Little Cities Calendar Details

Rendville
Breaking the Color Barrier

Established in 1879 by industrialist William P. Rend as a mining town, Rendville became a center for African Americans to break the color barrier with nearly half the town’s population consisting of African Americans. In 1888, Dr. Isaiah Tuppins, the first African American to receive a medical degree in Ohio, also became the first African American to be elected mayor in the northern United States. Richard L. Davis became active in the Knights of Labor upon his arrival in 1882 and was among the labor organizers from the Little Cities that participated in the formation of the United Mine Workers of America in 1890. An outstanding writer and orator, Davis was elected to the UMWA’s National Executive Committee and organized thousands of blacks and immigrants to join the union. Side Two Arriving in Rendville in 1884 was young African American miner Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. “Sacrificed to the demon of gambling” in this “most lawless and ungodly place,” Powell had a spiritual awakening at the Rendville Baptist Church. He went on to become the minister of the nation’s largest protestant congregation, the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, NY. He was a major spiritual leader during the Harlem Renaissance and an early spokesperson for the Civil Rights movement. Resident Roberta Preston was appointed postmaster in Rendvlle in 1963, becoming the first African-American woman to hold such a position in Ohio. Following in her footsteps was Sophia Mitchell who in 1976 became the first African American woman to serve as a mayor in Ohio.