By Denise Smith Amos
Enquirer staff writer

Derrick Still Mayes (left) stands with family members in front of a portrait of William Still, top, a famous free black clerk from Philadelphia, at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center Thursday. The Enquirer/ CRAIG RUTTLE

Almo Davis from Roselawn (foreground), with her family members on the Public Landing near the boat ramp Thursday, says she's kept family history stored in her memory and on a few handwritten notes and now younger family members plan a database. The Enquirer/ERNEST COLEMAN

More than potato-salad recipes and barbecue gets passed around at black family reunions.

Healthy doses of pride, flavored with heritage and history, are staples.

This weekend's Midwest Black Family Reunion is especially meaningful because it shares the Cincinnati riverfront with the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, which is being dedicated at the same time. Both will bring hundreds of families to the city to celebrate freedom, history and family.

The reunion, billed as one of the nation's largest family-oriented events, annually draws thousands to Cincinnati for three days of music, food, health programs, a job fair and a town meeting.

The Freedom Center celebrates its dedication with a string of celebrities, headlined by first lady Laura Bush and entertainer Oprah Winfrey.

It will have a public, family-oriented daylong festival Monday on the shores of the Ohio River - the dividing line between slavery and freedom before the Civil War.

Both events "are doing the same thing,'' said Derrick Still Mayes, 42, of Bond Hill, "reuniting the spirit of the African-American family.''

Members of the family of William Still are coming from as far away as California and New York. They are attending the reunion and, by special invitation, the dedication of the Freedom Center. William Still, a free man who helped hundreds to freedom and kept careful records so families could be reunited, is among those honored at the Freedom Center.

For his descendants, history is anything but distant.

In June, 12-year-old Brandon Still Mayes of Bond Hill stood before 500 relatives at a New Jersey family gathering and flawlessly recited the first few pages of Still's book, The Underground Railroad.

REUNION'S 18TH YEAR

The Midwestern Regional Black Family Reunion, which begins today and ends Sunday, traditionally draws thousands of people. It was founded 18 years ago by the National Council of Negro Women based on an idea by the council's president emerita, Dr. Dorothy I. Height. A celebration of the strengths and values of black families, the Cincinnati event includes a job fair, educational and health programs. The reunion, one of the nation's largest family-oriented events, attracts audiences of 900,000 in Los Angeles, 500,000 in Washington, D.C., and 200,000 in Cincinnati. Started in August 1989 in Cincinnati, it is the third weekend of August at Sawyer Point and Yeatman's Cove. Source: Enquirer research and www.midwestbfrc.com/

IF YOU GO

Today • 8 a.m. Heritage Breakfast/opening ceremony, Vernon Manor Hotel, 400 Oak St. Free. First 300 people will be seated. • 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Job fair, Sharonville Convention Center, 11355 Chester Rd., Sharonville. • 6 p.m. Town Hall Meeting, Legacy Banquet and Conference Center, 7617 Reading Rd., Roselawn. Saturday • 10 a.m. Parade from Cincinnati Museum Center to Linn and Court streets. • Noon-8:30 p.m. Entertainment, music, food and information booths at Sawyer Point. Sunday: Noon-8:30 p.m. Festivities continue at Sawyer Point. For more information: www.midewestbfrc.com

He got every word right, never stumbling over the sometimes flowery English. The young, aspiring actor received a standing ovation.

Derrick Still Mayes, the uncle who has raised Brandon from infancy, said reunions keep generations connected.

"Staying connected is the most important thing. It's the work black family reunions should do."

Plays and reenactments about their ancestors are standard at Still family reunions, which are some of the largest and oldest black family gatherings in the country. Relatives put their family stories to song, poetry and canvas.

"I think it's one of the very few opportunities that any family has to let young people get to know who their family members are and where they fit,'' said Eve Elder-Mayes, 37, of Bond Hill.

Reunions are often the only place some families get information about their history. That can provide the spark for more genealogical research.

Members of the Gragston family from the Cincinnati area say they'll probably attend the reunion but may save their visits to the Freedom Center for a less-crowded time. Their ancestor, Arnold Gragston, is profiled in the Freedom Center because he repeatedly rowed slaves across the Ohio River to freedom in Ripley, Ohio. Then an enslaved young man in Mason County, Ky., he helped as many as 300 people escape before he had to flee slave catchers.

The Gragstons have held family reunions in Cincinnati and in Northern Kentucky over the years, but only in the past five years have descendants learned about Arnold Gragston, mostly from local researchers and genealogists.

Alma "Sister" Davis, 68, of Roselawn, a descendant of Gragston's brother, says Arnold Gragston's history is renewing interest in her family's bloodlines.

Until now, the retired store clerk says, she's kept that information stored in her memory and on a few handwritten notes. Now younger Gragstons say they'll help put it into a family tree database available online. That will make it available to younger Gragstons.

"You don't think about this stuff until you grow up," she said.

The Freedom Center is already beginning to draw black family reunions to the Cincinnati area.

The Walker family reunion has been gathering for more than two decades, mostly in the South, because that's where most of the reunion organizers live.

Next year, though, about 200 relatives will gather in a hotel in Kenwood for the weekend and go to the Freedom Center, said Tomeca Goodwin, who lives in Cincinnati and is helping to organize it.

The Walkers came to the city 10 years ago and last year celebrated in Lima, Ohio.

"A lot of them had never been out of the South, so they cheered when they came across the Suspension Bridge," said Eve Mayes, a descendant of the Walkers and a Still by marriage. "They love Kings Island and Cincinnati. They think everyone here is really nice."

Family gatherings helped lead Keith Josef Adkins, 37, to his passion for personal genealogy.

The Cincinnati native who writes for TV and stage in Los Angeles, can recite from memory a database of information on several lines of his ancestors.

It all started with his grandfather Clyde Elder.

"When I was little my grandfather would always talk about his family history...and say his grandfather was the son of this white man. His job during slavery was to sleep at the foot of his master's bed to keep his feet warm. He was a little boy during slavery."

Other hints from elders led him to research that showed he is related to Charity Southgate, a daughter of a white woman and a slave in Virginia. Southgate, while enslaved, proved in a famous court case that she was born free, thereby winning freedom for her children.

"When I started discovering my family history and imprinting what people were and who they were, it gave me a bigger sense of pride in myself. It made me walk with a stronger step. I'm a part of a lineage here, sort of a Cincinnati lineage. It's empowering to know where you've come from, to know the steps laid out before you and what people endured."

Thursday, the Mayes-Still family gathered around a life-sized portrait of William Still, on display at the Freedom Center. Their Uncle Billy, William E. Still, was visiting from Los Angeles.

He's a great-great-great-grandson of William Still.

Spencer Crew, the Freedom Center CEO, dropped what he was doing. He hurried over to meet them. His eyebrows rose when he met Uncle Billy.

"It's an honor to meet a William Still," Crew said.

The retired, 62-year-old barber merely smiled.

Later, he said he never tires of getting that reaction.

"I'm proud of my name," he said. "It makes you feel good, but it doesn't go to my head. It's important to me, because I'm a Still."

E-mail damos@enquirer.com.