Berry, Mallory: Separated at Birth?

Giving a speech about black history in Cincinnati, it’s difficult not to mention Ted Berry, the city’s first African-American mayor. He led the city from 1972 to 1975.

So when current Mayor Mark Mallory began researching the black history month speech he gave Monday night at Annunciation School in Clifton, he and his staff researched Berry. They were surprised to find a lot of similarities. Both men grew up in the West End, both graduated from Woodward High School, both worked shelving books at the library both graduated from the University of Cincinnati. Berry founded the Community Action Commission, and Mallory worked there in 1980 as a social service technician.

The theme the civil rights leader chose for his administration was "Togetherness." Mallory ran on a platform of consensus-building.

So far, Mallory has no park or street named for him. Berry’s name is on a riverfront park in the East End and on downtown’s Ted Berry Way.

Berry was 94 when he died in 2000.