Sunday, July 6, 2025, 10:30 a.m.
Dot Christenson leads this service
Marian Spencer, Ohio’s most important woman leader of the 20th Century is best known in Cincinnati as the person who led the desegregation of Coney Island Amusement Park in 1952. That was only one of dozens of actions and activities she accomplished over her extraordinary 99 years. Where did this leadership come from? How did she change her high school in Gallipolis, OH, the University of Cincinnati, the City of Cincinnati, the State of Ohio, and introduce a City Ordinance that became state and national law?
Dot Christenson, author of Keep on Fighting: The Life and Civil Rights Legacy of Marian A. Spencer, will tell Marian’s story and the importance of family to help learn patience, respect, and perseverance to become a good leader, and how and why she came to Cincinnati from tiny Gallipolis, OH, 150 miles up the Ohio River. Dot met Marian in 1970 just after Marian co-founded Housing Opportunities Made Equal. They served together in the League of Women Voters, Woman’s City Club, and the Charter Committee. In 2012, over coffee, Marian related the story of her grandfather who was a slave. This conversation triggered 16 weeks of interviews for Marian’s biography published by Ohio University Press.
Dot Christenson has authored several books. She has served as Executive Director of the Better Housing League of Greater Cincinnati, and Director of Development with the Cincinnati Area Senior Services
Image caption: Dot Christenson
Image source: Dot Christenson