Clarence Robinson Park celebrates glorious past

Clarence Robinson broke the color barrier for Youngstown’s parks and recreation board. That was in 1939 at the age of 47.

His years before and after were filled with such feats.

He earned his law degree from Youngstown College in 1925. He served, led or was appointed to various leadership roles around the city.

Eventually, he would find his way to state commissions, then onto some federal issues.

Many of his activities centered on improving race relations and standing up for the black population well before there was full engagement of the Civil Rights Movement.

He led the life that gets buildings named after you, and in 1967, that’s what happened when his name was enjoined to the Southside Neighborhood Center.

Mr. Robinson died in 1973.

But the Clarence Robinson Community Center lived on at the corner of Oak Hill and Chalmers avenues just a bit south of St. Patrick’s Church.

It was a facility that joined and grew a community with more than 1,000 members.

Health clinics, day care, voter registration, vital talks and films on things such as school desegregation and other issues of awareness were all held there. The center was the glue of the South Side. But glue cracks over time.

As the neighborhood and the city fell into various levels of disinvestment and despair, down with it went the Clarence Robinson Center.

In my various trips up and down Oak Hill several times per week, I knew the center as just another dilapidated city structure.

Its glorious past and namesake were unknown to me and other newer citizens.

Through a phenomenal grassroots effort the last few months, a beautiful green garden space has been installed on the site – celebrating a glorious past that can now be known to passers-by.

Clarence Robinson Park was dedicated last week on Oak Hill Avenue on the grounds that were the Clarence Robinson Community Center that closed in the 1990s.

The Oak Hill Collaborative led a coalition since 2015 to make this happen.

“We did not want to drop the building with nothing in its place,” said Pat Kerrigan, executive director of the Collaborative. “We wanted something to pay homage to the institution that was here for so many years. So many people have stories of what the Clarence Robinson center did for them.”

It was a handful of groups that came together to drive this – the largest partnering ever for the new Collaborative.

Mahoning County Land Bank acquired the property. The city of Youngstown demolished the building in April. Funding came from St. Patrick Church and the Collaborative.

Tony Billet completed the landscaping at the site in October, and the Community Corrections Association will maintain the park.

In this corporate era of the Valley, when so few company headquarters call this place home, such partnering is the way.

By and large, it’s the only way.

CCA director Dave Stillwagon said their group is eager to be a strong partner in many aspects of the neighborhood. CCA invests dollars and client time in the greening of Market Street one block away. Oak Hill is a tandem arterial to Market and home to some key churches and agencies.

“We are happy in two key ways,” said Stillwagon. “We’re glad to be part of beautification of the area, but also honor a memory in the right way.”

The group effort to start this in 2015 pulled a page out of the 1960s marches. Kerrigan said they needed to get attention for the idea.

In March 2015, led by black and white clergy from the neighborhood, about 100 people marched arm-and-arm around the block – including down Market Street.

“It was a huge attention-getter – to show we wanted to do something. It just showed tremendous community support for this project. This had to be a neighborhood thing, and it was,” said Kerrigan.

That event ended with 15 ministers praying over the property.

This part of the South Side tries, said Kerrigan. A stretch here and a stretch there – residents do their best.

Chalmers is “a nice side street with nice houses and people trying to do right. This [dilapidated building] was not a positive influence in any way, shape or form,” he said.

“And it was not good for Oak Hill Avenue – and that is what we are trying to fix.”

Todd Franko is editor of The Vindicator. He likes emails about stories and our newspaper. Email him at tfranko@vindy.com. He blogs, too, on Vindy.com. Tweet him, too, at @tfranko.