GLENDALE, Ohio — Inside the Eckstein School in Glendale, there should be classrooms full of inspiration.
As Bill Parrish, the school's new owner, walked us through the halls Monday, we instead found walls covered in graffiti.
"This is really an emotional shot in the arm," said Parrish as he showed us the graffiti sprayed throughout the school, which was once a segregated school for Black students from 1915 to 1958.
Almost a decade ago, Parrish began the nonprofit Eckstein Cultural Arts Center to save the school from being demolished. He had the hope of one day turning it into an arts community center for children.
The school has a lot of significance to Parrish. It's not only a historical site, but his father attended Eckstein in the 1920s.
After years of hard work and fighting, Parrish and his team were able to acquire the school. About a month after signing the papers, the school was vandalized in what Parrish calls a hate crime.
“To see this is really kinda emotional experience to see the hate, I mean that’s how I see this, as a hate crime,” Parrish said.
Due to the timing of how soon after Parrish and his team received the building, Parrish says he believes the graffiti was an intentional crime.
“Leading up to this there’s been a lot of resistance on multiple levels, and I see this and just a byproduct of that,” Parrish said.
One of Parrish’s main goals with the Eckstein Cultural Arts Center is to “intentionally integrate” the community in a space that was once segregated.
“You can’t rest, you can’t cry or do whatever you gotta do,” Parrish said. “But the work still has to be done.”
While Parrish, wants the vandals caught, he said his priority is to connect and understand the community.
“I just feel like I gotta help the people that did this, to listen to understand why they did it,” Parrish said.
He said the school's next steps are repairs and renovations, so it can then continue to repair the community’s connection.
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