Excerpts form the dedication remarks by Councilman Ralph Hoop “TO BE 70 IS TO HAVE SEEN THE NATION PUT AWAY THE ALMOST CASUAL CRUELTY OF RACIAL SEGREGATION, AND TO HAVE SEEN THE EMANCIPATION – NOT TOO STRONG A TERM – OF WOMEN, AND IN MANY OTHER IMPROVEMENTS. HOW THIS UNIQUELY SELF-TRANSFORMING NATION DECIDED TO DECLARE UNTHINKABLE MANY PRACTICES THAT NOT LONG AGO WERE PERFORMED UNTHINKINGLY ” George Will

“…Glendale cherishes its historical character. In 1977 the National Park Service designated the center portion of the village as a National Historic Landmark District. The Village currently displays four markers from the Ohio Historical Society with information about events that occurred in our village. Today we are here to dedicate a fifth plaque to preserve the history and memory of Eckstein Elementary School, a school operated for more than 40 years for Glendale’s African-American children.

Glendale’s first four historical markers were erected long after all the people directly involved in the events had died. The Eckstein marker is different. There are at least 50 alumni still living who attended Eckstein as children, and about a quarter of those living alumni participated in the development of the plaque being dedicated today.

More than a year ago I chaired the first of a series of public meetings to develop a suitable marker for Eckstein School, and I was surprised and gratified when seven Eckstein alumni attended that first meeting.

The meeting did not go well. As prework I had prepared a draft text for review and discussion. My text included two racial descriptors that are common in today’s discourse: African-American and Black. But I ran into a buzz saw. To a person the seven Eckstein alumni rejected these descriptors. I was told in very strong terms that each of them preferred to be identified on the plaque as “negro”. This word might be considered archaic in today’s society, so I kept challenging this word for five or ten minutes. Finally Mayor Hubbard turned to me and said, “Ralph, can’t you listen?” You won’t be surprised to learn that our first meeting adjourned without a conclusion.

A month later at our second meeting two of the Eckstein alumni came with a text they had written themselves. The words you will read today were largely written by Mr. Otis Turner, with an important addition by Mrs. Wilhelmina Cornett who contributed the phrase “during the time of segregation in America”.

So the text you will see on the plaque today is not the creation of a research committee, they are the words of American adults who were required to attend a segregated school while they were children. The participation of the former Eckstein students transformed the development the marker from an administrative exercise into a recording of history in the words of those who actually lived it. Glendale is honored that village history is preserved in the words of these former students.