Columbus City Council honors local labor leaders, entrepreneurs at Poindexter Awards ceremony

Council President Shannon Harden opened the Columbus City Council's Black History Month program on Monday evening in City Hall, inviting the public to "Happy Black History Month, Columbus" and saying the event belonged in "the people's living room." The ceremony included a keynote history talk, musical performances and presentation of the council's Poindexter Awards to local labor leaders, business owners and civic figures.

The keynote address came from Rita Fuller Hicks, a Columbus historian and storyteller, who traced Black entrepreneurship and community-building in Columbus from the early 1800s through the 20th century. Hicks highlighted figures such as Hanson Johnson, an early Black barber and property owner she said became one of Columbus's first Black millionaires, and families behind long-standing local businesses. "The history of Black leaders in Columbus is…