Leonard H. Robinson memories photo album

Leonard H. Robinson was born to a Black mother (Maude, born 1879) and an unidentified father near Washington Court House, Ohio on June 7, 1898. Maude's 1900 census record lists her occupation as "Servant" and includes her two sons, Leo and Leonard. The brothers were raised in Marietta, Ohio by an an aunt and Uncle: A. C. and Nettie Alford (both Black). Leo was clearly light skinned which allowed him to move more freely between the white and Black communities of the small city. He had friendships with adults and young people alike in both races. The two social lives rarely, if ever intersected- a fact Leonard understood.

Leonard attended Marietta High School and played on a segregated high school football team, where he was passing as white. He briefly moved to Akron and lived in a seemingly all-white boarding house.

Leonard's ability to pass as white is reflected in his gradually changing racial self-identification. His birth record, 1910 census entry, and his WWI draft card list his race as "Negro." On the 1920 census, he called himself, "Mulatto." In all documentation beginning with his 1921 marriage certificate in Coldwater, Michigan, he lists his race as "White." His wife, Ruth Irene Mushaw shows an almost identical racial background as Leonard. The couple identified themselves as "White" and eloped in 1921. She was also raised in a Black family and was identifying as white on her records. She was also a student at Ohio Northern University. Leonard's 1990 obituary names him as a graduate of Ohio Northern University's Pharmacy program in 1921, where he appears to have been the only Black student in his class. Robinson's interest in the field of pharmacy started in his youth.