CINCINNATI — Hundreds of area leaders came together to talk racism and recognize two long time advocates who have been fighting against it. It was all a part of Cincinnati YWCA's annual awards breakfast. 

What You Need To Know

  • Cincinnati's YWCA recognized two advocates for their fight for racial justice 

  • Eileen Cooper Reed, a long-time advocate for education for children of color, was one of the honorees for her work 

  • Meredith Shockley Smith, an advocate and CEO of 'Cradle Cincinnati' was also awarded for her work in trying to put an end to racial disparities in maternal health

Eileen Cooper Reed said she was never meant to just stand in a room. She would always stand up for everyone in the room.

“We used to travel around different places, talking about the civil rights movement in the in the community where I was growing up, you know, so I started then and never stopped,” said Cooper Reed. 

For more than six decades she’s been an advocate, standing up for kids and improving education for children of color.

“The systems are changing without us. The question is, how do we get to change in ways that bring about more equity and bring about more diversity and bring about more inclusion? and what is my role in doing that? One of my roles is the role of convener, so to bring other people together to address that issue,” said Cooper Reed. 

She opened Cincinnati’s Children’s Defense Fund, served on the city’s board of education, founded a group geared toward racial equality and currently serves on multiple leadership boards.

“I’m still doing the work because it’s who I am, you know, so you don’t retire from being who you are,” said Cooper Reed. 

It was her work that opened the door for people like Meredith Shockley Smith.

“I’m sitting here because of a collective work, because other folks are working on an initiative that gets us to where we’re going,” said Shockley Smith.

She’s speaking out about the group she runs, ‘Cradle Cincinnati,’ and a group she helped start, Queens Village. Both are groups trying to end infant deaths and racial disparities in maternal health.

“What we do essentially is think about infant mortality reduction, what I do specifically is make sure that that is funded so when I started the work, I really thought about movement building,” said Shockley Smith. 

She said her goal is to bring together the partners in the room to find solutions and create racial equity.

“When we talk about moving forward and what still needs to be done, there’s still that amount of training of our new folks, of creating leaders, of our people, of color, particularly Black women,” said Shockley Smith.

Their work is not going un-noticed. The YWCA is awarding both advocates with an award for being champions in racial justice.

“Just to be seen by folks who are powerhouse in our country was really exciting,” said Shockley Smith. 

“It’s really nice when your community recognizes you for four things they think you’ve done or accomplished accomplishments they think you have made, you know, so it kind of validates your work,” said Cooper Reed.