Vincent Hambright Research & Oral History
The project began in 2022, when I first started searching for traces of Asian and Pacific Islander history in Cincinnati. During one of those early searches, a July 1926 article from The Cincinnati Tribune surfaced. It mentioned a boxer named Vince Hambright. At first, I didn’t understand why it showed up in my results. I had to sit with that moment, questioning my expectations of what APIA history “should” look like. But something in that confusion pulled me in. A few clicks later, I found a line that stopped me: “Filipino kayo artist added another knockout victim to his list…”
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That was the moment it hit me. This is our history too. I could hear it echo, pushing back against the silence that has settled into the archives.
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I kept searching the digital archives, finding numerous mentions of Vincent Hambright in the context of boxing. But they weren’t full articles or profiles. Most were passing lines, fight results, brief recaps, or names on a fight card. Almost none described who Vincent was beyond the ring.
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In August 2023, I found a photo of Vincent Hambright on Ancestry.com. The image had been uploaded by someone named April Walker. I reached out, unsure if I’d hear back. A few days after Thanksgiving, she responded. April shared that she is Vincent Hambright’s great-granddaughter; her grandmother was his daughter, Dolly Jean.
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Around the same time, I was able to connect with two more family members, Vincent Scott Hambright, the grandson of Vincent Hambright, and Vincent Cole Hambright, his great-grandson. They are part of the family line through Vincent’s son, Vincent Jr., further anchoring this story in living memory.
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All three agreed to allow our Public Historian, James Tecco, to conduct Oral Histories with them. The Hambright and Walker memories provided us with insight into Vincent as more than just a boxer, but also as a father, son, and military veteran. This work goes beyond documenting family history. It’s a commitment to restore a life left out of the record, to bring forward what has been silenced, and to recognize that these personal stories are essential to understanding the city’s fuller, more complex history.
