On April 3, 1974, a massively destructive tornado touched down in Greene County.
In the years since much attention has been paid to the impact on Xenia. But the neighboring town of Wilberforce was also hit hard. That includes the town's two HBCUs, Central State and Wilberforce University.
The National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center in Wilberforce is working with the Eichelberger Center for Community Voices at WYSO this spring to gather and broadcast oral histories of the disaster.
This interview is from Richard Austin, formerly general counsel for Central State University.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Like a war zone
At that time, I was the general counsel for Central State University, and I think I was on my way to Columbus on some Central State business when Dr. Lionel Newsom, who was the president of the university at that time, called me to tell me what had happened.
"I could only imagine what we were going to find when we got to Central State."
Between him and myself, we had arranged a state patrol escort for me to come back to the campus.
I think we took took some back roads back to Central State.
We came around the back of Xenia. Those houses that were out there — now it's all built up out there — but they were just smashed down.
I could only imagine what we were going to find when we got to Central State.
It was pretty messed up and we got to the campus and it was worse.
We arranged for the National Guard and the state patrol to secure the campus because it looked like a war zone.
Getting to work
Before the tornado, the Newsom administration at Central State was already planning and seeking funding to renovate parts of the campus.
We just got to work.
From that first day that I got back to the campus, Dr. Newsom and I, we walked over the campus, and we realized then that we were going to have to put our construction plan in force because the campus was devastated.
We'd say it under our breath that this was an act of God that really helped us out — we had a lot of demolition and that we didn't have to do so.
They had a little mercy on us, because we'd been hit by a tornado, and they couldn't deny us the funding that we needed to reconstruct the building.
Fighting for school's future
But I'm thinking that there was some undercurrent at that time as to whether or not we would rebuild or just let Central close. My recollection is we did fight that battle during that time.
And fortunately we won out.
We got tremendous support from the state. From that point, they started rebuilding the campus to bring it to the wonderful campus that is today.
Support from Xenia mayor
Austin said James T. Henry was instrumental in ensuring the university receives state funds to rebuild the campus. Henry was a Central State professor and first black mayor of Xenia, and, at the time, was commissioner of Xenia.
He taught about climatology, geography, climate, all of those courses. So the coordination was there.
"Every time I come back to the campus and see how it's growing, I know that Central State will use 1974 as the date of the reconstruction now because of the tornado."
So calling it "the Xenia tornado" — didn't nobody mind that because Xenia was devastated and so were we. And we needed all the help we could get, and if we could piggyback on the recovery.
But I don't remember any FEMA coming to the campus or any federal agency coming to help us out.
I happen to have been in Ohio when the tornado hit northwest Dayton, the Trotwood area. Oh, man, it was totally different.
I went by the shopping center. They had a couple of big old trucks that were mobile laundry mats that they move around from disaster to disaster, so there was already laundry and things. Totally different that what it was back 50 years ago.
Now, FEMA, and all of the people that work with FEMA, they have it down to an art.
Every time I come back to the campus and see how it's growing, I know that Central State will use 1974 as the date of the reconstruction now because of the tornado.
Central State did later receive federal funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to rebuild their campus.
