Sculpture of civil rights icon Marian Spencer to be dedicated on Cincinnati’s riverfront

Spencer was a Cincinnati Civil Rights pioneer best known for her fight to integrate Coney Island and its swimming pool in the 1950s.

Her right hand clasps the hand of a little girl, and the girl’s other hand is holding the hand of a little boy.

The statue of Spencer depicts her as she looked in 1984.

The girl in the statue is a composite of the four Winton Hills Academy students who created the book about Spencer’s life.

“Being a Cincinnati native, growing up here and knowing how much Marian’s mean to us, and to everybody, and how she really, genuinely made Cincinnati a better place,” he said.

The Marian A.

“We got many donations from one dollar up to $25,000 from the Greater Cincinnati Foundation,” she said, adding that nearly 275 people and organizations contributed money for the project.

“You know, it doesn’t solve any problems. It doesn’t solve any of them,” she said.

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