Barbara Manual

“My family, my mother and my brother and sister moved from Garland, Alabama, to Barr Street to live with my aunt when I was six months old. And that was the beginning of my Cincinnati story. I grew up in the West End before they destroyed all of the community. And we moved from Barr Street to the Laurel Homes on John Street.

It was a wonderful place to grow up. I had great teachers, I went to Washburn, I went to Bloom and I went, I graduated from Taft, and I had great teachers like Laverne Summerlin, who was my English teacher for two years.

Because I had people who believed in me, I was able to do what I wanted to do. I graduated from Taft, I went to undergraduate school, I went to graduate school and returned to Cincinnati. And the West End is in my heart, it's difficult to see that what I grew up with doesn't exist anymore.

There are so many people that graduated from Taft who have done outstanding things. When I finished college, I came back here too, and I got a couple of jobs. And then I went to graduate school. And when I finished graduate school, I started to work at Hamilton County, Department of Jobs and Family Services. And I became the Child Welfare director.

So many people got it in their heart to give back to the city to this community, because of how they were raised in the West End.”