Dave Hall (U.S. politician)

Dave Hall was an American politician of the Ohio Republican party. He served as mayor of Dayton, Ohio. His son, Tony P. Hall, was a Democratic U.S. representative for 24 years and is now U.S. ambassador to several United Nations agencies.

Hall was a city commissioner of Dayton (1963–1965) and the city's mayor (1965–1970). During Hall's tenure as mayor, the city suffered from race riots. With its history of racism and segregation, by the 1960s, Dayton was a hotbed of racial tensions. On Sept. 1, 1966, a group of white men riding in a pickup truck down Fifth Street shot and killed Lester Mitchell, a black man who was sweeping the sidewalk in front of his house. The murder set off a riot in the black-majority west-side of the city. More than 130 people were arrested for looting and Hall called in the National Guard to restore peace. Hall, known as a person who expressed his emotions in public, stood in the streets pleading for peace and wept publicly at the sight of the carnage.

Rioting erupted again in June 1967 after a speech by H. Rap Brown. Months later, a police detective killed Robert Barbee, who was an official of the Social Security Administration attending a convention in the city. The detective had mistaken Barbee's pipe for a gun. In 1968, when the police officer was acquitted of manslaughter, a protest of 500 marched through the streets.

Hall retired in 1970 because of health problems. He was succeeded by City Commissioner James McGee, who became Dayton's first African American mayor.

Dave Hall Plaza, dedicated in 1971 and named after Hall, surrounds the Crowne Plaza Hotel at Fifth and Main streets in Dayton.

Hall's wife was named Ann. They had three sons, Sam, Mike, and Tony. Mike was a principal at a Cincinnati-area high school. Sam served in the Ohio legislature. Tony served for many years in the United States House of Representatives, being nominated for the Nobel Prize three times, and now is ambassador to the United Nations agencies in Rome.