Woman's City Club Commissions Cincinnati's First Statue To Honor A Woman - Marian Spencer

CINCINNATI - Oct. 15, 2019 - PRLog -- Human Rights Icon Marian Spencer will be honored with a statue in her honor, commissioned by the Woman's City Club. It will be located at Smale Park, at 166 W. Mehring Way downtown, just inside the park's entrance. The Woman's City Club kicked off a fundraising campaign to build the statue this week.

While there are statues of females, such as Germania, the statue that adorns the former German Mutual Fire Insurance Company downtown, or the Genius of Water on the Tyler-Davidson Fountain, there hasn't been a statue in our city honoring a woman.

The statue to honor Mrs. Spencer will be the first known statue in the City of Cincinnati to honor a specific noteworthy woman.  The statue is scheduled to be finished June 2020, to commemorate Mrs. Spencer's 100^th birthday.

"The City of Cincinnati has a number of statues within the city borders. Some are politicians, many are military leaders, some are educators – but not one is a woman," said Alice Schneider, Woman's City Club member and Chair of the Marian Spencer Statue Committee. "We have found a woman we believe would be the perfect person to break this barrier – Local Civil Rights Icon Marian Spencer."

Her accomplishments include: spearheading the integration of Coney Island; fighting to open University of Cincinnati dormitories to Black students; and her election as the first African American woman on Cincinnati City Council.

The sculptors for the statue are Tom Tsuchiya, best known for his figures outside Great American Ball Park, and his apprentice and co-sculptor for this project, Gina Erardi, a senior painting major at NKU. Erardi also did the artist's drawing of the statue.

Committee members are: Alice Schneider, Dot Christensen, Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney, Arzell Nelson, Susan Noonan, Brewster Rhoads, Aurelia Simmons and Mary Wells.

To donate to the fundraising effort, send your contribution to Marian A. Spencer Statue Fund, c/o Woman's City Club, 103 William Howard Taft Road, Cinti., OH, 45219, or visit www.womanscityclub.org .