René was born in Ohio in 1949. Her mother was born in Alabama.

“We were not allowed to go past downtown. We were allowed to go downtown, but basically, that was it. You didn’t go to West 6th, West 9th, anything past that. I was born in Ohio, but racism in Ohio was quite prevalent. It was always divided. We moved into the Glenville area; it was half and half. Of course that all changed. It became all black. We were in summer school. We were allowed to go to Collinwood. Basically Collinwood was an all-white area. Segregated. And when we went, the kids actually chased us with bricks in our car coming back down St. Clair. My parents forbid us [to go to the West Side] because they were more susceptible to the discrimination we never saw. They kind of protected us. They told us what not to do.”

“My mother came here at 7. She told me about St. Clair [a neighborhood in Cleveland]. She actually explained that they couldn’t go to certain restaurants; she was asked to leave. We knew what the boundaries were, and we didn’t cross them.”

Is it better now?: “In a way. It was very subtle. We knew it was there. Like jobs for instance. We were passed [over for promotions]. Ohio has a lot I think, still. Very subtle. Where you would have to think about what just happened. It does happen. Ohio still has an issue.”