On a snowy December day, Terry and Gwen Shavers are putting the final touches on a small home in Braceville, cleaning up the kitchen and arranging black and white photos along the home鈥檚 bright yellow walls.
These are more than just family snapshots. They chronicle more than a century of small town history in the community, just west of Warren. Terry grabbed a frame of a woman standing in this same neighborhood, captured more than 50 years ago.
鈥淭hese lots are only 40-foot wide,鈥� Shavers said, pointing to the photograph. 鈥淭his is one street and there's houses all the way down the street. We know them all.鈥�
The photo is one of many artifacts that are housed in the new . There鈥檚 exhibits on local athletes, authors, entrepreneurs and veterans: all to celebrate the small town鈥檚 rich Black history.
鈥淲e actually think that at one point in time, this was the largest rural African-American community in Ohio,鈥� Terry said.
The best of Braceville
The museum space is the former childhood home of Terry鈥檚 relative, , a heavyweight boxer best known for his hard-hitting punch. He grew up to become a champion fighter, brave enough to step in the ring with the legendary Muhammad Ali.
His sister, Grace Dean, is proud of Earnie鈥檚 performance at the 1977 fight against Ali at Madison Square Gardens. Although Shavers didn鈥檛 win, she said he put up 鈥渙ne heck of a fight.鈥�
A wall of the museum documents Earnie鈥檚 accomplishments. Just beside it, baseball jerseys of an assortment of colors hang. They were all once worn by switch hitter , a Negro League Baseball Hall of Famer from Braceville and Gwen鈥檚 uncle.
鈥淗e played with Jackie Robinson [and] Larry Doby,鈥� Gwen recalled. 鈥淎nd he made such a fantastic catch that they hoisted him on his shoulders and carried him off the field. And that was one of the highlights of his life.鈥�
Toles Jr. passed away in 2016. But his son Ted Toles III still lives in Braceville and is helping to build the exhibit about his father. Toles said his dad wanted his story to be a model for young people in the community.
鈥淗e would always tell them if he can come from a small town and make it to the big leagues, they could do it, too,鈥� Toles said.
A small town sanctuary聽
Toles believes it鈥檚 not a coincidence that so many high-achievers came out of Braceville鈥檚 Black community. He said it can be traced back to before the town was even officially formed.
鈥淐oming from the South, [they had] to have a certain demeanor, a willingness to survive,鈥� Toles said.
During the so-called , Black people moved from the South in search of a better life. Many found one in Braceville. It had served as a stop on the Underground Railroad and, later, in the 鈥�20s, it boasted jobs at a nearby steel plant.
The Black community lived in a neighborhood separated from white residents, confined to less than a square mile of swampy land. But Terry Shavers said that small piece of land was enough for them to thrive and grow into a community of 400 people.
鈥淭hey had total freedom to do what they wanted, the police didn鈥檛 bother them,鈥� Terry said. 鈥淎s a matter of fact, we had our own constable [and] hardly ever needed to call him.鈥�
An oft-ignored history
These small pockets of independent rural Black communities, like Braceville, sprouted up across the state after the Great Migration. But their histories aren鈥檛 often very well-documented, said Ric Sheffield, a Kenyon College sociologist who studies Black rural life and author of
鈥淏lack people have lived throughout rural America from the very earliest times,鈥� Sheffield said. 鈥淎nd yet, the perception is that we haven't, we don't, and 鈥榃hat in the world are we doing there?鈥欌��
Sheffield said the experiences of Black Ohioans in small towns are often ignored when putting together a social studies syllabus or choosing what to put in the local history museum. In his hometown of Mount Vernon, he said he rarely heard about the accomplishments of people of color.
鈥淵oung people of color living in predominantly white rural communities don't often see people who look like them. [They] almost never hear anyone say that people who do look like them were important or contributed in any meaningful way,鈥� Sheffield said.
Preserving the past
The Shavers are determined to make sure that doesn鈥檛 happen in Braceville. Gwen Shavers wants young people to know the story of community members like Earnie Shavers and Ted Toles Jr., whose accomplishments deserve to be remembered.
鈥�From this little tiny community a lot of notable people came,鈥� Gwen said. 鈥淲e said 鈥業f we don't tell it, no one else will. It will be lost.鈥欌��
The Shavers also recorded more than 30 hours of interviews with locals. Their stories will live in a digital exhibit at the museum and in a historical documentary about Braceville titled .
And, the couple isn鈥檛 done collecting. They鈥檝e left space in the museum for the future accomplishments of the resilient, tight-knit and hardworking people that make up the community.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just something to share with other people about African American people who all came to a little community and caused it to be a thriving place to live in, that people loved,鈥� Gwen said.
This story is part of the series, made possible by the .
