The Story of Pleasant Litchford Pleasant Litchford and his family, all freed slaves, settled in Perry Township, Ohio, now Upper Arlington, in 1832. A blacksmith by profession, he lived in harmony with his white neighbors, eventually becoming the fourth largest landowner in the area. Fast forward to 1915, and new politics prohibited blacks from owning land. Later, the remains of the Litchfords and other African America residents were uprooted and moved to unmarked graves - as if to erase their roles in the community's history. Youth to Youth International How one community-based drug prevention and youth leadership program is working in Columbus. From the Vault: The Vanguard League of Columbus Artifacts at the Ohio History Center from an early civil rights organization that advocated for fair housing, desegregation, and other issues in Columbus in the 1940s.