Rest in Power, Senator Prentiss. Thank You for Your Decades of Leadership
C.J. Prentiss, a trailblazing state lawmaker from Cleveland who was a fierce advocate for labor, education and civil rights, died last week after a prolonged illness. She was 82.
Fighting for economic and social justice since the 1960s, Prentiss served on the State Board of Education from 1985 until 1990, then served in the Ohio General Assembly as a Democrat from 1991 until 2006. In 2005, Prentiss became the second Black woman to serve as Senate minority leader, and she was the first Black woman to lead the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus.
"Working people of Ohio are better off today because of the work Senator Prentiss did while in office," said Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga. "CJ always put what’s best for all of Ohio into her life’s work, and her successful effort to increase the minimum wage annually to inflation is one of the many shining examples.”
Prentiss was also a major advocate for K-12 public education, going on a hunger strike for several days in the mid-1990s to secure funding for the state’s school breakfast program, which largely benefited students from poorer families in Appalachian Ohio. She also was an early champion of Ohio’s third-grade reading guarantee program, and she pushed for legislation to secure funding for all-day kindergarten, reduced class sizes, support for at-risk Black male students and literacy support for elementary school students.