By Sharen Sierra King
Contributor, BGMedia
Tickets are now on sale. On Friday, December 15, at 6 p.m. at the Delta Marriott Hotel in Sharonville, family, friends, supporters, and well-wishers will gather to celebrate Dr. Cleaster Whitehurst Mims’ 90th Birthday. Her 70 years of educational and altruistic contributions to the city of Cincinnati and the nation are too extensive to record in one article. When the committee approached Mims about celebrating her 90 years, she replied, “Only if the outcome of the celebrations is for the greater good. I need no tangible goods. The greatest gift you can give me is a ‘Celebration With A Purpose.”
The event aims to raise funds to renovate and archive the Marva Collins Preparatory School. One of the goals is to preserve the unique and collectible documents relating to the school’s history. Another goal is to list the building that housed the school on the National Register of Historic Places. Located at 7855 Dawn Road in Roselawn, the name of the original school is the Cincinnati Hebrew Day School. The building was designed by Principal Architect Benjamin Dombar, a native of Cincinnati who was a Frank Lloyd Wright Taliesin Fellow from 1934-1941.
Mims has impacted many lives as an innovative educator, entrepreneur, political and community activist, author, philanthropist and voice for positive change.
For 55 of her 90 years (1956-2011), Mims was the loving and devoted wife to her husband, Julius Mims Jr, who is now deceased and whom she referred to as her ‘earthly anchor and soul mate.’ The couple had one son, Kenneth M. Mims, “her most precious jewel.’”She stated, “The love, support, freedom, and space they both gave me allowed me to serve others.”
Mims was the first African American female to graduate from Xavier University of Cincinnati. After her graduation and successful thirty-year professional career with Cincinnati Public Schools, she retired as a high school English teacher. Mims took on the role of board president, chief executive officer, and administrator of the nation’s first Marva Collins Preparatory School. Mims believes she achieved her greatest educational impact in the institutions she founded, preserved, and served for thirty years.
To list all of Mims’s many contributions to the educational landscape of Cincinnati is impossible. However, I will share her journey as the Founder and CEO of the Marva Collins Preparatory School.
During the school year 1990-1991, Mims began to operate and lead the Marva Collins Preparatory School while working as a full-time professor at Xavier University. The school opened in the basement of Olivet Baptist Church. L.V. Booth was the pastor. There were 43 students, loyal supporters, parent volunteers, donations, used books and furnishings, and a fundraising raffle. Parents provided janitorial services.
The school’s mission was to create a learning environment for youth, focusing on African American students from low-income households and others labeled as slow, unable to learn, or facing educational challenges.
From 1991 to 1993, the enrollment increased from 43 to 140 students. The school was approved to operate as a pre-K – 8th-grade educational institution. Thanks to a grant from Jergens, the school created a Science Lab on the 3rd floor of the church. The students tested at grade level or better on standardized tests within two years. It was proof that the methodology was working. Mims humbly said, “Progress resulted from the engagement of pioneering people, parents, and educational missionaries.”
The school’s continuing success created a need to seek a new location. Mims met with a Board Member of the Jewish Federation regarding the Cincinnati Hebrew Day School. An agreement was made to sell the building to Mims via a land contract with a down payment of $40,000. The school still needed to get these funds.
Mims, a woman of faith and fortitude, prayed, and she said a voice from God told her to ask, and it shall be given. While standing in their kitchen, Mims asked her husband if he would contribute $1,000 to the school purchase. He said yes. She also donated $1,000 from her funds. She then invited 38 friends, parents, family, and community members to contribute $1,000 each to the purchase of the school. In ten days, Mims raised $4,000 and signed the contract for the school building. Mims and I stood in that same kitchen when she told me this story. I am already a believer – that day, I thanked God for always showing me God is truly a way-maker.
Within a few years, the school moved into its building at 7855 Dawn Road, Roselawn, Ohio. The new school offered before, and after-school daycare and housed a Resource Center. Thanks to a grant from Procter & Gamble, the school now had a library. Nationally syndicated columnist Walter Williams wrote an article that resulted in the school receiving its first stock grant from a business leader from Sweetwater, Texas.
Soon after transitioning to the new campus, the school received its Ohio Charter School Status and national acclaim. College students chose Marva Collins Preparatory School for their internships and professional training. The school began to receive requests from government officials, journalists, and educators from within the United States and globally to tour the facilities and observe the teaching process of sixth graders learning algebra, geometry, and pre-calculus. Some visitors gathered knowledge and information about influencing and supporting educational reform policies.
One of the educational reforms championed by Mims was the need for government support through school vouchers for student tuition. Mims traveled to Washington, DC, and testified to a congressional sub-committee. She argued that giving low-income families school vouchers is akin to human rights. “You have the power to save desperate people or let them perish,” said Cleaster Whitehurst Mims. The school voucher program became an Ohio state law. The school voucher pilot launched in Cleveland, Ohio. Mims wrote to the Governor, asking him to approve the voucher program for Cincinnati. The Governor signed off on the school voucher program for the entire State.
As of February 10, 2022, the Ben Dombar House and Studio are on the Historic Register. As a part of my journey in writing this article, two weeks ago, I toured Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Phoenix home and studio.I am now more inspired and determined to work to see the inclusion of the Marva Collins Preparatory School listed on the Historic Register, as Frank Lloyd Wright’s influence on the school’s architecture will live on, just as Mims’s influence on the landscape of education is a legacy with historical value and global significance. The exceptional results of the methodology were proven positive by the students who entered Marva Collins Preparatory School as kindergarteners, with 98% graduating and entering college.
Cleaster Whitehurst Mims’s life is an example of fearless faith and fortitude. She has the Spirit of God within her and is always willing to learn, lead, and lift others. Mims stated, “I was born to Theodore and Bessie Whitehurst in an Alabama town on a sharecropper’s farm. I grew up with a nurturing family, church, and a school support system where I was trained like an eaglet to fly in storms.”
It’s impossible to capsulize Mims’s educational footprint locally and globally; the school expanded to include foreign languages, performing arts, computer classes, and after-school tutoring. Mims founded and opened the Cleaster Mims International Boarding School in Silverton, Ohio. The students were from the United States and as far away as Bermuda and South Africa.
For tickets to ‘A Celebration With A Purpose’ or to donate funds to renovate and archive the Marva Collins Preparatory School, call Robert Humphries at 513-368-8108 or email rhumphries1@fuse.net
If you were a student, faculty member, employee, board member, or parent of the Marva Collins Preparatory School or The Cleaster Mims International Boarding School, call 513-368-8108.