BARBARA MANUEL

“West End is in my heart. My entire school history was in the West End. It was a wonderful place to grow up. I had people who believed in me. I was able to do what I wanted to do. I graduated from Taft. I went to undergraduate school and when I finished graduate school, I started to work at Hamilton County Department of job and family services, and I became the Child Welfare director. And people think that nothing good comes out of the West End, but so many people got it in their heart to give back to the city, to this community, because of how they were raised in the West End.”

More about Barbara:

Babara Manuel grew up in the West End on Barr Street, which was destroyed as part of the City of Cincinnati’s “urban redevelopment” project that is now best known by the name Kenyon Bar. The forced removal of more than 25,000 residents started in 1955 and displaced at least 10,000 Black families. In 2023, City of Cincinnati officials issued a public apology for the project.

For more information about Kenyon Barr, click here.

For more information about the city’s apology, click here.