By Cliff Radel
Enquirer staff writer

African-Americans command Cincinnati's classrooms, downtown boardrooms, and some of the region's foremost commercial and cultural centers.

They control billions of dollars in assets, the mail we receive, and even the play on the local football field.

BLACK LEADERS

• Des Bracey, director of Over-the-Rhine initiative for Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. • Tony Brown, president and CEO, Uptown Consortium • Phillip Cox, chairman of Cincinnati Bell • Spencer Crew, executive director and CEO, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center • Alton Frailey, superintendent, Cincinnati Public Schools • Valerie Lemmie, City manager of Cincinnati • Marvin Lewis, head coach, Cincinnati Bengals • Florence Newell, board president, Cincinnati Public Schools • Denise Porter, postmaster of Cincinnati • Alicia Reece, vice mayor of Cincinnati • Janet Reid, chair of trustees, Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce • John Watkins, vice chair for business development at the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce

Tops in their professions, they're remaking the power elite - and they have the clout to shape the future.

"Have we made it to the Promised Land? No," says Phillip Cox, chief executive officer of Cox Financial Corp. and one of a new corps of African-American leaders in Greater Cincinnati.

"But are we on the right road? Yes."

Seven weeks before the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center opens with its message of inclusion, more African-Americans are in more positions of influence than ever before.

"People of good will have started to understand that a variety of people can make us better," Cox says. The result, he says, is evident: "Cincinnati is on the verge of a major renaissance."

Cox is among a dozen African-Americans who've taken on prime leadership posts since 2001, the year the city was torn by race riots. Besides heading Cox Financial, he chairs the Cincinnati Business Committee and the boards of Cincinnati Bell and the University of Cincinnati.

His colleagues are just as busy.

Alton Frailey is superintendent and Florence Newell is board president of Cincinnati Public Schools.

Janet Reid leads trustee meetings at the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce. Marvin Lewis sits in the head coach's office of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Postmaster Denise Porter makes sure Cincinnati gets its mail. City Hall is represented by Vice Mayor Alicia Reece and City Manager Valerie Lemmie.

Three of the 12 leaders front new ventures:

• Spencer Crew is executive director of the Freedom Center.

• Tony Brown is president of the Uptown Consortium.

• Des Bracey is director of the Over-the-Rhine initiative of the Cincinnati Center City Development Corp.

In Kentucky, John Watkins is the vice chairman for business development at the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce.

Watkins also owns Erlanger-based Intelligent Decision Solutions, a software management firm. He feels Greater Cincinnati is in the midst of "a great transformation that has to do with people not wanting to be perceived as they have been."

The region wants to divorce itself from being seen as racist, he notes. So, the community proudly points to its African-American leaders.

Do not perceive this as tokenism, Frailey warns.

"I don't know if there is any kind of plot or facade seemingly to welcome African-American leaders," he says. "I just accept it as a sincere gesture of hiring the right person."

Bond Hill-based vocalist Kathy Wade has long advocated embracing all cultures through her 10-year-old series of in-school and neighborhood concerts throughout Greater Cincinnati.

"When you invite everybody to the table," she says, "making sure everyone is welcomed, appreciated and treated equally, you get a much better product everyone wants to buy."

The move of African-Americans into these leadership posts represents a departure from the past.

"African-American leaders used to come from the religious, political and social segments of society," says Carl Westmoreland, an urban planner and Cincinnati historian. "Now they are taking on the economic front."

Rhys Williams, department head and professor of sociology at UC, sees the transition as an "important institutional shift." As a student of generational differences, he sees the prominence of black leaders as "a sign of the increasing wealth, property and advancement of African-Americans."

He hastens to add: "I'm not saying everything in the black community is dandy. But, having significant entrepreneurial figures is a healthy sign."

Still, unhealthy signs persist.

In June 2003, Cox became Cincinnati Bell's chairman, the first African-American to lead one of the region's premier companies. Years before, as he sat on the telephone company's board, he was passed over for the post of chairman.

"I asked myself why I was not thought of for this job," he says. Then he supplied his own answer:

"I thought: 'I shouldn't be chairman. Because, I had never seen anybody who looks like me doing it.' "

Reid is the first woman and first African-American to chair the trustees for the Chamber of Commerce. She owns Global Lead Management Consulting and belongs to the Queen City Club.

During the 2002 holiday season, she hosted a party at the exclusive downtown club.

"I had invited a bunch of fancy-dancy ladies," she says. "So, I had on my baubles, a fancy suit, mink coat, all my bling-bling."

After signing the check for the party, Reid walked to the elevator. The doors opened and she was face to face with a retired Cincinnati CEO.

He looked at her. She looked at him.

He asked: "Do you like working here?"

Reid told him she was one of his fellow club members.

They rode down in silence.

"The bottom line is," Reid says, "we still have a long way to go."

Ed Rigaud, Freedom Center president, has ideas about what's needed.

"Plans are in place," he says. "But we need significant intervention from the powers that be. We need action. Some more examples of success of minority enterprise is a key. To have support of the powers that be can make that happen."

Tony Brown is president and CEO of the Uptown Consortium. The collaborative venture of the five largest employers in the University of Cincinnati area plans to have $100 million at its disposal to reinvigorate the neighborhood.

"This list of 12 leaders is a point of pride," Brown says.

"But the point is not just that I am in this seat, but what is expected of me to deliver.

"It won't mean a hill of beans to the African-American family that's trying to make it day by day if we don't improve a neighborhood or help a mother or her son find a job."

E-mail cradel@enquirer.com