[2] Born in poverty in Maysville, Kentucky, on November 8, 1905, Ted Berry overcame great obstacles to achieve personal success and gain a national reputation as a leader in the Civil Rights Movement.

He graduated from Woodward High School in 1924 and served as class valedictorian, the first African American to hold that honor in Cincinnati.

Berry worked at steel mills in Newport, Kentucky, to pay tuition at the University of Cincinnati and then at its law school.

From 1947 to 1961, Berry served on the NAACP Ohio Committee for Civil Rights Legislation where he worked on equal employment and fair housing issues.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Berry struggled to return proportional representation to Cincinnati because he firmly believed that it gave a fair share of power to Black voters.

Other prominent black Cincinnatians such as Marian Spencer and Judge Nathaniel R. Jones considered Ted Berry a role model.