Johnathan Harris

My name is Jonathan Harris and I chose the picture of my father. It’s a plaque commemorating his work with the city of Cincinnati, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the state of Ohio. He was a state representative.

It's honoring his work he did for the non-uniform workers. There's Cincinnati and the AFSCME Union. My dad started off as a ditch digger. He went from a ditch digger to driving the trucks, to the union steward, to the union president, then to the state representative. I see in this photo the resilience of our family, the strength of our family, and how education can go a long way. Because my father, he could barely read or write when we was kids, so education was a must. It was something that he drove in us.

Click below to hear Johnathan share the story of this photograph and the Avondale community: