In 1952, Marian and Donald Spencer’s sons were told they couldn’t swim in Coney Island’s Sunlite Pool because they were Black.
Now the Spencers are set to be honored with a “water monument” near the site of the now-closed pool.
The memorial honoring the legacy of the two Civil Rights trailblazers will go up alongside the future Farmer Music Center in Cincinnati.
At a May 26 press conference, leaders from the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Music & Event Management, Inc., the groups leading the project, revealed plans to build the Spencer Water Monument.
Music Center ‘reflects the history connected to it’
The monument will be made of black granite with a laser-etched 1950s portrait of Marian and Donald Spencer, framed by waterfalls and surrounded by lush landscaping. It will go up just west of the $160 million music and entertainment campus that’s now under construction by the 42-year-old Riverbend Music Center.
Members of the Spencer family were present at the unveiling, in which speakers highlighted the achievements and barrier-breaking work of both Marian and Donald Spencer.
“It is important to us that The Farmer Music Center reflects the history connected to it and the people whose leadership and courage helped shape this community,” said Robert McGrath, CSO President and CEO in a statement. “Like many generations of Cincinnatians, we have been deeply inspired by the legacy of Marian and Donald Spencer and their commitment to advancing civil rights, educational equity, and community development in our community.”
The Farmer Music Center and the Spencer Water Monument are slated to open by spring 2027.
What did Marian and Donald Spencer do for Cincinnati?
Marian and Donald Spencer, husband and wife and longtime Avondale residents, were each powerhouse civic leaders in their own right.
Marian Spencer was the first Black woman elected to Cincinnati City Council, later serving as Vice Mayor. She was also the first female president of the Cincinnati chapter of the NAACP and chair of the Ohio Civil Rights Commission.
Spencer’s work also impacted the very site where the Farmer Music Center now sits.
When her children were denied entry to Cincinnati’s historic Coney Island Amusement Park and Sunlite Pool, which was recently demolished to make way for the new venue, Marian Spencer fought the decision in landmark case in 1952 that led to the park’s integration. Just under two decades later, she was honored as a Cincinnati Enquirer Woman of the Year.
Spencer died in 2019 at age 99.
Donald Spencer was the first Black broker on the Cincinnati Board of Realtors, the first Black Trustee of Ohio University and first Black member of the Cincinnati Park Board. He died in 2010 at age 95.
In a 2024 article, The Enquirer’s Kevin Aldridge interviewed the Spencer family about the controversial closure of Sunlite Pool at Coney Island, and what Marian Spencer would have said the Farmer Music Center project.
Both she and Donald were lifelong fans of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, with him serving as a board member.
The new monument will be bigger than the small plaque that previously paid tribute to the Spencer family’s desegregation efforts at Coney Island.
“It was insulting to her and to the community,” their son Edward Spencer told Aldridge. “I felt as long as the owners were unwilling to make available something greater than a plaque on a lifeguard stand to honor my mother’s public accommodation desegregation efforts, they could just tear it down as far as I was concerned.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: New music venue honors Spencer family, who desegregated Sunlite Pool
Reporting by Sydney Franklin, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
