CINCINNATI — It’s been 60 years, and one pastor and advocate said he’s still fighting for racial justice this Black History Month.

What You Need To Know

  • Damon Lynch Jr. grew up during segregation and later became a pastor and advocate for racial justice
  • Rev. Lynch marched during the Civil Rights Movement and spoke out during Black Lives Matter protests

  • He also was an influencing voice in the creation of the Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati 

At a time when racism divided everything, Rev. Damon Lynch Jr. was just 10.

“I grew up in segregation,” he said. “It was just normal for us to know we had to go to the back door, not even the side to the back door. Everything we got, it had to go to the back door.”

He said his family moved from Georgia to get away from racism in the south, only to face it again when they got to Cincinnati in 1949.

“If you come out on this side of town, this side of the track, and it’s no telling what might happen to you, and that was normal,” Damon said. 

Despite it all, he became a marine and then a reverend after he met his wife Barbara Lynch. She said she faced the same discrimination even after they had kids.

“They (their kids) had to sometimes run back across the street because they were chased back by the white kids over there, and this is like in the sixties,” Barbara said.

That’s when they say things started to change.

"We weren't afraid anymore," Damon said. "We weren't riding in the back anymore because we had gotten to a point that sterner stuff had gotten in our bones."

“We woke up, and so not only did we wake up in the church, the ministers all woke up preaching the same sermon, but we were in the streets to marching,” Damon said.

Together, they marched for equal rights during the Civil Rights Movement. In 1964, laws changed and segregation ended. Rev. Lynch has been advocating ever since because racism didn’t end.

“You’ve got the Ku Klux Klan…,” he said. “Cincinnati, I mean, it’s supposed to be a better place…the slaves came through here. Freedom started right here in Cincinnati.”

That’s why in the 90s, Damon became a part of a team that helped start the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, a museum that highlights Black History in Cincinnati.

In the last few years, he’s spoken out in Black Lives Matter protests, and even at 85 years old, he said the work’s still not done.

“Today, we don’t have that kind of togetherness,” Barbara said.

“That’s, that’s the answer to your question….why the kids out here shooting each other… they’re shooting each other instead of being brother and sister,” Damon said.