Berry, Theodore M. (Theodore Moody), 1905-2000

Theodore Moody Berry (November 8, 1905 – October 15, 2000) was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician. A member of the Charter Party of Cincinnati, Ohio, he notably served as the first African-American mayor of Cincinnati from 1971 to 1975.

Born in Maysville, Kentucky, he moved to Cincinnati in his youth, graduating from Woodward High School in 1924 and serving as class valedictorian, the first African American to hold that honor in Cincinnati. Berry worked at steel mills in Newport, Kentucky, to pay tuition at the University of Cincinnati and then at its law school. He was admitted to the Ohio Bar in 1932. Berry served as president of the Cincinnati branch of the NAACP from 1932 to 1946. In 1938 he was appointed the first black assistant prosecuting attorney for Hamilton County. During World War II, Berry worked in the Office of War Information as a morale officer. The job took him to Washington, D.C. and also caused him to change his political affiliation from Republican to Democrat. From 1947 to 1961, Berry served on the NAACP Ohio Committee for Civil Rights Legislation where he worked on equal employment and fair housing issues. He was also involved with the Urban League of Greater Cincinnati.

Berry began his Cincinnati political career in 1947 when he ran for City Council. He lost that year but won in 1949. He was chairman of the finance committee in 1953 and led a controversial battle to create a city income tax. In 1955 he was elected vice mayor. His 1963 political campaign to return to Cincinnati's City Council was chaired by Rev. L. Venchael Booth. His creation of the Community Action Commission in Cincinnati caught the attention of Sargent Shriver. In 1965 President Lyndon Johnson appointed Berry to head the Office of Economic Opportunity's Community Action Programs that included Head Start, the Job Corps and Legal Services. Berry returned to Cincinnati in 1969 and was appointed to City Council in 1971. He was elected mayor in 1972 and served for four years—Cincinnati's first African-American mayor. In the 1980s and 1990s, Berry struggled to return proportional representation to Cincinnati because he firmly believed that it gave a fair share of power to black voters.

Berry died in Loveland, Ohio. He was buried at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati.