Black Columbus Will Gather This Weekend to Honor Ray Miller Jr.

Black Columbus is preparing to say goodbye to our Honorable Former State Senator Ray Miller Jr.

The longtime community leader and Black media publisher will be remembered during two days of services this weekend at Second Baptist Church, the East Side congregation Miller called his home place of worship.

A community tribute is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 4, at Second Baptist Church, 186 N. 17th Street in Columbus. The Miller family will begin receiving guests at 5 p.m., with the tribute program beginning at 6 p.m.

The memorial service will follow on Saturday, Sept. 5. The family will receive guests beginning at 10 a.m., with the service scheduled for 11 a.m.

And as Columbus gathers inside Second Baptist, the state Miller spent decades helping shape will mark his passing outside it.

Gov. Mike DeWine has ordered United States and Ohio flags lowered to half-staff Saturday on public buildings and grounds throughout Franklin County, as well as at the Ohio Statehouse, Vern Riffe Center and Rhodes Tower.

The flags will remain lowered from sunrise to sunset in recognition of Miller’s life and public service.

Miller died Aug. 28 at 77.

He leaves behind his wife, Marty, and their son, Ray Miller III. A cause of death has not been publicly announced.

But this weekend is about more than marking the death of another former elected official.

Because Ray Miller did not simply occupy political office.

He built institutions.

Twenty-four years inside the Statehouse

Miller spent 24 years in the Ohio General Assembly — 16 years in the Ohio House of Representatives and eight in the Ohio Senate.

The Ohio Statehouse identifies him as the 13th Black person elected to the Ohio Senate.

Its official biography credits Miller with helping create the Ohio Commission on Minority Health, establishing state-level funding for Head Start, creating the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services, advancing the Community Mental Health Act of 1988 and establishing the Ohio African-American Hall of Fame.

He also pushed for a portion of Ohio’s tobacco-settlement money to be directed toward minority health programs and successfully advocated for the Statehouse memorial recognizing George Washington Williams, elected in 1879 as Ohio’s first Black state legislator.

He also pushed for a portion of Ohio’s tobacco-settlement money to be directed toward minority health programs and successfully advocated for the Statehouse memorial recognizing George Washington Williams, elected in 1879 as Ohio’s first Black state legislator.

State Sen. Hearcel Craig, who said he had known Miller since the seventh grade, remembered his longtime friend last week as a “fierce fighter for justice.”

Craig specifically pointed to Miller’s work on minority health, Head Start, the African-American Hall of Fame and the Statehouse recognition of Williams.

That is one part of the record.

But it is not the whole record.

He understood that Black people needed our own press

After spending decades inside the rooms where public policy was written, negotiated and funded, Miller eventually built an institution designed to watch those rooms from the outside.

In January 2011, he founded The Columbus African American News Journal.

The publication later expanded into Dayton and became The Columbus & Dayton African American.

Its mission was simple: educate, inform and empower.

The City of Columbus has described the publication as having grown into the largest broadly circulated minority-focused print publication in Columbus and Central Ohio.

Miller’s relationship with the Black press stretched back much further.

He previously described spending time as a young man at Raleigh Randolph’s newsstand on Mt. Vernon Avenue, reading newspapers including the Call and Post, New York Amsterdam News, Chicago Defender and Pittsburgh Courier.

What struck him was seeing Black people using journalism to speak directly about the issues affecting Black lives.

Eventually, he built his own version of that institution in Columbus.

And he did not build it alone.

His son, Ray Miller III, worked alongside him, serving in roles including assistant editor and overseeing layout and design. Previous mastheads document the father-and-son operation inside the publication.

As Kin previously reported, the publication continues under Ray III’s editorial direction.

That matters this weekend.

Because while a city prepares to remember Ray Miller the senator, there is another Ray Miller worth remembering:

Ray Miller the Black publisher.

Ray Miller the mentor.

Ray Miller the institution-builder.

Ray Miller the man who kept asking how knowledge, leadership and power could be transferred to whoever came next.

What this means for Black Columbus

Friday and Saturday give Columbus an opportunity to mourn.

But they also give this city an opportunity to remember accurately.

Ray Miller Jr. as a politician.

The man was part of a generation of Black Columbus leadership that understood politics as more than elections.

It was health infrastructure.

Education.

Leadership development.

Institution-building.

And media ownership.

That fuller record deserves to be carried into Second Baptist this weekend.

Not because any public life should be remembered without scrutiny.

The move

The community tribute for former Sen. Ray Miller Jr. begins Friday, Sept. 4, at Second Baptist Church, 186 N. 17th Street in Columbus. The family receives guests beginning at 5 p.m., and the program begins at 6 p.m.

The memorial service is Saturday, Sept. 5, at the same church. The family receives guests beginning at 10 a.m., with the service beginning at 11 a.m.

And Kin is continuing to build the public record around Miller’s life.

If he mentored you, helped your organization, brought you through one of his leadership programs, worked alongside you in politics or publishing, or if you have photographs, campaign materials or old editions of the Columbus African American News Journal, we want to hear from you.

Email us your story at info@welcomehomekin.com, and we will share it.

This Labor Day weekend is all about Columbus saying goodbye to The Honorable Senator Ray Miller Jr.

What happens to what he built is the part that comes next.

Welcome home.