The Toledo Fair Housing Center continued its 40th anniversary celebrations Thursday with the premiere of the WGTE Public Media documentary about the center and its history.
The documentary premiered with a gala event at the Valentine Theatre. It documents the center’s origins and landmark cases and is the latest installment of WGTE-TV’s Toledo Stories series.
Several former local fair-housing leaders attended the premiere Thursday, including Shanna Smith — the first president of the Toledo Fair Housing Center and current president of the National Fair Housing Alliance — and Marcia Fine, founding board member for the Toledo center.
Attendees traveled from as far as California and Washington, including representatives from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Joining the festivities was Gustavo Velasquez, HUD assistant secretary for fair housing and equal opportunity.
Mr. Velasquez said he was honored to be invited to the gala and looked forward to learning more about the center through the documentary.
“It’s an opportunity to celebrate and say thanks to this wonderful organization for all of the work it has done for 40 years,” he said before the event, “and to wish them at the very least another 40 years.”
In addition to the screening, the program included a question-and-answer panel discussion and presentations from several speakers, including Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson and Marc Hathaway, the documentary’s producer and editor. The evening was sponsored by Westfield Insurance.
“We have a really terrific program planned this evening,” said Toledo Fair Housing President Michael Marsh, who added he was eager for the film to premiere.
“It finally preserves and captures the rich history and important contributions that Toledo made to the fair-housing movement nationally.”
On Saturday, the Fair Housing Center celebrated the anniversary with a civil rights march through the Old West End and a mural dedication.
The History of the Toledo Fair Housing Center premieres Thursday on WGTE-TV, Channel 30 at 8 p.m.
First Published April 24, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
