 25,000 people, mostly Black, were abruptly forced from their homes with promises of relocation assistance that never came. Businesses were either left behind or forced to restart elsewhere, including 80 churches and nearly 90 barber shops and beauty salons, almost 50 clothing stores, and more, according to Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Kearney.

Kearney spoke about her ties to the “extermination of Kenyon-Barr” when her father, who was a doctor, was forced to move his medical practice from Clark Street to Avondale.

“All his life he talked about his office on Clark Street and he described it and how it had the circulatory system painted on the walls,” she said. “He talked about his patients who were West End residents, they were his patients and his friends.”

Towards the end of the press conference, one of those patients stood up to speak.

“Your father was my doctor on Clark Street,” Oscar Wright, 87, said to Kearney after being invited to stand behind the podium. “We had everything we needed. I’ll never forget that, because it just tore us up.”

With hushed audience members and reporters before him, and elected officials and dignitaries behind him, Wright recalled his experience of being evicted from his West End home as a 13-year-old boy.
“If you could have seen it, you would think it’s an evacuation. Every street had those trucks on them. If those people didn’t move in 30 days they came in and evicted them and put all their stuff on the outside,” he said. “That was traumatic. It was. It always stayed in my head, ‘Mother, where are we going? Daddy, where are we going?’ ‘We don’t know yet.’”

“We are working day in and day out to create a cohesive space that feels like home to its residents, and we won’t stop until we get it right,” Pureval said.
Moving forward, Pureval said the city will partner with the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) to pursue a $50 million choice grant with the goal of revitalizing a section of Linn Street with new housing “for all income levels.”

The mayor also referenced the ongoing work to revitalize the historic Regal Theater at the corner of Linn Street and Clark Street to become the city’s first African-American multicultural center.

Addressing possible sins of the present

When asked if the city should apologize for the construction of TQL Stadium in the West End, which displaced a handful of residents, Johnson said the experiences were incomparable.

“To be quite honest with you, I can understand why some would see it like that, but what took place in 1948 and what took place with TQL, I don’t think it’s close,” Johnson said. “When you talk about the complete devastation of businesses, the complete devastation of people’s homes that they owned, I don’t think that’s close.”

Others have raised concerns about the expansion of the Western Hills Viaduct from two lanes to four going into South Fairmount, which would be another highway project to have a potential impact on a lower-income area that worries pedestrian advocates.