THE WEST END OUR HISTORY UNFOLDS Keith Josef Adkins’ The West End explores a transformative period of time in our city’s history. This fictional tale draws inspiration from the Great Migration and time between World War I and World War II. Characters Grace, Peek, Chloe, Heath and Zieglar bring to life pivotal moments in Cincinnati history, interacting with and referencing real people, events and places. Take a look at just a few of those references.
Rev. Wilber A. Page
Union Baptist Church
Born in 1895, Rev. Page was raised in Cincinnati as the son of a Baptist minister. He served in World War I with the 317th Army Engineers, and upon his return from service, he became pastor of the Union Baptist Church — the city’s oldest African American church. An influential spiritual leader and devoted community organizer, Rev. Page increased the church’s membership from 210 to 1000 between years 1919 and 1930. He served on several community boards throughout his decades-long career, and he was named by the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce as a “Great Living Cincinnatian” in 1979.
Originally called the African Union Baptist Church, the congregation was formed in 1831 by 14 members who had been discriminated against at Enon Baptist Church, which had a predominantly white congregation. Members began meeting in one of their homes until they finished construction of a formal church building in 1835. The church was instrumental in helping enslaved people seek refuge along the Underground Railroad, and they hosted prominent abolitionists like Frederick Douglass and Henry Ward Beecher for speaking engagements.
18 | 2021–2022
