T. M. Berry Project: The Tuskegee Airmen Case of 1945

Poster depicting a Tuskegee Airman, Image courtesy of the US NARA, ARC ID 514823

If you’ve read my blog entry entitled “T. M. Berry Project: A Few Words for Sarge and Berry’s WWII Service” then you’ll know that Theodore Berry served in the federal Office of War Information during World War II as a Liaison Officer for Group Morale responsible for the “Negro Problem.” For those who have not read that post, let me explain that in Berry’s own words such positions “are in substitute for positions of merit and responsibility in general affairs of government heretofore occupied by Negroes prior to World War I and the Wilson Administration. They are compromise sinecures and in the nature of the case are second class – they compromise the Negro in his efforts and desire to share and serve his government, and they compromise the incumbents of the position.” Berry was thwarted at every turn in his efforts help African Americans serving and dying for their country during his short tenure at the Office of War Information by “dollar-a-year-men” who held no position of rank but nonetheless garnered control of Negro Morale Programs via secretive dealings with the administration. Because of this experience, Berry was no stranger to the rampant discrimination taking place in the American Armed Forces when, in 1945, future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall asked him to act as lead counsel for the defense team which Marshall would be directing on behalf  of three Tuskegee Airmen who had been court-martialed after the Freeman Field Mutiny. Continue reading →

T. M. Berry Project: The Convoluted Story of a Serial Killer and the 1967 Race Riots

Clothesline used to strangle Emogene Harrington on December 2, 1965. Image courtesy of the Enquirer archives.

Though much of this collection, and therefore this blog, focuses on the life and works of Theodore M. Berry, it is also a veritable wellspring of primary resources on 20th century history especially concerning the Civil Rights Movement in Cincinnati. I have recently come across some rather illuminating material about the riots which took place in and around Avondale, a predominantly African American neighborhood north of downtown Cincinnati, in June of 1967. Continue reading →

T. M. Berry Project: No Appointee Left Behind and Humor in the OEO

This grant application is for a program which was to have been funded with $50,000 in federal money. It was created to help retired Presidential Appointees, men and women who at some point in their lives were considered so talented as to have been invaluable resources to the President and to the United States of America, return to “society [as] whole persons.” Err…what? In taking a Presidential Appointment were these people somehow excluded from “society?” What happened to them while serving in the Federal Government that caused them to become incomplete persons? How, if they were incomplete persons who had been excluded from society, could a course on taxidermy possibly help them? And who in their right mind would ever think that a home study course on brain surgery was a good idea?! Continue reading →

T. M. Berry Project: A Thank You to Judge Ted Berry

The Archives and Rare Books library received a wonderful gift this week with the donation of documents and audio recordings from Judge Ted N. Berry, son of the former Mayor Theodore M. Berry whose papers are currently being archived. The documents include copies of “Chaos Beyond,” the speech Berry gave at Woodward High School’s 1924 graduation ceremony as the school’s first African American valedictorian and proceedings from Lewis v. Wilmington Board of Education, a school desegregation case argued by Theodore Berry and Thurgood Marshall and a forerunner to the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education which Marshall would try fourteen years later. These items are a tremendous addition to the collection and we send a heartfelt “thank you” to Judge Berry for donating them.

In 2010, the University of Cincinnati Libraries received a $61,287 grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission of the Archives and Records Administration to fully process the Theodore M. Berry Collection in the Archives & Rare Books Library.  All information and opinions published on the Berry project website and in the blog entries are those of the individuals involved in the grant project and do not reflect those of the National Archives and Records Administration.  We gratefully acknowledge the support of NARA.


T. M. Berry Project: All Good Things

After the 1968 election Ted Berry knew that the Community Action Program, the agency of which he had been director for four years, would be changing and he didn’t want to be a part of it. President Richard Nixon had made clear his intentions for the War on Poverty from the beginning – calling the Office of Economic Opportunity a colossal failure throughout his presidential campaign. Appointing former Republican congressman Donald Rumsfeld as director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, and later Dick Cheney as special assistant, put the last nail in the coffin of many anti-poverty programs.  Two weeks before President Nixon’s inauguration , on January 6th, 1969, Theodore Berry drafted a letter to the President, indicating his wish to resign his office at the President’s convenience. President Nixon officially accepted his resignation effective August 31st, 1969.

Theodore Berry's farewell party from the OEO. Right photo pictures Theodore N. Berry, Johnnie Mae Berry and Theodore M. Berry, August 1969

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T. M. Berry Project: A Selection of Photos of Mayor Berry

My most interesting find this week was a large album full of photos from Berry’s time as Mayor of Cincinnati, from 1972 through 1975. The photo below is my favorite of all. It was taken at the grand opening of “Burger Chef” on Colerain Avenue here in Cincinnati. I just love their “chow down” faces! The accompanying letter from Rick Blaemire says “… it looks as if we both need two hands for a Big Shef.” It looks to me like those were some tasty burgers; my stomach is starting to growl!

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T. M. Berry Project: A Family Affair

Theodore M. Berry, Faith Berry, Johnnie Mae Newton Berry and Gail Berry

In these blog posts, it is my goal to write not only about what Berry accomplished in his lifetime but also about who he was as a human being. As I go through the collection, I read articles about his work, his correspondence, and his impassioned speeches; I look at photos of him wearing that huge, unself-conscious grin and I feel like I know what sort of person he was – a true humanitarian with an unrivaled sense of fairness and enough intelligence, generosity and energy to devote his life to fighting for the rights of those who were unable to fight for themselves. I feel Berry’s own special brand of goodness seep through the paper, yet I find it difficult to express to my readers. Continue reading →

T. M. Berry Project: African American Education in Cincinnati

My discovery of the photo to the right was the cause of a fair bit of head scratching for both myself and Theodore Berry’s daughter, Gail Berry West, last week. The envelope it came in is labeled “Faculty of Caines High School, September 1866” but Gail and I didn’t know anything about such a school; nor does the almighty Google recognize that name. Fortunately, Kevin Grace, head of the Archives and Rare Books Library, returned to work after a conference this morning and recognized that the smudge over the “C” in Caines is actually hiding the crossbar of a capital “G.” Gaines High School was the first high school for African Americans in Ohio and Berry somewhere, somehow acquired this photograph from the time of the school’s founding.

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