Charline McIntosh

MCINTOSH, Charline, left this world Monday, April 2, 2018, after more than a century with us, to join her husband, W.S. McIntosh and son, J.W. McIntosh. Born August 6, 1917 in Arkansas, Charline — affectionately known to family and friends as BooBoo — moved to Dayton, Ohio with her husband in the 1940s. They owned several small businesses while advocating for civil rights for Southern Ohio’s black population. The McIntoshes organized protest marches, sit-ins, and labor negotiations demanding equal employment rights. Charline was the secretary for the local Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) chapter while her husband was president. Their dry-cleaning business was vandalized and their home firebombed, but they were undeterred. In the late 1960s, along with their son and daughter-in-law, Elba McIntosh, they opened The House of Knowledge, a revolutionary Afrocentric book and imports store. In the early 1970s the shop moved downtown, becoming the first black-owned business on Dayton’s Main Street. After her husband’s murder, Charline dedicated herself to her family and a long career as a realtor. One of thirteen children, she is survived by her sister, Thelma Taylor Robinson; her brother, Robert Taylor; grandchildren, Tynnetta and Damien McIntosh; daughter-in-law, Elba; nephews, Kevin and Gregory Deloney, Reginald and Renard Robinson; great nieces, Taylor and Madison; four great grandchildren, many other nieces and nephews. Visitation will be held 4-7 pm Friday, April 6, 2018 at the House of Wheat Funeral Home, Inc., 2107 N. Gettysburg Ave. 

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