The Cincinnati Human Relations Commission: A History, 1943–2013 by Phillip J. Obermiller and Thomas E. Wagner (review)

In eight short chapters covering one decade each in the life of the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission (CHRC), Phillip Obermiller and Thomas Wagner provide a welcome addition to the literature on civil rights and intergroup relations in the Midwest. Their book is especially welcome because much of that literature focuses on other cities, despite pioneering activism in Cincinnati in which the CHRC often played an important role. Moreover, while the authors do not explore why racial violence was less intense here than in some other cities, their narrative provides a useful starting point for further research into a more complete view of midwestern race relations.

Like a number of other cities, Cincinnati established an intergroup relations agency, the Mayor's Friendly Relations Committee (MFRC), as racial tensions mounted during World War II. Founded in 1943, the committee was the predecessor to the CHRC. As its name suggests, the committee mediated between civil rights groups, the city administration, the police, the business community, and other ethnic, religious, and racial groups. The CHRC continued in this role while engaging in more active work in minority communities.

Major causes of racial tension in the city included the massive displacement, through urban renewal and highway construction, of African Americans to new neighborhoods during the 1950s and 1960s, as well as police violence toward black citizens throughout the period covered by the authors. Yet racial violence remained relatively muted—riots in African American neighborhoods in 1967, 1968, and 2001 proved less destructive than in a number of other cities. Obermiller and Wagner convincingly credit the MFRC and the CHRC with contributing to relative racial peace while also quietly assisting in advancing the interests of African Americans and other minority groups.

Yet as the authors note, their roles as neutral mediators often left the CHRC and MFRC vulnerable to attacks from some who deemed them unnecessary and from others who found them needed but ineffective. In 1965, responding to both increasing civil rights militancy and the conservative politics of the city, the Cincinnati City Council reorganized and renamed the MFRC as the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission. The new organization had somewhat more prestige and visibility but little more power.

Its limitations were glaringly revealed when the city administration fired the CHRC's first permanent executive director shortly after a June 1967 riot involving several Cincinnati black neighborhoods. The executive director, who was African American, had publicly criticized the city for expecting its black citizens to remain peaceful after they had been forced from their former neighborhood and then "penned" up in other overcrowded, racially segregated neighborhoods with limited employment and educational opportunities. His replacement was a highly respected African American woman who had been a long-time staff member. While she proved a steadying hand for the organization, the CHRC continued to emphasize conciliation over advocacy.

Over the next fifty years, the CHRC faced additional attacks that at times left it struggling to survive, making clear how vulnerable it was to political maneuvering by its detractors. Nevertheless, it pioneered a number of programs that helped to tamp down racial violence. Although it was unable to prevent a 2001 riot following multiple police killings of unarmed black men, its street workers contributed to calming tensions afterwards. Meanwhile, its leadership contributed to a pioneering "Collaborative Agreement" that has significantly ameliorated police violence against African American citizens.

In addition to its race relations pursuits, the CHRC helped to incubate organizations that represented other minority groups, including Appalachians and LBGTQ citizens. This work, the authors argue, gave them and black citizens avenues to address Cincinnati leaders, albeit not causing radical change in the city's relationships with its minority groups. Wagner and Obermiller conclude that the MFRC and the CHRC can be evaluated like many other such agencies in the United States. As the authors put it, "the CHRC's history shows how it worked from within government in...