Robert C. Henry

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert Clayton Henry was mayor of Springfield, Ohio from 1967 to 1969. He was the first African American mayor of a US city.

Henry was elected to Springfield's city commission in January 1962. The commission then appointed him as the city's mayor in 1967. The following year, another African American, Carl B. Stokes became the state's first elected African American mayor in Cleveland, Ohio.

Henry's son-in-law, Tim Ayers, was also a member of Springfield's city commission, and later, mayor. All three of Robert Henry's three children, Robert Jr., Alan and Lisa, currently reside in Springfield.