Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Lincoln Heights, OH

Lincoln Heights is a village in Hamilton County, Ohio, a suburb about 13 miles north of downtown Cincinnati in the Mill Creek Valley.

Lincoln Heights is the first all-Black, self-governing municipality north of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Lincoln Heights began in 1923, when the Haley-Livingston Land Company began selling lots to Black families in an unincorporated Springfield Township subdivision marketed as the Cincinnati Industrial Subdivision.

The early community had no paved roads, streetlights, police or fire protection, and only some houses had electricity; many Black families bought there because redlining and zoning barred them from other communities, and many residents worked at the nearby Wright Aeronautical plant.

Residents first tried to incorporate in 1939, but Lockland objected minutes before the filing deadline, and while Lincoln Heights' application was delayed for years, Woodlawn and Evendale incorporated and took the western and eastern portions of its proposed territory, including the aeronautical plant.

Hamilton County finally allowed Lincoln Heights to incorporate in 1946 with only about 10 percent of the area originally proposed, leaving the new village with no industrial tax base.

Lincoln Heights' first mayor was the Reverend Michael J. Mangham, one of the earliest African American mayors in the northern United States.

New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey was so struck by Lincoln Heights' achievement that he invited a delegation including Mayor Mangham to New York City, where a ticker-tape parade was held in their honor.

Lincoln Heights' population peaked at 7,798 in 1960 and has since fallen to 3,144 at the 2020 census.

The 2020 census counted 1,262 households in Lincoln Heights, and about 89 percent of its residents were Black or African American.