Penny Wells of Boardman, director of Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past, will be inducted into the Ohio Civil Rights Hall of Fame next month in Columbus. Wells is among eight inductees for 2023.
The 14th Ohio Civil Rights Hall of Fame induction ceremony occurs 10 a.m., Thursday, Oct. 12 at the Ohio Statehouse Atrium, 1 Capitol Square, Columbus 43215. The Bishop Timothy J. Clarke will be keynote speaker.
The Ohio Civil Rights Hall of Fame recognizes human and civil rights pioneers and who have advanced the goals of equality and inclusion. Inductees have made significant contributions in support of civil rights, cultural awareness and understanding in furtherance of a more just society.
2023 inductees include:
Rev. Dr. Lavaughn Venchael Booth (1919-2002). Booth founded the Progressive National Baptist Convention, which supported Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s fight for freedom and provided the civil rights leader with a denominational home. PNBC started with 33 members and currently holds over 2.5 million members around the world. Booth served for 32 years as pastor of Zion Baptist Church in Cincinnati.
Sundance (Oberlin). Sundance is an activist, educator and the commission’s first Native-American inductee. He is director of Cleveland American Indian Movement, and led the movement to eliminate the use of Native-American imagery in sports mascots and team names. He is a member of Muscogee (Creek) people. Sundance discussed his work and activism in a 2022 interview in the Oberlin Review.
Joseph Robinson Patterson (1918-1996). Patterson was a Cincinnati-based activist and a leader in establishing the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Congress of Racial Equality in Northern Kentucky (part of metropolitan Cincinnati). Patterson served as executive vice president of Political Action Programming Assembly. He was one of nine Black plaintiffs who sued universities for prohibiting Black student enrollment, which led to a 1949 federal court ruling.
Veronica Isabel Dahlberg (Ashtabula). Dahlberg is founder and executive director of HOLA Ohio. She has worked for over 25 years as an advocate for Latinos, immigrants, and farmworkers in Ohio, and established a new Hispanic Community Center in Painesville in 2022. Dahlberg is former commissioner of Hispanic/Latino Affairs, and was elected to serve as co-chair of the Affiliate Council for UnidosUS, the largest Hispanic civil rights organization in the country.
Charity Adams Earley (1918-2002). Earley was a trailblazer for Black women in the military. She was commander of the U.S. Army’s first African American female regiment, and served as the first Black officer in the Women’s Auxiliary Corps, where she was promoted to lieutenant colonel, the highest rank for a WAC soldier. Earley was co-founder of Parity, Inc., and served as vice chair of Sinclair Community College and chair of Dayton’s Housing Authority. More information on her life and achievements appears here.
Penelope “Penny” Wells (Youngstown). Wells is an activist, teacher, organizer, and director of Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past. She is co-chair (acting chair) of the Youngstown City Schools Equity Committee, co-convener of the MLK Jr. Planning Committee in Youngstown, a member of the YWCA Anti-Racism Day Committee, and serves on the Education Committee of League of Women Voters of Greater Youngstown, studying charter schools and their effect on Youngstown public schools. In addition, Wells serves on the boards of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society and Lit Youngstown.
Margaret “Peg” Rosenfield (1931-2022). Activist. Rosenfield joined the League of Women Voters in 1966 and served as director of Election Programs for the Secretary of the State of Ohio. She authored “1978 Fall-Off Examined in Ohio,” which was published in the Federal Elections Commission Journal of Election Administration.
Lt. Col. Harold H. Brown, PhD. (1924-2023). Brown served as a Tuskegee Airman (known as the Red-Tailed Angel) during World War II and was a prisoner of war. He was co-author of “Keep Your Airspeed Up: The Story of a Tuskegee Airman.” In addition, Brown served as a college vice president.
The Ohio Civil Rights Hall of Fame was created in 2009 through the collaborative efforts of the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, Honda, Wright State University, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and PNC.
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