Berry Day Week kicks off with movie screening

The Mount Zion Black Cultural Center will kick-off its Berry Day Week celebration by screening WOUB Public Media’s “The Lincoln School Story,” at 5:30 p.m. Monday at the Athena Cinema, 20 S. Court St., Athens.

This documentary follows a group of Black mothers from Hillsboro in the 1950’s as they fight for school desegregation after the Brown versus the Board of Education decision. WOUB will air the film later on Juneteenth, June 19.

Joining the evening’s commemoration will be Charlotte Scott, following her debut at the Southeast Ohio History Center’s Night at the Museum event. The once enslaved woman from Marietta, upon hearing of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, started a fund in 1872 to erect the Emancipation Memorial monument in Washington, DC’s Lincoln Park.

Professor Emeritus David Descutner will introduce Rebecca Asmo, executive director of the Ohio Humanities (funders of “The Lincoln School Story”), and Chris Boyd, owner of Zachary’s Deli, a popular gathering place on Court Street in the 1980/90s which was next door to the Hotel Berry. Chris will share his experiences as one of the first Black business owners in the Uptown Athens Club Scene.

“There couldn’t be a more perfect opening celebration honoring Ed and Mattie (Berry),” said Mount Zion President Ada Woodson Adams.

The Berrys owned the famous Hotel Berry on Court Street, visited by President Theodore Roosevelt, Carl Sandburg, and other notable guests. It was also touted as being the first hotel to put a Bible and sewing kits in their rooms. The hotel was demolished in 1974.

On May 23, 2004, former Mayor Rick Abel issued a Proclamation declaring “Berry Day” in Athens and a historical landmark was installed at the site of the hotel. In 2023, Mayor Steve Patterson reissued the proclamation and several businesses joined in by creating “Berry Day specials” to honor Berry’s entrepreneurial legacy. A portion of the sales was donated to assist in rehabilitating Mount Zion to a Black Cultural Center. The Center recently received $7.3 million from the Governor’s Appalachian Downtowns and Destinations Initiative toward that effort. The Berrys gifted the land on the corner of Congress and Carpenter streets to build the structure.

The Opening Ceremony of Berry Day Week offers the Athens community an opportunity to celebrate Mount Zion, the Berrys, and learn more about the legacy of Southeastern Ohio’s Black past.