1
100
16
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https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/0984fe1fc628453f04784573f058b81e.jpg
fad189176e104f6e7d8c078ccdbe42a4
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Robert Lee Bailey
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Robert Lee Bailey was a successful Indianapolis lawyer and active member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He fought tirelessly against segregation and discrimination throughout his life [1]. Bailey was born in Alabama in 1885. After graduation from Talladega College, he moved north for job opportunities. In 1912, he graduated from the Indiana University School of Law [2]. Prior to entering law school, he worked as a railway mail clerk. During this time, he founded the National Alliance of Postal Employees, and later served as their general counsel [3]. During the 1920s and ‘30s, he served as a special judge in the Marion Circuit Court, ran for state representative, and was involved with several organizations and movements [4]. Among his many activities, he was involved with the Bethel Church, Southern Cross Lodge, No. 39, F. and A.M., where he was past master. He was also the chairman of the committee on foreign relations for the Indiana Grand Lodge F. and A.M., chairman of the redress committee for the Indiana NAACP, and a local NAACP branch president [5].
During the height of Indiana’s Ku Klux Klan activity in the 1920s, Bailey helped lead the Indianapolis NAACP against the growing power of the Klan. Mirroring the Klan’s rapid growth during this decade, the Indianapolis branch of the NAACP grew considerably under the leadership of Bailey and fellow lawyers Robert Lee Brokenburr, W.S. Henry, and Freeman Ransom [6]. Bailey was involved in several critical moments in Indianapolis’s African American Civil Rights history.
In the early 1920s, Bailey represented NAACP in court, asking the Indianapolis school board to reconsider their decision to build an all-black high school. Bailey and two African American lawyers asked for an injunction, believing the proposed school promoted segregation and unequal opportunities for Indianapolis’s African American students [7]. Despite pleas from the NAACP, Crispus Attucks High School opened in September 1927 [8].
In 1931, Indiana Attorney General James Ogden appointed Bailey as the assistant attorney general. He was the first African American to hold the position. In the same year, Bailey faced one of his most difficult cases. Brokenburr and Bailey defended James Cameron, a sixteen-year-old boy from Marion, Indiana, who had been charged with murder. Cameron’s friends, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, were beaten and hanged in what is known as the last lynching in Indiana’s history. Cameron narrowly escaped the same fate. If found guilty by the all-white jury, he faced life in prison or the death penalty. Bailey and Brokenburr provided evidence to reduce Cameron’s charges. He was found guilty as an accessory to voluntary manslaughter and served two years in the Indiana State Reformatory [9]. While Cameron’s narrow escape from the lynch mob was unique, lynching in Indiana was not. Besides Shipp and Smith, at least seven other African American men were lynched in Indiana between 1890 and 1902 [10].
Robert Bailey died in 1940 [11]. Newspaper accounts of his death remembered him as “one of the most brilliant attorneys ever to practice in the Indiana courts,” and an “honorable, straightforward…splendid citizen" [12]. Robert Lee Bailey was most known for his love for battle in the courtroom, which was “surpassed only by his thirst for justice" [13].
Source
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[1] “Our Branch History,” Indy NAACP, accessed March 19, 2021, https://www.indynaacp.org/branch-history.
[2] Ryan Schwier and Ravay Smith, “’Thirst for Justice’: Indiana’s Pioneering Black Lawyers,” Indiana Legal Archive, February 23, 2015, http://www.indianalegalarchive.com/journal/2015/2/18/thirst-for-justice.
[3] “Great Man Who Had Thirst for Justice,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), March 9, 1940.
[4] Ryan Schwier and Ravay Smith, “’Thirst for Justice’: Indiana’s Pioneering Black Lawyers.”
[5] “Great Man Who Had Thirst for Justice,” Indianapolis Recorder.
[6] Emma Lou Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century (Indiana University Press, 2000), 49. [7] Emma Lou Thornbrough, 57.
[8] Emma Lou Thornbrough, 58.
[9] Ryan Schwier and Ravay Smith, “’Thirst for Justice’: Indiana’s Pioneering Black Lawyers.”
[10] “Indiana Lynching Victims Memorial,” America’s Black Holocaust Museum, accessed March 22, 2021, https://www.abhmuseum.org/indiana-lynching-victims-memorial/.
[11] “Great Man Who Had Thirst for Justice,” Indianapolis Recorder.
[12] “Bailey’s Death Brings Grief to Multitudes,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), March 9, 1940.
[13] “Great Man Who Had Thirst for Justice,” Indianapolis Recorder.
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Student Author: Gwyneth Harris
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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PHOTO & VIDEO:
Courtesy Indiana University https://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/IUPUIphotos/id/31228/rec/1
1800s
1900-1940s
Civil Rights Movement
Indianapolis
Integration
Ku Klux Klan
law
Marion County
NAACP
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/f10129612af9255804b18efac4f30526.mp3
c4a0a0f2e5c8ea3d1e1b91f2ef81db07
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Interview 5 with Junifer Hall (Mayor Richard Hatcher of Gary)
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<a href="https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/items/show/108">Mayor Richard Hatcher of Gary</a>
Description
An account of the resource
Junifer Hall, a life-long resident of Gary, Indiana describes how Mayor Richard Hatcher promoted residents staying in the city and investing in the city with their dollars and how he impacted her experiences with racism.
<strong>***Trancript***</strong><br /><br /><span><em>Junifer Hall</em>: From a young child, I could hear Mayor Hatcher saying, “stay in Gary, buy in Gary. </span><span>You can be just as competitive. We have to control our own financial dollars,” and that is one of </span><span>the strongest memories I have from my childhood </span><span>because unfortunately, I did not have a lot of </span><span>the experiences of direct racism only because Mayor Hatcher has just pivoted to power.</span>
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/5e1f80e04b5ad80202ae6bb16e688ba8.mp3
7ef09e0c7d0248f605751216ed9f6033
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Interview 6 with Junifer Hall (Mayor Richard Hatcher of Gary)
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<a href="https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/items/show/108">Mayor Richard Hatcher of Gary</a>
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Junifer Hall, a life-long resident of Gary, Indiana, shares how Mayor Richard Hatcher opened doors for more African American individuals to hold political office, including her mother Represenative Katie Hall. Junifer Hall also describes Hatcher's impact on city hall and blazing a trail of opportunity for others.
<strong>***Transcript***<br /><br /></strong><em>Junifer Hall</em>: And he opened the door for my generation, so we didn’t have to experience as overtly, and we thank him for that, especially myself. Every time now that I go to city hall to serve on the Gary Historic Preservation Commission because if it weren’t for a trailblazer such as Richard Hatcher, there could not have been a Katie Hall, there could not have been a mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson, and I might be biased on this, and I might be sounded a little arrogant, but if it were not for Richard Gordon Hatcher opening the door for all of these people to follow, we could not have had the opportunity to serve, and my mother would often say when she first came to Gary, at city hall there was a receptionist and maybe a janitor people of color, and Mayor Hatcher knocked down so many barriers for so many to hold political offices including Katie Hall.
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/3b4c44c02ceee2d822d65c497af9803c.jpg
b4062d10611267bea339e0e99e4a7729
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Mayor Richard Hatcher of Gary
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Richard Gordon Hatcher was born on July 10, 1933 in Michigan City, Indiana. He grew up during the Great Depression as the twelfth of thirteen children. His family went on welfare after his father lost his job with the Pullman Car Company [1]. Despite encouragement from his teachers to pursue a career in the trades, Hatcher aspired to be a lawyer, indicative of his future career in political office and civil rights activism. In 1951, Hatcher attended Indiana University on an athletic scholarship, with financial assistance from his older sisters. Hatcher began his activism as an active member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), participating in protests against segregated restaurants while still in college [2]. He earned a law degree from Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana, and then moved to East Chicago, Indiana, to practice law. While there, he served as a deputy prosecutor for Lake County.
In 1962, Hatcher moved to Gary, Indiana, to pursue a career in politics and civil rights. He ran for city council in the 1963 Democratic primary and won due to the large African American support in the city. He was then chosen to be council president. While in office, he helped pass a law to “end restrictive property covenants that forced blacks to live primarily in Gary's midtown section" [3]. In 1967, Hatcher ran for mayor and led a campaign that promoted racial unity and promised to rid the city of corruption and poverty, specifically among African American individuals. In November of that year, he won the election with the support of 96 percent of African American voters and twelve percent of white voters. His election made him the first African American mayor in Indiana and one of the first African American mayors of a large American city. He was elected despite the Democratic Party supporting his Republican opponent Joseph Radigan [4]. His campaign was largely funded by donors like Senator Robert Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey [5]. He appealed to voters as a “young, intelligent, a reputable lawyer, and a capable city council member" [6]. In order to appease white voters, he appointed a white police chief to help create a crime-free city. Hatcher served as mayor for twenty years and then went on to serve as chairman of Jesse Jackson’s Democratic presidential campaign in 1984 and as vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee in the early 1980s [7].
During his five terms as mayor, Hatcher was able to fundraise millions of dollars in order to change the face of Gary, Indiana, adding new public housing units, repaving streets, and coordinating regular garbage collection for multiple inner-city neighborhoods [8]. In supporting African Americans in political leadership, he appointed twenty-five African Americans as governmental department heads. Unfortunately, Hatcher could not resolve every problem Gary had, including the sharp decline in the steel industry, which caused many hardships within Gary and surrounding communities. By the early 1980s, about 25,000 people were laid off at U.S. Steel. Businesses closed down and crime increased [9]. By 1987, when Hatcher left office, about 50,000 people had left Gary, including considerable numbers of white individuals who moved south to Merrillville, Indiana [10].
As mayor, Hatcher fought against race-based inequalities in Gary. Hatcher was part of the lawsuit to allow African Americans to visit Miller Beach, a neighborhood on the southern shore of Lake Michigan. Despite pushback and eventual failure, Hatcher pushed for the development of a bank for Gary’s African American community and more regulations on gun usage. Hatcher also supported accessible housing, founding the $1 house program that allowed residents to purchase a house if they were able to improve it. He also brought African American leaders across the United States to Gary through as part of the first National Black Political Convention [11].
Hatcher continued to be recognized as a powerful voice for civil rights and African American representation in office throughout his life. According to former Lake Country Surveyor George Van Til, Former President Barack Obama personally thanked Hatcher during the 2008 presidential primaries for letting him stand on his shoulders and supporting African Americans running for American leadership position [12]. During his final years, Hatcher and his family lived in Chicago, Illinois. Richard Hatcher passed away on December 13, 2019 at the age of 86. He is still remembered in the African American community as someone who “did the impossible,” in the words of Democratic Representative Charlie Brown of Gary.
<a href="https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/show/235">Junifer Hall interview 4</a><br /><a href="https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/show/237">Junifer Hall interview 5</a><br /><a href="https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/show/239">Junifer Hall interview 6</a><br /><a href="https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/show/236">Junifer Hall interview 7</a>
Source
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[1] Emma L. Thornborough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 2000, pp. 175.
[2] Ibid, pp. 176.
[3] Associated Press. “Richard Hatcher, one of 1st black mayors of major city, dead at 86.” NBC News, 2019. Accessed May 1, 2020. Accessed at https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/richard-hatcher-gary-indiana-one-1st-black-mayors-major-u-n1102311.
[4] Craig Lyons. “1967 Gary election a ‘history marker’ with Richard Hatcher as Indiana’s first African-American major.” Chicago Tribune, 2017. Accessed February 2, 2021. Accessed at https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/ct-ptb-richard-hatcher-profile-st-1029-20171028-story.html.
[5] David Rutter. “Rutter: Hatcher still pays his dues for unforgiven ‘sins.’” Chicago Tribune, 2016. Accessed on February 2, 2021. https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/opinion/ct-ptb-rutter-hatcher-st-0309-20160308-story.html
[6] Emma L. Thornborough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century. pp. 177.
[7] Associated Press.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] David Rutter.
[11] Craig Lyons.
[12] Craig Lyons.
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Student Authors: Emma Cieslik and Robin Johnson
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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PHOTO & VIDEO:
Richard Hatcher 1967, Public domain, via Wikimedia commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Richard_Hatcher_1967_(a).jpg
1950s-present
Civil Rights Movement
Gary
Housing
Lake County
law
NAACP
Oral History
Politics
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/5cb1c6337f8d4d1405c925c8cc2e0991.jpg
29775f0f2253a906528c3a038a6b4e93
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Reverend Julius James
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Julius James was born in 1918 [1]. After serving in the U.S Army, James graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1952, and the Morehouse School of Religion in 1954 [2]. James was a close friend with fellow Morehouse classmate Martin Luther King, Jr. [3] Reverend James served as pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church and Zion Hill Baptist Church in Georgia, [4] before accepting the call to become the Pastor of St. John Baptist Church in Gary, Indiana in October 1955 [5]. From 1959 to 1960, James served as president of the Baptist Minister’s Conference in Gary [6]. He was also involved in labor movements in Gary, walking among the picketers in the 1959 Steel Strike and supplying meals to protestors [7].
Reverend James brought the Civil Rights movement to St. John Baptist Church by hosting meetings and planning sessions for civil rights organizations in the late 1950’s and early 1960s. He invited prominent African American leaders to speak, including Jesse Jackson and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [8] His civil rights work in the community included serving as president of the Gary branch of the NAACP in the late 1950s [9]. James founded the “Gary Freedom Movement,” which coordinated economic boycotts of businesses that opposed civil rights legislation [10]. On posters, citizens were urged to “Sacrifice for Freedom in Gary. Don’t Buy Anything Anywhere for Easter. Wear Your Old Clothes for New Dignity. Boycott" [11]. In 1964, James organized a Christmas shopping boycott to protest businesses who opposed the Omnibus Civil Rights Bill [12].This organization later became the Gary Freedom Movement Council, and James served as chairman [13]. In the mid-1960s, he brought famous African Americans to the Gary for speaking engagements, including comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory, who encouraged 900 Gary residents to practice “selective shopping” at stores outside of Gary to protest continued racial injustice [14].
In recognition of his civil rights leadership, Reverend James was awarded the NAACP’s Mary White Ovington Award in 1964 for outstanding contributions to sustaining civil rights [15]. In March 1965, James bussed a group of congregants from St. John Baptist Church south to Atlanta to join the march from Selma to the state’s capital in Montgomery led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The protest march was in support of the supported the Voting Rights Act, prohibiting racial discrimination in voting. At home in Gary, James coordinated meetings between Dr. King and local Gary African American leaders. In 1966, Gary Mayor Richard Hatcher met Dr. King for the first time when Rev. James brought King to speak at St. John Baptist Church [16]. Dr. King spoke to 275 clergymen of various faiths at St. John Baptist Church, emphasizing interfaith solidarity [17].
Fair housing practices later became a focus of Reverend James’ activism. Under his leadership, St. John Baptist Church purchased a rundown housing complex at 22nd and Carolina Streets. Using government grants, the church remodeled the housing complex into the St. John Homes, which operated as one of the only viable non-profit housing developments in the U.S. until 1984 [18]. James founded the Fair Share Organization, focused on fair housing and employment practices, [19] with Cherrie White, secretary of the Gary NAACP, and Richard Gordon Hatcher, Gary’s first African America mayor [20].
Rev. James was inducted into the Steel City Hall of Fame in 1987, for making “broad, significant, and multiple contributions to the Gary community or to society at large" [21]. Rev. James died in 1994, after a lifetime dedicated to civil rights in Indiana and the nation [22].
Source
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[1] Correspondence from Julius James (Shiloh Baptist Church) to Martin Luther King, Jr, March 14, 1955. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. Accessed on February 5, 2021. https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/julius-james.
[2] Correspondence from Julius James, March 14, 1955.
[3] Becky Jacobs. “Man killed in Gary was great-grandson of pastor, civil rights activist.” Chicago Tribune, February 22, 2019. Accessed on February 5, 2021. https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/ct-ptb-julius-james-death-st-0213-story.html.
[4] Correspondence from Julius James, March 14, 1955.
[5] “Our Community.” St. John Baptist Church. Accessed on February 5, 2021. http://stjohnbcgary.com/community/
[6] Correspondence from Julius James, March 14, 1955.
[7] “Our Community.”
[8] “Our Community.”
[9] Correspondence from Julius James, March 14, 1955.
[10] James B. Lane. City of the Century: A History of Gary, Indiana. Indiana University Press, 1978, pp. 281.
[11] James H. Madison and Lee Ann Sandweiss. Chapter 11: Justice, Equality, and Democracy for All Hoosiers in Justice, Equality, and Democracy for All Hoosiers. http://indianahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/Hoosiers-and-the-American-Story-ch-11.pdf
[12] Becky Jacobs. “Man killed in Gary was great-grandson of pastor, civil rights activist.”
[13] “Gary woman heads Ind. Conference of NAACP.” Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 6 November 1965, pp. 12. Hoosier States Chronicles. Accessed February 5, 2021. https://newspapers.library.in.gov/cgi-bin/indiana?a=d&d=INR19651106-01.1.12&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------
[14] “Gregory Endorses Boycott.” Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 January 1965, pp. 6. Hoosier States Chronicles. Accessed February 5, 2021. https://newspapers.library.in.gov/cgi-bin/indiana?a=d&d=INR19650123-01.1.6&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------
[15] “Gary woman heads Ind. Conference of NAACP.”
[16] Joyce Russell. “Local residents recall the legacy of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the 50th anniversary of his death.” NWI.com. Accessed February 5, 2021. https://www.nwitimes.com/news/history/local-residents-recall-the-legacy-of-the-rev-martin-luther-king-jr-on-the-50th/article_9eb318e4-92e1-5fcd-b0a1-27058351c345.html
[17] Nancy Coltun Webster. “MILK’s life remembered as Northwest Indiana leaders continue to struggle.” Chicago Tribune, April 4, 2018. https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/ct-ptb-king-anniversary-indiana-st-0404-20180403-story.html
[18] “Our Community.”
[19] Correspondence from Julius James, March 14, 1955.
[20] Carmen M. Woodson-Wray and Gary Crusader. “After 103 years Cherrie White has truly had a productive life.” Crusader. Accessed on February 5, 2021. https://chicagocrusader.com/103-years-cherrie-white-truly-productive-life/ [21] “Steel City hall of Fame.” Gary Public Library. Accessed February 5, 2021. http://www.garypubliclibrary.org/steel-city-hall-of-fame/
[22] “Our Community.”
Contributor
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Student Author: Emma Cieslik
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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PHOTO & VIDEO:
Sacrifice: Join Rev. Martin Luther King, Indiana Historical Society.
https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/V0002/id/1148/rec/2
1900-1940s
1950s-present
Civil Rights Movement
Gary
Housing
Lake County
NAACP
Religious Leaders
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/a1c8b35156d8c668e634f6c104ad3f08.jpg
0b1b30008fa594b4eb1ec194e91b0b31
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Places
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Miller Beach
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Nestled between a steel plant and the Indiana Dunes National Park, Miller Beach is a community on the easternmost side of Gary with a reputation of progressive attitudes. Fine sunsets and beautiful wilderness sanctuaries paint Miller Beach as a resplendent recreational getaway for anybody looking to escape the crowded and busy streets of Chicago. Miller Beach was not always a destination that welcomed everyone, however. Miller Beach began as a sundown town, where African Americans spent time as daytime workers and household servants but were expected to be out of town by dark [1]. In its infancy, Miller Beach had a long way to go before it encapsulated the progressive ideals for which it is known today.
Miller Beach began as the small town of Miller Station in 1865. Although a mere train stop in its beginning, it soon became a settlement for steel workers. In 1919 the town was annexed by Gary and became Miller Beach or, as it is often referred, Miller. Annexation was against the wishes of many who wanted to keep their clandestine beaches unspoiled. Quickly encroaching on the solitude of the community, people flocked to Miller on streetcars that connected downtown Gary to Lake Street in Miller Beach [2]. Miller rapidly became a hotspot for wealthy white Chicagoans to build summer cottages or luxurious landmark homes so they could spend their summers enjoying the dunes and lagoons of Lake Michigan. During this early period, the people of Miller Beach did not allow African Americans to live in the community [3]. War production of steel brought an era of economic prosperity in Gary. A labor shortage and company recruitment inspired a large number of black workers to move up from the south to find jobs. Barred from Miller Beach, they were forced to live in the Midtown neighborhood, overcrowding soon pushed African Americans to buy property in other neighborhoods. White residents in these nearby neighborhoods quickly became uncomfortable at the thought of integration and moved to Miller, where African Americans were not allowed to visit the beaches or bathe in the waters of the lake [4]. The racist attitudes of the affluent white people did not sit well with some of Miller’s residents.
In 1949, black and white Gary citizens banded together to march to the beaches of Miller. They planned to have the African Americans among them step into the waters of Lake Michigan in an act of defiance against racist attitudes. A white mob met the group at Marquette Park, armed with clubs and pipes. Only three black residents reached the water. Racist and violent incidents like this continued for years after the Gary residents marched for integration in Miller Beach [5].
The bleak reality of Miller’s racist reputation was not to last, however. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 pushed small communities like Miller Beach to address their overtly racist practices. In that same year, television writer Stanley Greenberg sold a Miller Beach house to a black family. It was an unprecedented decision that brought Miller closer to integration, but caused violent threats against Greenberg. A few years later, Richard Hatcher became the first African American mayor of Gary. He was a pro-civil-rights and antipollution activist [6]. White flight rapidly followed Hatcher’s election. Entire Gary neighborhoods were put up for sale as white residents with uncompromising attitudes about integration left the area [7].
In 1971, the residents of Miller Beach decided to act on the unrest in their community. The Miller Citizens Corporation, or MCC, was created by a group of primarily white, liberal residents who sought to bring stability to Miller Beach. The corporation’s goals were to welcome black families into the community and discourage the panic selling by white citizens that had afflicted the community since Hatcher’s election. They also set up a hotline to oust harmful, false rumors [8].
Davetta M. Haywood, a woman whose family moved to Gary during the Second Great Migration from the South, joined the MCC after moving to Miller as an adult. Describing the work of the group, she said “we wanted to work with our neighbors instead of pushing them away" [9]. The combined effort quelled white anxiety and led to racial stability in the area. By the end of the 1980s, Miller Beach was about 68% black, making a primarily black neighborhood out of a space that had been a prejudiced, exclusive white community only a couple decades earlier [10].
Today, Miller Beach is a bustling beach town that offers an abundance of diverse activities to residents and visitors. The community retains eco-friendly practices to preserve the Indiana Dunes while hosting a multitude of restaurants, breweries, and small businesses. The arts are alive at the Miller Beach Arts and Creative District, where music events, artist talks, and gallery showings offer a unique experience [11]. In 2016, the Arts and Creative District hosted an exhibit at the Marshall J. Gardner Center for the Arts. Vanguards: Moving “Out Here” to Miller was an exhibit showcasing “black perspectives on joining the Miller community in the ‘60s and ‘70s" [12]. The exhibit gave voices to the African Americans whose efforts changed Miller Beach from an exclusive, segregated beach spot to the integrated community known for its progressive ideals. Due to the perseverance of African Americans against prejudice and blatant racist attitudes, Miller’s fine sunsets and beaches can now be enjoyed by anyone who wishes to dip their toes into the tranquil waters of Lake Michigan.
Source
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[1] Matthew A. Werner, “Miller Station to Miller Beach & Everything in Between,” DigTheDunes, February 2, 2018, https://digthedunes.com/miller-station-miller-beach-everything/.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Grant Pick, “Now Comes Miller’s Time: An Island of Integration and Natural Beauty in Gary, Indiana,” Chicago Reader, June 29, 1989, https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/now-comes-millers-time-an-island-of-integration-and-natural-beauty-in-gary-indiana/Content?oid=874093.
[4] Matthew A. Werner, “Miller Station to Miller Beach & Everything in Between.”
[5] Grant Pick, “Now Comes Miller’s Time: An Island of Integration and Natural Beauty in Gary, Indiana.”
[6] Ibid.
[7] Matthew A. Werner, “Miller Station to Miller Beach & Everything in Between.”
[8] James B. Lane, “Moving to Miller,” Northwest Indiana Historian James B Lane, Blogspot, April 28, 2016, http://northwestindianahistorianjamesblane.blogspot.com/2016/04/moving-to-miller.html.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Grant Pick, “Now Comes Miller’s Time: An Island of Integration and Natural Beauty in Gary, Indiana.”
[11] “Visit Miller Beach.” South Shore Indiana, South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority, January 25, 2021, https://www.southshorecva.com/listing/visit-miller-beach/2997/.
[12] Bob Kostanczuk, “Nina Simone Doc Highlights Miller Beach Exhibit on Gary’s Past,” Chicago Tribune, February 16, 2016, https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/ct-ptb-nina-simone-gary-st-0219-20160216-story.html.
Contributor
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Student Author: Gwyneth Harris
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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PHOTO & VIDEO:
Miller Beach Sign, attributed to Visviva, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Miller_Beach_Sign.jpg
1800s
1900-40s
1950s-present
Civil Rights Movement
Entertainment
Gary
Integration
Lake County
Segregation
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/6b20843a61c8c8b86994f6621fba3f55.jpg
3f9024495bec31fe55e9a0b194a4c2ef
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Places
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Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper
Description
An account of the resource
The Indianapolis Recorder was founded in 1895 when co-publishers, George P. Stewart and Will Porter, decided that their church newsletter could have a far greater outreach within the African American community.[1] They expanded the Indianapolis Recorder to cover local news stories that directly, and specifically, affected African American lives. In 1899, Porter sold his ownership of the newspaper to Stewart, who quickly took control of the African American news scene in Indianapolis.[2] In its early years, the Indianapolis Recorder reported largely on community and local stories, however it later began dedicating more resources to covering national events that impacted African American communities all over America. Columns were written for and about African Americans in Indianapolis, and they often attempted to spread hope and positive news to their readers to inspire individuals, and to remind the African American community of their own prominence in a society that often worked diligently against them.[3]
Before the First World War, the Indianapolis Recorder encouraged African Americans to support the war effort however they could in an attempt to display their patriotism, so that the African American community would in turn be able to enjoy a collective improvement in their quality of life in America.[4] Following the war, however, Indiana’s African American population, and throughout the United States, were instead faced with the resurgence of Ku Klux Klan activity, race riots, and an increase in lynching. When these issues began to escalate throughout American society, the Indianapolis Recorder started covering violent stories and incidents of racially inspired crimes, even when other daily newspapers did not.[5] In a continual attempt to also include stories that spread good news and the accomplishments of African Americans, an emphasis was placed on athletics, which soon became a common sense of pride for the community. This collective pride came in large part thanks to the accomplishments of athletes at Crispus Attucks High School, including Oscar Robertson, but also from other nationally renowned African American athletes emerging at the time, like Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays, who broke many racial barriers.[6] The Indianapolis Recorder also reported on the Civil Rights movement and profiled key figures that many within the African American community looked to for support and encouragement. [7]
The Indianapolis Recorder played an active role in the local Civil Rights movement, while at the same time keeping their readers informed of national Civil Rights events. The front page of the September 15, 1962 edition reports on Mrs. Rebecca Wilson from Georgia, whose husband Roy had been working in Indianapolis for two months. Mrs. Wilson had shot and killed “one of a group of masked white night marauders” who attempted an armed invasion of her family’s Georgia home. The “Ku Klux Klan was suspected” as they had previously shot at the house and burned an eight-foot cross in the yard to try to drive out “the only Negro in the community”. The Indianapolis Recorder offered to pay for Mrs. Wilson’s trip from Georgia to Indianapolis so she could be with her husband. The front page contained other news of local and national significance including a feature story on a northern Indiana professor and minister who was jailed for participating in a “prayer vigil” organized by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. in Albany, Georgia. An adjoining column reported on King’s calls for President John F. Kennedy to take action to curtail the “Nazi-like reign of terror in Southwest Georgia” referring to church bombings, violence, and cross burnings. Details of U.S. Attorney Robert F. Kennedy’s visit to Indianapolis the next week to speak at the Governor’s Conference on Civil Rights to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation rounded out the front page.[8]
In the late 1990s, the Indianapolis Recorder focused on returning to the overall positive tone once used to unite the African American community. [9] By refocusing the paper’s tone on “positive, educational and empowering news that would offer encouragement and support to the community,”[10] the Indianapolis Recorder was able to survive, and has since expanded its influence to nearly 100,000 readers. [11]
The enduring legacy of the Indianapolis Recorder runs deep within the African American community, especially with respect to the enduring opportunities that the Indianapolis Recorder offers for nearby high school students, community directed financial efforts, and aspiring African American journalists.[12] Today, the Indianapolis Recorder building still stands at 2901 N. Tacoma Ave., and is a part of the Ransom Place Historic District listed in the National Register of Historic Places.[13]
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
[1] “Black and White and Read all Over: The Indianapolis Recorder,” Moment of Indiana History, February 18, 2009, https://indianapublicmedia.org/momentofindianahistory/black-white-read-overthe-indianapolis-recorder/
[2] “About Us,” Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper, Accessed June 25, 2020, http://www.indianapolisrecorder.com/site/about.html
[3] “Eyewitness to a Century: The Indianapolis Recorder,” The Indianapolis Recorder, September 2, 2005, https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=INR20050902-01.1.8&srpos=2&e=-------en-20-INR-1--txt-txIN-indianapolis+recorder------
[4] “About Us”
[5] Ibid.
[6] “Eyewitness to a Century: The Indianapolis Recorder”
[7] “Recorder,” Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper, February 16, 2001, https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=INR20010216-01.1.51&srpos=1&e=-------en-20-INR-1--txt-txIN-indianapolis+recorder+history------
[8] Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper, September 15, 1962, https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=INR19620915-01.1.1&srpos=3&e=-------en-20-INR-1--txt-txIN-%22civil+rights%22+robert+kennedy------
[9] “Eyewitness to a Century: The Indianapolis Recorder”
[10] “Recorder”
[11] “About Us”
[12] Ibid.
[13] “Ransom Place Historic District,” Indian Historical Bureau, Accessed June 25, 2020, https://www.in.gov/history/markers/216.htm
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Student Author: Joel Sharp
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Indianapolis Recorder Office on Indiana Avenue, Indianapolis Recorder Collection, Indiana Historical Society.
https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/p0303/id/69/rec/14
Relation
A related resource
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/132004020">National Register of Historic Places</a>
1800s
1900-40s
1950s-present
Civil Rights Movement
Indianapolis
Ku Klux Klan
Marion County
National Register of Historic Places
Newspapers
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/877d44e0376f8d254bedb038e788b77f.jpg
840f7a125adf1ab78e56c882efd880f3
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The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
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Events
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Lockefield Place Riots
Description
An account of the resource
In June of 1969, the Lockefield Place neighborhood of Indianapolis erupted in violent protests in response to an alleged incident of police brutality. Lockefield Place, located northwest of downtown, was the most prominent African American neighborhood in Indianapolis. At the center of this residential area stood Lockefield Gardens, a large public housing complex built by the Public Works Administration during the Great Depression. Lockefield Gardens served Indianapolis’ African American community as a social hub, cultural center, and place of residency for many families. During the early-to-mid twentieth century, Indianapolis enforced discriminatory public policies that resulted in decades of inadequate housing, segregation of public facilities, and the lack of educational and employment opportunities for African Americans.[1] By the 1960s, the glaring issue that plagued Indianapolis’ African American residents and the Lockefield Place neighborhood was the growing friction between the African American population and the police.[2] Throughout the 1960s, this tension would mount until it exploded in a violent riot at the end of the decade.
Racial unrest tore throughout the United States during the 1960s, sparking both peaceful and violent demonstrations. Fearing violent clashes in Indianapolis, officers of the Indianapolis National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) called on Mayor John Barton and other city officials to train police officers in effective riot control, identify potential hot spots where unrest was most likely to break out, and create a program of action in the event of violence in 1966. The NAACP’s efforts to improve relations among African Americans and police officers and prevent riots proved ineffective, as city leaders failed to implement their demands. The Indianapolis Police Department had looked on black militarism with great suspicion since the beginning of the Civil Rights movement, and as the Black Panthers arrived in Indianapolis following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., police presence was increased in Lockefield Gardens.[3]
In June 1968, three members of the Indianapolis Black Panther chapter were arrested on charges of burglary and conspiracy to murder Indianapolis police chief Winston L. Churchill and head of the police vice squad Richard Jones.[4] The three men were arrested while stealing ammunition from the Marine Corp Training Reserve. According to prosecution, they were planning to use the weapons to incite a “racial outbreak.” The three were held under bonds of $20,000 a person- almost ten times the normal bond amount for this type of offense- for almost a year. In March 1969, two of the accused were convicted of burglary and conspiracy to murder and received two to 14-year sentences in prison.[5] The decision of the court was met with outrage in Indianapolis’ African American community. The Indianapolis Reporter, an African American newspaper, accused the police officer whose testimony was used to convict the two men of entrapment. Working undercover, the young African American officer had infiltrated the Black Panther group and helped members organize the burglary. [6] Mozell Sanders, a local Baptist reverend, urged the community to fight the conviction and raise funds to appeal the case.[7]
In the months following the sentencing, tensions ran high among police officers and the inhabitants of Lockefield Place. On Thursday, June 12, 1969, hostilities boiled over into a massive demonstration. The violence began after two white officers were ambushed by twenty young African American men while responding to an alleged fight in Lockefield Place. Although police denied the allegation, witnesses of the incident claimed that one police officer shot three volleys at a group of children playing while he was trying to halt a youth who had stolen a police revolver. As backup police officers arrived at Lockefield Place, a crowd of about 300 African American residents gathered and pelted them with bricks and bottles. The violent encounter erupted into a full-scale riot that lasted for two days and resulted in the arrests of over one hundred demonstrators, multiple riot-related injuries, and looting and damage to nearby businesses, including the total destruction of the Lockefield Big Ten Market.[8]
African American community leaders, including Reverend Sanders, called for peace from the mob. The Indianapolis Black Panthers and youth working for the neighborhood center “Our Place” were able to quell the riot by June 14. The solution proposed was that most police patrols be removed and only African American officers should be allowed in Lockefield Place. The Indianapolis NAACP also called on Indianapolis city leaders to create more educational and employment opportunities for the African American population. The riots in Indianapolis brought to light the issue of police brutality in African American neighborhoods and sparked disturbances in other Indianapolis cities, including in Kokomo and Marion.[9] Today, many buildings in Lockefield Place are listed on the National Register of Historic Places for their importance to the history of Indianapolis’ African American community.[10]
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
[1] Mary Giorgio, “The Many Lives of Indy’s Historic Lockefield Gardens,” Orangebean, March 20, 2020, https://orangebeanindiana.com/2020/03/20/the-many-lives-of-indys-historic-lockefield-gardens/.
[2] Emma L. Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000), 185.
[3] Ibid, 186.
[4] “Black police said he heard plans of assassination plot,” The Indianapolis Recorder, June 29, 1968, 1, 13.
[5] “Two get terms, third freed in armory burglary,” The Indianapolis Recorder, March 22, 1969, 1, 10.
[6] “Black police said he heard plans of assassination plot,” The Indianapolis Recorder. 1, 13.
[7] “Two get terms, third freed in armory burglary,” The Indianapolis Recorder, 1, 10.
[8] “Two nights of disorder rack Westside; calm restored Sat.,” Indianapolis Recorder, June 14, 1969, 1.
[9] Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century, 187.
[10] Giorgio, “The Many Lives of Indy’s Historic Lockefield Gardens.”
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Student Authors: Robin Johnson and Natalie Bradshaw
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Lockefield Big 10 Market Looted and Burned,
Indianapolis Recorder Collection, Indiana Historical Society.
https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/p0303/id/178/rec/1
1950s-present
Civil Rights Movement
Indianapolis
Marion County
NAACP
Police
Protest
Violence
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/02aeacead59903046bc5ccd7e8764b26.jpg
30a9853f597251d349aaf4216c83f98b
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Curtis Strong
Description
An account of the resource
Born in 1915 to the “son of the slave owner who had owned his mother’s family”,[1] Curtis Strong was no stranger to racism or the effects that segregation had on African American lives. Born in Mississippi, Strong grew up in Dixon, Illinois, before moving to Gary, Indiana, with hopes of joining the Air Force as a pilot. [2] However, because of the same racism and segregation that he would fight his whole life, he was unable to become a pilot and instead began working in a Gary tin mill in 1937.[3] The same year that Strong became a member of Steelworkers Union Local 1014, he witnessed the Memorial Day Massacre; a Chicago incident where police rioted and fired on unarmed, protesting steelworkers, killing 10. [4]
Strong was appointed as the first African American union griever at the Gary Works coke plant, handling union members’ grievances and complaints against their employer. He quickly began working with other African American factory workers to form “independent organization” within the union.[5] Strong also knew that, given the time and power dynamics within the union, if African American workers wanted to see change they would need to align their own goals with those of their white coworkers. Consequently, Strong spent a great deal of time “building Black-White unity”, and worked together with others in the factory so that changes would benefit all workers.[6] Strong pushed for changes in discriminatory practices, including desegregating jobs and locker rooms, and worked with various union members to encourage other changes, like internal hiring preferences, that benefitted all workers regardless of race. [7] His approaches were not without opposition, however, and he narrowly escaped death after two “union goons” once threw him from the third story window of a hotel. Curtis was eventually appointed to the International Union, where he worked to improve work conditions for not only African American steelworkers, but factory workers everywhere. [8]
Curtis and his wife, Jeannette, were both very involved with the NAACP throughout their lives. Jeannette was a steelworker activist like Curtis, but she also worked with her husband and the Gary NAACP to combat segregated medical treatment, housing, and nearly an entirely white Gary police force.[9] With the support of other NAACP members and resources, the Strongs helped desegregate hospitals where, as Curtis recounts, “one woman delivered a baby in the hallway because she was black.”[10] Curtis Strong not only picketed outside predominantly white hospitals, but simultaneously helped plan for 500 Gary citizens to participate in the 1963 March on Washington, partook in the march, and then returned to picketing as soon as he returned to Gary. [11],[12]
Strong worked throughout his life to pave a path to a better future for the African American community. He played a key role in the 1968 campaign that saw Richard Hatcher become the first African American mayor of Gary, where he served for 20 years.[13] Strong died on September 16, 2003 as one of the most influential labor and civil rights leaders in America’s history, and his legacy and voice live on in the policies of labor and union workplaces, as well as in the hearts of all those impacted by the Gary NAACP. [14]
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
[1] “Black Freedom Fighters in Steel: Black Workers Commemorated on Broadway,” The Chicago Crusader, October 8, 2018. https://chicagocrusader.com/black-freedom-fighters-in-steel-black-workers-commemorated-on-broadway/
[2] “Remembering Curtis Strong, 1915-2003,” People’s World, October 3, 2003. https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/remembering-curtis-strong-1915-2003/
[3] “Black Freedom Fighters in Steel: Black Workers Commemorated on Broadway”
[4] “Remembering Curtis Strong, 1915-2003”
[5] “Black Freedom Fighters in Steel: Black Workers Commemorated on Broadway”
[6] “Remembering Curtis Strong, 1915-2003”
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] “Physicians Recall Integrating Hospitals,” The Post-Tribune, May 2, 1996.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Ruth Needleman. “Black Freedom Fighters in Steel: The Struggle for Democratic Unionism,” 2003.
[12] “Physicians Recall Integrating Hospitals”
[13] “Remembering Curtis Strong, 1915-2003”
[14] Ibid.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Student Author: Joel Sharp
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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Information about rights held in and over the resource
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Gary Steel Works, United States Steel Corporation, 1959, attributed to Steven R. Shook, Public domain, via Flickr.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/shookphotos/4219006672/in/photostream/
1900-1940s
1950s-present
Civil Rights Movement
Gary
Integration
Lake County
NAACP
Organization
Politics
Steelworker Union
Union
Violence
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/788e98b7ba620c49a925844dce0e643a.png
3af30f527214c7098334c09c95e2cf7d
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Title
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People
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Jeannette Strong
Description
An account of the resource
Jeannette Strong played instrumental roles in the desegregation of both housing and hospital care in Gary, Indiana, throughout the 1960’s, and served as a major leader within the Gary chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Following a Gary City Council vote in July of 1962 that rejected moving towards desegregated housing, Strong and the NAACP helped organize a peaceful march to City Hall in protest of the “ghettoized housing conditions” that were being imposed on the African American community. [1] The protests were successful, and early in 1964 a “26-member Advisory Committee on Human Relations” was established to help protect the rights and relations of Gary’s African American community. [2]
In 1963, following the majority of her work to desegregate housing, Strong turned much of her attention to the disproportional hospital care that African Americans received when compared to the white population. Dr. Benjamin Grant, the first African American doctor to work for primarily white Gary Methodist Hospital, recounts times where African American patients would be forced to “die in the hall” while beds in dual occupancy rooms lay empty, for the sole reason that a white patient was already occupying one of the beds in the room. [3] Strong began working closely with the NAACP and other organizations, diligently attempting to form a picketed protest that could not be overlooked. In a letter directed to Gary clergy members, she urged them to take action and to support this cause by announcing information about the movement to their congregations. [4] Strong assured the clergy that their demonstrations would be held to the “highest level of Christian conduct”, and asked that they dedicate a portion of their offerings that month to her cause. [5] Her call was answered, and the clergy endorsed the cause by condemning segregation, which allowed Strong to turn her attention to Indiana Governor Matthew Welsh. She wrote to the Governor, insisting that the hospital’s refusal to release clear statements about how they planned to correct their unequal and heavily segregated healthcare was of the utmost importance for the growing population of African Americans in Gary. [6]
Following negotiations with the Methodist Hospital, it was understood that new protocol would be implemented over time at the hospital, eventually moving to a “first-come first-serve” basis with patients. [7] The hospital, despite agreeing to these terms, did not begin implementing new policies right away, which prompted Strong to once again reach out and request a meeting with the hospital committee. She was met with nearly a month of waiting while the hospital pushed aside her requests, insisting that they could not discuss it until their next committee meeting. [8] Finally, after much deliberation and years of unequal hospital treatment, Methodist Hospital implemented their new “first-come first-serve” policy. The committee was even convinced, thanks to a determined and resolute Strong, that “there should be more African American representation on the board. [9]
Strong was also a driving factor in key police reform that emerged following an incident in 1973 where a state trooper wrote “NIG” in the box meant for race while processing an African American’s paperwork. [10] This blatant act of racism sparked immediate outrage from the community and Strong. She not only sought fervently for the immediate termination of the involved officer’s job, but also for serious and permanent police reform. The NAACP demanded that reform include updated screening processes, hiring practices, and the elimination of discriminatory practices. [11] Strong also pointed out that of the total 1,400 Gary police department employees, a mere 14 were African American; “and four of those were janitors." [12]
On October 9, 1981 Jeannette Strong passed away at 61 years of age after serving in the NAACP for over 20 years, and as an active Democratic politician who acted as 1st District vice chairman. [13]
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
[1] James B. Lane, “City of the Century: A History of Gary, Indiana,” 1978, 279.
[2] Ibid.
[3] “Physicians Recall Integrating Hospitals”, The Post-Tribune, May 2, 1996.
[4] Jeannette Strong, “Letter to the Clergymen of Gary,” July 19, 1963.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Jeannette Strong, “Letter to Indiana Governor Matthew Welsh,” July 25, 1963.
[7] “Report of Meeting Between Members of Methodist Hospital Follow-Up Committee and Bishop Richard C. Raines,” February 19, 1964.
[8] “Civil Rights Co-Ordinating Committee,” The Methodist Hospital of Gary, INC, October 5, 1963.
[9] “Report of Meeting Between Members of Methodist Hospital Follow-Up Committee and Bishop Richard C. Raines”
[10] “State Police Charged with ‘Blatant Discrimination’, The Post-Tribune, January 26, 1974.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Ibid.
[13] “Jeannette Strong, Former NAACP Chief, Dies at 61,” The Post-Tribune, October 9, 1981.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Student Author: Joel Sharp
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Courtesy Chicago Tribune https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/ct-ptb-virtual-civil-rights-st-0405-story.html
1950s-present
Civil Rights Movement
Gary
Healthcare
Integration
Lake County
NAACP
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/86b7c599044cc0b5879be2d75cc1b3d2.jpg
dcd19a1efa9a3fe28a3a6f25bb018642
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Title
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Events
Dublin Core
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South Bend Washington High School Walkout
Description
An account of the resource
<p>On September 20, 1968, 200 African American students staged a walkout at Washington High School in South Bend, Indiana. The walkout was a protest of the lack of representation of African Americans students in the school’s sports teams and extracurricular activities. The center of the conflict revolved around the fact that there was not a single African American cheerleader on Washington High School’s “all white” cheerleading squad. The walkout was organized and carried out by the Student Organization for Unity and Leadership (S.O.U.L.), a student-run organization that advocated for the representation of African American students in all areas of student life at Washington High School. Prior to the walkout, S.O.U.L. held two meetings to plan the demonstration at the LaSalle Park Center on Western Avenue. The pep assembly walkout involved many students and gained the attention of the South Bend African American newspaper The Reformer, where it made the front page of the September 29, 1968 edition.[1]</p>
<p>As one of the last Northern states to officially desegregate public schools, Indiana has a long history of racial inequality in its educational systems. The move to integrate public schools came in 1949, only five years preceding the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, when the Indiana General Assembly passed the Indiana School Desegregation Act in 1949.[2] Although the law required schools to start integrating, segregation persisted throughout the state due to residential zoning. South Bend’s public school system had never officially been segregated; however, the city enforced extremely discriminatory housing practices that made it very difficult for African Americans to become property owners, forced African American families into segregated neighborhoods, and perpetuated unofficial segregation in public schools.[3]</p>
<p>Even in school buildings that were officially integrated, African American students were often denied access to recreational facilities and discouraged from participating in school teams and clubs in South Bend.[4] These discriminatory practices caused African American students to feel unrepresented in their schools and culminated in a large public protest at Washington High School. In its coverage of the 1968 Washington High School walkout, The Reformer reported that one student demonstrator said, “We’ve been given frustration in place of equal representation.”[5] Despite the large African American population at Washington High School, African American students felt unable to participate fully in their school community. Marching out of the all-school pep assembly, over 200 students mobilized in order to upend the school’s prejudiced operations.</p>
<p>The year 1968 saw many school walkouts staged by students seeking to promote civil rights. The largest and most influential demonstration was the East Los Angeles School walkouts of March 1968.[6] It is likely that the 200 students who walked out of Washington High School on September 20, 1968 were inspired by this and similar walkouts earlier in the year.</p>
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
[1] Val Maxwell, “Washington Students Stage Walkout,” The Reformer, September 29, 1968, 1.
[2] “A Look Back: Hoosier inequality,” South Bend Tribune, January 18, 2016, https://www.southbendtribune.com/news/local/history/a-look-back-hoosier-inequality/article_14aff11b-7be0-5594-a12d-499a0c02e67d.html
[3] Annette Scherber, “’Better Homes wants to have a fair shake:’ Fighting Housing Discrimination in Postwar South Bend,” Indiana History Blog, last modified May 18, 2017, https://blog.history.in.gov/tag/housing/
[4] “Segregation in South Bend,” St. Joseph County Public Library, accessed June 1, 2020, https://sjcpl.org/node/7579.
[5] Maxwell, “Washington Students Stage Walkout,” 1.
[6] “The Walkout — How a Student Movement in 1968 Changed Schools Forever (Part 1 Of 3),” United Way Greater Los Angeles, last modified February 26, 2018, https://www.unitedwayla.org/en/news-resources/blog/1968Walkouts/.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Student Author: Natalie Bradshaw
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Washington High School South Bend 2015, attributed to IH Havens, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Washington_High_School_South_Bend_2015.jpg
1950s-present
Civil Rights Movement
education
Integration
South Bend
Sports
St. Joseph County
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/8b959d1cc5a2fb23ddf988b626b3f9bc.jpg
a862821672612a789c4d74d84be6e0a4
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Juanita and Benjamin Grant, M.D.: Mercy Hospital, Gary
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<p>Juanita C. Grant and her husband Benjamin F. Grant were community leaders who promoted racial equality in Gary, Indiana during the Civil Rights Movement. The Grants sought to improve conditions for the African American population of Gary by establishing community organizations, helping gain access to essential resources, and organizing a coalition of leaders to serve the city’s African American community. Most notably, Benjamin and Juanita Grant successfully lobbied Gary’s oldest hospital, Mercy Hospital (now St. Mary Medical Center) to allow African American doctors admitting privileges in 1945.[1]</p>
<p>Juanita Grant has been described as a “bold and unique voice” in the early years of the Civil Rights era, who transformed her community in ways that can still be seen in Gary today.[2] Despite losing her mother at a young age and attending school at a time when it was difficult for African American students to find support in Indiana, Juanita Grant was an ambitious learner who earned her bachelor’s degree at Indiana State College in Terre Haute and her master’s degree in Social Work at Ball State University. As a resident of Gary and leader in the African American community, she co-founded and established the Jack and Jill of America Inc. chapter in Gary, organized local Girl Scouts and Brownies groups, and supported Gary’s historic Stewart Settlement House.[3] Benjamin Grant was also a very influential Civil Rights leader among Gary’s African American population. He was a lifetime member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and served as the co-chair of Gary’s branch of the organization during the 1940s. A practicing physician and surgeon, Dr. Grant launched a campaign to advocate for the medical rights of African American medical professionals and patients.[4]</p>
<p>During the early twentieth century, medical facilities were heavily segregated in Indiana. African American doctors, nurses, and patients faced severe discrimination. In Indianapolis, training facilities for nurses were separated by race, and finding employment at a public hospital was virtually impossible for African American doctors. Indianapolis City Hospital, the only hospital in the Indianapolis that admitted African American patients, turned away African American doctors seeking internships and pressured African American nurses to receive training outside Indiana.</p>
<p>The hostility that African American doctors and nurses encountered was also felt by African American patients seeking medical care in Indianapolis. At Indianapolis City Hospital, African American patients were sequestered in a “Jim Crow wing” in the basement of the building, where they were often crowded into small areas and given inadequate care.[5] Segregation in the medical system was worse in other areas of Indiana, however, for outside the state capital, “there were no public hospitals in Indiana that admitted African Americans; blacks were entirely dependent on private medical institutions.”[6]</p>
<p>Like most hospitals outside of Indianapolis, Gary’s Mercy Hospital refused to admit African American patients when it first opened. Established in downtown Gary by the Gary Land Company in 1907, Mercy Hospital was a white-owned, private hospital staffed first by the Sisters of St. Francis and later by the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ.[7] It was not until the 1930s that Mercy Hospital began to accept African American patients, and even then, they were placed in segregated wards.[8] African American doctors employed at Mercy were denied admitting privileges.</p>
<p>As a practicing doctor in Gary, Benjamin Grant was aware of how limited medical resources were for the city’s large African American population. In 1945, with the help of his wife, Dr. Grant began lobbying to integrate Mercy Hospital and permit African American doctors admitting privileges. The Grant’s effort to provide better healthcare for Gary’s African American population was successful. In 1945, Mercy Hospital granted African American doctors admitting privileges, a move that provided Gary’s African American community with more access to medical care and better treatment within the hospital.[9]</p>
<p>In the immediate years after the hospital’s integration, Mercy Hospital thrived as Gary’s premier medical institution. The hospital trained nurses and interns, built specialized departments, and gained international recognition as the birthplace of musician Michael Jackson. As U.S. Steel jobs declined in the 1970s, Mercy Hospital began to suffer, as much of Gary’s white community relocated to neighboring cities. In an attempt to revitalize the medical facility, Mercy Hospital underwent a restructuring in the mid-1970s. The West Wing of the hospital was built, and Mercy Hospital was renamed St. Mary Medical Center. These updates, however, were not enough to stave off the decline of the aging building. By the early 1990s, St. Mary’s had lost millions of dollars and was in danger of closing.[10] In 1993, Summit Medical Management purchased St. Mary Medical Center, renaming it Northwest Family Hospital. After two years of economic loss and unsuccessful restructuring attempts, Summit “declared the situation terminal” and decided to close St. Mary Medical Center.[11] Although the Mercy Foundation fought to keep the hospital open, and private interests attempted to purchase the building, no one could afford to maintain costly hospital operations. In November 1995, St. Mary Medical Center was closed. While much of the building stands abandoned today, the newest addition of the hospital, the West Wing built in the mid-1970s, serves as the headquarters of Gary’s police department.[12] The remains of St. Mary Medical Center, or “Mercy” as longtime residents call it, stands as a monument to Gary’s oldest hospital and a legacy of the pioneering work of Juanita and Benjamin Grant.[13]</p>
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[1] “Juanita C. Grant Foundation,” Juanita C. Grant Foundation. Accessed May 12, 2020, https://www.jcgfdn.org/history1. Times Staff Report, “St. Mary hospital for sale. Gary medical center lost $3.6,” The Times of Northwest Indiana, March 18, 1993, https://www.nwitimes.com/uncategorized/st-mary-hospital-for-sale-gary-medical-center-lost/article_ddf6c861-694d-57b0-9d6b-ec6159a40a52.html.
[2] “Juanita C. Grant Foundation.”
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Emma Lou Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000), 64.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Downtown Gary Scattered Sites (19001-680).
[8] Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century, 64.
[9] “Juanita C. Grant Foundation.”
[10] Ursula Bielski, Haunted Gary (Charleston: The History Press, 2015), 30.
[11] Robin Biesen, “Hospital closes. Gary’s Northwest Family succumbs to its,” The Times of Northwest Indiana, November 22, 1995, https://www.nwitimes.com/uncategorized/hospital-closes-gary-s-northwest-family-succumbs-to-its/article_2908a57a-0d3e-58f9-92c0-e9917e41422a.html
[12] Bielski, Haunted Gary, 31.
[13] Times Staff, “St. Mary.”
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Student Author: Natalie Bradshaw
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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PHOTO & VIDEO:
Hoosier State Medical Association Meeting 1956, Indiana Historical Society, M0510.
https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/dc018/id/3389/rec/5
1900-1940s
1950s-present
Civil Rights Movement
Gary
Healthcare
Integration
Lake County
Segregation
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/07db3b3df3d3e862898962521534962a.jpg
34fccce8b234ced8560088a64fb34e63
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Robert F. Kennedy Speech on Death of MLK, Jr.
Description
An account of the resource
<p>On April 4, 1968, Civil Rights leader Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. News of his passing spread throughout the country, sparking multi-day riots in over 100 cities including Washington DC, Kansas City, Los Angeles, and Detroit. The city of Indianapolis did not experience riots related to King’s assassination, in part because of an impromptu calming and unifying speech by Robert F. Kennedy.[1] The brother of the late President John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy was vying for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 1968. Earlier that day, Kennedy had delivered speeches at Notre Dame University in South Bend, and Ball State University in Muncie while campaigning in Indiana. He spoke of typical campaign topics including poverty, racism, and the Vietnam War.[2]</p>
<p>Muncie attorney Marshall Hanley told Kennedy about King’s assassination before his plane left for Indianapolis for the last campaign stop of the day. A 1969 Indianapolis Star article recorded Hanley’s recollection: “I heard the news flash over the radio and told the senator as he came to the airplane ramp…. He seemed stunned and dropped his head. ‘Is he dead?’ he asked. I said I didn't know and then he went on up the ramp to the plane."[3]</p>
<p>Kennedy was scheduled to speak at a rally at 17th and Broadway Streets in Indianapolis, in the heart of the African American community. After arriving in Indianapolis and confirming King’s death, Kennedy proceeded to the rally spot at 9:00 pm, climbed on the back of a flatbed truck, and delivered his remarks despite fears of race riots erupting.[4] About 2,500 African Americans, many members of groups such as the Black Panthers and the Black Radical Action Project, had gathered to hear Kennedy speak. Most in the crowd had not heard of King’s death until Kennedy broke the news.[5] Instead of his planned campaign speech, Kennedy delivered personal and compassionate thoughts, uniting the crowd. Kennedy’s speech is often believed to be the reason riots did not break out in Indianapolis. He was able to calm the public, particularly the African American community, who were in shock and deeply mourning Dr. King’s death. In an act of empathy, Kennedy spoke about his own brother’s death in 1963, the first time he had done so in public. Kennedy stated: “So I ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King -- yeah, it's true -- but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love -- a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke.” The crowd erupted in applause after his speech.[6]</p>
<p>The speech did not grab immediate media attention. Publisher Eugene C. Pulliam of the Indianapolis Star and Indianapolis News was not a fan of Kennedy and gave the speech as little coverage as possible. In addition, the coverage of Dr. King’s death, funeral, and ensuing nationwide riots overshadowed coverage of Kennedy’s remarks. The 637-word speech is now often listed as one of the greatest speeches in American history.[7] Robert F. Kennedy himself was assassinated on June 5, 1968 while on a California primary stop in Los Angeles, just two months after announcing Dr. King’s death to the African American community in Indianapolis.</p>
<p>The unifying message delivered by Kennedy on April 4, 1968, is still remembered years later by those who heard his remarks in person. Jim Trulock, an Indianapolis autoworker at the time, reminisced 50 years later. “He spoke from the heart. At the time a good half of the crowd hadn’t heard of Dr. King’s assassination, so when he made that announcement you could hear this gasps amongst the crowd. I’ve heard a lot of speeches in my life, I’m 80 years old, but it was the best speech I’ve heard to this date.”[8] An Indiana Historical Bureau marker at the corner of 17th and Broadway Streets in Indianapolis commemorates the site of Kennedy’s speech.[9] The Dr. Martin Luther King Park & Landmark for Peace Memorial is also on the site and honors both King and Kennedy.[10]</p>
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[1] <span>Straw, John B. “RFK in Middletown: Robert Kennedy’s Speech at Ball State University on April 4, 1968.” Robert F. Kennedy Speech Collection, Ball State University Libraries, 2005. Accessed April 21, 2020, https://dmr.bsu.edu/digital/collection/RFKen/id/23<br />[2] Thornbrough, Emma. Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century. Indiana University Press, 2000. Pp. 185.<br />[3] Straw, John B.<br />[4] Higgins, Will. “April, 1968: How RFK Saved Indianapolis.” Indy Star, April 2, 2015. Accessed April 17, 2020, https://www.indystar.com/story/life/2015/04/02/april-rfk-saved-indianapolis/70817218/<br />[5] Ibid.<br />[6] “Robert F. Kennedy: Remarks on the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr delivered on April 4th, 1968.” American Rhetoric. Accessed April 17, 2020, americanrhetoric.com/speeches/rfkonmlkdeath.html<br />[7] “Top 100 American Speeches of the 20th Century”, Texas A&M University. Accessed April 21, 2020, http://highered.mheducation.com/sites/dl/free/007256296x/77464/top100_only.html<br />[8] King, Brittany. “Indianapolis and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”. Indianapolis Recorder, March 29, 2018. Accessed April 21, 2020, http://www.indianapolisrecorder.com/recorder_headlines/article_edfc8ee2-3359-11e8-81d7-7f8b9b25810b.html<br />[9] Indiana Historical Bureau, “Robert F. Kennedy on Death of Martin L. King”. Accessed April 21, 2020, https://www.in.gov/history/markers/470.htm<br />[10] Visit Indy, “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Park & Landmark for Peace Memorial”. Accessed April 21, 2020, https://www.visitindy.com/indianapolis-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-park-landmark-for-peace-memorial</span>
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Student Authors: Robin Johnson and Sydney Schrock
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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<a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/470.htm">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker</a>
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PHOTO & VIDEO:
Robert F Kennedy, attributed to Warren K. Leffler, Public domain, via Wikimedia commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_F_Kennedy_crop.jpg
1950s-present
Civil Rights Movement
Indianapolis
Marion County
Politics
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/8de170357942be1ecb9f31df8ecb087e.jpg
8902eb4761f805ba3ba1f308faebe82e
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Jim Jones and The Peoples Temple
Description
An account of the resource
<p>James Warren Jones was born on May 13, 1931 in Crete, Indiana[1] and the family moved to Lynn, Indiana in 1934.[2] He was invited to church by his neighbors, and it was those sermons that sparked Jones’ interest in religion and leadership. He studied various leaders including Marx, Gandhi, Hitler, and Stalin, noting their strengths and weaknesses.[3]</p>
<p>As a teenager, Jones was convinced that his father was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, as Lynn had a large KKK membership. Believing in equal rights and in reaction to his father’s actions, Jones became a strong advocate for racial equality and civil rights. Jones attended Indiana University and Butler University, and in 1952, became a student preacher for the Somerset Methodist Church in Indianapolis.[4] In 1956, he established the Peoples Temple of the Disciples in Christ in Indianapolis, and became ordained in 1964. Due to Jones’ passion for civil rights and his support for the underdog and downtrodden since his childhood, the Peoples Temple welcomed congregants from various racial backgrounds, the majority being African American. Jones and his wife adopted children of different races and claimed to be the first white couple in Indianapolis to adopt an African American child. Jones referred to his children as his “rainbow family”, with the Joneses receiving death threats towards their African American son.[5]</p>
<p>The Peoples Temple directly participated in the Civil Rights Movement in Indiana, including helping to desegregate movie theatres, hospitals, restaurants, and police departments. The Temple also created a “free restaurant, and homes for the mentally ill.” In 1961, Mayor Charles Boswell appointed Jones as head of the Indianapolis Human Rights Commission.[6]</p>
<p>Jones moved his Peoples Temple to San Francisco in the 1970s. The Temple attracted members of lower and middle classes of all races to hear Jones’ message of equality and anti-discrimination. Jones continued to donate to local causes such as the NAACP, and developed connections with politicians to spread his message and gain followers. California State Assembly Speaker Willie Brown was said to compare Jones to figures including “Martin Luther King, Angela Davis, Albert Einstein, and Chairman Mao.”[7]</p>
<p>Jones portrayed himself as someone with extraordinary powers, such as telepathy, faith healing, and clairvoyance. In reality, he had other Temple members search through “garbage cans and medicine cabinets for private information” or pretend to be disabled to make Jones’ powers look real. Jones controlled his congregants with abuse, beatings, sleep deprivation, constant work, and humiliation[8] This abuse caused some of even Jones’ most trusted members to leave the Temple and contact the media.[9] In 1974, threatened by an imminent media investigation, he moved his entire congregation to Guyana. There, the Temple sought to create a society where they were free to do as they wished without prejudice and hatred, and control by the US government. By 1977, “Jonestown” had nearly a thousand residents.[10]</p>
<p>Jones continued to maintain control over Jonestown residents by physical punishment and humiliations. Communication from inside and outside Jonestown was heavily controlled and censored. Phone calls were scripted, with Jones telling his followers what to say to their relatives in the US. He convinced his followers that staying in Jonestown was for their own safety, by falsely declaring that nuclear war was impending and concentration camps were being formed in the US. Despite these “warnings”, some members did leave Jonestown. As a test of loyalty, Jones even made his followers practice “revolutionary suicide” by drinking water said to be poisoned. Meanwhile in the US, relatives of the Jonestown population contacted the authorities to start an investigation into the Peoples Temple. Former members informed the media of the abuses and mass suicide threats that occurred in Jonestown.[11]</p>
<p>California Representative Leo Ryan, relatives of Temple members, and American journalists arrived in Jonestown on November 1978 to investigate. Jones and the residents put on public festivities to welcome their guests, but in private, Jones complained to Ryan about the American government interfering with the Peoples Temple.[12] The next day, a reporter handed Jones a note that was given to him by a Temple member reading “Help us get out of Jonestown.” Despite his anger, Jones told Ryan and the media that anyone who wanted to leave Jonestown could do so. As several groups of people prepared to leave the settlement, Peoples Temple members opened fire, killing Ryan and three others, and injuring 11.[13] In Jonestown, Jones convinced his congregation to drink from vats of Flavor-Aid that were laced with cyanide as a “revolutionary act.” A total of 918 people died by mass suicide that day, a third of them children.</p>
<p>Jones himself was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head, leaving an incomprehensible and tragic legacy of using civil rights and religion as a cover to further his political ideology resulting in human rights abuses and mass murder.[14]</p>
Source
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[1] “Jonestown, The Life and Death of the People’s Temple: Jim Jones.” PBS. Accessed April 2, 2020. <br />[2] Hall, John R. (1987). Gone from the Promised Land. Transaction Publishers. Pg. 5. Accessed April 6, 2020.<br />[3] Reiterman, Tom; Jacobs, John (1982). Raven: The Untold Story of Rev. Jim Jones and His People. E. P. Dutton. P. 24. Accessed April 6, 2020.<br />[4] <span>“Ordination Service of Jim Jones into Disciples of Christ.” Alternative Considerations for Jonestown & Peoples Temple. San Diego University, 2019. Accessed April 3, 2020.<br />[5] “Jonestown, The Life and Death of the People’s Temple: Jim Jones.”<br />[6] “Jonestown, The Life and Death of the People’s Temple: Jim Jones.”<br />[7] ”Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple: The Peoples Temple in Guyana.” PBS. Accessed April 8, 2020.<br />[8] Ibid.<br />[9] Kildiff, Marshall and Phil Tracy. “Inside Peoples Temple.“ New West Magazine, August 1977. Accessed April 7, 2020.<br />[10] ”Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple: The Peoples Temple in Guyana.”<br />[11] Ibid.<br />[12] “Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple: November 18, 1978.” PBS. Accessed April 8, 2020. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/jonestown-nov-18-1978/<br />[13] Ibid.<br />[14] Ibid.</span>
Contributor
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Student Author: Robin Johnson
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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PHOTO & VIDEO:
Jimjonesfirstchurch, attributed to Indytnt, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jimjonesfirstchurch.jpg
1950s-present
Civil Rights Movement
Indianapolis
Ku Klux Klan
Marion County
NAACP
religion
Violence
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/86e1528ed75b8f6229c9d93611650645.jpg
0ec650da7141e934d006207fbe264cb5
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MLK: The Future of Integration Speech at Manchester University
Description
An account of the resource
<p>The 1960s were a time of great change and turmoil. The Civil Rights movement was at its height in the late 1960s, following the March on Washington in 1963, the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The leader of the Civil Rights movement was Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who traveled the country giving speeches, often on college campuses, calling for social justice and equal rights.</p>
<p>On February 1, 1968, King delivered a speech at Manchester University in North Manchester, Indiana, a private university associated with the Church of the Brethren. King had led campaigns for racial justice in the South and delivered similar speeches at colleges around the country, including in nearby Fort Wayne in 1963.[1] His Manchester speech was on the future of integration in the United States, highlighting a hope that race relations and equality in this country would get better in the years to come. “We have come a long, long way, but we must honestly face the fact that all over America we still have a long, long way to go before the problem of racial injustice is solved.”[2]</p>
<p>Manchester’s religious founder, the Church of the Brethren, is “committed to peace” and is one of the historic peace churches along with the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and Mennonites.[3] Manchester University’s Peace Studies Institute and Program for Conflict Resolution was the first undergraduate Peace Studies program in the world. King’s message of non-violence was expected to resonate with Manchester faculty and students.[4] However, Dr. King’s speech was not met with all peaceful reactions. In preparation for an influx of demonstrators during King’s visit, tight security was imposed amid high tensions on campus and in the community of Manchester.[5] The President of the university, A. Blair Helman, received hate mail prior to and following Dr. King’s appearance.[6] Much of the negative reactions stemmed from King’s stance on the Vietnam War. In his speech, Dr. King mentioned his opposition to the war, stating that, “I am afraid that our national administration is more concerned about winning an ill-considered war in Vietnam than about winning the war against poverty right here at home. I raise my voice against that war because I have seen what it has done to our nation...It has diverted attention from civil rights.”[7]</p>
<p>Two months later, on April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee. His fight for civil rights and his powerful voice for social justice were silenced, but his legacy and message speak loud and clear today. Dr. King’s remarks at Manchester University was his last speech at a college campus, and the event is commemorated, with a bust in the likeness of King near the spot that he gave his address in 1968.[8]</p>
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[1] <span>“Editorial: Half a Century Later, His Relevance Remains.” The Journal Gazette, 2018. Accessed April 22, 2020. https://www.journalgazette.net/opinion/editorials/20180115/half-a-century-laterhis-relevance-remains.<br />[2] Ibid.<br />[3] “Church of the Brethren peace heritage: A brief history”. Church of the Brethren. Accessed May 5, 2020. http://www.brethren.org/peace/heritage.html.<br />[4] “In the News, Black History Month: Where was MLK’s last campus address?” Manchester University, 2017. Accessed May 5, 2020. https://www.manchester.edu/about-manchester/news/news-articles/mlk-black-history-month-2018<br />[5] “Honoring Manchester’s Tradition of Peace and Justice.” Manchester University. Accessed April 22, 2020. https://www.manchester.edu/mlk50.<br />[6] Ibid<br />[7] King, Martin Luther, Jr. “The Future of Integration.” University Press of Kansas, Pp. 64. Accessed April 23, 2020. https://www.lib.kstate.edu/sites/default/files/documents/MLKatKState.pdf.<br />[8] “MC to dedicate Martin Luther King sculpture on speech site Feb 28”. Manchester University. Accessed May 5, 2020. https://www.manchester.edu/news/Archives/MLKbust0207.htm.</span>
Contributor
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Student Author: Robin Johnson
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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PHOTO & VIDEO:
Martin Luther King, Jr., attributed to Nobel Foundation, Public domain, via Wikimedia commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Martin_Luther_King,_Jr..jpg
1950s-present
Civil Rights Movement
Integration
North Manchester
Violence
Wabash County
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/aa217bc3cf7c02abf491e3c2ae68216b.jpg
f160f7a28e1e0ff468093e4135bb8990
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Reverend Lester K. Jackson, St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Reverend Lester K. Jackson, who served at the St. Paul Baptist church in Gary, Indiana, was a twentieth century Civil Rights leader known for his outspoken nature in all matters related to racial equality. Jackson, like many Civil Rights leaders, focused his efforts on areas of discrimination both locally and throughout the country. His drive and ambition helped bring about multiple Civil Rights advancements in the post-World War II era.</p>
<p>In 1946, Jackson worked tirelessly on a court case alongside the New Jersey chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to overturn law that prohibited African Americans from swimming in the Atlantic Ocean. This case was tried all the way to the Supreme Court and was a major victory for Jackson and the early Civil Rights movement.<span>[1]</span></p>
<p>In Gary, Jackson fought for the integration of Marquette Park.<span>[2]</span> In 1949, he endorsed an organization called “Beachhead for Democracy”, organizing a march from Gary City Hall to Marquette Park to commemorate the anniversary of black troops landing at Salerno Beach, Italy during WWII.<span>[3]</span> Gary mayor, Eugene Swartz, although agreeing with the notion that African Americans had the “right to use all city facilities,” refused to let police protect the demonstration.<span>[4]</span> Reverend Jackson called out businesses and other organizations within the city for their racist and discriminatory policies.<span>[5]</span> Jackson forced the Gary Transit Company to hire black conductors and motormen.<span>[6]</span> He would help to integrate the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), public beaches, and all public transportation. Jackson and the St. Paul Missionary Church fought for equality and justice in Gary, and “it was [their] integral efforts to improve employment opportunities and living conditions for African Americans and the Civil Rights struggles in the City of Gary that many whites in the community literally had problems with.”<span>[7]</span></p>
<p>Jackson’s efforts in Gary put him in a national spotlight, especially with President Dwight D. Eisenhower, with whom Jackson had met with other African American ministers of the period to discuss their movement toward equality. He corresponded with other leaders including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., President John F. Kennedy, and President Lyndon B. Johnson. Jackson would congratulate or criticize these leaders for their success or failure on Civil Rights matters. In his letter to President Johnson, dated March 12, 1965, he criticized the President for his actions toward Vietnam and his lack of attention for his own citizens being beaten and segregated in the South. Jackson urges the President to take action for the people and not to turn a blind eye to domestic affairs.<span>[8]</span></p>
<p>Jackson communicated with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in January 1966, inviting Dr. King to speak at a service for St. Paul Missionary Church’s new building. Jackson exemplifies his nature in these letters, very outspoken regarding all matters of civil rights. Dr. Martin Luther King Sr. supported this testament at a banquet honoring Jackson in 1973, referring to him as “the Daddy of the militant civil rights movement”<span>[9]</span> Many would consider Jackson just that, an outspoken leader, militant when he deemed necessary, calculated in his efforts, and relentless in his never-ending battle for civil liberties and equal rights.</p>
Jackson passed away on March 2, 1977. He lived a life dedicated to his church, his people, and defending civil rights for all. Jackson was relentless in his Civil Rights efforts and his actions impacted generations of African Americans.
<p></p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1"><span></span></a></p>
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[1] “Obituary” March 1977. Accessed April 8, 2019. <br />[2] Indiana Landmarks. “The Many Surprises of Gary’s Marquette Park. Accessed February 14, 2020. <br />[3] Lane, James B. ""The Old Prophet" Reverend L.K. Jackson of Gary, Indiana." Traces, Fall 2017, 29-35. Accessed April 7, 2019. <br />[4] Ibid. <br />[5] Davich, Jerry. “Gary church turns 100, faces new challenge.” Chicago Tribune. March 4, 2016. Accessed February 14, 2020. <br />[6] Lane, James B. ""The Old Prophet" Reverend L.K. Jackson of Gary, Indiana." Traces, Fall 2017, Page 35. Accessed April 7, 2019. <br />[7] Woodson-Wray, Carmen M. “St. Paul Missionary Baptis continues 100th Anniversary events in August”. Accessed February 19, 2020. <br />[8] Jackson, Lester K. Letter to President Lyndon B. Johnson. March 12, 1965. Accessed April 8, 2019 <br />[9] Lane, James B. ""The Old Prophet" Reverend L.K. Jackson of Gary, Indiana." Traces, Fall 2017, Page 35. Accessed April 7, 2019.
Contributor
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Student Authors: Jake Bailey and Robin Johnson
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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PHOTO & VIDEO:
Marquette Park Pavilion (Gary, Indiana), attributed to chicagogeek, Public domain, via Wikimedia commons.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marquette_Park_Pavilion_(Gary,_Indiana).jpg
1900-1940s
1950s-present
Civil Rights Movement
Gary
Integration
Lake County
law
NAACP
religion
Religious Leaders
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/f689aaf6f53766579dcd7dd3750e194a.jpg
f44204d673ce326bf89ce19cafcf5e03
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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People
Person
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Reverend Dr. Andrew J. Brown, Jr.,
St. John's Missionary Baptist Church
Description
An account of the resource
Reverend Dr. Andrew J. Brown, Jr. was born in Mississippi in 1921, and would go on to become one of the most influential civil rights leaders in Indianapolis. [1] After graduating high school, Brown attended the historically black Bishop College in Marshall, Texas, where he studied Baptist ministry. [2] Upon receiving his degree, Reverend Brown served in World War II in both the European and Pacific theaters, as one of the few field chaplains who specifically sought to provide “spiritual guidance for Black soldiers.” [3] In 1947, Brown and his wife Rosa Lee settled in Indianapolis where he preached at St. John Missionary Baptist Church, and the couple “immediately became active in the civil rights struggle which was beginning to come to light” in the city. [4]
When Reverend Brown first came to St. John Missionary Baptist Church, its small congregation of just 57 members were worshipping in a basement. [5] Under Brown’s leadership, the church was soon able to move to its own building in central Indianapolis, where the congregation would grow to become “one of the largest, most progressive Black churches in the United States.” [6] From this thriving church on Martindale Avenue, Reverend Brown preached his social gospel, calling for his congregation to rise up against injustice in Indianapolis.
Rev. Brown quickly earned a reputation as a powerful orator, and was invited to Baptist churches across the South to perform revivals—daily sermons given to a congregation by a visiting preacher over a week or longer to renew the faith of believers and to convert new members. [7] It was on one of these revival trips that Rev. Brown met a young Martin Luther King, Jr. as he finished up doctoral studies in the early 1950s. [8] Throughout the next decade, Rev. Brown and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. became friends and colleagues; at one point, Rev. Brown fell ill on a revival trip to Atlanta and was taken in by King’s mother. [9] When King visited Indianapolis for speaking engagements, he stayed at the home of Reverend Brown. [10]
As the efforts of the Civil Rights Movement in the South came to national attention during the late 1950s and early 1960s, Reverend Andrew J. Brown, Jr., along with other black community leaders in the North, were inspired to take similar action. [11] Rev. Brown used his pulpit to attract national civil rights leaders to Indianapolis, hosting Coretta Scott King and Dr. Kelly Miller Smith at St. John Missionary Baptist Church. [12] Additionally, after his term as the president of the Indianapolis NAACP chapter, Rev. Brown formed his own organization to fight for civil rights in the city. [13] The Indianapolis Social Action Council (ISAC) arose at St. John Missionary Baptist Church during memorial services for assassinated Mississippi NAACP President Medgar Evers in 1963, with Rev. Brown as the group’s chairman, Local 117 Union President Herman Walker as executive director, attorney Willard B. Ransom as vice president, William Porter as treasurer, and Faye Williams as secretary. [14] ISAC’s initial goals were to increase black voter registration and to provide better opportunities “in the fields of employment, housing, education, citizenship participation, public accommodations, and all areas of health, welfare, and social action” for black Indianapolis residents. [15] The organization’s voter registration drive was especially impressive, resulting in “unprecedented numbers of African Americans voting in the city elections in November 1963,” which elected two African Americans to the City Council for the first time in 16 years. [16] Rev. Brown also established the Indianapolis Christian Leadership Conference as a Northern affiliate of the major civil rights organizing group, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. [17]
Reverend Brown and his congregants did not just fight for civil rights in Indianapolis, however. In August 1963, ISAC members bused to Washington, D.C. to participate in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. [18] In March 1965, Rev. Brown joined civil rights activists from across the country to march in Selma, Alabama, in protest of what has come to be known as “Bloody Sunday,” the beating of peaceful protestors by police on the Edmund Pettus Bridge as they planned to march from Selma to Montgomery. [19] Just four days after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination on April 4, 1968, Rev. Brown joined Coretta Scott King and other national figures in a march in Memphis, Tennessee, in solidarity with striking sanitation workers, and in memory of King. [20] The next month, Rev. Brown urged the black community of Indianapolis to join him in the Poor People’s March on Washington, to honor the memory and continue the legacy of Dr. King. [21]
Reverend Brown was also instrumental in creating lasting cultural institutions, which served the black community in Indianapolis and across the state. In 1970, Reverend Brown, alongside other Indianapolis African American religious and civil rights leaders, created the Indiana Black Expo (IBE), a charitable organization that empowers black Hoosiers through economic, educational, and medical assistance. [22] The IBE’s flagship event, the Summer Celebration, is an annual festival that celebrates black history and culture in Indiana. Reverend Brown was also the founder of the long-running Indianapolis radio program Operation Breadbasket. The popular program aired every Saturday morning on WTLC, and Brown used the platform to speak about civil rights issues and community interests, and to provide economic advice and spiritual messages for his listeners. [23]
Reverend Andrew J. Brown, Jr. retired from his position at St. John Missionary Baptist Church in 1990. [24] He passed away in 1996 at the age of 75, leaving behind an extraordinary legacy. Brown was remembered by Indiana Congressman Andrew Jacobs, Jr. on the floor of the House of Representatives as “Mr. Civil Rights in Indiana.” [25] From the moment he arrived in Indianapolis, Rev. Brown fought for the rights of not only his own congregation, but of people across the city, the state, and the country. In tribute to his foundational work, which made the city a far more inclusive place, Indianapolis has renamed Martindale Avenue, the location of St. John Missionary Baptist Church, to Dr. Andrew J. Brown Avenue in his honor. [26]
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
[1] Tyler Fenwick, “Dr. Andrew J. Brown Brought National Civil Rights to Indianapolis,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Feb. 22, 2019. <br />[2] “Rev. A.J. Brown, Prexy, Speaker Sunday at Bethel,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Oct. 26, 1963; Amy Bertsch, “Bishop College,” East Texas History, accessed October 4, 2019, https://easttexashistory.org/items/show/141. <br />[3] “Rev. A.J. Brown, Prexy, Speaker Sunday at Bethel,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Oct. 26, 1963; “A.J. Brown, Jr.: The Man and the Liberating Theology,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Aug. 10, 1996. <br />[4] Tyler Fenwick, “Dr. Andrew J. Brown Brought National Civil Rights to Indianapolis,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Feb. 22, 2019; “Rev. Brown Praised for Religious, Civic Contributions at Testimonial,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Oct. 7, 1972. <br />[5] “A.J. Brown, Jr.: The Man and the Liberating Theology,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Aug. 10, 1996. <br />[6] “Rev. Brown Praised for Religious, Civic Contributions at Testimonial,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Oct. 7, 1972; “A.J. Brown, Jr.: The Man and the Liberating Theology,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Aug. 10, 1996. <br />[7] Wilson Fallin, Uplifting the People: Three Centuries of Black Baptists in Alabama, (Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 2007,) 83; Andrew J. Brown, Jr., “‘I Walked With Martin,’” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Apr. 13, 1968. <br />[8] Ibid. <br />[9] Ibid. <br />[10] Tyler Fenwick, “Dr. Andrew J. Brown Brought National Civil Rights to Indianapolis,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Feb. 22, 2019. <br />[11] Emma Lou Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century, ed. Lana Ruegamer (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2000), 164. <br />[12] “Freedom Concert Featuring Mrs. Martin Luther King,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Apr. 18, 1964; “Noted Rights Leader to Speak at Rally Sunday,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Dec. 14, 1963. <br />[13] “A.J. Brown Jr.: The Man and the Liberating Theology,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Aug. 10 1996. <br />[14] Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks, 174. <br />[15] “Rev. A.J. Brown Named Chairman of Organization,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Jul. 6, 1963. <br />[16] Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks, 175; “Noted Rights Leader to Speak at Rally Sunday,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Dec. 14, 1963. <br />[17] Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks, 164. <br />[18] “Goldstein Joins 200,000 in D.C. March,” Jewish Post and Opinion (Indianapolis, IN), 30 Aug. 30, 1963. <br />[19] “ISAC Prexy Tells Why ‘I Had to Go to Selma, Alabama,’” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Mar. 13, 1965. <br />[20] Andrew J. Brown, Jr., “‘I Walked With Martin,’” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Apr. 13, 1968. <br />[21] “A.J. Brown Jr.: The Man and the Liberating Theology,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Aug. 10 1996. <br />[22] Ibid. <br />[23] Rob Schneider, “Rights Leader Rev. Andrew J. Brown Dies,” Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, IN), Aug. 3, 1996. <br />[24] Ibid. <br />[25] Andrew Jacobs, Jr. “Honoring Andrew J. Brown,” Congressional Record 42, no. 125 (1996): 329. [26] “Contact Us,” St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church, accessed October 10, 2019, http://www.saintjohnsindy.net/contact/.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Student Authors: Allison Hunt and Jake Bailey <br />Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson<br />Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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PHOTO & VIDEO:
Reverend F. Benjamin Davis, Father Boniface Hardin and Reverend Andrew J. Brown, Indianapolis Recorder Collection, Indiana Historical Society.
https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/p0303/id/465/rec/31
1900s-1940s
1950s-present
Christianity
Civil Rights Movement
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Indianapolis
Marion County
NAACP
Politics
religion
Religious Leaders
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/15cba328eb5b085e91cafaa84ed47044.jpg
d8609074e002d7c9ac22dca12a358224
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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People
Person
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Congresswoman Julia Carson
Description
An account of the resource
Julia May Porter Carson was born on July 8, 1938, in Louisville, Kentucky. [1] She was raised by her single mother, Velma V. Porter, and the two moved to Indianapolis when Julia was still very young. Velma worked as a domestic and Julia, in addition to attending school, worked various part time positions including “waiting tables, delivering newspapers, and harvesting crops” to supplement the family income. [2] She graduated from the all-black Crispus Attucks High School in 1955, and shortly after graduation was married. [3] She and her husband had two children, then divorced, and Julia Carson raised her family as a single mother. [4]
In 1965, Carson was working as a secretary for the United Auto Workers local chapter #550 when she met newly elected Indiana Representative Andrew Jacobs, Jr. [5] The Democratic Congressman was searching for a caseworker for his district office and hired Carson. [6] Working for Rep. Jacobs set Carson’s own political career in motion. After working at his district office for seven years and eventually becoming his congressional office manager, Representative Jacobs encouraged Carson to run for the Indiana House of Representatives in 1972. [7] Carson ran as a Democratic Party candidate representing Indianapolis and won the election, becoming the only black woman in the chamber. [8] She served two terms in the Indiana House of Representatives from 1972-1976, where she was the Assistant Minority Caucus Chair. [9] Carson was then the first black woman elected to the Indiana Senate, serving from 1976-1990, and eventually holding the powerful Minority Whip position. [10] She was a founding member of the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus in 1979. [11] From 1972-1982, as she was legislating in the Indiana General Assembly, Carson was also working as the Public Affairs Manager for Cummins Engine Co. to make ends meet. [12] In 1991, Carson was elected as Center Township trustee in Indianapolis, where she served from 1990-1997. [13] In that role, she assisted Indianapolis residents in need “by distributing relief and connecting residents to helpful resources when necessary,” including overseeing welfare payments. [14] Carson was instrumental in helping Indianapolis residents escape the cycle of poverty through her “workfare” program, which gave training and employment opportunities. The “workfare” program resulted in fewer necessary welfare payments, helping Carson erase a $20 million deficit in Center Township. [15]
After Representative Andrew Jacobs, Jr. retired, he endorsed Carson as his successor. [16] She successfully ran for his seat, and was elected to the 105th Congress in 1997. She was the first woman and first African American to represent Indianapolis, and only the second black woman to represent Indiana in the House of Representatives after Congresswoman Katie Hall of Gary. [17] While serving in Congress, Carson “championed children’s issues, women’s rights, and efforts to reduce homelessness.” [18] As a member of the Progressive Caucus, “the most liberal faction of the House Democrats,” Carson was also a “reliable supporter of organized labor, environmental protections, abortion rights, gun control, and health care programs.” [19] In 2002, Carson voted against the “request for broad authority to wage war against Iraq” presented to Congress by President George W. Bush. [20]
Perhaps Carson’s most well-known legislation in Congress were efforts to commemorate Civil Rights Movement hero Rosa Parks. On February 4, 1999, Parks’ 86th birthday, Carson introduced a successful resolution which awarded Parks the Congressional Gold Medal. Carson was one of the speakers at the ceremony in 1999, along with President Bill Clinton. [21] Her efforts to commemorate Parks as “a living icon for freedom in America” did not stop there. [22] After Parks’ death on October 24, 2005, Carson helped to pass legislation allowing Rosa Parks to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda, making her the first woman ever to be given this honor. [23] By doing so, Carson joined a legislative tradition initiated in 1983 in the 98th Congress in which “African American Members of Congress often used their influence to pass legislation commemorating great leaders and seminal events in the civil rights movement and to call attention to unrecognized black contributions to American history.” [24]
Julia Carson was elected to the United States House of Representatives six times, and died in office on December 15, 2007 of lung cancer. [25] Her grandson, current U.S. Representative André Carson, won the special election to fill her seat and has represented Indiana’s 7th Congressional district since 2008. [26] Julia Carson defied political odds, rising from poverty to become one of the first African American women to represent Indiana in Congress. Despite her national prominence, Carson still remained popular in her district; her constituents “spoke of her as if she were a family member.” [27] On January 16, 2014, a bronze bust of Julia Carson was unveiled as part of a permanent black history exhibit in the Indiana State House, cementing her place in Hoosier history. [28]
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
[1] Alys Beverton, “JULIA MAY PORTER CARSON (1938–2007),” Black Past, November 8, 2009, https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/carson-julia-1938-2007/. <br />[2] “Carson, Julia May,” United States House of Representatives, accessed October 29, 2019, https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/10693. <br />[3] Ibid. <br />[4] Ibid. <br />[5] “Carson, Julia May,” United States House of Representatives, accessed October 29, 2019, https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/10693.; “CARSON, Julia May, (1938-2007),” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, accessed October 29, 2019, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=c000191. <br />[6] "Carson, Julia May,” United States House of Representatives, accessed October 29, 2019, https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/10693. <br />[7] “Woman Power Needed in State Legislature—Vote for Trio,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Apr. 29, 1972.; Schneider, Rob, “She Never Forgot: Compassion for Those in Need Grew Out of Her Childhood Experiences,” Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, IN), Dec. 16, 2007. <br />[8] “Legislative Discussion,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Feb. 10, 1973. <br />[9] “Carson, Julia May,” United States House of Representatives, accessed October 29, 2019, https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/10693. <br />[10] “C. Delores Tucker Speaks at Brunch for Rep. Carson,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Oct. 23, 1976.; “Carson, Julia May,” United States House of Representatives, accessed October 29, 2019, https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/10693. <br />[11] Hurley C. Goodall, “Julia Carson: A Very Special Kind of Lady,” Muncie Times (Muncie, IN), Dec. 20, 2007. <br />[12] “Carson Through the Years,” Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, IN), Dec. 16, 2007. <br />[13] “Carson, Julia May,” United States House of Representatives, accessed October 29, 2019, https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/10693. <br />[14] “Township Trustees,” Indy.gov, accessed October 29, 2019, https://www.indy.gov/agency/township-trustees.; “Carson, Julia May,” United States House of Representatives, accessed October 29, 2019, https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/10693. <br />[15] Schneider, Rob, “She Never Forgot: Compassion for Those in Need Grew Out of Her Childhood Experiences,” Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, IN), Dec. 16, 2007.; “Carson, Julia May,” United States House of Representatives, accessed October 29, 2019, https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/10693. <br />[16] Ibid. <br />[17] “Julia Carson Papers, 1978-2007,” Indiana University Purdue University Ruth Lilly Special Collections & Archives, accessed October 29, 2019, http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/collections/general/mss079. <br />[18] Alys Beverton, “JULIA MAY PORTER CARSON (1938–2007),” Black Past, November 8, 2009, https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/carson-julia-1938-2007/. <br />[19] “Carson, Julia, D-Ind,” in CQ's Politics in America 2004 (the 108th Congress), edited by David Hawkings and Brian Nutting, (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 2003): 373. <br />[20] Ibid. <br />[21] “Carson, Julia May,” United States House of Representatives, accessed October 29, 2019, https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/10693. <br />[22] Julia Carson, “Legislation to Award a Congressional Gold Medal to Rosa Parks,” Congressional Record 145, no. 20, (1999): 31-32. <br />[23] “Carson, Julia May,” United States House of Representatives, accessed October 29, 2019, https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/10693. <br />[24] “Legislative Interests,” History, Art, and Archives: House of Representatives, accessed April 20, 2019, https://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/BAIC/Historical-Essays/Permanent-Interest/Legislative-Interests/. <br />[25] “Carson, Julia May,” United States House of Representatives, accessed October 29, 2019, https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/10693. <br />[26] John Lambkun, “Andre Carson Wins Indy Congressional Seat Once Held by His Late Grandmother,” Muncie Times (Muncie, IN), Mar. 20, 2008. <br />[27] Matthew Tully, “Carson Formed Deep Bond With Supporters,” The Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, IN), Dec. 16, 2007. <br />[28] “Busts of Julia Carson and James S. Hinton Dedicated in the Indiana State House,” Indiana Historical Bureau, January 23, 2014, https://www.in.gov/history/4227.htm.
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PHOTO & VIDEO:
Carson, Julia, attributed to U.S. Congress, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carson_julia.jpg
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Student Authors: Allison Hunt and Jordan Girard <br />Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson<br />Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
Relation
A related resource
<a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/211.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker for Crispus Attucks High School</a>
1950s-present
Civil Rights Movement
Indianapolis
law
Legislator
Marion County
Politics