Let me introduce you to the Fossetts, one of Cincinnati’s most influential couples.
Nearly a century before Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Sarah Mayrant Walker Fossett took a stand and helped desegregate Cincinnati’s streetcar system.
Her husband, Peter Farley Fossett, was a pastor, a member of an elite catering family and secretly a conductor on the Underground Railroad.
The couple were among the most prominent Black citizens in Cincinnati before, during and after the Civil War. And they are getting their due at long last.
In December, an Ohio historical marker for the Fossetts was placed outside the First Baptist Church at 3640 Roll Ave. in South Cumminsville, the church the couple founded in 1870.
Between them there is so much history that Sarah’s story is told on one side of the marker, Peter’s on the other.
Black history:‘Amplifying the voices of those muted by history’: Challenges of researching Black history
Getting to know Sarah Fossett
Sarah Fossett’s role as a civil rights pioneer is a tale that needs to be told.