>> Hello. My name is John Bickers. I’m a citizen of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma. I’m a PhD candidate in the History Department. The Office of Diversity and Inclusion would like to acknowledge that the land, The Ohio State University occupies is the ancestral and contemporary territory of the Miami, Shawnee, Potawatomi, Delaware, Peoria, Seneca, Wyandotte, Ojibwe and Cherokee peoples.
Specifically, the university resides on land ceded in the 1795 Treaty of Greeneville and the removal of tribes through the Indian Removal Act of 1830. We want to honor the resiliency of these tribal nations and recognize the historical contexts that have, and continue to affect the Indigenous peoples of this land.
>> To all Hall of Fame inductees, family and friends, special guests, and my fellow Buckeye alumni. I am honored to welcome you to the inaugural office of Diversity and Inclusion Hall of Fame awards ceremony. My name is Tracy Townsend of 10TV and as a Buckeye alumna, it's extra meaningful for me to join in the celebration of the first class of diversity and inclusion icons.
These individuals, and in one case a group of individuals, are transformative figures with Ohio state ties. Who have made significant and sustained contributions in advancing diversity, equity and inclusion. These are pioneers and agents of change, chosen because they exemplified the core values of inclusive excellence. Collaboration, respect, civility as they sought greater social and economic justice and equity.
As we learn more about our Hall of Fame honorees over the next two nights, we will also be periodically joined by current ODI scholars paying tribute to the accomplishments of our diversity icons. The man behind this special night is Doctor James L Moore III, the vice provost for diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer at the Ohio State University.
Doctor Moore now joins us to say a few words, I give you the floor, Doctor Moore.
>> Thank you, Tracy, and thank you to everyone out there for joining us tonight. My name is James Moore and I am the vice provost and chief diversity officer at the Ohio State University.
I'm proud to lead one of the nation's oldest, largest and most comprehensive offices of diversity, equity and inclusion. For the past half century, we have been devoted to assisting tens of thousands of students flourish at our beloved institution. This Hall of Fame has been a dream of mine and a labor of love for all of us here at the Office of Diversity Inclusion.
We had so many worthy nominations of outstanding individuals that our blue ribbon selection panel had a very difficult time in narrowing down the field of the twelve honorees. This year, we received over 200 nominations, these awards mean the world to me. Because it is an imperative that we honor the iconic giants whose shoulders we stand on to accomplish all that we do in the world.
These are men and women who have succeeded in the face of adversity and taught us all about the importance of hard work in keeping the faith by the simple eloquence of their example. The truth is, we did not get where we are today without the sacrifices of so many, by both our honorees and the hundreds of other folks whose names will never be known.
I tell our students that they walk on hollowed ground, and tonight, in this moment, I hear the faint footsteps of so many who have done so much to propel us forward as a society. We're now going to hear from a couple of terrific Buckeye leaders who I have worked closely with over the years.
The Ohio State University's president, Doctor Christina Johnson, and alumni association president and CEO, Molly Rance Calhoun. Both women have a deep and abiding belief in the power of diversity, equity and inclusion, and, I might add, are towering figures at our beloved Ohio State. Molly's team at the alumni association joined forces with us recently for a series of online conversations.
Engaging the Buckeye nation on what diversity and inclusion mean and why is it important to put such an emphasis on it. Meanwhile, President Johnson has pledged to sharpen our academic focus in the areas of race, inclusion and social equity by hiring 150 diverse tenure track faculty in the coming years.
She knows, as I do, that Ohio state's power means our actions reverberate across the world of higher education, President Johnson, the floor is now yours.
>> Thank you, Doctor Moore, and congratulations on receiving the prestigious 2021 Reginald Wilson Diversity Leadership Award I from the American Council on Education.
Your leadership continues to strengthen the foundation of Ohio State's Office of Diversity and Inclusion as we mark more than 50 years since its creation. The purpose of today's celebration is twofold, we are celebrating ODI's major role in shaping Ohio State's heritage of advocacy and support. And we are shining a spotlight on the pioneering buckeyes behind our progress and on whose shoulders we stand.
In recognition of their talent and determination, we are proudly naming our inaugural class of Hall of Fame inductees. The pivotal ways in which these alumni have furthered their respective fields and advanced diversity, equity and inclusion will continue to change lives far into the future. Among our honorees is Doctor Ruth Moore, the first African american woman to earn a PhD in the natural sciences, and she accomplished this right here at Ohio State.
Recognized as a hero of microbiology by the Smithsonian Institute, Doctor Moore was a lifelong public health practitioner. Who made significant contributions in the study of blood types, the reaction of specific pathogens to different classes of antibiotics, and much more, we strive to follow in the footsteps of these trailblazers.
Consider icon Jesse Owens, whose abilities on the track were equaled only by his perseverance and his resilience in the face of intolerance. The Buckeye bullet broke running records and racial barriers all at the same time. Another esteemed member of this inaugural group, Judge Robert Duncan. Was the first African American to serve on the Ohio Supreme Court and later decided the Columbus school's historic desegregation cases.
These are just three examples of our inspiring Hall of Fame class, all are proving to generations of buckeyes that their dreams are well within their reach. There is still more to be done at Ohio State and across the nation, and it is my great honor. Honor to continue this work with all of you.
Together, we will uphold and build on this legacy of love and respect for one another and equity for all. My heartfelt congratulations and gratitude to you, our Hall of Fame class of 2021, Go Buckeyes.
>> Thank you, Dr. Moore and President Johnson. On behalf of the Ohio State University Alumni Association and our nearly 590,000 alumni around the globe, congratulations.
I'm so pleased to be part of this official celebration of your accomplishments, this inaugural class of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion's Hall of Fame awards. It's wonderful to join in recognizing some of the most inspiring buckeyes in our university history. Today, we honor your stories, which have been essential to driving our progress so far, and are vital to creating a brighter future for all.
You set shining examples for our most recent graduates and generations to come. Examples of who we are and who we aspire to be as Buckeyes, all of your names are meaningful to our alumni, for your remarkable contributions to your fields and your collective advancements towards a more just and equitable world.
Personally, I've had the good fortune to work with one of you, Kurt Moody, benefiting from his talent and expertise through Moody Nolan's, the country's largest African American owned architectural firm. As we collaborated on several campus development projects over the years, including the Ohio Union and the REC Center.
I learned more about the extraordinary, Dr. Clotilde Bowen, when we were planning our new residence halls, which were named for alumni who also served our country. Among many firsts to her credit, she was the first African American woman to graduate from Ohio State's College of Medicine, and the first female physician in the United States army, making her an exemplary namesake for one of our new buildings, Bowen House.
All of you Hall of Famers are among the pioneers who helped to shift local, state, and national policies around diversity, equity, and inclusion. And you started right here at home, helping to lay the foundation for changes within our own institution. You have made your alumni family truly proud to call you our own.
Again, congratulations to our distinguished Hall of Fame honorees.
>> Thank you for those thoughts, Miss Rance Calhoun. Next on deck, we have a special spoken word performance from a dynamic young man, Playon Patrick, who is a second year student in the Young Scholars program. You may have heard of Playon stealing the show from President Obama when he introduced him with a powerful spoken word piece before a national town hall in 2020.
Tonight, Playon will perform a special piece he has written, paying homage to ODI's 50th anniversary, as well as this Hall of Fame class. I think you'll enjoy it, take it away Playon.
>> The key, there has never been a more peaceful time in America. Our bodies have been in the streets since these streets were built we are unaware of the tragedies that have set into the concrete, hidden from the blood boiling light of the sun.
We never talk about how they stripped the humanity off our backs, little did we know how they would tax our backs, and labor, and love, wishes and dreams. They folded our language into the back of our tongues, taught us that we are unteachable brutes and coons. Reading and writing are not tools for fieldwork, so those were stolen and hidden away, too.
They say education is the key to oppression, we forgot there were golden cities with our names on them, you forgot our bodies in the birth of a nation. You forgot my people are reminiscing defeats that marched on these streets and demanded for anything better America is missing. All those lynched men swinging from the trees like monkeys, apes, or fruits ripened by the white man's hands make America great again.
When, dare I say, when? When have my people ever touched the glass ceiling? When did our culture become the backbone of this backwards nation? When did they tell us of the atrocities we'd survived, hiding a dark past amidst dark bodies? Dare I say, when were we educated? In 1890, the federal government passed a second Morrill act that stated, if Black students weren't allowed to enroll in the existing colleges, then a separate institution was to be made for them.
Another extension of separate, but equal, somehow, we began to equate a sliver of sympathy with equality. We are given inches and expected to run the mile. We do everything with a toolbox of hand me downs. We are the makers of everything, and yet the benefits factors of nothing.
Almost 100 years later, Black students were still struggling to maintain in the safety of these white walls. And in 1968, a protest broke out that would change colleges around the country. On April 26th, 1968, Black students around the Ohio State University banded together to protest students being kicked off the university shuttle bus.
The OSU 34 stood in the face of white supremacy and shouted, our lives are worth more than second rate education, worth more than KKK messages scribbled into our doors. Worth more than sitting on the back of buses and still getting kicked off of them. Eight of the 34 students were expelled from the university that day, and eight students still rightfully protested the injustice present on this campus.
Their voices echo for us to do the same, to protest and band together when inequality seems to be knocking on the front door. When colleges, paper after paper, and you can't remember why you're here, like, what possessed me to take up such a challenge? Remember, we are excellent because we've never been given the opportunity to be anything else.
From this protest, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion was born here at the Ohio State University, and for 50 years, they have worked to uphold the success of young minority students. I mean, year after year, I mean, fighting for our spots on the rosters, I mean, our bodies were weights before we ever put them on.
I'm talking about Marquis Gaines, who was a pro athlete in sports thane shooting hoops with a degree in human development, who says, we can't dream and go to school, too. I'm talking about Alfonso Gillett, who is giving back to the community as we speak. He's worked in South High school and at Livingston elementary to help uplift boys in need.
No, I mean doctor Yasmine Irazeri, who fought through college with a kid in the right hand and coffee in the other. Her late nights of tears and discomfort. Have you ever had to choose between life and being a mother? We are seeing dreams come true. The office of Diversity and Inclusion is yet another victory in a line of winnings that go unseen, that are taken out of the light.
But for tonight, and forevermore, we will share the best parts of us first. And if you happen to forget where we come from, promise you remember this moment first.
>> Tonight we honor our first six icons. Doctor Ruth Moore, the Honorable William McCulloch, Jesse Owens, Doctor Clotilde Bowen, Judge Robert Duncan, and Doctor Robert Lee Wright.
Among this group that we will get to know better tonight are a science educator, a politician, a world famous athlete, an army doctor, and a federal judge. While they come from different eras and walks of life, they share a common bond of promoting inclusive excellence.
>> Our first inductee is Ruth Ella Moore, the first Black woman in the country to earn a PhD in the natural sciences.
Born in Columbus in 1903, Ruth learned to sew at a young age from her mother, who was a successful artist and seamstress. A member of the Black entrepreneurial class in the growing midwestern city at the turn of the century. With a mind as agile as her fingers, Ruth was pushed by her mother, who had graduated from the Columbus College of Art and Design, to attend college after being educated in the Columbus public school system.
After earning undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Ohio State University in the 1920s, Ruth Ella Moore became the first Black woman in the country to earn a PhD in the natural sciences in 1933. Her dissertation focused on the bacteriology of tuberculosis, which was at the time the second leading cause of death in the United States.
Her work would contribute to the effort that would eventually eradicate that deadly disease. Bacteriology, what we would now more commonly call microbiology, is considered a foundational science of public health research and practice. After teaching in Nashville at what would become Tennessee State University, Doctor Moore headed to Howard University's College of Medicine in 1940 for an assistant professor position.
In 1952, she was named the head of the department of bacteriology, the first woman to head a department at that historically Black institution. During her decades of research and teaching, Doctor Moore made significant contributions to the study of blood types, immunology, tooth decay, and the reaction of certain pathogens to different types of antibiotics.
She became the first Black person of either gender to join the American Society of Microbiology, even though she was barred from staying at the hotel or eating with other attendees at a society conference in 1932. Along with her groundbreaking scientific discoveries, Doctor Moore never lost her love for making clothes in fashion.
She was often seen on Howard's campus and stylish clothes she made on her sewing machine. Some of her handmade dresses were even featured in 2009 exhibit the sewers quality fashion and economy that was held at the Campbell hall as a part of Ohio State's historic costume and textiles collection.
While Doctor Moore died in 1994 in Rockville, Maryland, she is well remembered today as a legendary renaissance woman, a scholar, scientist, educator, and talented seamstress who blazed the trail for so many to follow.
>> What relevance does Ruth Ella Moore have for students in public health today? Well, there's not only the work that she did as a microbiologist, as a bacteriologist that continues to be relevant as we fight the global scourge of tuberculosis, but there's also her impact as a trailblazer.
We were so impressed with her career, her leadership in public health, the role she played in the American Public Health Association over time, helping to build a field that broadened from being rather narrowly focused on bacteriology, on the laboratory, to being focused on the social determinants of health, the root causes of disease, chronic diseases as we developed over the course of the 20th century.
She was someone we wanted to honor here at the College of Public Health with a scholarship. So we've created the Ruth Ella Moore Scholarship for trailblazers, and we're focusing that effort on students, first generation students, who are trailblazing, who are coming from populations that haven't often been represented in the leadership fields of public health.
And so we're really pleased to honor Ruth Ella Moore through this new scholarship that we will have that's focused on primarily on first generation college students.
>> She was basically the only one in the family that had gone to college, so she was really sort of on a pedestal as far as the rest of us were concerned.
And thinking back on it, I think I was born with a hidden family treasure. And the learning curve for a family history in childhood grows to amazing heights even before you're aware of it. Those family members you begin to meet during that first year of life are not ordinary, everyday persons you thought they might be.
Those grown ups you've been around have done decades of things that are wonderful, unordinary, and extraordinary things. My cousin Ruth was living in Washington, DC. So in other words, to me, she was just out of town and out of sight. And I regret not being able to see her more often.
I would have been a better student
>> Hi, I'm Tyra Robertson. I am a third year biology major at the Ohio State University. For me, Ruth Ella Moore's legacy means pursuing our interests and our dreams, despite of not knowing the outcome. In life and in research, there's a lot of time when you don't know the outcome or you won't know the result.
But Ruth Ella Moore, she still pursued her goals and dreams and her achievements in research without knowing the outcome. We all could take an example from her and pursue our life without fear and with determination, despite the uncertainty of the future.
>> Our next honoree is William McCulloch, an Ohio GOP congressman and unlikely civil rights activist who was instrumental in passing key legislation ensuring equal rights for all Americans.
Born outside Holmesville, Ohio, in 1903, William grew up in rural Ohio in a family descended from pre civil war abolitionists. He attended the College of Worcester before earning his law degree from the Ohio State University in 1925. Several years later, he eloped to Covington, Kentucky, with his young bride, Mabel Harris.
The pair would have two daughters, Nancy and Anne. After a brief stint as a teacher, McCulloch headed to Jacksonville to practice law. While in Florida, the young white lawyer in his trademark red suspenders was appalled by the discriminatory Jim Crow laws that relegated Black people across the south to second class citizens.
Returning to Ohio and launching his political career in Pickwa by being elected to the Ohio House of Representatives in 1933, McCulloch had rose to become Ohio House speaker when World War Two broke out. Despite being age 40, McCulloch resigned his speakership and enlisted in the military, serving overseas in Europe during the war.
In 1947, McCulloch was elected.
>> Elected to Congress for the first 14 conservative terms, representing Piqua and west central Ohio. Despite being an old school fiscal conservative who supported prayer in schools and fought gun control, McCulloch was a strong backer of civil rights. In 1963, as president, John F Kennedy sought to pull together a bipartisan coalition to finalize meaningful civil rights legislation.
He turned for help to McCulloch, the top Republican on the powerful House Judiciary Committee. However, McCulloch's district was only about 3% Black, meaning there was no obvious political benefit for the Ohio congressman. In July 1963, a secret meeting was held between McCulloch and Burke Marshall, Kennedy's point person on civil rights.
At the meeting, McCulloch pledged he would deliver the needed republican votes to pass the bill in the US House, provided that Kennedy agreed to several simple terms. Those terms give full credit to Republicans for their votes and stand firm in the Senate when southern Democrats try to use the filibuster to water down the bill.
A bargain was struck, and McCulloch kept his word, serving as an instrumental figure in getting the Civil Rights act of 1964 and 1968, as well as the Voting Rights act of 1965 enacted into law. With a well known sweet tooth for pumpkin pie at the local Elks Club, McCulloch held numerous rounds of public meetings across his district each month, often working seven days a week.
McCulloch believed that principles ought not to be surrendered in the face of popular opinion and powerful lobbyist. Hung on the wall of his Piqua law office was a statement that the 18th century statesman Edmund Burke had made to his electors. Your representative owes you not his industry only, but his judgment, and he betrays you instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion.
After McCullochs death from a heart attack in 1980, a letter was found in his possessions from Kennedys widow, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. I know that you, more than anyone, were responsible for the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. You made a personal commitment to President Kennedy in October 1963 against all the interests of your district.
When he was gone, your personal integrity and character were such that you held to that commitment despite enormous pressure and political temptations to not do so. There were so many opportunities to sabotage the bill without appearing to do so, but you never took them. On the contrary, you brought everyone along with you.
>> My grandfather, William McCulloch, saw himself as a humble person from humble beginnings, someone who believed in upholding the constitution of the United States, and he called civil rights human rights. And this is what he said. We are a nation of many people and many views. In such a nation, the prime purpose of a legislator from wherever they may come is to accommodate the interests, desires and needs of all of our citizens.
To alienate some in order to satisfy others. Not only is a disservice to those we alienate, but a violation of the principles of our republic. Lawmaking is the reconciliation of divergent views. In a democratic society like ours, the purpose of representative government is to soften tension and reduce strife while upholding the God given rights for all people.
Be honest, truthful and kind. Go to school and take it seriously. It's the one thing that nobody can take away from you. Knowledge is power, and find the truth, have compassion. Know that opinions, views and beliefs will differ, but that doesn't mean that we can't reason together and find common ground.
We are more alike than we are different, and that compromise is always necessary. Keep a cool head, always do the right thing, never give up, stay faithful and grateful. It took great people in the past to make things right, and it will take great people in the present and in the future.
Strive to be a leader and lead by example, he said. If you can be dishonest in little, you can be dishonest in much. Don't give up, steady the course and make sound decisions. Do what you can, when you can to ensure a good life for the common man and for those less fortunate than you.
>> To me, William McCulloch's legacy is opportunity. His instrumental role in getting the 1965 Voting Rights act pass has allowed individuals like myself not only to actively participate within our civic duties. But to also dream big and dream of becoming part of these governmental institutions. As a fellow Ohioan, I'm proud to say that.
>> Our next inductee is Jesse Owens, the legendary Buckeye Bullet, who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, single handedly crushing Adolf Hitler's myth of aryan supremacy. Born in 1913 into a family of sharecroppers in rural Alabama, as the youngest of ten children, Jesse Owens was a frail child, often sick with chronic bronchial congestion.
Still, he was expected to work, and by the age of seven, he was picking up to 100 pounds of cotton a day to help his family put food on the table. In 1922, nine year old Jesse headed north with his family to Cleveland, one family among 1.5 million Black people who made the great migration to the north during the first half of the 20th century.
A high school track star in Cleveland, Owens set numerous state track and field records and was the subject of a recruiting battle between the Ohio State University and the University of Michigan. He was not offered a scholarship by Ohio State. But when a job as an Ohio statehouse elevator operator was dangled, Owens agreed to run for the scarlet and gray.
May 25, 1935, turned up hot and sunny as thousands filed into fairy Field and Ann Arbor for the Big ten track and field championships. Within an hour at the meet, Owens gave fans an amazing, amazing performance, setting three world records and tying a fourth. Cited by Sports Illustrated as the greatest 45 minutes in sports history.
A memorial honoring Owens achievement still stands outside fairy Field. Yet for all his achievements, Owens could never overrun the racial discrimination that was a part of being a Black man in the 1930s in America. At Ohio State, he was barred from living in the lone men's dormitory and instead lived at a boarding house for Black students on East 11th Avenue.
With the 1936 Olympic Games looming on the horizon, Owens was urged by some to boycott the Berlin Games due to the racist nazi regime. Ultimately, Owens and his teammates did set sail for Germany, where Owens was the hero of the games, winning four gold medals in front of Adolf Hitler and a German crowd cheering his every move.
After the Berlin Olympics were overdeveloped, the us track and field team was scheduled to compete in Sweden. Owens, however, opted to return to America, hoping to cash in on his newfound fame. Furious that Owens was skipping the plan de vin in Sweden, the US Olympic committee stripped him of his amateur status, making him ineligible to compete, and Owens saw his commercial opportunities dry up.
After I came home from the 1936 Olympics with my four medals, Owens said, it became increasingly apparent that everyone was going to slap me on the back, want to shake my hand or have me up to their suite. But no one was going to offer me a job.
With a wife and three little girls to support, Owen started a dry cleaning business and landed jobs as an entertainer, racing against horses. Cars and other runners for money. In the 1960s, the US Olympic Committee eventually welcomed him back as a goodwill ambassador, where he traveled the world giving speeches to promote sportsmanship.
When Owens died in 1980, President Jimmy Carter recalled his stunning performance in the face of the Nazi regime. Perhaps no athlete better symbolized the human struggle against tyranny, poverty, and racial bigotry. He said.
>> I am very proud of my father in that and his legacy because he had such dignity.
And he conducted himself throughout his life with such grace. And he faced so much adversity, yet he smiled, he was happy, be bounced back every time. He never let things get him down, and he just persevered in the face of all of it.
>> His love for his family was one of the strongest things.
He always felt that he had to strive for the best for us, but at the same time, we always had to be ladies with that happening. So, because there are certain things that you would do and he would tell you, ladies, don't do that. So he was really just a wonderful, loving, giving person.
>> I think this award would mean to him a validation, a confirmation of the way he viewed life and the way he lived his life. He believed in inclusion and diversity. And in many ways, he was during a certain period, and his life was criticized for the way he viewed the world.
And so, this recognition is just such a validation of who he was and what he believed in and how he lived his life. So, I think he would be very proud. And I must add that the award itself is absolutely beautiful.
>> Our next honoree is Clotilde Dent Bowen, the first Black woman to graduate from the Ohio State University College of Medicine in 1947.
Born in Chicago in 1923, Clotilde Dent Bowen was raised by her maternal aunt and uncle from the age of three on a US army post in Columbus, Ohio. With an early interest in medicine, Bowen became the first Black woman to graduate from the Ohio State University College of Medicine, one of many firsts that Bowen would embody during her trailblazing career.
After establishing a pulmonology practice in Harlem, Doctor Bowen worked in three major hospitals in New York City before becoming the first female physician in the United States army at Valley Forge in 1956. She became the first female commander at a military hospital when she was assigned to the former Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Doctor Bowen later completed a second residency in psychiatry at a Veterans Administration hospital. And became the first Black woman to be named chief of psychiatry in two veterans Administration hospitals and two army medical centers. Known for her avid advocacy for veterans around issues related to drug and alcohol abuse and PTSD, Doctor Bowen set up drug treatment centers and worked to lessen racial conflict during the Vietnam War.
For her efforts, Doctor Bowen was awarded the Bronze Star, the Legion of Merit, and the Meritorious Service Medal. Later in life, she also helped establish a program on emergency psychiatry for the American Psychiatric Association. Although a light sleeper, Doctor Bowen was known for her boundless energy as well as her strong and independent nature and dedication to fighting for the rights of all people.
A columnist for the Denver newspaper for a time, Doctor Bowen lightheartedly described her many accomplishments as been there, done that. As a teacher for the University of Wyoming and the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Doctor Bowen encouraged her students to reach for the stars and become the best doctors possible.
Preceded in death by her husband, Doctor William Nolan Bowen, Clotilde found happiness later in life with Mickey Athens, her friend and companion of many years. After her death in 2011, the Ohio State Medical School created the Bowen Award in her honor. It is given to a female student who best embodies her spirit as a pioneer who overcame adversity while demonstrating leadership abilities in the community.
>> Is anyone ready to hear some music? Next, here to perform for us is singer Caroline Bennett. She's going to perform for us feeling good by the exquisite Nina Simone.
>> Our next honoree is Judge Robert Duncan, the first Black person to serve on the Ohio Supreme Court and the first Black person to be appointed as a federal judge in Ohio.
Born in 1927, Robert Duncan grew up being raised by his grandparents in the highly segregated town of Urbana, Ohio. After graduating from a desegregated Urbana high school, Duncan headed to the Ohio State University, where he earned a bachelor's of science in 1948. And a law degree in 1952, one of the few Black students in his law class, Duncan told an interviewer many years later that he couldn't picture being a lawyer.
I wasn't on fire about the law as a law student, I didn't see myself as having a place in the law, I didn't know any Black lawyers. Not only would Duncan find a place in the courtroom, he would become a trailblazing Black lawyer and judge. After a stint in the US army in the early 1950s, Duncan became a Columbus city prosecutor and then chief counsel to the Ohio attorney general's office.
The first Black elected as a judge in Franklin county in 1966, the honorable judge Duncan served several years on the municipal court bench before becoming the first Black appointed to the Ohio Supreme Court in 1968. After becoming the first Black appointed to the court of military appeals, Judge Duncan was named a US district court judge in 1974 by President Richard Nixon, another first for a Black person in Ohio.
Known widely for being a fair, honest and humble judge with unshakable integrity. Judge Duncan's signature ruling came in 1977 when he ruled that the Columbus Board of Education had intentionally used school boundaries to keep schools segregated. While his decision was appealed all the way to the US Supreme Court, ultimately, Columbus public schools were forced to desegregate in 1979 under Duncan's ruling.
While Columbus was spared the racial unrest surrounding the busing order, a pair of white supremacists were arrested for a plot to bomb old Orchard elementary, the school where Duncan's eleven year old daughter attended. After the arrests were made, Duncan's daughter was back at school the next day. Judge Duncan was firm in the belief that if his judicial order was good for the community, it was also good for his family.
All three of the Duncan children graduated from Columbus public schools. After retiring from the federal bench in 1985, Judge Duncan served as Ohio state's vice president for legal affairs and general counsel, a member of the Ohio state board of trustees. And ultimately as the chairman of the Ohio State Board of trustees for several years, a mentor to many young Black attorneys, including future Ohio Supreme Court Justice Yvette McGee Brown.
Every year, Judge Duncan sponsored a reception for Black law students, encouraging them to do their best at Ohio State. Late in life, Judge Duncan remarked on his lifelong affection for Ohio State. There's some magic about Ohio State, part of it is emotional, he said. It's sort of like family and home, and I don't exactly know how you describe all of the wonder of that family and home.
Upon his passing in November 2012, more than 500 mourners attended his funeral in the Fawcett center, where the pioneering jurist was called the Jackie Robinson of the Columbus judiciary and given a standing ovation. His deeds were so giant, his life, his work, and his shadow made a difference to generations, said then Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman, he made our world and city a better place to live in.
>> I think I am most proud of the fact that what he did was for the good of the children in the Columbus public schools, which had a far reaching effect not only here, but nationwide.
>> One thing that I'm most proud of is he remained true to himself during his whole career.
And some of the court cases that he had were very, very big. They were really impactful, and he always remained the father that I always knew and the Bob Duncan that everybody always got to know.
>> He often talks about his grandmother. I think, more than anybody, she had the ability to talk with him and find out what he was thinking and encourage him.
>> The things that motivated him were to ensure that life was fair, to ensure that young people had a very good chance to achieve any and everything that they would like to achieve.
>> Well, he loved Ohio state. He, when I first met him, it was at the bus station, and he was going to Urbana, and he had books this high that he was taking with him.
>> I have always thought that Ohio State was his second home, but I think in some ways, it may have been his first home. And I think that coming out of high school, a young and African American man who was raised by grandparents, that taught him that getting an education and going to work every single day was really important in that day and time.
And I think that he felt that going to Ohio state, getting his education there, was the only option that he had, and I think that he made the best of it.
>> Well, I think it is just wonderful that Ohio State would recognize him in the way that they have.
>> I would say that this is probably the pinnacle of his relationship when it comes to the university. From what I've seen over the decades, he has devoted a lot, to the university, I think that he tried his best to give back what he gained.
>> There are so many people that had recognized the potential in Bob and what he could do, and it was amazing, really.
>> If my great grandparents were here, I never got to know them, but if they were here, and if I could talk to them, I would thank them, because they instilled the ethic of work in him.
>> Our next honoree is Doctor Robert Lee Wright, a civil rights activist, high tech entrepreneur, and federal administrator, born in 1937 in Columbus, Georgia, to a bricklayer and a nurse, Robert Lee Wright grew up in the deeply segregated south.
During the days of Jim Crow, his brick mason father only had a 6th grade education, but he preached to his son about the importance of staying in school. He used to talk about that all the time, Wright told a Columbus, Georgia, newspaper in 2007. And during the summer when I was out of school, he used to insist that I go out on the brick pile and get out in that sun, that was to guarantee I stayed in school.
Struggling to find a college in the south that would admit a Black student, Wright landed at the Ohio State University, where he was admitted in 1955 and graduated in 1960 with a degree in optometry. After graduation, Doctor Wright returned to Columbus, Georgia, hoping to establish his optometry practice, but was rejected when he applied for.
For a US army commission and blocked from working as an optometrist at Fort Benning. After returning to Columbus, Ohio, and starting his practice on Mount Vernon Avenue. A visit from Wright's mother, sharing the early experiences of the civil rights movement convinced him to return home. A foot soldier in the civil rights movement, Doctor Wright was one of many joining Doctor Martin Luther King Junior in completing the march from Selma to Montgomery.
After the bloody Sunday assaults by Alabama state troopers on marchers, including John Lewis, on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965. Recalling the taunts and objects being thrown at marchers as they walked into Montgomery, Doctor Wright said there was no turning back. We were not going to be deterred.
In his hometown, Doctor Wright also participated in local actions, including picketing a whites only barbecue stand in the heart of the towns Black community. After being elected three times in the late 1960s and 1970s to city council in Columbus, Georgia. Wright was tapped by President Ronald Reagan to serve as associate administrator for minority small Business Administration in the early 1980s.
Doctor Wright would eventually leave his federal post to establish Dimensions International. A leading edge technology company that provides systems engineering, information technology and airspace management to the government and private sector. An NAACP Achievement Award winner, Doctor Wright has been named man of the year by the National Federation of Black Women Business Owners.
Ernst and Young, Ontario Entrepreneur of the Year in technology services in 2001. And the 2007 Boy Scouts of America Distinguished Citizen Award among his many accolades. In recent years, Doctor Wright took an integral role in establishing the $540 million National Museum of African American History and Culture, the 19th Smithsonian Museum developed in our nation's capital.
As chairman of the presidential commission leading the project. Doctor Wright fought tenaciously to bring to life the Smithsonian's 19th Museum, right where it belongs, on the National Mall. During work on the project, he was reunited with fellow Selma Marcher, the late Georgia congressman John Lewis. Married to his high school sweetheart, the late June Russell.
The Wrights have a son, Russell T Wright. And a daughter, Kimberly Wright Lavender. At his core, Doctor Wright said he considers himself first and foremost an activist dedicated to his community and family.
>> There were a lot of people that planted seeds in my life that led to academic and professional pursuits.
But, first lemmi start with my parents, my mom and dad, Robert and Pauline Wright. And then they planted to see that failure was not an option. And I started my career at Ohio State with remedial math and english. But that, made me dedicate myself that I can do this.
And as a result of that, I worked hard. I tried hard, I did extra work. Studied hard, made a lot of friends, matured a lot. And Ohio State, whatever I am. Ohio State is a bedrock that launched me to my career. The advice I give to the next generation is that you gotta work hard, you gotta be focused.
You gotta set goals, and you gotta work toward those goals. You can't let. You can't let other people influence the outcome of your life. And you have to stand on your own feet. And nobody can do it, but yourself. Well, it all started to me with family. And I can't thank my parents enough.
I can't thank my aunts and uncles that helped me along the way. I can't thank my wife, my late wife, who was with me when we launched this together. I got married when I was 23 and she was 21, both of us just out of college. And so with her, it was a 50 year journey until she passed.
And all the rest of my family. My cousins, my brother, all the members of his family as well, it's just. I just can't thank people enough. And I appreciate Ohio State for bestowing upon me this honor as well.
>> Our time together has grown short as the first night of the ODI hall of Fame induction ceremony draws to a close.
I hope you've enjoyed the artistic performances. And hearing directly from the recipients and their family members about their impactful lives. We do have a quick survey that we'd like you to fill out to give us feedback on tonight's event. You can find it in the chat box right now in your virtual feed.
We have a second night of honorees to welcome into the ODI hall of Fame tomorrow night at 630. It's an equally impressive group of inductees, including the 34 student activists whose rebellious occupation of the central administrative building in 1968, launched the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. I hope you'll be able to join us for what will be a terrific night, honoring the other diversity and inclusion hall of Fame honorees who have paved the way for us all.
We will leave you tonight with a short video montage of just a few of the highlights from tonight's program. Thank you for joining us and we look forward to seeing you tomorrow, same time, same channel for day two. Thank you and good night.