Berry, Theodore Moody, Sr.
(born: November 2, 1905 - died: October 15, 2000)Theodore M. Berry, Sr. was born in Maysville, KY, to a white father, Daniel Berry, and an African American mother, Cora Parke. Theodore M. Berry, Sr. was the first African American graduate of Woodward High School in Cincinnati, OH. He earned his law degree from the University of Cincinnati and was admitted to the bar in 1932. Berry was also a civil rights attorney with the NAACP. He was elected to the Cincinnati City Council in 1950 and as vice mayor in 1955, then became the city's first African American mayor in 1972. Theodore M. Berry Sr. was the husband of Johnnie Mae Elaine Newton; the couple married in Harris County, TX, on June 21, 1938.
For more see Who's Who in Colored America, 1950; "Theodore M. Berry Cincinnati's First Black Mayor, Dies at age 94," Jet, 11/06/2000; and "A civic giant passes," The Cincinnati Enquirer, 10/16/2000, front page and p.A4.