Painted in 1971 by acclaimed Akron artist Woodrow Nash on the exterior of Akron’s Wooster Branch Library, this mural — celebrating Black leaders Martin Luther King Jr., Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X — was restored by Nash, pictured here, in 1995. The branch became Odom Boulevard Branch Library, which was renovated and expanded in 1999. It prompted Nash to re-create the mural with a redesign to add abolitionist Sojourner Truth, who famously delivered her landmark “Ain’t I A Woman?” speech at the 1851 Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in Akron. Opened in May 2024, the Sojourner Truth Legacy Plaza, at the site of Truth’s speech — challenging the exclusion of Black women from the women’s rights movement — is anchored by Nash’s sculpture of Truth. Visit truthstatue.org/donate to help ongoing efforts to educate the community and support the future of equity for all women.
Summit Memory/ Akron-Summit County Public Library
