On a rainy afternoon in April, she sat on the other side of a tape recorder and reminisced about growing up in segregated Cleveland in the 1950s; chronicled the circuitous path she took from junior high English teacher to editor of one of the nation's most influential African American newspapers; shared her thoughts on the powerful place role models have played in her life; and revealed her rules for aging well.
When and where were you born? And where were you in the family—oldest, youngest, somewhere in between?
I was born in a house on 65th and Woodland in Cleveland, Ohio in 1932. I was the youngest in the family. There were four older sisters – my middle sister is Sara J. Harper, the retired judge – and my older sisters would dress me up and take me out, like I was a doll.
Tell me about growing up in Cleveland: what your parents did; where you lived; where you went to school; what you were like as a child, what your hobbies and pastimes were.
Both my parents came from the South…and they had high expectations for all of us.
My father was a custodian for the Cleveland schools and my mother was a housekeeper at a small local hospital. Later on, she became an insurance agent. I remember walking around the neighborhood with her each week as she collected peoples' fees.
About the time I was ready for kindergarten, we moved to the new Outhwaite Homes [in the Woodland-Central neighborhood]. Later we moved to a house in the Mt. Pleasant area and I went to Alexander Hamilton Junior High and later to John Adams High School .
Being the youngest, I was spoiled. In school, I was a good student and I was editor of the school paper in junior high and when I got into high school, too. I was always reading. Reading was a real passion.
For pastimes, I liked to sew – we used to do a lot of embroidery and things like that in school – and we did what all the kids did back then: we went to the neighborhood canteens and dances, we went to the Cedar YMCA to watch games. [Sigh] It really was a different time.
You “came of age” in the late 1940s. How do you think that influenced the person you are today?
In some respects – with all the social changes that were taking place – growing up then influenced me a lot. But in others, well, you just thought what was happening was what was supposed to be. You don't realize the impact of things that are happening to you. That takes time.
For instance, when I was a senior in high school, working on the John Adams Journal [the school's paper], the paper's advisor [Ms. Follin] took some of us to a workshop at Ohio State University. Before we went, she took me aside and told me that she'd advised the people at the school that she was bringing a colored girl, and she told me I'd have a room, just like everyone else, at the hotel. And I know she told me this so I wouldn't worry.
When I was in the elevator at the hotel, the operator turned to me and said: 'When did you start working here?' When I told him I was a guest, he was amazed.
When I tell people about that today, they are bothered, but when it happened, I wasn't bothered. I was a high school senior. I was excited to be going to Ohio State with friends I worked with on the school paper.
…There was definitely separation of Blacks and Whites in Cleveland then but it didn't bother me. That was the way things were: I had my White friends at school and I had my Black friends, from the neighborhood, when I wasn't at school.
But I have to admit, that feeling – of being the only Black person in the room, the only Black person in the group – was the reason that I choose to go to Central State [an all-Black school]. I was tired of it always being “the outsider” at school.
As you were growing up, who were the people who had the biggest influences on you, on who you are and what you have become today?
I'd have to say my parents. And some of my teachers, especially Ms. Follin. And my sisters, especially my sister, Sara. From the time she was in junior high she was telling people she was going to be a lawyer…But I've never felt that I was in her shadow. We have always seemed to move in different directions.
When you graduated from Central State University in 1954, you taught in the Cleveland Public Schools System. Where did you teach?
I taught English at Central Junior High for five years. I'd majored in English and minored in history, and I hadn't planned to be a teacher. My senior year I realized I was going to need to get a job – and in those days your options were teacher or social worker – so I took all the courses I needed to be certified to be a teacher.
My classroom was next door to the assistant principal's office, so I never had any discipline problems.
With your background, you didn't teach journalism?
No. Most schools had school newspapers, but Central didn't, so I did a daily news bulletin board in the hall.
Why – and when – did you leave teaching?
While I was teaching, there was another teacher there, Loretta White, who was doing a column for The Pittsburgh Courier and she knew about my interest and background in journalism. When the Pittsburgh paper decided to open a paper here, she spoke to the person [Al Dunmore] who would be running it about me.
I started out doing the teen coverage for The Cleveland Courier and a radio show, focused on teens, on WJMO, but I was still teaching because the work with the paper was just a part time job. When The Cleveland Courier went out of business, Loretta knew W.O. Walker, who owned The Call & Post and she spoke to him about me.
Timing is everything. Mr. Walker asked me to come for an interview and the next thing I know, there's a front page story in the paper saying I was coming on board as the paper's new Women's Editor.
I got a call from my department supervisor asking me if I was leaving teaching. I thought about it for a moment, then I said yes it did. That was about 50 years ago.
I moved up to become City Editor and stayed through the late 1960s, one of the most turbulent times in Cleveland 's history. When I got a journalism fellowship at the University of Chicago , I took a leave from the paper. When it [the fellowship] ended, the person in charge of the program [Eddie Williams] asked me to stay on and work in the Public Affairs Department and that's when I actually left the paper.
In 1969 you were tapped to work on Mayor Carl Stokes re-election campaign. How did that happen? And, more importantly, why did you decided to take a job in politics?
While I was in Chicago, I got a call from Arnold Pinkney. We'd worked together on some campaigns when I was at The Call & Post , and he asked me to come back to Cleveland and coordinate the Women's Activities Committee for the mayor's campaign. I'd known Carl for a long time – we'd both lived in the Outhwaite Projects – so I said yes…But you have to understand, working in politics was nothing new for me. I'd been involved in politics my whole life. My family was Republican and my mother was steeped in politics.
After Stokes was re-elected in 1969, you moved to Washington, DC. What were you doing there?
One of the people [David Hill] who was a member of the Mayor's cabinet and was working on his campaign, suggested that if I wanted a better feel for the political scene I should spend some time working in Washington. And he suggested I contact the Leadership Institute for Community Development [LICD], which trained Community Action Program directors.
I resigned from the Call & Post and went to LICD to work in communications, specifically with newspapers and the print media. We went all over the US doing training programs. Eventually, I became assistant to the director, too.
When the program lost its funding, a friend suggested I do some volunteering with Africare, a group founded [in 1971] by C. Payne Lucas, that was doing development and volunteer programs in Africa. I started volunteering with them, doing their newsletter and other things. And when C. Payne heard Don King was going to have a fight in Zaire, Africa, he asked me to contact Don to see if he or Muhammad Ali or George Foreman would do something to help promote Africare.
For the last 40 years or so, you've worked for fight promoter and Call & Post owner Don King. Is that how you met him.
No. His family had lived up the street from us and his sister and my sister Gloria had been good friends. And we'd gone to school together: he's a John Adams graduate, too. But I hadn't talked to Don in years, so I called my mother and she got me his phone number and I called him in New York City .
Weeks went by before he returned the call – he'd been in Africa – and when I asked him if he or one of the fighters could do something for Africare, he suggested I come to New York City to talk to him, so I took the train to New York. When I got there, I found out he needed help with representation and administrative and organizational things. And he asked me to do it. When I went back to Washington, I was still volunteering for Africare and I was working to help Don with the fight in Zaire, too.
While we were in Zaire for the fight [in 1974], Don said he was going to get serious about promoting boxing matches and that he needed someone to run his office, and he asked if I wanted to do it. At first we were in Cleveland, but eventually we had offices in the Rockefeller Building in New York City. The view from the office was fantastic.
Again, timing was everything. I got in on the ground floor with a fight promotion business that's blossomed into Don King Productions. We stayed in New York City 'til he decided to move the office to Florida. That's when I decided to move back to Cleveland .
Did you come back to Cleveland to run the Call & Post ?
Not really. When I came back I considered myself “retired,” and took a part-time job at the Board of Elections.
When The Call & Post came up for sale, Don was interested, even though there was nothing really to buy but the name. His wife [Henrietta] said that if he bought the paper I should run it. When I said I would, he hired George Forbes to represent him and he purchased it [in 1989].
That's how I “unretired.”
You've always been advocating for those less fortunate than yourself and doing considerable volunteer work—both locally and abroad. Indeed, you've received countless awards for your volunteer activities. What led you—personally and professionally – to become so active in community affairs?
To me, that seems like a natural thing to do. I would never be satisfied with just doing my job each day or just doing one thing. And, once you do one thing, you realize that you can do it, and people start coming to you to do something else and something else. [Laughs] That's why you see so many of the same people doing this kind of work. And that's sad, because there are so many other people who could do it, but no one is asking them.
But I have to add, what I do is something we do as a family, and it's always been that way. It was always expected of us…regardless of political affiliation, regardless of marital status. I'm single, and have never been married, but I never do any more, or less, than my sister Sara, and she raised five children.
If you had to pick a community endeavor to be remembered for, what would it be?
It would actually be two things: one would be my work with Vocational Guidance Service, where I'm on the Board and Chair of the Government Relations Committee, and the other would be the work I'm doing with my sorority [Delta Sigma Theta], which is a service organization I've belonged to for 50 years. We do social things – we just had a dance – but the real reason for the sorority is service to the community.
One of the highlights of my career was this March, when publishers of Black newspapers were invited to the White House as part of the Black Press Week celebration. Both President Obama and his wife greeted each one of us individually.
Where do you find the time to do so much for others?
I make it, but I have to admit that I'm not doing as much now as I used to.
Where do you find the energy?
I think it runs in the family. My mother was very energetic. She was always doing something and she lived to a ripe old age...And my sister Sara, she's in her 80s, and she's still going strong and goes down to the courthouse to keep up her practice.
I used to walk my dog a lot before I lost him, and I went to Curves to work out twice a week before I had a bout – 6 or 8 months ago – with arthritis. It was so bad I had to use a walker and cane, but I'm doing physical therapy and it's much better than it was [chuckles], though the steps here [at The Call & Post ] are still difficult.
What do you do to balance work and volunteering and the rest of your life?
I know in our talk that it sounds like my life is all about one thing – the paper – but it's not. My favorite pastime is reading, and I'm active in my church [ Olivet Institutional Baptist Church ], and I spend a lot of time with family. My sisters and my sisters' children get together all the time.
But I do realize that a lot of my “social” life is interrelated with my work because I'm going to luncheons and programs and things where I represent the paper.
At 77, you're active, vital and committed to the community – definitely aging successfully. If you could give people "Connie Harper's Rules for Aging Well," what would they be?
First, don't even think about age. It's going to come and there is nothing you can do about it, so live each day as it comes to the fullest.
Stay active. Don't just go home and sit. Be involved. Do things.
And, and I know this may sound ironic coming from me, but make sure you have balance in your life so it's not all about just one thing – your job or your golf or whatever.
Surround yourself with young people because they help you stay young. When you don't know how to do things, when you do that, they are there to do it for you. I don't just mean family, I mean wherever you are.
What did I not ask that I should have?
About role models: It's not just important to have good role models, it's important to be one, too. I've been so fortunate, all my life, to have had good role models.
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