African Americans have a long and varied history in Cincinnati, Ohio and in adult education. These histories were subjugated for the most part to the historical narratives of the dominant European American population especially within adult education. Some writers of history from within and outside of the field of education explicated the history of African American adult education and these contributions enriched our knowledge of the various institutions, leaders, programs, and philosophies of African American adult education. Few studies included the learners voices in the historical narratives. By employing an Africentric theoretical framework and using oral history, this study created a historical narrative that was inclusive of the adult learners voices and provided a local history of African American adult education in Cincinnati during the 1930s and 1940s. This oral history study named racism as a pivotal factor in the delivery, structure and curricular emphasis of adult education at both the national and local levels. It detailed some of the learning opportunities that were available to African American adults in Cincinnati and outlined three themes with respect to those opportunities. First, most planned organizational learning opportunities under European American control were circumscribed by a system of racism that resulted in educational opportunities being separate, inferior, and disempowering for African American adults. Second, educational and occupational opportunities and their subsequent outcomes existed in a state of paradoxical tension. That is, those opportunities were designed to maintain a racial caste system that held African Americans in subservience. By design those opportunities were not structured to have the enormous benefit that they did on the lives of African American adults. Finally, the learning experiences of African American adults can be understood as part of a broader resistance effort to racism in Cincinnati. This study showed that African Americans displayed resistance to that racism by developing culturally relevant programs, by maintaining strong social networks, and by exhibiting self-determination. They turned lemons into lemonade thus undermining the effects of Jim Crow in adult education and in the society at large.