Georgetown Historic District
Located in Madison, Indiana, the Georgetown neighborhood, now known as the Georgetown District, became home to free African Americans as early as 1820. [1] Madison is situated directly on the Indiana-Kentucky border at the Ohio River, and Georgetown “became a place in which many freedom seekers found a community of safe houses and conductors willing to give them aid to reach the next station toward freedom.” [2] Eventually, the neighborhood would develop into the central hive of Madison’s bustling Underground Railroad activity, becoming an “important settlement of free Blacks who assisted hundreds of enslaved African Americans to freedom.” [3]
Across several decades, Georgetown’s African American community continued to grow. In the 1820 census, there were 48 free black families listed as living in Madison, and by 1850, the number had increased to 298. [4] Along with the population increase came the additions of several black-run institutions including schools, churches, and businesses. [5] Several free black Georgetown business owners rose to a place of prominence in the community during this time, and used their influence to aid freedom seekers north along the Underground Railroad.
One such prominent resident was George DeBaptiste, who settled in Madison in 1837. Immediately upon his arrival, he protested against racist legislation by contesting an 1831 Indiana act which required new black residents entering the state to pay 500 dollars as “a bond for good behavior and self-support.” [6] After successfully suing to reside in Indiana without paying the bond, DeBaptiste conducted a wholesale shipping business between Madison and Cincinnati. Through this venture, he met William Henry Harrison, who hired him to be “steward of the White House” during his presidency. [7] After Harrison’s death, DeBaptiste returned to Madison and operated a barbershop for six years on the corner of Walnut and Second Streets. During this time, the barbershop was the heart of Underground Railroad activities in Madison. [8] Through these brave efforts, “DeBaptiste estimated that he personally assisted 108 fugitives to freedom, and several times that number indirectly.” [9]
Despite the relative size and success of the free black community, life for residents of Georgetown was not easy. Free African Americans were harassed persistently, facing discrimination at every turn. [10] Furthermore, the Georgetown neighborhood’s connection to the Underground Railroad had long been suspected. In 1846, a mob of slave owners crossed the border from Kentucky and, joined by pro-slavery allies from Madison, violently raided the homes of several black families in Georgetown. [11] The mob “took it upon themselves to search the homes of free African Americans for fugitive slaves and weapons,” [12] and any who resisted were “nearly beat to death.” [13] Several prominent community members, including George DeBaptiste, fled northward to continue their work as conductors in the Underground Railroad under safer circumstances. Although the neighborhood faced white vigilante attacks and the loss of some key leaders, “the system that DeBaptiste and his collaborators built continued to flourish” in Georgetown. [14]
Madison’s Georgetown neighborhood is representative of African American-led Underground Railroad networks across the nation. While the overall population of Madison was overwhelmingly white, the residents of Georgetown had carved out a small, thriving community for themselves. This neighborhood, like in many other black-led nodes of Underground Railroad work, allowed those escaping from slavery a method of camouflage “by blending in with the people around them.” [15] Community leaders like George DeBaptiste in cities across the United States were able to use their wealth, connections, and prominence to help propel freedom seekers northward while hiding their enterprise in plain sight.
The Georgetown neighborhood continued on as a black community nestled within white Madison well into the twentieth century. Madison was heavily segregated, with its black residents restricted to their own residential section, their own school, and their own churches. [16] Madison’s black citizens were not allowed to eat in restaurants, sit with their white peers in theaters, or even be admitted into the main area of the town’s hospital; instead, there were “two rooms in the basement set aside for black patients; if they were filled, no blacks could be admitted.” [17] Only when residents of the Georgetown neighborhood conducted their own sit-in protests modeled after those conducted in the South by civil rights activists in the 1960s was the town finally desegregated. [18] While many of the historic landmarks like churches and the houses of Underground Railroad conductors still stand as a testament to the Georgetown neighborhood’s black history, the black families who remain in Madison have now expanded their community across the entire city, taking advantage of the equal access they finally achieved.
<a href="https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/show/228">Interview 1 with Allen Watson</a><br /><a href="https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/show/229">Interview 2 with Allen Watson</a><br /><a href="https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/show/230">Interview 3 with Allen Watson</a><br /><a href="https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/show/231">Interview 4 with Allen Watson</a>
[1] “The Story of Georgetown District in Madison, Indiana.” UNDERGROUND NETWORK TO FREEDOM, Indiana DNR. Accessed March 1, 2019. <br />[2] Ibid. <br />[3] Ibid. <br />[4] National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. Georgetown Historical Interpretive Walking Tour. Madison, IN: Historic Madison, 2018. <br />[5] “The Story of Georgetown District in Madison, Indiana.” UNDERGROUND NETWORK TO FREEDOM, Indiana DNR. Accessed March 1, 2019. <br />[6] Earl E. McDonald, “The Negro in Indiana Before 1881,” Indiana Magazine of History 27, no. 4 (1931): 297. <br />[7] “The Story of Georgetown District in Madison, Indiana.” UNDERGROUND NETWORK TO FREEDOM, Indiana DNR. Accessed March 1, 2019. <br />[8] John T. Windle. National Register of Historic Places Nomination Madison Historic District. Madison, IN. Historic Madison Inc, 1970 <br />[9] Fergus M. Bordewich, “Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, America’s First Civil Rights Movement (New York: HarperCollins, 2005), 3. <br />[10] National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. Georgetown Historical Interpretive Walking Tour. Madison, IN: Historic Madison, 2018. <br />[11] Fergus M. Bordewich, “Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, America’s First Civil Rights Movement (New York: HarperCollins, 2005), 205. <br />[12] National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. Georgetown Historical Interpretive Walking Tour. Madison, IN: Historic Madison, 2018. <br />[13] Fergus M. Bordewich, “Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, America’s First Civil Rights Movement (New York: HarperCollins, 2005), 205. <br />[14] Fergus M. Bordewich, “Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, America’s First Civil Rights Movement (New York: HarperCollins, 2005), 206. <br />[15] National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. Georgetown Historical Interpretive Walking Tour. Madison, IN: Historic Madison, 2018. <br />[16] Don Wallis, All We Had Was Each Other: The Black Community of Madison, Indiana, (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1998), xi. <br />[17] Ibid. <br />[18] Don Wallis, “The Struggle Makes You Strong: The Black Community of Madison, Indiana,” Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History 11, no. 3 (1999): 29.
Student Authors: Allison Hunt and Molly Hollcraft <br />Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson<br />Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO
Sherman Minton Birthplace, attributed to Nyttend, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sherman_Minton_Birthplace.jpg
<a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/1.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker</a>
"Mr. Basketball" Bill Garrett, coach at Crispus Attucks High School
One of the most pivotal moments in sports history was when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball, joining the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. [1] The same year, a similar barrier was being broken in one of the Hoosiers state’s most beloved sports. In the fall of 1947, Bill Garrett became the first African American to join the Indiana University basketball team, which also marked him as the first to integrate the Big Ten Conference. [2] <br /><br />Bill Garrett was born in 1929 in Shelbyville, Indiana, and grew up playing basketball in his hometown. [3] In high school, Garrett played for the Golden Bears of Shelbyville High School. During his senior season, the team had three African American starters. Garrett’s senior season in 1946 and 1947 was a breakout year for the Golden Bears, who defeated Garfield High School of Terre Haute for the state championship. Garrett scored 21 points overall, pushing Shelbyville to victory with a final score of 68 to 58. [4] For his efforts as a senior, Garrett was awarded the title of “Indiana Mr. Basketball” for being the best player in the state during the 1946-1947 season. [5] <br /><br />Despite his success in high school, Garrett was not offered a scholarship from the basketball powerhouse schools in Indiana. The Big Ten Conference had barred integration based upon an “unwritten ‘gentlemen’s agreement’” to keep black players out of sports. [6] Garrett was not the first talented player to face this problem. The 1946 Indiana Mr. Basketball, Johnny Wilson, also an African American, never received an offer from Purdue University or Indiana University. However, he did not let this discrimination keep him from playing the sport entirely, and joined the team at Anderson University, a much smaller school. [7] <br /><br />To prevent Garrett from the same fate, Faburn DeFrantz, the director of the Senate Avenue YMCA in Indianapolis, met with President Herman Wells of Indiana University to convince him to allow Garrett to play for the Hoosiers. [8] After many conversations between DeFrantz, Wells, and head basketball coach Branch McCracken, Garrett was admitted to Indiana University in the fall of 1947. [9] Once Garrett arrived on campus, things did not get any easier for him. Indiana University’s campus was segregated in the 1940s. Black students were barred from on-campus housing, prohibited from swimming in the university pools, and could not join fraternities and sororities. [10] The surrounding city of Bloomington was segregated as well, and black IU students even had difficulty finding an accepting barber. [11] <br /><br />As a player for the Hoosiers, Garrett, like all freshmen, was not allowed to play on the varsity team but as soon as he got his chance in 1948 as a sophomore, he made an impact. Garrett officially became the first African American to play for a Big Ten varsity basketball team in the first game of the season, against DePauw University on December 11, 1948. [12] Garrett had an incredibly successful college career as a center for the IU Hoosiers. He graduated in 1951 as the school’s all-time leading scorer with 792 points. [13] During his entire college career, Garrett was the only black basketball player in the Big Ten Conference, but the year after his graduation, “there were six African-Americans playing in the league.” [14] <br /><br />After his collegiate career came to an end, Bill Garrett set his sights on playing professionally, and was drafted by the Boston Celtics in the second round of the National Basketball Association (NBA) draft. He made history again as only “the third-ever African American to drafted” into the NBA. [15] Despite earning this opportunity, Garrett never had the chance to play an NBA game, because he was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1951 to fight in the Korean War. [16] After returning home two years later, Garrett was notified that he no longer had a position on the Celtics team. There was an unspoken quota across NBA teams for African Americans, and the Celtics had drafted two other black players, which fulfilled the quota. [17] Even though Garrett never had the opportunity to play in the NBA, he still played professionally with the Harlem Globetrotters entertainment team for two years. [18] <br /><br />After travelling with the Globetrotters, Garrett decided to return to the Indianapolis area where he became the head basketball coach for Crispus Attucks High School. [19] Garrett led the Attucks team to the 1959 Indiana High School State Championship, where Garrett became the first Indiana Mr. Basketball to win a state championship as both a player and a coach. [20] Crispus Attucks High School was built in 1927 as a black high school, and was integrated in 1970 under court order. Crispus Attucks is commemorated with an Indiana Historical Bureau historical marker and listed on the National Register of Historical Places.<br /><br />Following his 10 years as the coach at Crispus Attucks, Garrett worked as the Athletic Director and Assistant Dean of Student Activities at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. [21] Shortly after taking the job, Garrett passed away at the age of 45 from a heart attack on August 7, 1974. <br /><br />Throughout his career, Bill Garrett continuously broke down barriers in Indiana basketball. As the first African American to play for a Big Ten Conference basketball team, Garrett paved the way for others to follow in his footsteps. As a coach, Garrett influenced the lives of the next generation of basketball players. Garrett’s place of prominence in Indiana basketball was recognized in 1974 when he was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. [22] However, Garrett’s impact on basketball was not just felt in Indiana. His integration of the Big Ten Conference affected black athletes across the Midwest, and opened the door for African Americans to compete at the highest levels in basketball for over 70 years.
[1] Rachel Graham Cody, “Fair Play That Changed the Face of the NCAA,” Indianapolis Monthly, November 12, 2012. https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/arts-and-culture/sports/fair-play-that-changed-the-face-of-the-ncaa. <br />[2] Kyle Neddenriep, “Bill Garrett to be honored for integrating Bit Ten basketball 70 years ago,” IndyStar, last updated April 7, 2017, https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/high-school/2017/04/07/bill-garrett-honored-integrating-big-ten-basketball-70-years-ago/100100312/. <br />[3] Janet Williams, “Garrett, Shelbyville basketball great, deserves more acclaim,” TheStaehouseFile.com, December 27, 2018, http://thestatehousefile.com/garrett-shelbyville-basketball-great-deserves-acclaim/37398/. <br />[4] “IHSAA Boys Basketball State Champions,” IHSAA, accessed Monday April 1, 2019, http://www.ihsaa.org/Sports/Boys/Basketball/StateChampions/tabid/124/Default.aspx. <br />[5] Neddenriep, “Bill Garret to be honored.” <br />[6] Ibid. <br />[7] Cody, “Fair Play.” <br />[8] Ibid. <br />[9] Charles S. Preston, “Mr. Basketball of 46-47 Bill Garret, Enters I.U.” Indianapolis Recorder October 4, 1947, https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=INR19471004-01.1.11&srpos=1&e=04-10-1947-25-08-1951--en-20-INR-1-byDA-txt-txIN-%22bill+garrett%22------. <br />[10] Williams, "Garrett, Shelbyville.” <br />[11] Ibid. <br />[12] “I.U. Squat Beats DePauw Quintet In Opener, 61-48,” Indianapolis Recorder, December 11, 1948, https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=INR19481211-01.1.11&srpos=1&e=11-12-1948-25-08-1951--en-20-INR-1-byDA-txt-txIN-%22bill+garrett%22------. <br />[13] Neddenriep, “Bill Garrett to be honored.” <br />[14] Williams, “Garrett, Shelbyville.” <br />[15] Ibid. <br />[16] “’Yanks’ Get Bill Garrett,” Indianapolis Recorder August 25, 1951, https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=INR19510825-01.1.1&srpos=1&e=04-10-1947-25-08-1951--en-20-INR-1-byDA.rev-txt-txIN-%22bill+garrett%22------. <br />[17] Williams, “Garrett, Shelbyville.” <br />[18] Ibid. <br />[19] Neddenriep, “Bill Garrett to be honored.” <br />[20] Williams, “Garrett, Shelbyville.” <br />[21] Neddenriep, “Bill Garrett to be honored.” <br />[22] “Bill Garrett,” Hall of Fame Inductees, Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, https://www.hoopshall.com/hall-of-fame/bill-garrett/?back=HallofFame.
Student Authors: Ben Wilson and Allison Hunt <br />Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson<br />Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Crispus Attucks High School, attributed to Nyttend, Public domain, via Wikimedia commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crispus_Attucks_High_School.jpg
Bill Garrett Coaches Crispus Attucks High School Basketball Team to 1959 State Championship, Indianapolis Recorder Collection, Indiana Historical Society.
https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/p0303/id/458/rec/7
<a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/211.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker</a><br /><a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/132003769" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Register of Historic Places</a><br /><a href="https://nam05.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.in.gov%2Fhistory%2Fmarkers%2F4338.htm&data=02%7C01%7Crnjohnson3%40bsu.edu%7C1b7af88d47674e0dcbbf08d7cb9c91df%7C6fff909f07dc40da9e30fd7549c0f494%7C0%7C0%7C637201745628410218&sdata=f8%2BFNOlkgnI4FFzWhBkLF%2F5EM9vM96C5%2BpD6KRlUUGA%3D&reserved=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker</a>
Engman Natatorium
In 1922, the city of South Bend celebrated its first swimming pool opened to the public. The Engman Public Natatorium drew nearly ten thousand admissions in its first 60 days, even accounting for a 12 day period in which “a ‘clogging’ of the sterilization machinery forced the closing” of the pool. [1] Despite the pool’s location in an integrated neighborhood and the prominent placement of the word “public” in the name of the facility, the Engman Natatorium served a very specific public: the white citizens of South Bend. [2]
As early as 1931, black community leaders in South Bend began organizing efforts to end this segregation. [3] Black youths in the city had very limited options when it came to recreational activities; some restaurants, stores, and privately owned parks refused to cater to South Bend’s black community, or severely restricted the hours or activities they were allowed to partake in. [4] The levying of a tax in 1936 by the South Bend Common Council “in order to repair cracks in the building” of the Natatorium inspired legal pushback from the black community. [5] Although they were not allowed to enjoy the accommodations at Engman, black citizens of South Bend had to pay the tax. [6] Black lawyer J. Chester Allen “led the charge to file a successful petition to desegregate the facility,” protesting to the state that since the pool was taxpayer-funded, it should not be segregated. [7] The result of this legal battle was the opening of Engman Natatorium to black swimmers on Mondays only, beginning in October 1936. [8]
For 14 years, Engman Public Natatorium was still a largely segregated space where black swimmers could be denied entrance when it was “not their day.” [9] In 1950, lawyers J. Chester Allen, Elizabeth Fletcher Allen, and Maurice Tulchinsky represented the local NAACP branch at a meeting of the South Bend Parks Board. [10] There, they threatened legal action unless the facilities were integrated immediately, and the Parks Board relented. [11] Beginning in 1950, Engman Public Natatorium became a truly public institution, serving all citizens of South Bend. After years of use, the pool fell into disrepair and required costly maintenance, and was closed by the South Bend Parks Board in 1978. [12]
Since 2010, the former Engman Public Natatorium building has housed the Indiana University South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center (CRHC). [13] The CRHC functions as a community space, and also serves as “a living museum that simultaneously preserves and honors past struggles for civil rights and social justice in the northern Indiana region while initiating and supporting contemporary efforts to advance the unfinished fight for justice.” [14] The CRHC houses a permanent exhibition which discusses the struggle to integrate Engman Public Natatorium. In a collaboration with the Franklin D. Schurz Library at Indiana University South Bend, the CRHC has worked to gather and preserve oral histories, historical documents and artifacts, and other primary source materials that trace the social, cultural, and political contributions of underrepresented communities in South Bend and northern Indiana. [15] Where the divisive pool once stood in the Engman Public Natatorium building, the Civil Rights Heritage Center has planted a peace garden, creating a unifying space for all residents of South Bend from a place of historic segregation. [16]
[1] “City’s Youth Finds Pleasure Daily at the Natatorium,” The South Bend News-Times (South Bend, IN), Sept. 10, 1922. <br />[2] “A Look Back: Civil Rights for All,” South Bend Tribune (South Bend, IN), Jan. 16, 2017. <br />[3] Ibid. <br />[4] “Civil Rights Pioneer Barbara (Vance) Brandy 1,” St. Joseph Public Library Michiana Memory, January 18, 2017, http://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16827coll13/id/132/rec/15. <br />[5] “A Look Back: Civil Rights for All,” South Bend Tribune. <br />[6] Ibid. <br />[7] Ibid.; “Civil Rights Heritage Center,” Indiana University South Bend, accessed October 1, 2019, https://clas.iusb.edu/centers/civil-rights/index.html. [8] “A Look Back: Civil Rights for All,” South Bend Tribune. <br />[9] “Ruth Tulchinsky, Voice of the People, February 13, 2009,” St. Joseph County Public Library Michiana Memory, February 23, 2016, http://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16827coll4/id/2451/rec/10. <br />[10] “Ruth Tulchinsky, Short Statement on Visiting the South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center, 2010,” St. Joseph County Public Library Michiana Memory, March 22, 2016, http://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p16827coll4/id/2452/rec/6. <br />[11] Ibid. <br />[12] “Civil Rights Heritage Center,” Indiana University South Bend. <br />[13] Ibid. <br />[14] Ibid. <br />[15] Ibid. <br />[16] “Ruth Tulchinsky, Short Statement on Visiting the South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center, 2010,” St. Joseph County Public Library Michiana Memory.
Student Author: Allison Hunt <br />Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson<br />Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Courtesy South Bend Tribune, https://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/digital/collection/p16827coll15/id/3871/rec/28
Indiana Avenue Historic District
The Indiana Avenue Historic District is at the 500 block of Indiana Avenue, a diagonal street located between West Street, North Street, Michigan Street, and the Central Canal. [1] The Avenue was intentionally designed in the 1821 Indianapolis plat by surveyor Alexander Ralston. As one of the four diagonal streets which intersected the city’s regular rectangular grid, it provided a thoroughfare from the four quadrants of the city straight into the heart of Indianapolis. [2] Indiana Avenue was the home of several landmarks significant in Indianapolis’s black history, including the Lockefield Gardens public housing projects, the Ransom Place historic district, Walker Theatre, and the offices of the Indianapolis Recorder, the fourth longest running black newspaper in the United States. [3]
Due to a fear that the swampy White River near Indiana Avenue was the origin point of the mosquitos that had caused a devastating malaria outbreak in 1821, most of the area remained unsettled during the mid-1800s. [4] This cheap, unwanted land was then settled by immigrants and African Americans who could not afford to live in other areas of the city. After Reconstruction, the Avenue’s population rapidly increased as hundreds of thousands of African Americans migrated from the South to Northern cities during the Great Migration. Indiana’s black population more than doubled as a result of the Great Migration, and the population of Indianapolis saw a fivefold increase. [5] The immigrant and African American populations of Indiana Avenue peacefully integrated, with immigrant and black-owned businesses working alongside one another throughout the second half of the nineteenth and into the early twentieth century. As the black population continued to increase in the twentieth century, and downtown white-owned businesses refused service to African Americans, the 500 block of Indiana Avenue became the cultural center of Indianapolis’s black community. [6]
Indiana Avenue was its own self-sufficient neighborhood nestled within a segregated Indianapolis. In 1916, “everything that a person might need could be purchased in an eight-block segment along the avenue,” which included “33 restaurants, 33 saloons (including taverns and clubs,) 26 grocery stores (including meat and poultry shops,) 17 barbershops and hair stylists, 16 tailors and clothing retailers, 14 cobblers, 13 dry goods stores, as well as drugstores, pawnbrokers, pool halls, funeral parlors, and offices of lawyers, physicians, dentists, and real estate agents.” [7] The full physical needs of the black community were provided along Indiana Avenue, as well as their spiritual needs. In 1836, Bethel A.M.E. Church was established, and by 1848, the congregation had their own building. [8] In 1862, “supporters of slavery” burned the original building but by 1867, the Bethel A.M.E. congregation had raised enough funds to build a new site, which was the city’s longest-running black church until it was sold in 2016 after falling into disrepair. [9] Additionally, the Avenue was renowned as a “center of entertainment and recreation,” and its numerous clubs, dance halls, and taverns were a point of division among the black community. Many people enjoyed the various types of recreation provided along the Avenue, while others, especially black clergymen, decried the area as “a center of vice.” [10]
During the 1920s, Indiana Avenue became the home of an internationally recognized jazz scene that continued well into the 1940s and 1950s. Nightclubs and theaters such as the Washington, Columbia Theater, and the Walker Theatre exhibited renowned African American musicians and entertainers, such as Ella Fitzgerald and Cab Calloway. [11] Local musicians cut their teeth jamming onstage with jazz legends, and some became legends of their own right, like Wes Montgomery, Slide Hampton, David Baker, and many others. [12] Live performances were announced in the Indianapolis Recorder, with colorful headlines such as this one: “Ella Fitzgerald, Sunset Thurs. Nite: Jamtown’s Jumpiest Jivers With That Savage Rhythm, Fiery Beats, Torrid Tempos Will Put You in the Groove and You’re [sic] Feet Just Gotta Move!” [13]
In 1982, Indiana Avenue was cut off from the heart of downtown Indianapolis when the construction of the American United Life Insurance Co. building, now known as One America Tower, required the demolishment of the Avenue’s 200 block. [14] Indiana Avenue had originally extended down to Ohio Street just north of Monument Circle, but now ends at New York Street. Furthermore, many of the historic buildings along Indiana Avenue have been demolished to allow for the expansion of the Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis campus, which now occupies all but the 300 and 400 blocks of the Avenue. [15] The cultural hub of the Avenue began gradually fading as Indianapolis slowly desegregated and the black community could spend their time and money elsewhere. [16] What was once a bustling cultural center is now largely a string of modern office buildings and parking lots. The Walker Theatre is one of the few buildings in the Indiana Avenue Historic District that still stands after a significant restoration project, and as such is one of the only indications of the Avenue’s heritage. [17]
[1] F. Eric Utz, Suzanne T. Rollins, and William Gulde, National Register of Historic Places Nomination Indiana Avenue Historic District, (Indianapolis, IN, Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana): 2. <br />[2] Ibid., 3. <br />[3] “The Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper Celebrates 120 Years,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Jul. 1, 2015. <br />[4] Steve Hall and Wanda Bryant-Wills, “A Stream of Hopes, of Dreams, of Promise,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), Jun. 28, 1982. <br />[5] Emma Lou Thornbrough, The Negro in Indiana Before 1900: A Study of a Minority (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1993): 211.<br />[6] Utz, Rollins, and Gulde, National Register of Historic Places Nomination Indiana Avenue Historic District: 3,9. <br />[7] Emma Lou Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century, ed. Lana Ruegamer, (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2000), 15. <br />[8] “Bethel A.M.E. Church Collection,” Indiana Historical Society, accessed October 18, 2019, http://images.indianahistory.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p16797coll9. <br />[9] “Bethel AME Church,” National Parks Service, accessed October 22, 2019, https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground/in1.htm.; Olivia Lewis, “Indy’s Oldest African-American Church Sold for Hotel Space,” Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, IN), Apr. 8, 2016. <br />[10] Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century, 31. <br />[11] Utz, Rollins, and Gulde, National Register of Historic Places Nomination Indiana Avenue Historic District: 9.; “3 Big Nights of Dancing Next Week – Z. Whyte Coming,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Oct. 26, 1929.; “’Stormy Weather’ At Walker Sunday,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Jan. 26, 1946. <br />[12] David Leander Williams, Indianapolis Jazz: The Masters, Legends, and Legacy of Indiana Avenue, (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2014): 11, 16. <br />[13] “Ella Fitzgerald, Sunset Thurs. Night,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), May 17, 1941. <br />[14] Joan Hostetler, “Indianapolis Then and Now: West Ohio Street at Indiana Avenue/OneAmerica Tower,” HistoricIndianapolis.com, July 26, 2012. https://historicindianapolis.com/indianapolis-then-and-now-west-ohio-street-at-indiana-avenue-oneamerica-tower/. <br />[15] Williams, Indianapolis Jazz, 13. <br />[16] Ibid., 194. <br />[17] “Looking for Things to Do or See in Indianapolis?” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Mar. 28, 1997.
Student Authors: Allison Hunt and JB Bilbrey <br />Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson<br />Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Indiana Ave Restored, attributed to Kaxsalla, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:518_Indiana_Ave_Restored.jpg
Sunset Terrace on Indiana Avenue, Indiana Historical Society, M0513.
https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/dc018/id/59/rec/3
<a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/219.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker</a><br /><a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/132003899" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Register of Historic Places</a>
Lawyer Robert Lee Brokenburr,
Senate Avenue YMCA
Robert Lee Brokenburr was born in Phoebus, Virginia, on November 16, 1886, to Elizabeth Bakker Brokenburr and Benjamin Brokenburr, who was formerly enslaved. [1] Brokenburr attended the alma mater of Booker T. Washington, Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Hampton, Virginia, and graduated from the private black college in 1906. [2] He then studied law at Howard University where he earned his degree in 1909. [3] Following his graduation from Howard, Brokenburr moved to Indianapolis upon the advice of George L. Knox, owner of the illustrated black newspaper the Indianapolis Freeman. [4] He quickly established himself as a practicing attorney after being admitted to the Indiana Bar in 1910. [5] <br /><br />Soon after he arrived in Indianapolis, Brokenburr was introduced to successful black cosmetics business owner Madam C.J. Walker by George L. Knox, and he later became her general counsel. [6] While working with Walker, Brokenburr became a more visible figure in the city and the African American community. His association with Walker, who was quickly becoming a celebrity across black America, helped Brokenburr make a name for himself early in his law career. He was also a very active presence in the black institutions of Indianapolis. Brokenburr frequently supported African American organizations such as black fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi, the Senate Avenue YMCA, and the Flanner House, and served as the second president of the Indianapolis chapter of the NAACP. [7] <br /><br />During his first decade in Indianapolis, Brokenburr’s various activities around the city helped him to rise to a place of prominence within the black community of Indianapolis. One of his biggest contributions came in 1922, when he helped to organize the Better Indianapolis Civic League, which protested the construction of a segregated high school in Indianapolis. [8] In a petition brought before the Indianapolis School Board of Commissioners by Brokenburr on behalf of the League, he stated that the segregation of schools was “unjust, un-American, and against the spirit of democratic ideals.” [9] Despite the Better Indianapolis Civic League’s efforts, the school board voted to build Crispus Attucks High School, which served as a segregated black school for decades after its construction in 1927. [10] Although the fight was unsuccessful, Brokenburr garnered the attention of both black and white citizens of Indianapolis. <br /><br />After gaining this recognition, Brokenburr began to take on the legal struggles for civil rights in Indiana. As support for white supremacy rose in the 1920s with the rise of the KKK in Indiana, he took on many cases to protect African Americans. One such case was Gaillard v. Grant, in which he argued against a zoning ordinance that enforced segregation in Indianapolis neighborhoods. [11] In 1926, this ordinance was found to be unconstitutional, as a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. [12] Brokenburr also represented the plaintiffs in Bailey v. Washington Theatre Company, a case where a black couple—civil rights activists Katherine “Flossie” and Dr. Walter T. Bailey—was denied entry into a Marion movie theater. [13] Unfortunately, the couple’s case ended with a 1941 Indiana Supreme Court decision which upheld the right of a private business to arbitrarily exclude patrons. [14] <br /><br />Perhaps Brokenburr’s most important legal contribution to civil rights in Indiana was his decision to represent Herbert James Cameron quid pro quo in July 1931. Sixteen year old Cameron had been arrested with two other black teenagers the previous summer on charges of murder and rape in Marion, Indiana. [15] The other two teens, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, had been murdered in a brutal lynching on August 7, 1930, and while Cameron escaped the wrath of the abating lynch mob that night, he still faced charges for the alleged crimes. [16] As Cameron stood trial under the shadow of the electric chair, Brokenburr and fellow black Indianapolis attorney R.L. Bailey successfully delayed the trial and changed its venue in order to grant Cameron a more objective jury. [17] After more than a week of passionate arguments, the jury found Cameron guilty of being an accessory to voluntary manslaughter, a verdict which carried a maximum sentence of two to ten years in the Indiana State Reformatory. [18] Thanks to the efforts of attorneys Robert L. Brokenburr and R.L. Bailey, the teenaged lynching survivor had been “snatched from the jaws of death” a second time. [19] <br /><br />Brokenburr not only served Indianapolis as a lawyer, but also as a legislator. In 1912, 1932, and 1934, he ran for a seat in the Indiana House of Representatives, but lost each election. [20] However, in 1940 he won his race for State Senate, making him the first African American to be elected to that chamber. [21] During his terms in the senate from 1941 to 1947 and from 1953 to 1963, Brokenburr fought for progress towards civil rights in Indiana. [22] While in office, he authored more than 50 bills focusing on issues such as equality in housing opportunities and proportional representation of black officers in police forces across the state. [23] He also authored a bill that desegregated the Indiana National Guard in 1941. [24] Because of his success as a statesman in the Indiana Senate, Brokenburr was appointed by President Eisenhower and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as an alternate delegate for the United States at the United Nations General Assembly in 1955. [25] <br /><br />During his career, Robert Lee Brokenburr’s accomplishments advanced the livelihoods of not just the African American community, but of all Hoosiers. After serving the Indianapolis community for over half a century, Brokenburr retired in 1971. [26] In 1974, he passed away at the age of 87. [27] Brokenburr truly lived by the motto “live to serve,” as he dedicated his entire life to the fight for equality in Indiana. [28] Brokenburr, like countless other black lawyers across the country, devoted his career to helping “America move toward realization of its professed commitment to legal equality.” [29] Through his considerable efforts, Robert Lee Brokenburr improved the lives of all Hoosiers. [30]
[1] Stephen F. Thompson and Curtis R. Barsic, “Robert Lee Brokenburr Papers and Photographs, ca. 1937-1973,” last modified August 2010, https://indianahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/robert-lee-brokenburr-papers-and-photographs.pdf.
[2] Ibid.; “History,” Hampton University, accessed November 1, 2019, http://www.hamptonu.edu/about/history.cfm.
[3] Stephen F. Thompson and Curtis R. Barsic, “Robert Lee Brokenburr Papers and Photographs, ca. 1937-1973,” last modified August 2010, https://indianahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/robert-lee-brokenburr-papers-and-photographs.pdf.
[4] Stanley Warren, “Senator Robert L. Brokenburr: He Lived to Serve,” Black History News and Notes no. 83 (2001): 4.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid, 5
[8] Emma Lou Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century, ed. Lana Ruegamer, (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2000): 57.
[9] Connie A. McBirney and Robert M. Taylor, Peopling Indiana: the Ethnic Experience (Indianapolis, IN: Indiana Historical Society, 1996): 22.
[10] Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century, 57-58.
[11] Ibid., 53.
[12] Ibid.
[13] James H. Madison, A Lynching in the Heartland: Race and Memory in America (New York, NY, Palgrave, 2001): 97.
[14] Bailey v. Washington Theatre Co., 218 Ind. 513 (Ind. 1941).
[15] Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century, 67.
[16] Ibid., 67-69.
[17] Madison, A Lynching in the Heartland, 106
[18] Ibid., 106-107.
[19] Ibid., 108.
[20] Warren, “Senator Robert L. Brokenburr,” 4
[21] Stephen F. Thompson and Curtis R. Barsic, “Robert Lee Brokenburr Papers and Photographs, ca. 1937-1973,” last modified August 2010, https://indianahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/robert-lee-brokenburr-papers-and-photographs.pdf.
[22] Ibid.
[23] Warren, “Senator Robert Lee Brokenburr,” 6.
[24] “Brokenburr Guard Bill Becomes Law,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Mar. 15, 1941.
[25] Warren, “Senator Robert Lee Brokenburr,” 7.; United States Department of State, U.S. Participation in the UN: Report by the President to the Congress for the Year 1955, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1956): 271.
[26] Stephen F. Thompson and Curtis R. Barsic, “Robert Lee Brokenburr Papers and Photographs, ca. 1937-1973,” last modified August 2010, https://indianahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/robert-lee-brokenburr-papers-and-photographs.pdf.
[27] “Illustrious, History-Making Career Ends With Death of Atty. Robert L. Brokenburr,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Mar. 30, 1974.
[28] Warren, “Senator Robert Lee Brokenburr,” 7.
Student Author: Allison Hunt <br />Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson<br />Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Willard Ransom and Robert Lee Brokenburr, Indianapolis Recorder Collection, Indiana Historical Society.
https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/p0303/id/85/
<a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/4325.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker for Senate Avenue YMCA</a><br /><a href="http://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/items/show/45" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hoosier Civil Rights Museum - Senate Avenue YMCA</a><br /><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>
Unigov: Unifying Indianapolis and Marion County
In 1969, the government of Indianapolis, along with the Indiana General Assembly, passed sweeping legislation to unify the governments of Indianapolis and Marion County into a single municipal government. As whites fled deteriorating cities for the suburbs, cities across the nation faced an erosion of their tax bases. Indianapolis was vastly affected by this exodus, which prompted Mayor Richard Lugar and the City Council to propose the merger of the City of Indianapolis and Marion County under “Unigov,” a term coined by Beurt SerVaas, an Indianapolis city councilman. [1] Upon the enactment of Unigov, Mayor Lugar became the head of the combined executive branch of the city and Marion County. A new City-County Council became the sole legislative body of Unigov, as the original City and County councils were dissolved. This new Council consisted of 29 members, with 25 representing single member districts and four elected at large. [2]
However, this merger of the city and county governments was not all-encompassing, with emergency services and various other governmental resources unable to combine. Unigov also did not consolidate any incorporated cities other than Indianapolis, nor incorporated towns with a population larger than 5,000. [3] This resulted in the categorization of “the cities of Beech Grove, Lawrence, and Southport, and the town of Speedway as separate jurisdictions,” [4] which “continued to elect their mayors and councils as they had before Unigov, while at the same time voting for the Unigov mayor.” [5] While the plan was intended to revive the city of Indianapolis and streamline overlapping governmental agencies, Unigov created serious political backlash.
In January 1969, before the passage of Unigov, members of the Indiana Conference for Civil and Human Rights met to discuss the proposed merger and the impact it would have on the city’s voting population. [6] The members released a statement lambasting Unigov, voicing a concern that neighborhoods predominantly populated by “those who are black and/or poor” may become “so gerrymandered as to dilute their political strength.” [7] At the time, the population of Marion County was 753,500, with a 16% non-white demographic, while the population of Indianapolis was 513,500 with a 23% non-white demographic. [8] The Indiana Conference for Civil and Human Rights were correct in their predictions; after the passage of Unigov by the General Assembly without a public referendum, the incorporation of white suburbanites weakened the strength of what had been a politically powerful, though still economically disadvantaged “growing black minority” in Indianapolis. [9]
Furthermore, “while consolidating some city and county agencies,” Unigov “expressly omitted school corporations” from any consolidation efforts. [10] In fact, the exclusion of schools from the merger was integral to the passage of the law. The proponents of Unigov specifically avoided the creation of a unified school district and widely advertised that fact, so as to “eliminate certain and strong opposition of any of the eleven school districts” in the majority-white suburbs. [11] The previous year, the Justice Department had filed a lawsuit against Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) in federal district court for overtly segregating the city’s schools by “assignment of pupils and teachers” in order to create “one-race schools,” wherein schools with a majority of white students employed white faculty and majority-black schools employed black faculty. [12] Though the case was not fully settled until 1981, the passage of Unigov was representative of the existing segregation in Indianapolis Public Schools, for which the courts found the district guilty.
The suburban school systems excluded from the Unigov merger only had 2.62% black enrollment, and “out of more than three thousand teachers only fifteen were African Americans.” [13] As such, it was found that “UniGov was an act of legislative gerrymandering that denied minority students educational opportunities equal to those that students were offered in the township schools.” [14] Because there were “virtually no black students in the suburbs,” Judge Samuel Hugh Dillin “concluded that a lasting remedy to segregation in IPS was impossible without including the suburban schools,” and ruled in 1973 that black students should be bused “from IPS to suburban schools.” [15] This anti-segregation measure fell entirely upon the shoulders of those who had been discriminated against; “only black students were bused out to the townships—white students were not ordered to come into IPS or to help remedy the divide.” [16] Busing was implemented in 1981, and continued until 2016, when the court order which mandated it expired. [17]
“By incorporating the suburbs in Marion County into the city,” Unigov “widened the city’s tax base, thus helping to stabilize city finances” in Indianapolis. [18] However, these economic benefits were achieved only by disadvantaging the city’s racial minorities and poor population. When Unigov was adopted, “African Americans in Indianapolis lost significant power” as their political influence was diluted with the incorporation of majority-white suburban voters. [19] While Indianapolis prospered under Unigov, the city’s black communities paid the price.
[1] Yaël Ksander, “Unigov, Indiana Public Media, June 11, 2007, https://indianapublicmedia.org/momentofindianahistory/unigov/. <br />[2] Emma Lou Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century, ed. Lana Ruegamer, (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2000): 178. <br />[3] William Blomquist and Roger B. Parks, “Fiscal, Service, and Political Impacts of Indianapolis-Marion County’s Unigov.” Publius: The Journal of Federalism 25, no. 4 (1995): 41. <br />[4] Ibid. <br />[5] Emma Lou Thornbrough, “The Indianapolis Story: School Segregation and Desegregation in a Northern City,” 1989 [Manuscript and Visual Collections Department]; BV 2631; William Henry Smith Memorial Library; Indiana Historical Society Collections Department at Indianapolis, IN, [Accessed September 18, 2019, https://www.indianahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/emma-lou-thornbrough-the-indianapolis-story-school.pdf], 254. <br />[6] “UNIGOV Plan Proposed by Mayor Gets Lashing; Minority Voting Strength Will Be ‘Weakened,’” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), January 18, 1969. <br />[7] Ibid. <br />[8] Ibid. <br />[9] Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century, 178. <br />[10] Thornbrough, “The Indianapolis Story,” v. <br />[11] Thornbrough, “The Indianapolis Story,” 260. <br />[12] Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks, 155. <br />[13] Ibid., 156. <br />[14] Ibid., 158. <br />[15] Ibid. <br />[16] Shaina Cavazos, “The End of Busing in Indianapolis: 35 Years Later, a More Segregated School System Calls it Quits,” Chalkbeat, June 30, 2016, https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/in/2016/06/30/the-end-of-busing-in-indianapolis-35-years-later-a-more-segregated-school-system-calls-it-quits/#.V6IDiWNwOQ2. <br />[17] Ibid. <br />[18] William H. Hudnut, III, “The Civil City: An Interview with William H. Hudnut, III,” Indiana Magazine of History 102, no. 3 (2006): 261. <br />[19] Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks, 225.
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
PHOTO & VIDEO:
City-County Building (Indianapolis), attributed to Momoneymoproblemz, Public domain, via Wikimedia commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:City-County_Building_(Indianapolis)_exterior.jpg
Better Homes of South Bend
<p>Better Homes of South Bend was a corporation created in May 1950 in an effort to combat housing discrimination against African Americans. African Americans who worked at the South Bend Studebaker plant started the group. Most members lived in World War II-era prefabricated houses on Prairie Street near the Studebaker factory. They established a corporation to provide a better chance of securing homes outside of the slums near the factories.The members “wanted to find homes away from the factories and slums that surrounded them and give their children a better start in life than they themselves had."[1] Better Homes of South Bend’s attorney, J. Chester Allen, kept the location of potential neighborhoods a secret in an effort to get families moved into anew area with as little resistance as possible. In the 1950s, not everyone was open to the idea of African American families living in their neighborhood.[2] <br /><br />The members of Better Homes of South Bend all had Southern roots. Either they or their parents had moved to the North to escape Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation. Although the members had moved to South Bend looking for a better lifeamid relatively good paying manufacturing jobs, they were unable to escape discrimination. Two of the biggest challenges they faced were discrimination in housing and employment. Reverend B.F. Gordon attested to the discrimination of African Americans in South Bend in his 1922 book The Negro in South Bend: A Social Study. “Give him the same recreational opportunities, the same educational opportunities, the same industrial advantages (in particular those advantages that call for better education, and personal conduct,) and the same privileges to buy and sell, land or commodities...”[3]<br /><br />African Americans in South Bend were seeking equal opportunities.On June 25, 1941, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802, which states,“I do hereby reaffirm the policy of the United States that there shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin.”[4] However, as was evident in South Bend, public opinion was strong enough to disregard the executive order in the workplace. Gabrielle Robinson addresses the employment discrimination of African Americans in the book, The Better Homes of South Bend. “Yet they had not found the equal treatment in the North for which they had hoped. Many factories in South Bend did not hire African Americans.”[5] The Studebaker plant was the biggest employer of African Americans in South Bend. <br /><br />After World War II, housing discrimination intensified. White families moved to the suburbs and the west side of South Bend by the factories became almost exclusively African American. Better Homes of South Bend members lived primarily on Prairie Avenue, defined as “slum” in the Fact Sheet on Housing in 1952.[6] "This white flight took with it private and public investment in housing, schools, roads and infrastructure, leaving a deteriorating center to the poor."[7] This deterioration of infrastructure drove Better Homes for South Bend members to secure land to buildhousing in a less developed part of the city. The corporation settled on the 1700-1800 block on North Elmer Street as their housing destination, where a handful of white families currently resided. The collective power of the corporation enabled the members to secure land, loans, and contractors for 22 houses.[8] After extensive discrimination and hardship, the group was able to secure a contractor, Max Meyer, at a reasonable price. Three years after Better Homes of South Bend was created, the members finally had houses built and ready to occupyon North Elmer Street. The discrimination that Better Homes of South Bend members faced was notisolated to South Bend. Housing discrimination against African Americans occurred in Indianapolis as well. An article in the 1944 Indianapolis Recorder discusses the utter lack of acceptable housing for African American workers in the city.[9] Many of these workers migrated to Indianapolis as part of The Great Migration. From 1916 to 1970, over six million African Americans migrated from the South to cities in the North, including Indianapolis and South Bend. The first wave occurred prior to World War I and the second wave prior to World War II. “African Americans sought an alternative to sharecropping, disenfranchisement, and racial injustice in the South.”[10] <br /><br />Before the Better Homes of South Bend formed in 1950, Congress passed the Housing Act of 1949. “In passing the Housing Act of 1949, Congress defined the policy of the United States to include the requirements of a decent home and a suitable living environment for every American family.”[11] However, this Act did not change the living situation for Better Homes of South Bend members; they fought and improved their situation themselves. For instance, in order to build homes for black members, a competent contractor was needed, one that would use the same quality of material that was used to build white homes. Margaret Cobb stated “the contractors they met with ‘only wanted to give us substandard materials’ to build their homes because members were black.”[12] Fortunately, Better Homes for South Bend were able to hire contractors who were willing to build homes with high-quality materials regardless of the race of the occupants-to-be. Many of those 22 homes still stand today on North Elmer Street, a testament to one group’s efforts to fight racial discrimination.[13]</p>
<p><span>[1]</span> Gabrielle Robinson, <em>Better Homes of South Bend</em> (Charleston: The History Press, 2015), 26.<br /><span>[2]</span> Ibid, 14.<br /><span>[3]</span> Reverend B.F. Gordon, <em>The Negro in South Bend</em> (South Bend: 1922), 2.<br /><span>[4]</span> Executive Order 8802 dated June 25, 1941, General Records of the United States Government; Record Group 11; National Archives.<br /><span>[5]</span> Gabrielle Robinson, <em>Better Homes of South Bend</em> (Charleston: The History Press, 2015), 14.<br /><span>[6]</span> “Fact sheet on housing, South Bend, circa 1952” (South Bend, 1952), 1.<br /><span>[7]</span> Gabrielle Robinson, <em>Better Homes of South Bend</em> (Charleston: The History Press, 2015), 48.<br /><span>[8]</span> Better Homes for South Bend Historical Marker. Indiana Historical Bureau, 2017. Accessed January 14, 2020. <br /><span>[9]</span> “Local Housing Evils Cited to FHA Officers,” <em>Indianapolis Recorder 48,</em> 20 (1944): 2, accessed April 5, 2019.<br /><span>[10]</span> Joe William Trotter, "The Great Migration," OAH Magazine of History 17, no. 1 (2002): 31.<br /><span>[11]</span> “Discrimination Against Minorities In The Federal Housing Programs,” <em>Indiana Law Journal 31</em>, 4 (1956): 501, accessed April 5, 2019, <br /><span>[12]</span> Annette Scherber, “‘Better Homes Wants to Have a Fair Shake’: Fighting Housing Discrimination in Postwar South Bend” Indiana History Blog. Accessed January 7, 2020.<br />[13] Better Homes for South Bend Historical Marker. Indiana Historical Bureau, 2017. Accessed January 14, 2020. </p>
Student Authors: Jordan Girard and Robin Johnson <br />Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson<br />Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Houses on North Shore Drive, attributed to Patrick Walter Collection, Public domain, via The Indiana Album, Inc.
https://indianaalbum.pastperfectonline.com/photo/5FDE7EBF-F9DF-4450-BB21-101123584988
<a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/4365.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker</a>
Senate Avenue YMCA
<p>At the turn of the twentieth century, discrimination around the country was still a dominant factor in American society. This included Indiana, which had segregated schools, neighborhoods, and gathering places. To continue with the idea of “separate but equal,” many white officials in Indianapolis attempted to create a separate YMCA for African Americans in 1900.<span>[1]</span> In response to this, two African American physicians, Henry Hummons and Dan Brown, organized a group of black citizens to discuss the need for “wholesome” recreational facilities.<span>[2]</span> They wanted to create a “permanent quarters with which there will be connected a reading-room, educational classrooms, a gymnasium and bathrooms” for the African American men living in Indianapolis.<span>[3]</span> After discussing this need, the men created the Young Men’s Prayer Band as a stepping stone toward an African American YMCA in the state capitol.<span>[4]</span> Two years later, the Young Men’s Prayer Band was recognized by the YMCA after John Evans arrived to oversee the organization and help it move towards this status.<span>[5]</span> <br /><br />In the early years of the organization, Indianapolis African Americans would meet in private homes, churches, and a deserted neighborhood house called the Flanner Guild because they did not have a designated location in the city.[6]<a name="_ftnref6" href="#_ftn6"><span></span></a> Despite this setback, the community began to become more involved with the Young Men’s Prayer Band, and in 1910, it became an official YMCA for African Americans in the city.<span>[7]</span> Even after this milestone, the branch did not have its own facility until three years later in 1913 when a new building at the corner of Senate Avenue and Michigan Street opened its doors to the African American community with a dedication speech given by civil rights activist Booker T. Washington.<span>[8]</span> This was a major accomplishment for African Americans living in Indianapolis. By having a place where black men could learn and interact with each other, the Senate Avenue YMCA was improving the lives of African Americans in Indianapolis.<br /><br />As the building opened, Faburn DeFrantz arrived in Indianapolis from Washington D.C. to serve as the physical director of the Senate Avenue YMCA, and three years later as the executive secretary of the branch.<span>[9]</span> As the leader of the Senate Avenue YMCA, DeFrantz developed classes in athletics, Bible study, school subjects, automotive repairs, and many more to help African American men prepare for jobs and improve their lives.<span>[10]</span> In addition, DeFrantz continued one of the most influential programs at the Indianapolis branch since 1904: the “Monster Meetings.”<span>[11]</span> These meetings discussed a variety of topics including education, religion, science, and politics to help the African American community have a better understanding of news from around the country.<span>[12]</span> Some of these meetings were led by famous speakers such as W.E.B. DuBois, Madam C.J. Walker, and Eleanor Roosevelt.<span>[13]</span> Under DeFrantz, the Senate Avenue Branch was also politically active by attempting to end school segregation and promoting job opportunities for African Americans in the city.<span>[14]</span> Along with pushing for civil rights, the branch also assisted African American families during the Great Depression by providing housing and food for men and boys. At the start of the Depression, from January to October of 1931, the Senate Avenue YMCA provided 4,827 nights of free lodging and 3,200 free meals for the African American community to help them get through the hard times.<span>[15]</span> </p>
<p>In 1946, the national YMCA leadership decided to desegregate facilities across the country.<span>[16]</span> Despite this change in policy, the Senate Avenue YMCA membership remained predominantly African American.<span>[17]</span> Under DeFrantz, the Senate Avenue YMCA grew from 350 members in 1913 to 5000 members when he retired in 1951.<span>[18]</span> During this time, he helped develop the largest African American YMCA in the country and a better sense of community among blacks living in Indianapolis.<span>[19]</span> The Senate Avenue branch would continue succeed following DeFrantz’s retirement until activities would later be moved to a new facility at Fall Creek Parkway and 10<sup>th</sup> Street on September 13, 1959.<span>[20]</span><br />Over its 46-year history, the Senate Avenue YMCA gave opportunities to African Americans living in Indianapolis that they may have not received anywhere else in the city. They provided classes and the tools needed for African Americans to be professionally prepared and socially aware of the changes occurring in American society. By having a designated facility to meet, a stronger sense of community developed among African Americans living in the state capitol. The Senate Avenue YMCA branch closed in 1959, but its legacy continued through the twentieth century with the construction of the Fall Creek YMCA, which remained open until the fall of 2003.<span>[21]</span> In 2016, the Indiana Historical Bureau and the YMCA of Greater Indianapolis installed a historical marker at the site.<span>[</span><span>2</span><span>2]</span></p>
<p></p>
<p><a name="_ftn1" href="#_ftnref1"><span></span></a><a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/4325.htm"></a></p>
<p><span>[1]</span> David J.Bodenhamer and Robert G. Barrows, and David Gordon Vanderstel, <em>The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis</em> (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994), 1249.<br /><span>[2]</span> Ibid.<br /><span>[3]</span> “Colored Y.M.C.A.,” <em>Indianapolis News</em>, March 31, 1902, 2, https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=INN19020331-01.1.2&srpos=2&e=31-03-1902-----en-20-INN-1-byDA-txt-txIN-Colored------.<br /><span>[4]</span> Bodenhamer and Barrows and Vanderstel, <em>The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis</em>, 1249.<br /><span>[5]</span> Nina Mjagkij, <em>Light in the Darkness : African Americans and the YMCA, 1852-1946</em>(Lexington, Ky: University Press of Kentucky, 1994), 58.<br /><span>[6]</span> Bodenhamer and Barows and Vanderstel, <em>The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis</em>, 1249.<br /><span>[7]</span> Bodenhamer and Barows and Vanderstel, <em>The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis</em>, 1249.<br /><span>[8]</span> Stanley Warren, "The Monster Meetings at the Negro YMCA in Indianapolis." <em>Indiana Magazine of History</em> 91, no. 1 (1995).<br /><span>[9]</span> Joseph Skvarenina, “Farburn E. DeFrantz and the Senate Avenue YMCA,” <em>Traces</em> 20 no. 1 (2008): 37<br /><span>[10]</span> Ibid, 38<br /><span>[11]</span> Bodenhamer and Barows and Vanderstel, <em>The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis</em>, 1250<br /><span>[12]</span> Skvarenina, “Faburn E. DeFrantz,” 37.<br /><span>[13]</span> Ibid.<br /><span>[14]</span> Skvarenina, “Faburn E. DeFrantz,” 38.<br /><span>[15]</span> Mjagkij, <em>Light in the Darkness</em>, 117.<br /><span>[16]</span> “YMCA Adopts Recommendation to Drop Racial Segregation,” <em>Indianapolis Recorder</em>, March 23, 1946, 1.<br /><span>[17]</span> Bodenhamer and Barows and Vanderstel, <em>The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis</em>, 1250.<br /><span>[18]</span> Skvarenina, “Faburn E. DeFrantz,” 39.<br /><span>[19]</span> Bodenhamer and Barows and Vanderstel, <em>The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis</em>, 1250.<br /><span>[20]</span> “Sunday Set For Official ‘Y’ Dedication,” <em>Indianapolis Recorder</em>, September 12, 1959, 1.<br /><span>[21]</span> Sara Galer, “Fall Creek YMCA to be demolished,” WTHR, May 6, 2010, last updated April 15, 2016. <br /><span>[22]</span> Indiana Historical Bureau, Senate Avenue YMCA. </p>
Student Authors: Ben Wilson and Robin Johnson <br />Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson<br />Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Senate Avenue YMCA, Madam C.J. Walker Collection, Indiana Historical Society.
https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/m0399/id/212/rec/2
<a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/4325.htm " target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker</a>
Indianapolis Clowns and Bush Stadium
In the 1920s, America’s past time of baseball was racially segregated across the country. In response to this divide in society, African Americans created the Negro National League in 1920.[1] The league provided a competitive atmosphere and entertaining games for both African American players and fans. The Indianapolis ABCs were one of the original teams of the Negro National League and played their home games in Perry Stadium, later known as Bush Stadium.[2] In the 1930s, the ABCs faced financial issues and played its last game in 1940.[3] <br /><br />As the Indianapolis ABCs declined, a new team began to make a presence in Indianapolis. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, the Ethiopian Clowns, an independent African American barnstorming team, was known for both show business and baseball. They relocated to Cincinnati in 1943, becoming part of the Negro American League and played games in both Cincinnati and Indianapolis. The team relocated a final time, becoming the Indianapolis Clowns in 1946.[4] What made the Clowns iconic was their comedy routine before and during games.[5] Often times this routine would include using oversized bats and gloves, wearing costumes, and playing “shadow ball” where members of the Clowns would go through the motions of throwing the ball across the field without using the ball.[6] Players such as Reese “Goose” Tatum would make scenes throughout the game, such as praying on their knees near the batter’s box immediately before they were up to bat.[7] <br /><br />The Clowns considered their home field to be Indianapolis’ Perry Stadium, which was renamed Bush Stadium. The stadium was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. During the 1930s and 1940s, Bush Stadium was home to many Negro National and American League teams in addition to the Clowns, including the ABCs, American Giants, Athletics, and Crawfords. <br /><br />The Clowns were also a barnstorming team that traveled across the country to play exhibition games.[8] Despite being known for their jokes and pranks during games, they were also very competitive in the Negro American League.[9] While in the league, the clowns continued to travel around the country and played against African American baseball legends such as Satchel Paige.[10]<br /><br />Similar to other African American teams around the country the Clowns faced many cases of discrimination. While they were traveling they would often not be allowed to enter certain establishments, and had to leave many “sundown towns” before they were forced out by the local authorities.[11] Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier of Major League Baseball in 1947 by joining the Brooklyn Dodgers.[12] This milestone was a pivotal moment for African Americans in history, but it led to the start of the decline of the Negro American League and Negro National League. Major League Baseball drafted the best African American players, causing the quality of play to suffer in the two African American baseball leagues. The Negro National League disbanded in 1948.[13]<br /><br />The Indianapolis Clowns and the Negro American League had many more years of quality baseball. For the Clowns, the 1950s were actually their best years as a franchise, winning the Negro American League pennant in 1950, 1951, 1952, and 1954.[14] In 1952, one of the best players in the history of baseball played for the Clowns. After not earning a spot with the Brooklyn Dodgers, 18-year old Hank Aaron from Mobile, Alabama, was signed by the Indianapolis Clowns.[15] The future home run record holder only played for a short time before the Major Leagues’ Boston Braves signed him to a contract. He was with the Clowns for such a brief period that Indianapolis fans never got the chance to see him play.[16] Not only did the Clowns sign future Major League Baseball all-stars, they also signed African American women. At different times in their history, they signed Mamie “Peanut” Johnson and Connie Morgan to the team, and both of them proved that they could compete at the same level as men.[17] <br /><br />Even after the Negro American League came to an end in the early 1960s, the Indianapolis Clowns continued their barnstorming and reverted to even more of a comedic routine.[18] The Clowns had some players to solely entertain the audience, and other players who earned a stipend and were looking for the opportunity to be seen by major league scouts.[19] The team became known more as a comedy routine than a baseball team in the 1970s and 1980s. The owner of the Clowns during this period, Dave Clark, called the team a “professional comedy baseball club, that also trained and developed players who had been overlooked by organized baseball.”[20] As the team began to decline in popularity, the Indianapolis Clowns played their final season in 1989, the last professional team of any of the Negro Leagues.[21]
[1] Paul Debono, “The Pride of the Negro League,” Traces 11, no. 4 (Fall 1999):10. <br />[2] Ibid. <br />[3] Ibid, 11. <br />[4] Paul Debono, The Indianapolis ABCs (Jefferson: McFarland & Company), 123. <br />[5] Bill Traughber, “Looking Back: Indianapolis Clowns Visit The Dell,” MiLB.com, May 14, 2012. <br />[6] Debono, The Indianapolis ABCs, 120. <br />[7] “NEGRO LEAGUES BASEBALL 1946: Reece ‘Goose’ Taylor Tatum,” Indianapolis Clowns, Kansas City Moncarchs,” Youtube, 3:40.<br />[8] Paul Debono, “The Pride of the Negro League,” Traces 11, no. 4 (Fall 1999):32. <br />[9] “The Indianapolis Clowns,” Negro Leagues Baseball Museum eMuseum.<br />[10] Ibid.<br />[11] “The Incredible legacy of the Indianapolis Clowns,” WISHTV, February 15, 2019. <br />[12] Ibid, 121. <br />[13] Ibid. <br />[14] Heaphy, Negro League, 241. <br />[15] Debono, The Indianapolis ABCs, 121. <br />[16] Ibid. <br />[17] Heaphy, Negro League, 218.<br />[18] Debono, The Indianapolis ABCs, 123.<br />[19] Ibid. <br />[20] Ibid, 124. <br />[21] Williams, “The Incredible legacy of the Indianapolis Clowns.”
Student Authors: Ben Wilson and Robin Johnson <br />Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson<br />Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Bush Stadium Indianapolis, attributed to Xti90, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bush_Stadium_Indianapolis.JPG
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/132003791" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Register of Historic Places</a>
Indianapolis ABCs and Washington Park
<p>Baseball has been considered America’s past time for over a century. It has been played by people of all ages and all races since its creation. As more African Americans began to move to Indianapolis around the turn of the twentieth century, many African American athletic teams were created.<span>[1]</span> The Indianapolis ABCs, a professional baseball team established in 1902, was sponsored by the American Brewing Company in its early years.<span>[2]</span> As the team traveled around the country to play exhibition games, the American Brewing Company would supply kegs of beer for fans’ refreshment as a marketing tool.<span>[3]</span> Early on, the ABCs played their home games at Indianapolis’ Northwestern Park which was located at 18th Street and Brighton Boulevard at a field surrounded by wooden grandstands.<span>[4]</span> Most opponents were local, but they did play regional teams on major holidays in the summer.<span>[5]</span> Not only did the ABCs gain the attention of the local African American community, they were also recognized nationally through the coverage of journalist David Wyatt in the <em>Indianapolis Freeman</em>.<span>[6]</span> </p>
<p>In 1914, one of the best African American baseball managers at the time, Charles “C.I.” Taylor, moved to Indianapolis and bought a half-interest in the team.<span>[7]</span> Taylor began to search across the country for some of the best African American baseball players to join the ABCs.<span>[8]</span> As the team improved and traveled, it gained many African American followers and even some white fans.<span>[9]</span> One of the most famous ABCs fans was Indianapolis African American businesswoman Madam C.J. Walker. She attended many games at Northwestern Park and later Washington Park, after the team signed a lease to use the stadium.<span>[10]</span> Washington Park was the site of the first game in the National Negro League in 1920 between the Indianapolis ABCs and the Chicago Giants. The lease with Washington Park allowed the ABCs to play more home games than other teams in their league, which allowed fans around the city more opportunities to see the ABCs in action.<span>[11]</span> </p>
<p>As Ku Klux Klan activity increased in the 1920s, the KKK attempted to suppress opportunities of African American sports teams by making it harder for those teams to receive a stadium lease for ballparks owned by whites.<span>[12]</span> Even though the ABCs were able to secure a stadium lease, there were other instances of discrimination. In 1914, the Hoosier Federals of the whites only Federal League was one of the best teams in the state, and many people wanted to the ABCs and Federals to play in an exhibition game. However, Federals owner W.H. Watkins denied the decision, afraid if his team lost to an African American team it may ruin their reputation as a strong opponent.<span>[13]</span> This decision by white teams not to play the ABCs frustrated many of the ABCs players. In response, Wallace Gordon, the second baseman for the ABCs, wrote a poem to the <em>Indianapolis Ledger</em> where he stresses that he just wanted these teams to give them a chance and meet them “face to face.”<span>[14]<br /><br /></span>In 1920, the Negro National League was formed, with the ABCs one of the original teams.<span>[15]</span> By joining the Negro National League, the team was able play league opponents such as the Kansas City Monarchs, gaining a much larger regional following.<span>[16]</span> The ABCs continued to face discrimination as they traveled across the country. Often times, the ABCs would not be able to find hotel or restaurant accommodations in the cities they visited.<span>[17]</span> The third baseman of the ABCs mentioned how “you could find places, but they wouldn’t serve you and that was rough…. I’d just go somewhere and get me a loaf of bread and a can of sardines…. I don’t know sometimes I wonder myself what kept us going?”<span>[18]</span> </p>
<p>After being one of the top teams in the Negro National League between 1920 and 1923, the ABCs had difficulties in the late 1920s and 1930s.<span>[19]</span> Many of the better ABC players moved to the Eastern Colored League, due to better financial opportunities in larger markets.<span>[20]</span> The Great Depression hit the nation in 1929; the ABCs were also affected by the economic collapse. In order to save money on bus fare, the team began to take road trips in cars loaded with passengers and gear. Sadly, this led to a tragedy in 1935 when six ABCs were in a car that flipped, killing first baseman Carl Lewis.<span>[21]</span> The team continued playing through the Depression, operating at a semi-professional level starting in 1935 because of financial struggles.<span>[22]</span> The Indianapolis ABCs would play their last game in 1940 at Perry Stadium in Indianapolis, later known as Bush Stadium.<span>[23]</span> </p>
Despite the collapse of the ABCs, the team was an influential part of the African American community in Indianapolis. They gave African Americans a home team to cheer for and take pride in for over 30 years. The significance of Washington Park, the home field of the Indianapolis ABCs and the location of the first game of the Negro National League, is commemorated with a historical marker erected by the Indiana Historical Bureau and the Society for American Baseball Research, Negro Leagues Research Committee in 2011.<span>[</span><span>24]</span> The ABCs would pave the way for another African American baseball team in the city: the Indianapolis Clowns. The Clowns would play during a time of great change in the world of baseball, namely racial desegregation within Major League Baseball.
<p></p>
<p></p>
[1] Paul Debono, The Indianapolis ABCs (Jefferson: McFarland & Company, 1997), 82. <br />[2] Paul Debono, “The Pride of the Negro League,” Traces 11, no. 4 (Fall 1999):6 <br />[3] Ibid. <br />[4] Geri Strecker and Christopher Baas, “Batter UP! Professional Black Baseball at Indianapolis Ballparks,” Traces 23, no. 4 (Fall 2011): 27.<br />[5] Debono, “The Pride of the Negro League,” 6. <br />[6] Debono, Indianapolis ABCs, 44. <br />[7] Debono, “The Pride of the Negro League,” 7 <br />[8] Debono, Indianapolis ABCs, 51.<br />[9] Debono, “The Pride of the Negro League,” 6. 6.<br />[10] Strecker and Baas, “Batter Up!,” 27-30 <br />[11] Ibid, 20.<br />[12] Ibid, 31.<br />[13] Debono, Indianapolis ABCs, 56 <br />[14] Ibid, 57. <br />[15] Debono, “The Pride of the Negro League,” 10 [16] Debono, Indianapolis ABCs, 86 <br />[17] Debono, “The Pride of the Negro League,” 11 [18] Ibid. <br />[19] Ibid, 10 <br />[20] Ibid, 11 <br />[21] Ibid. <br />[22] Debono, Indianapolis ABCs, 101.<br />[23] Debono, “The Pride of the Negro League,” 11. [24] Indiana Historical Bureau, Washington Park Baseball.
Student Authors: Ben Wilson and Robin Johnson<br />Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson<br />Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:<br />1904 Indianapolis, Indiana photographs, attributed toIndiana State Library and Historical Bureau, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1904_Indianapolis,_Indiana_photographs_-_DPLA_-_b744c3ac0fe67b5e9bb59e06dd412500_(page_55)_(cropped)_2.jpg
<a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/4126.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker</a>
National Black Political Convention and West Side High School
<p>For three days in March 1972, the city of Gary, Indiana hosted approximately 8,000 black political leaders and citizens from across the nation.<span>[1]</span> These delegates came together to form the National Black Political Convention, “a distinctly black political movement” independent from both major American political parties.<span>[2]</span> Throughout the weekend, delegates aimed to discuss the future of African American people in America and to create a National Black Agenda that would address nationwide poverty and high unemployment rates of African Americans, along with the general alienation of African Americans from the political system across party lines.<span>[3]<br /></span> <br />The city of Gary was chosen to host the convention despite its relatively small size and few accommodations.<span>[4]</span> Gary had only one hotel at the time, but was chosen “because it was a predominantly black city governed by an elected black mayor, who was able to ensure a welcoming environment for the thousands of black delegates and visitors to the convention.”<span>[5]</span> In 1972, Gary had a population of about 175,000, half of which were African American.<span>[6]</span> Mayor Richard Gordon Hatcher had been elected in November 1967, and was the first African American mayor in Indiana’s history.<span>[7]</span> Along with Mayor Carl Stokes of Cleveland, elected the same year, Hatcher was also the first African American mayor “to head a major American city.”<span>[8]</span> Hatcher was the chair of the planning conference for the convention held on September 24, 1971, and offered Gary as a host city, saying that “We should do it at a place where Black people from all over the country could feel comfortable. Wouldn’t have to worry about the police beating them. Wouldn’t have to worry about getting cooperation from city officials.”<span>[9]</span></p>
<p>The National Black Political Convention took place in the gymnasium at Gary’s West Side High School, now called West Side Leadership Academy. West Side High School, built in 1968 to integrate students within the Gary School System, was the largest high school in Indiana at the time.<span>[10]</span> The convention hoped to cultivate a neutral space for its diverse delegates, where everyone “from members of Congress to street gang members from Chicago would feel welcome.”<span>[11]</span> The slogan “unity without uniformity” was the rallying cry of the convention, whose leaders hoped to create a united black political front without necessarily agreeing on methods of strategy or implementation.<span>[12]</span> The National Black Political Agenda which was ratified during the convention was supposed to be representative of the collective political will of African Americans nationwide.<span>[13]</span> From there, leaders of the convention “would then take this agenda to the Democratic and Republican National Conventions to determine which one of the two presidential candidates was more sympathetic to blacks.”<span>[14]</span> Then, the agenda was hoped to serve as a guide for the president in order to “guide his relationship with black Americans.”<span>[15]</span> However, the convention was plagued by division, especially over the issues of integration versus black nationalism, busing of African American children to white schools in order to end school segregation, and a controversial anti-Israel amendment to the agenda.<span>[16]</span></p>
<p>At a time when the country was still experiencing violent protests and racism, managing to host a black political convention of more than eight thousand African Americans represented empowerment and progress. Among the leaders was Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr., an activist who had worked alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He delivered a passionate speech on the significance of the convention. Other speeches focused on African American political and economic freedom, and also on tumultuous events such as the violence in Selma, Alabama, the Voting Rights Act and the deaths of major African American political figures like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. One of the major subjects of discussion was Pan-Africanism, an intellectual movement which sought to unite people from Africa or from African descent in a collective movement internationally.<span>[17]</span></p>
<p>The National Black Political Convention issued the Gary Declaration, a document which served as “an initial statement of goals and directions for [the delegates’] own generation, some first definitions of crucial issues around which Black people must organize and move in 1972 and beyond.”<span>[18]</span> For the delegates at the National Black Political Convention, the only way to implement a real change for African Americans nationwide was to develop an independent black politics and to ensure an equal representation of African American representatives in the government.<span>[19]</span> As the Gary Declaration states, the delegates at the National Black Political Convention found that historically, “both parties have betrayed [black Americans] whenever their interests conflicted with [black Americans’] (which was most of the time).”<span>[20]</span> The Gary Declaration ends with a clear call to action for all African Americans: “We begin here and now in Gary. We begin with an independent Black political movement, an independent Black Political Agenda, and independent Black spirit. Nothing less will do. We must build for our people. We must build for our world. We stand on the edge of history. We cannot turn back.”<span>[21]</span></p>
<p>The National Black Political Convention in Gary was a euphoric event, filling its delegates with hope for the future and a sense of true empowerment.<span>[22]</span> It represents a distinct moment in American history in which “a formidable collection of black Americans were energized by the possibility of stepping outside the confines” of mainstream white American politics.<span>[23]</span> However, the National Black Agenda and Gary Declaration were “more romantic than pragmatic,” creating an idealistic stance that was “so unrealistic as to be unrealizable.”<span>[24]</span> The convention failed in its goals of creating a clear consensus and energizing a nationwide coalition of black citizens which could influence mainstream American politics. Nevertheless, the energy the convention created in Gary has had a clear legacy in African American politics in the United States. The National Black Political Convention is credited with the organization of black voters and candidates which would lead to significant growth in the number of African American politicians elected nationwide; from 2,200 at the time of the convention in 1972 to more than 5,000 just ten years later.<span>[25]</span></p>
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[1]Michael Puente, “Gary’s National Black Political Convention, 40 Years On,” WBEZ News Chicago, last modified March 9, 2012. <br />[2] Jerry Gafio Watts, Amiri Baraka: The Politics and Art of a Black Intellectual (New York, NY: New York University Press, 2001), 401. <br />[3] Puente, “Gary’s National Black Political Convention, 40 Years On,” 2012. <br />[4] Ibid. <br />[5] Watts, Amiri Baraka, 401. <br />[6] Puente, “Gary’s National Black Political Convention, 40 Years On,” 2012. <br />[7] Craig Lyons, “1967 Gary Election a ‘History Maker’ with Richard Hatcher as Indiana’s First African-American Mayor,” Chicago Post-Tribune (Chicago, IL), Oct. 28, 2017. <br />[8] Ibid. <br />[9] Watts, Amiri Baraka, 401.; Leonard N. Moore, The Defeat of Black Power: Civil Rights and the National Black Political Convention of 1972 (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2018), 65. <br />[10] Puente, “Gary’s National Black Political Convention, 40 Years On,” 2012. <br />[11] Moore, The Defeat of Black Power, 66. <br />[12] Watts, Amiri Baraka, 403. <br />[13] Ibid., 406 <br />[14] Ibid. <br />[15] Ibid. <br />[16] Ibid., 408-411. <br />[17] Robert Charles Smith, We Have No Leaders: African Americans in the Post-Civil Rights Era (New York, NY: State University of New York Press, 1996), 48. <br />[18]“(1972) Gary Declaration, National Black Political Convention,” BlackPast, last modified January 21, 2007. <br />[19] Ibid. <br />[20] Ibid. <br />[21] Ibid. <br />[22] Puente, “Gary’s National Black Political Convention, 40 Years On,” 2012. <br />[23] Watts, Amiri Baraka, 410. <br />[24] Ibid. <br />[25] Puente, “Gary’s National Black Political Convention, 40 Years On,” 2012.
Student Authors: Allison Hunt and Emma Guichon
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Pinback button for the Black National Political Convention, Public domain, via Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
https://nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2013.201.1.23.7?destination=explore/collection/search%3Fedan_q%3Dthe%2520north%26edan_local%3D1%26edan_fq%255B0%255D%3Dtopic%253A%2522Civil%2520rights%2522
Lincoln Gardens
In Evansville, Indiana, the early 20th century proved to be a time of hardship for its African American residents. In the early 1900s, due to the increase of racial segregation within the city, the majority of the African American population resided in an area known as Baptistown. By 1916, overcrowding and unsanitary conditions became an issue, to the point where over a third of Baptistown residents had no access to sewage systems.[1] Segregated Evansville had few good-paying jobs for African Americans and white neighborhoods did not welcome those African Americans that could afford better homes. To accommodate for the growing population of African American residents in Baptistown, dilapidated buildings were torn down and streets were extended and repaved.[2] None of the city’s actions proved enough to improve what was described by the African American newspaper The Evansville Argus as “slum” and “an area dominated by filthy shacks without sanitary facilities.” [3] <br /><br />Under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Public Works Administration (created in 1933 during the Depression as part of the New Deal) made Evansville’s Lincoln Gardens its second housing project. As with most Public Works Administration housing projects, Lincoln Gardens was built for a specific community, and in Evansville, it was for low-income African American residents. Because of segregation and other racist policies at the time, African Americans needed their own community with their own businesses in order to succeed and prosper. Many groups in the city were in favor of the project, but there were some concerns. It was debated whether new low-income housing located on vacant land on the edge of the city was more cost effective and efficient that building in the central city. It was finally decided that the central city option was the best fit with the planning engineer’s description that “the federal government is interested in slum clearance in connection with low-cost housing.”[4] <br /><br />Construction of the Lincoln Gardens complex began in June 1937 and was dedicated by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt who visited the building site in November 1937.[5] Four city blocks, nearly eleven acres, of Baptistown “slum” housing was razed and residents temporarily relocated. In its place, 16 apartment buildings were constructed. Lincoln Gardens opened on July 1, 1938.[6] The Evansville Argus, proclaimed Lincoln Gardens as the “Pride of City”, “rising as a monument to the relentless spirit and efforts of the public spirited citizens of Evansville.” Lincoln Gardens reported 100% occupancy rate as of November 23, 1938.[7] <br /><br />Lincoln Gardens included 191 “modern sanitary” homes for 500 African American residents. It included a social room, and four rooms used for recreation, youth classes, and adult education. The housing project included “beautiful wide lawns, shrubbery, plenty of fresh air and ample supervised play.” Residents were considered low income with a family income that did not exceed five times the rental charge.[8] Initial average monthly rents including electricity and gas ranged from $12.65 to $20.20 depending on room size and location within the apartment buildings.[9] Renters were chosen by need, character, and priority of application.[10] Lincoln High School, Evansville’s only African American high school and constructed in 1928, was directly across the street from Lincoln Gardens. During WWII, Lincoln Gardens had its own United Service Organization (USO), welcoming African American troops.[11] In the 1930s and 1940s, Lincoln Gardens became a center of African American social life within the bigger neighborhood, revitalizing Baptistown, which became a de-facto African American social hub within segregated southwestern Indiana. <br /><br />By the 1990s, Lincoln Gardens had fallen into disrepair and eventually all buildings except one were demolished. Sondra Matthews, who grew up in Lincoln Gardens felt that it was important to save this legacy. “The basis of our economic life was going to be torn down as well. I just thought that if this happens, our grandchildren will not know what we had, the life we lived in the Lincoln Gardens area. They would not know how successful and prosperous we were.”[12] Lincoln Gardens’ surviving building was deeded to the board of the Evansville African American Museum. The museum opened in 2007, dedicated to retelling the story of African American culture in Evansville. One of the featured exhibits includes a restored one-bedroom Lincoln Gardens apartment, which typically housed a family of six.
[1] Tamera L. Hunt and Donavan Weight. Rediscovering “Baptistown”: A Historical Geography Project on Local African American History. University of Southern Indiana and Texas A&M International University. P.389.<br />[2] Ibid. <br />[3] “New Lincoln Gardens, Pride of City, Now 100 Percent Occupied,” The Evansville Argus, 3 December 1938, 1,<https://newspapers.library.in.gov/cgi-bin/indiana?a=d&d=EA19381203. Accessed February 2020. <br />[4] Robert G. Barrows. New Deal Public Housing in the Ohio Valley: The Creation of Lincoln Gardens in Evansville, Indiana. Ohio River Valley, P. 56<br />[5] Ibid., P.72<br />[6] "Lincoln Gardens Housing Project-Evansville IN." Living New Deal. Accessed April 2019.<br />[7] “New Lincoln Gardens, Pride of City, Now 100 Percent Occupied,” The Evansville Argus, 3 December 1938, 1. Accessed February 2020.<br />[8] Ibid. <br />[9] Robert G. Barrows. New Deal Public Housing in the Ohio Valley: The Creation of Lincoln Gardens in Evansville, Indiana. Ohio River Valley, P. 66.<br />[10] “New Lincoln Gardens, Pride of City, Now 100 Percent Occupied,” The Evansville Argus, 3 December 1938, 1. Accessed February 2020.<br />[11] “Moment of Indiana History: Evansville African American Museum.” Accessed April 2019.<br />[12] "Preserving History." Preserving History | Evansville Living Magazine. Accessed April 22, 2019.
Student Authors: Emma Brauer 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
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Courtesy Indiana Landmarks https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indianalandmarks.org%2F2020%2F10%2Fevansville-marker-is-countys-first-to-recognize-african-american-history%2F&data=04%7C01%7Clsajewski%40bsu.edu%7C5033ca60161d4b3199cd08d9ec0369c1%7C6fff909f07dc40da9e30fd7549c0f494%7C0%7C0%7C637800323632758953%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=Hdlz7PlV2DpAdE9Z%2FE9XNK%2BaDX76ZIS%2Byy5jHK09ABs%3D&reserved=0
<a href="https://evvafricanamericanmuseum.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Evansville African American Museum</a>
Gary Roosevelt High School
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Theodore Roosevelt </span><span data-contrast="auto">H</span><span data-contrast="auto">igh </span><span data-contrast="auto">S</span><span data-contrast="auto">chool</span><span data-contrast="auto"> in Gary, Indiana,</span><span data-contrast="auto"> also known as Gary Roosevelt,</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">can trace its origins to 1908 when </span><span data-contrast="auto">the Gary</span><span data-contrast="auto"> school board </span><span data-contrast="auto">issued the segregation of all public schools. The first school for African American children in Gary </span><span data-contrast="auto">was built</span><span data-contrast="auto"> that same year. </span><span data-contrast="auto">As the population grew</span><span data-contrast="auto">, African American students were</span><span data-contrast="auto"> also</span><span data-contrast="auto"> educated in other segregated schools and in portable classrooms, and by </span><span data-contrast="auto">1921,</span><span data-contrast="auto"> those portable classrooms were located at</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">the </span><span data-contrast="auto">present location of</span><span data-contrast="auto"> Gary </span><span data-contrast="auto">Roosevel</span><span data-contrast="auto">t</span><span data-contrast="auto">.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">1]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">Public school segregation remained in effect</span><span data-contrast="auto">, but a few African American students </span><span data-contrast="auto">were</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">allowed to enroll</span><span data-contrast="auto"> in white schools</span><span data-contrast="auto"> (in segregated classes)</span><span data-contrast="auto"> if space</span><span data-contrast="auto"> existed. </span><span data-contrast="auto">Under this plan</span><span data-contrast="auto">, 18 African American high school students </span><span data-contrast="auto">were transferred</span><span data-contrast="auto"> to white Emerson School</span><span data-contrast="auto"> in 1927</span><span data-contrast="auto">. </span><span data-contrast="auto">In protest, o</span><span data-contrast="auto">ver 600</span><span data-contrast="auto"> white</span><span data-contrast="auto"> Emerson</span><span data-contrast="auto"> students conducted a four-day walkout known as the Emerson Strike.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">2]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> The strike </span><span data-contrast="auto">was ended</span><span data-contrast="auto"> when the Gary City Council agreed to </span><span data-contrast="auto">allocate</span><span data-contrast="auto"> funds to create an African American high school, to be named after President Theodore Roosevelt.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">3]</span><span data-ccp-props="{"335559739":160,"335559740":480}"> <br /> <br /></span><span data-contrast="auto">Theodore Roosevelt High School </span><span data-contrast="auto">was built</span><span data-contrast="auto"> in 1930</span><span data-contrast="auto"> exclusively for African American students.</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">The </span><span data-contrast="auto">Gary Roosevelt </span><span data-contrast="auto">building</span><span data-contrast="auto"> features design elements inspired by </span><span data-contrast="auto">Independence Hall</span><span data-contrast="auto"> in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.</span><span data-contrast="auto"> Additional classroom wings </span><span data-contrast="auto">were added</span><span data-contrast="auto"> in 1946 and 1968.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">4]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">The </span><span data-contrast="auto">physical design of the</span><span data-contrast="auto"> Gary Roosevelt</span><span data-contrast="auto"> building </span><span data-contrast="auto">support</span><span data-contrast="auto">ed what </span><span data-contrast="auto">was known</span><span data-contrast="auto"> as the Gary System of Education or the Gary Plan. </span><span data-contrast="auto">Developed by Dr. William A. Wirt, the city’s first superintendent </span><span data-contrast="auto">of schools</span><span data-contrast="auto"> from 1907-1938</span><span data-contrast="auto">, the Gary Plan was a Progressive Er</span><span data-contrast="auto">a educational concept, with some elements of the system playing </span><span data-contrast="auto">a role in how schools function today.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">5]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> The Gary Plan emphasized both vocational training and college preparatory classes, </span><span data-contrast="auto">a lengthened school day</span><span data-contrast="auto"> that kept students “off the streets”</span><span data-contrast="auto">, and emphasized “work-study-play” </span><span data-contrast="auto">incorporating</span><span data-contrast="auto"> academics, vocational, and recreational activities into each school day.</span><span data-contrast="auto"> The Gary Plan</span><span data-contrast="auto"> maximized the utilization and capacity of the building, and even advocated students attending school on Saturday.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">6]<br /></span><span data-contrast="auto"> <br /></span><span data-contrast="auto">Although the official school board policy of public school segregation ended in 1947[</span><span data-contrast="auto">7]</span><span data-contrast="auto">, Gary Roosevelt, like virtually all of Gary public schools, remained segregated by the adjustment of school district and individual school boundaries.</span><span data-contrast="auto"> The school district boundaries </span><span data-contrast="auto">were based</span><span data-contrast="auto"> on the racial </span><span data-contrast="auto">mix</span><span data-contrast="auto"> of the various neighborhoods.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">8]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">Wirt’s</span><span data-contrast="auto"> Gary </span><span data-contrast="auto">Plan </span><span data-contrast="auto">was </span><span data-contrast="auto">mostly </span><span data-contrast="auto">abandoned</span><span data-contrast="auto"> in favor of more mainstream educational ideas</span><span data-contrast="auto"> and in response to severe overcrowding due to a post-WWII population explosion in Gary. Adherence to segregation</span><span data-contrast="auto"> enforced</span><span data-contrast="auto"> by neighborhood racial boundaries, no matter the amount of population growth, meant that for almost 20 years, Gary Roosevelt students attended classes in rented portable classrooms or attended half-day sessions</span><span data-contrast="auto"> in an effort to ease the extreme overcrowding</span><span data-contrast="auto">.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">9]<br /></span><span data-ccp-props="{"335559731":720,"335559739":160,"335559740":480}"> <br /></span>Teachers at Gary Roosevelt have educated generations of African American children for nearly a century. The school is now known as the Theodore Roosevelt College and Career Academy, a charter school for grades 7-12. The building formerly known as Theodore Roosevelt High School is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its architectural importance, its role in the Progressive Era in education, and the integral part it played in Gary's segregated public school system.[10]</p>
<span>[1] </span><span>Indiana NPS Roosevel</span><span>t, Theodore, High School. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. National </span><span>Park Service</span><span>. Accessed February 21, 2020.<br /></span><span>[2] </span><span>“Protest Walkout Grows” </span><span>Gary Post Tribune</span><span>, 27 September 1927.<br /></span><span>[3] </span><span>Cohen, Ronald D., </span><span>The Dilemma of School Integration in the North: Gary, Indiana, 1945</span><span>-</span><span>1960</span><span>. </span><span>Indiana Magazine of History </span><span>Vol. 82, No. 2 (June 1986):161</span><span>-</span><span>184.<br />[</span><span>4] </span><span>Indiana NPS Roosevelt, Theodore, High School.<br />[5] Wirt manuscripts, 1899-1957. Archives Online at Indiana University. http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/findingaids/view?doc.view=entire_text&docId=InU-Li-VAD7202. Accessed February 26, 2020.<br />[6] The Public School System of Gary, Indiana. Public Administration Service 1955. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015039523116&view=1up&seq=25. Accessed April 2019.<br />[7] “A Challenge to Integration: The Froebel School Strikes of 1945.” Indiana History Blog. https://blog.history.in.gov/a-challenge-to-integration-the-froebel-school-strikes-of-1945. Accessed February 26, 2020.<br />[8] Cohen, Ronald D.<br />[9] Ibid.<br />[10] Indiana NPS Roosevelt, Theodore, High School. </span>
Student Authors: Jake Bailey and Robin Johnson
Faculty Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:<br /><br />Theodore Roosevelt High School, attributed to T. Tolbert, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons <br />https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Theodore_Roosevelt_High_School,_Gary_Indiana.jpg <br /><br />PHOTO & VIDEO:<br />Roosevelt High School, attributed to Nyttend, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roosevelt_High_School,_Gary.jpg
<a href="https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/12001059" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Register of Historic Places</a>
Madam C.J. Walker
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Madam C.J. Walker, originally named Sarah Breedlove, was born </span><span data-contrast="auto">in</span><span data-contrast="auto"> 1867 in Louisiana to former slaves.</span><span data-contrast="auto"> At the age of </span><span data-contrast="auto">seven</span><span data-contrast="auto">, she became an orphan and lived with her older sister Louvenia</span><span data-contrast="auto">.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">1]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> Breedlove married Moses McWilliams at the age of 14 and </span><span data-contrast="auto">in 1885, </span><span data-contrast="auto">they had a daughter Lelia</span><span data-contrast="auto">. </span><span data-contrast="auto">Widowed </span><span data-contrast="auto">two years later, </span><span data-contrast="auto">Sarah </span><span data-contrast="auto">Breedlove McWilliams and her daughter moved to St. Louis, where she worked as a laundress and studied at night school.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">2]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">Breedlove McWilliams</span><span data-contrast="auto"> suffered from hair loss, which inspired</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">experiment</span><span data-contrast="auto">ation</span><span data-contrast="auto"> with homemade hair care remedies, resulting in products that promoted </span><span data-contrast="auto">healthy </span><span data-contrast="auto">hair growth.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">3]<br /></span><span data-ccp-props="{"335559740":480}"><br /></span><span data-contrast="auto">In 1906, while living in Denver, Colorado, Breedlove McWilliams married </span><span data-contrast="auto">Charles Joseph</span><span data-contrast="auto"> Walker</span><span data-contrast="auto">, who worked in advertising</span><span data-contrast="auto">. </span><span data-contrast="auto">She became known as Madam C.J. Walker and</span><span data-contrast="auto"> decided to sell her</span><span data-contrast="auto"> own hair care</span><span data-contrast="auto"> products under </span><span data-contrast="auto">her new moniker</span><span data-contrast="auto">.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">4]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">The </span><span data-contrast="auto">new name</span><span data-contrast="auto"> evoked a French flair </span><span data-contrast="auto">to make her products more impressive to potential buyers</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">as opposed to a</span><span data-contrast="auto"> “condescending name like ‘Aunt Sarah</span><span data-contrast="auto">.</span><span data-contrast="auto">’”[</span><span data-contrast="auto">5]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">In 1908, </span><span data-contrast="auto">while living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, </span><span data-contrast="auto">Walker founded Lelia College, named for her daughter, which offered a course in her</span><span data-contrast="auto"> hair care and beauty</span><span data-contrast="auto"> methods</span><span data-contrast="auto"> to aspiring “hair culturists”</span><span data-contrast="auto">.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">6]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">In 1910, </span><span data-contrast="auto">the Walkers </span><span data-contrast="auto">moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, where she opened a laboratory and a beauty school. </span><span data-contrast="auto">Walker and her husband </span><span data-contrast="auto">divorced</span><span data-contrast="auto"> in 1912.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">7]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-ccp-props="{"335559740":480}"> <br /><br /></span><span data-contrast="auto">The Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company included a factory, and along with the laboratory and beauty school, </span><span data-contrast="auto">manufactured </span><span data-contrast="auto">Walker’s beauty products and train</span><span data-contrast="auto">ed</span><span data-contrast="auto"> her nationwide sales force of “beauty</span><span data-contrast="auto"> culturi</span><span data-contrast="auto">sts” using the “The Walker System”. </span><span data-contrast="auto">With </span><span data-contrast="auto">the factory employees</span><span data-contrast="auto"> and</span><span data-contrast="auto"> thousands of </span><span data-contrast="auto">African American women sales </span><span data-contrast="auto">agents across the country, Walker ran a successful </span><span data-contrast="auto">line of </span><span data-contrast="auto">cosmetic and </span><span data-contrast="auto">hair care products that not only promoted hair growth, but hair </span><span data-contrast="auto">and skin </span><span data-contrast="auto">beautification as well</span><span data-contrast="auto">. </span><span data-contrast="auto">Her agents made sales and educated customers on the importance of hygiene and presenting oneself in a </span><span data-contrast="auto">clean </span><span data-contrast="auto">and </span><span data-contrast="auto">proper </span><span data-contrast="auto">manner.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">8]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> In 1916, her agents organized into the National Beauty Culturist and Benevolent Association of Madame C.J. Walker Agents</span><span data-contrast="auto">, </span><span data-contrast="auto">later </span><span data-contrast="auto">known as</span><span data-contrast="auto"> the Madam C.J. Walker Hair Culturists Union of America</span><span data-contrast="auto">, holding annual conventions</span><span data-contrast="auto">.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">9]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">Walker encouraged her sales agents to give back to improve society, </span><span data-contrast="auto">giving</span><span data-contrast="auto"> rewards to the sales agents </span><span data-contrast="auto">who made the largest philanthropic contributions in their African American communities. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"335559740":480}"> <br /><br /></span><span data-contrast="auto">Walker</span><span data-contrast="auto"> was </span><span data-contrast="auto">an active philanthropist and social activist in </span><span data-contrast="auto">Indianapolis. </span><span data-contrast="auto">In all areas of her life, she strove for and demanded</span><span data-contrast="auto"> equal rights,</span><span data-contrast="auto"> including</span><span data-contrast="auto"> filing suit against</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">the</span><span data-contrast="auto"> Isis Theater </span><span data-contrast="auto">for charging a higher admission rate (25 cents vs. 15 cents) </span><span data-contrast="auto">for African American patrons</span><span data-contrast="auto">. She</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">protested </span><span data-contrast="auto">segregation within the military during World War I</span><span data-contrast="auto"> and advocated for an African American army officer training camp</span><span data-contrast="auto">.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">10]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> Madam Walker </span><span data-contrast="auto">donated </span><span data-contrast="auto">to multiple </span><span data-contrast="auto">African American </span><span data-contrast="auto">charities</span><span data-contrast="auto"> and community organizations</span><span data-contrast="auto"> in Indianapolis </span><span data-contrast="auto">such as the Senate Avenue YMCA,</span><span data-contrast="auto"> the Bethel AME Church, Flanner House, and Alpha Home. </span><span data-contrast="auto">On a nationwide level, she contributed to campaigns to stop </span><span data-contrast="auto">lynching</span><span data-contrast="auto"> and supported the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which was newly- formed in 1909.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">11]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-ccp-props="{"335559731":720,"335559740":480}"> <br /><br /></span><span data-contrast="auto">Throughout her life, Madam C.J. Walker worked tirelessly to create a better life for herself</span><span data-contrast="auto">,</span><span data-contrast="auto"> her family</span><span data-contrast="auto">, an</span><span data-contrast="auto">d her African American community in a segregated Indianapolis</span><span data-contrast="auto">. </span><span data-contrast="auto">The</span><span data-contrast="auto"> hard work</span><span data-contrast="auto"> and hardship</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">took its toll</span><span data-contrast="auto">, and she</span><span data-contrast="auto"> developed </span><span data-contrast="auto">health issues</span><span data-contrast="auto"> in her </span><span data-contrast="auto">late </span><span data-contrast="auto">forties</span><span data-contrast="auto">.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">12]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">In</span><span data-contrast="auto"> April 1919, </span><span data-contrast="auto">she </span><span data-contrast="auto">passed away on May 25, 1919 at the age of 51.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">13]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">At the time of her death, she was worth an estimated $600,000 (over $6 million in 2020 dollars), and was considered the wealthiest African American woman in America.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">14]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">She is often lauded as the “America’s first self-made female millionaire."[15]<br /></span><span data-ccp-props="{"335559740":480}"><br /></span><span data-contrast="auto">The legacy of Madam C.J. Walker </span><span data-contrast="auto">is exemplified</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">in the</span><span data-contrast="auto"> personal</span><span data-contrast="auto"> pride</span><span data-contrast="auto">, entrepreneurship, and </span><span data-contrast="auto">sense of </span><span data-contrast="auto">civic </span><span data-contrast="auto">responsibility</span><span data-contrast="auto"> that her products, business, and personal life instilled in</span><span data-contrast="auto"> African American</span><span data-contrast="auto">s, especially</span><span data-contrast="auto"> African American</span><span data-contrast="auto"> women</span><span data-contrast="auto">,</span><span data-contrast="auto"> throughout the country</span><span data-contrast="auto">. </span><span data-contrast="auto">After Walker’s death, her daughter took over the </span><span data-contrast="auto">Walker Manufacturing Company</span><span data-contrast="auto"> and in 1927, moved the factory and headquarters to the newly built Walker Building</span><span data-contrast="auto"> in Indianapolis. The building included</span><span data-contrast="auto"> a ballroom, theater, hair salon, </span><span data-contrast="auto">other</span><span data-contrast="auto"> public</span><span data-contrast="auto"> spaces</span><span data-contrast="auto">,</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">and became an African American community cultural center.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">16]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> The Walker Building</span><span data-contrast="auto">, </span><span data-contrast="auto">and the surroundi</span><span data-contrast="auto">ng Indiana Avenue </span><span data-contrast="auto">neighborhood,</span><span data-contrast="auto"> became a hub for the</span><span data-contrast="auto"> African American arts, culture, and jazz scene in </span><span data-contrast="auto">segregated Indianapolis through the 1960s.</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">A tangible reminder of her legacy,</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">The</span><span data-contrast="auto"> Madame C.J.</span><span data-contrast="auto"> Walker Building </span><span data-contrast="auto">was listed in</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">the </span><span data-contrast="auto">National Register for Historic Places in 198</span><span data-contrast="auto">0 and was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1991</span><span data-contrast="auto">.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">17]</span><span data-ccp-props="{"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<span>[1] </span><span>Moore, Wilma, Alan Rowe, Lyndsey Blair, Rebecca Pattillo, and Maire Gurevitz. </span><span>“</span><span>Madam C.J. Walker Papers Addition, 1911</span><span>-</span><span>2005 (Bulk1950s</span><span>-</span><span>80s).</span><span>”</span><span>Indiana Historical Society. December 2017. Accessed March 12, 2020.<br /></span><span>[2] </span><span>Ibid.<br /></span><span>[3] </span><span>Latham Jr., Charles. “Madam C.J. Walker & Company.” </span><span>Traces</span><span>1989, Vol. 1, No.3, pp. 29.<br />[</span><span>4] </span><span>Michals, Debra. Madam C.J. Walker. National Women’s History Museum, 2015. Accessed March 12, 2020. <br /></span><span>[5] </span><span>Moore, Wilma, Alan Rowe, Lyndsey Blair, Rebecca Pattillo, and Maire Gurevitz. <br /></span><span>[6] </span><span>Mo</span><span>ore, Wilma, Alan Rowe, Lyndsey Blair, Rebecca Pattillo, and Maire Gurevitz. <br /></span><span>[7] </span><span>Ibid.<br />[8] Latham Jr., Charles. pp. 29.<br />[9] Ibid, 30-31.<br />[10] Ibid, 31.<br />[11] Latson, Jennifer “How America’s First Self-Made Female Millionaire Built Her Fortune”, accessed March 15, 2020.<br />[12] Latham Jr., Charles.pp. 32. <br />[13] Ibid.<br />[14] “Madam C.J. Walker”. The Philanthropy Hall of Fame. Philanthropy Roundtable, accessed March 13, 2020.<br />[15] Latson, Jennifer.<br />[16] Latham Jr., Charles. pp. 32.<br />[17] National Register of Historic Places, Madame C.J. Walker Building, accessed March 13, 2020.<br /><br /></span>
Studen Authors: Robin Johnson and Sydney Schlock
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Madam C.J. Walker, attributed to Scurlock Studio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Madam_CJ_Walker_face_circa_1914.jpg
<a href="https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/62762a1d-b804-482f-84c0-e4d5929dad2c?branding=NRHP" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Register of Historic Places</a>
Willard B. Ransom
Willard B. (Mike) Ransom was born in Indianapolis in 1916. He attended Crispus Attucks High School, newly opened as an African American high school in 1927. As an athlete at Attucks, he and his teammates were barred from competition against white schools by the Indiana High School Athletic Association.[1] Ransom graduated from Talladega College in Alabama in 1932 with summa cum laude honors and earned his Juris Doctorate from Harvard in 1939, as the only African American in his law school graduating class.[2]<br /><br />Just a few years after earning his law degree, Willard Ransom was appointed Indiana’s assistant attorney general. Only two months into his four-year term, he was drafted into the US Army in 1941. Ransom was eventually deployed to Belgium and France, and worked in the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Office. During his service, Ransom, along with other African American service men, experienced “blatantly discriminatory and humiliating treatment.” He recalls, “We were fighting discrimination. Black officers couldn’t go into officers’ clubs, enlisted men couldn’t go into the noncommissioned officers’ clubs.”[3] <br /><br />After the war, he returned to Indianapolis where he experienced prejudice and discrimination, as nearly all downtown restaurants, hotels, theaters, and other public places were segregated and closed to African Americans, which he considered an “overt slap in the face.”[4] During a 1991 interview, he said, “the contrast between having served in the Army and running into this discrimination and barriers at home was a discouraging thing.”[5] In order to fight the racial discrimination he and others experienced in Indiana in the 1940s, Ransom reorganized the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and served five terms as its chairman. He served as an Indiana delegate at the 1948 Progressive Party national convention, befitting his aggressive and relatively radical approach to leadership in the 1940s Civil Rights movement. Ransom organized local protests against businesses, before many of the marches and sit-ins that took place in the South.[6] He organized small sit-ins at a White Castle hamburger stand, drugstores, department stores, and restaurants.[7] He led over 50 protesters at a sit-in at the segregated bus station restaurant at the former Traction Terminal Building in downtown Indianapolis. Ransom recalls, “There was a big restaurant there, and there were so many blacks traveling on buses. We were insulted in that place because no one would serve us.”[8] His efforts to end segregation through protests and sit-ins lead to several arrests for Ransom.[9] <br /><br />Ransom worked closely with NAACP’s chief lawyer (and future Supreme Court Justice) Thurgood Marshall in the late 1940s regarding school desegregation in Indiana. He wrote Marshall in 1948 “we are going to approach the various school boards again with petitions asking abolition of segregated schools….” He was part of a group of lawyers who drafted the “Fair Schools” bill which was passed by the Indiana General Assembly in 1949, legally ended segregated schools in Indiana.[10] The African American Indianapolis Recorder proclaimed “we assert this is the greatest forward stride in democracy made by the Hoosier State since the Civil War.”[11] <br /><br />Willard served as the assistant manager of Madame C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company, the highly successful and well-known African American-owned cosmetics company, from 1947 to 1954, and then became the general manager until 1971, as well as Trustee of the Walker Estate. After the sale of the Walker Manufacturing Company in 1986, he served as a board member of the Madame C.J. Walker Urban Life Center, a non-profit organization which operated the Walker Building for educational, charitable, and cultural functions benefiting the African American community in Indianapolis.[12] <br />In 1970, Ransom co-founded the Indiana Black Expo and served as chair of the Finance Committee. He served on the board of directors of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, now known as the National Conference for Community and Justice. Ransom helped create the Concerned Ministers of Indianapolis, a group who focused on the integration of African Americans into the business world; in 1993, he received the organization’s Thurgood Marshall Award in 1993 for his dedication to civil rights.[13] Ransom became the first African American director of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce and board member of the Merchants National Bank and Trust Company.[14] Ransom was a partner in the Indianapolis law firm Bamberger & Feibleman from 1971 until his death at the age of 79 in November 1995.[15] <br /><br />Willard “Mike” Ransom was recognized on numerous occasions for his influence on Civil Rights in Indiana, and the Hoosier state would have looked very different for African Americans if not for his and his father’s (Freeman Ransom) ceaseless activism and pursuit of equal rights. The family lived in segregated downtown Indianapolis in what is now known as the Ransom Place Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992, honoring the family for their contributions to Civil Rights in Indiana.[16]
[1] Madison, James. “’Gone to Another Meeting’:Willard B. Ransom and Early Civil Rights Leadership”. Indiana Magazine of History, 114 (September 2018).<br />[2] Jones, Jae. Willard Ransom: Pioneer in Civil Rights Movement in Indianapolis.December 9, 2017. Accessed February 12, 2019.<br />[3] St. Clair, James E. and Linda C. Gugin. Indiana’s 200: The People Who Shaped the Hoosier State.Indiana Historical Society Press. 2015. Accessed March 9, 2020. <br />[4] Madison, James.<br />[5] Henry Hedgepath, “Who’s Who,” The Indianapolis Recorder(1982), 3.<br />[6] Ransom family papers show attorneys' work to end discrimination.March 9, 2016. Accessed February 12,2019. <br />[7] Madison, James.<br />[8] Hedgepath, “Who’s Who,” 3.<br />[9] Madison, James.<br />[10] Madison, James.<br />[11] Indianapolis Recorder,March 12, 1949.<br />[12] Madison, James<br />[13] Pattillo, Rebecca. Ransom Family Papers, 1912-2011, 4. Indiana Historical Society. December 2015. Accessed March 9, 2020. <br />[14] Pattillo, Rebecca. Ransom Family Papers, 1912-2011, 4. Indiana Historical Society. December 2015. Accessed March 9, 2020. <br />[15] Pattillo, Rebecca. Ransom Family Papers, 1912-2011, 4.Indiana Historical Society. December 2015. Accessed March 9, 2020. <br />[16] Ransom Place Historic District, National Park Service. Accessed March 13, 2020. https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/92001650.
Student Authors: Melody Seberger 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
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Willard Ransom, Indianapolis Recorder Collection, Indiana Historical Society.
https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/p0303/id/180/rec/2
<a href="https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/92001650" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Register of Historic Places</a><br /><a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/216.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker</a>
Aaron Fisher
Aaron Richard Fisher was born on May 14, 1895 in Lyles Station, one of Indiana’s earliest African American settlements. His father, Benjamin, served in the 6th Colored Calvary Regiment in the Union Army during the Civil War.[1] Fisher attended public school in Lyles Station before attending segregated African American Lincoln High School in nearby Princeton. After graduating, Fisher enlisted in the Army at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri in 1911.[2] After training in Texas and Ohio, he was promoted to Corporal. Fisher transferred to New Mexico in 1916, where he and his unit were stationed until the United States entered World War I in 1917. <br /><br />During WWI, the US military maintained segregated white and African American units, both serving under white officers.[3] African American soldiers were usually sent overseas for non-combat roles such as building roads and railroads, repairing ships, and grave digging. The Indianapolis Freeman stated that “The cry has gone forth that the Negroes will do the laboring part, while white men carry the guns.”[4] World War I starkly illustrated the need for equal rights, as African Americans were fighting for a nation that treated them as second-class citizens. Freedoms they were fighting for as soldiers were not available to them at home, and instead, African Americans in Indiana and across the country experienced segregation, discrimination, and racial violence. In response to President Wilson’s war declaration address in 1917 that “The world must be made safe for democracy”, the editor of the African American newspaper The Messenger remarked that “We would rather make Georgia safe for the Negro.”[5] <br /><br />The American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) Commander General John Pershing approved the African American 92nd and 93rd divisions for combat duty in France. The 92nd would fight under American officers while the 93rd would fight under French command.[6] Fisher, who had been promoted to 1st Sergeant, and then 2nd Lieutenant, was part of the 92nd division in the African American 366th Infantry Regiment. In 1918, Fisher and his unit were sent overseas to St. Nazaire, France. On September 3, Fisher commanded his unit during a German trench raid near Lesseux, France, where he led a counterattack despite being severely wounded.[7][8] After being sent to the hospital for recovery, he would stay in Europe until the end of the war and returned to the US in February 1919.[9] <br /><br />For his bravery and leadership in battle, Fisher was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Purple Heart. The French government awarded him the Croix de Guerre with gold star, as an “officer of admirable courage”.[10] He was “among the most decorated American soldiers in WWI” and the most highly decorated WWI African American soldier from Indiana.[11] On March 17, 1919, Fisher was honorably discharged from service with the rank of Captain in the Army Reserve. He reenlisted several months later and was subsequently stationed in the southwest, Hawaii, and the Phillippines.[12] After returning to the US, Fisher was transferred to Wilberforce University in Ohio, the nation’s oldest historically black University owned by African Americans. At Wilberforce, he was an instructor in their ROTC military tactics unit and trained African American officers who would serve in World War II. He lived in Wilberforce until his retirement from the Armed Forces on December 31, 1947.[13] Fisher moved to Xenia, Ohio, and worked at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base until his retirement in 1965. Fisher passed away on November 22, 1985, at the age of 90.[14]
[1] McBride, Connor. “Aaron R. Fisher.” United States World War I Centennial Commission. Accessed April 10, 2020. <br />[2] Ibid. <br />[3] “Hometown Boys from Indiana: Information and Statistics About WWI Service Members.” American Battle Monuments Commission, 2018. Accessed April 14, 2020. <br />[4] Thornborough, Emma Lou. Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indianapolis. Pp. 45. <br />[5] Williams, Chad. African-American Veterans Hoped Their Service in World War I Would Secure Their Rights at Home. It Didn’t. https://time.com/5450336/african-american-veterans-wwi/. Accessed April 16, 2020. <br />[6] McBride, Connor.<br />[7] Ibid. <br />[8] Thornborough, Emma Lou. Pp. 45. <br />[9] McBride, Connor.<br />[10] Ibid. <br />[11] "Hometown Boys from Indiana: Information and Statistics About WWI Service Members.”<br />[12] McBride, Connor. <br />[13] Ibid. <br />[14] Reike, Greg. “Aaron Richard ‘Cap’ Fisher.” Find A Grave. Accessed April 16 2020.
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
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Aaron R. Fisher, attributed to U.S. Army, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aaron_R._Fisher.jpg
<a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/424.htm">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker</a>
Crispus Attucks High School
<p>Crispus Attucks High School, located in Indianapolis, Indiana, opened in 1927. Originally, it was to be named after President Thomas Jefferson. However, the idea of a school built explicitly for African American students named for a white slave owner invoked multiple petitions from the African American community. The name changed to Crispus Attucks to honor the runaway slave who is said to have been the first person to die in the American Revolution, during the Boston Massacre.[1]</p>
<p>The 1920s marked a great resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana, which pressured for segregated education. There was much pushback from African Americans regarding Crispus Attucks being segregated. The Better Indianapolis League, as well as African American churches such as the Bethel AME Church in Indianapolis, strongly opposed segregating the school.[2] Despite this, the school board voted unanimously on segregation. African American students who had previously attended integrated Indianapolis high schools, such as Arsenal Technical, Washington, and Shortridge, moved to Crispus Attucks upon the school’s opening, and were no longer allowed to attend any other public high school in the city. The Indianapolis Recorder reported on this incident, stating: “About two dozen of boys and girls who appeared at Shortridge, Manual and Technical High Schools...were refused admission...The Negro citizens are now faced with the circumstance, voiced by opponents of a Negro High School in the past. The great establishments as Technical, Manual, and Shortridge, offer subjects or works, and facilities that Negro boys and girls will never have at the Attucks High School, some parents declare.”[3]</p>
<p>Many Crispus Attucks’ teachers held master’s degrees or PhDs, which was unusual for a high school at the time. Richard Pierce in Polite Protest states, “By 1934, seven years after opening its doors, the sixty-two-member faculty held nineteen master’s degrees and two Ph.D.s. The percentage of advanced degrees held by Attucks’s faculty far exceeded that of any other high school in the city.”[4] With the amount of highly educated faculty, Attucks provided quality education despite the lack of quality resources compared to the city’s white high schools. The school also found success in sports. In the 1950s, the Attucks Tigers won two consecutive state basketball championships. The 1955 championship made the Tigers the first segregated black high school team in US history to win a state title.[5] Notable athletes who played on the team included future NBA Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson.[6]</p>
<p>Statewide desegregation was enacted into law by the Indiana General Assembly in 1949, five years before the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. However, Crispus Attucks continued to be a segregated African American high school. In 1965, the president of the NAACP requested an investigation into why Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) were still segregated. In 1968, the Department of Justice “directed IPS to begin taking voluntary steps toward actual integration.” IPS ignored this directive, which was met with protests from the African American community, and from whites who refused to let their children attend Attucks High School. The school would remain segregated until September 7, 1971 “under court-ordered desegregation”.[7]</p>
<p>Recognized for both its architecture and its role in African American education and civil rights, Crispus Attucks High School was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. In 1992, the Indiana Historical Bureau erected a historical marker in front of the school, recounting its history and its importance to the Indianapolis African American community.</p>
[1] <span>“Crispus Attucks High School.” National Park Service National Register of Historic Places. Accessed March 20, 2020, https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/indianapolis/crispusattucks.htm.<br />[2] Glass, James A. “AME Church has proud history in Indiana.” Indy Star, 2016. Accessed March 20, 2020.<br />[3] “Students Barred From High Schools,” Indianapolis Recorder, September 24, 1927, 2. Accessed March 24, 2020.<br />[4] Pierce, Richard B. Polite Protest: The Political Economy of Race in Indianapolis, 1920-1970, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 32.<br />[5] Crispus Attucks High School IHB Marker Review. Indiana Historical Bureau, 2014, 3. Accessed March 24, 2020, https://www.in.gov/history/files/49.1992.1review.pdf.<br />[6] Robertson, Oscar. How an all-black high school team starring Oscar Robertson changed Hoosier Hysteria. Accessed March 24, 2020, https://theundefeated.com/features/oscar-robertson-crispus-attucks-tigers/<br />[7] Crispus Attucks High School IHB Marker Review.</span>
Student Authors: Robin Johnson and Emma Brauer
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Crispus Attucks High School, attributed to Nyttend, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crispus_Attucks_High_School.jpg
<a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/211.htm">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker</a><br /><a href="https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/88003043">National Register of Historic Places</a>
Evangeline Harris Merriweather
<p>Evangeline E. Harris was born in 1893 and raised in Terre Haute, Indiana. She attended Oberlin College in Ohio, Columbia University, and was an accomplished opera singer at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, before earning her master’s degree in education from Indiana State Normal School, now Indiana State University, in Terre Haute. Harris was a school teacher and music supervisor at various elementary schools in the Terre Haute area.[1] In 1936, she married Charles Merriweather and they remained in Terre Haute. Harris Merriweather continued to teach elementary school and perform as an opera singer both locally and across the nation.[2]</p>
<p>As part of her master’s thesis in the late 1930s, Harris sent out 500 questionnaires to African American elementary school officials throughout the Unites States, asking whether they had access to materials that highlighted the importance of African American culture, African American people of high achievement, or showed African American families. Only a handful of schools had materials that presented African Americans accurately and fairly. In response, she began writing the first of many editions of “Stories for Little Tots”, published in 1940, which was a collection of biographies of important African American individuals, specifically targeted for school-aged children. During this time, she was befriended by Dr. George Washington Carver who helped her promote “Stories for Little Tots”, which featured a biography of Carver.[3]</p>
<p>Harris Merriweather also wrote “A History of Eminent Negroes”, highlighting accomplished African American individuals. Each of her books, including her three-part “The Family” elementary reader series and “Stories for Little Tots”, went on to become highly useful educational tools for African American schools across the nation. Her books were an unprecedented form of literature designed for African American young people. According to Terre Haute resident James Flinn, “All the reading material at that time was written by whites for whites about whites.”[4] In fact, most of the authors writing about African American culture at the time were white as well, creating a skewed perspective and fostering African American stereotypes amongst their readers.</p>
<p>The small number of African American children literature authors in the 1940s had a limited reach and a very small audience, contributing to the prejudice and the self-fulfilling prophecies of the African American children who read of themselves mostly in a negative stereotypical light and portrayed by white authors.[5] One of Merriweather’s former students, Carolyn Roberts, who became a elementary teacher herself, remarked on the importance of Merriweather’s readers. “The first time to open up a book and see an African-American, and see what they had done, was so important.”[6] It was writers such as Harris Merriweather that greatly contributed to the shift in African American children’s literature and education, from harmful prejudiced views to those that inspired hope and motivation amongst young African American readers.</p>
<p>Evangeline suffered a fatal cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 57, while still in the prime of her writing, educational, and singing career. Her contributions to African American children’s literature and culture are memorialized by an Indiana Historical Bureau marker on the campus of Indiana State University (formerly Indiana State Normal School).[7]</p>
[1] Mike McCormick. Evangeline Harris Merriweather. Terre Haute Tribune-Star, 2001. Accessed May 4, 2020. https://digital.library.in.gov/Record/WV3_vchs-562 <br />[2] Vigo County Public Library. Evangeline Harris Merriweather Collection, N.D. Accessed May 4, 2020. https://www.vigo.lib.in.us/archives/inventories/aa/merriweather1.php <br />[3] Vigo County Public Library.<br />[4] Mike McCormick. Evangeline Harris Merriweather. <br />[5] Horn Book. The Changing Image of the Black in Children's Literature. The Horn Book, 1975. Accessed May 4, 2020. https://www.hbook.com/?detailStory=the-changing-image-of-the-black-in-childrens-literature <br />[6] Mike McCormick. Evangeline Harris Merriweather. <br />[7] Indiana Historical Bureau. Evangeline E. Harris. IN.gov, 2018. Accessed May 4, 2020. https://www.in.gov/history/markers/4414.htm
Student Author: Mary Swartz
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Evangeline Harris Merriwether 1949, public domain, via Indiana Album Inc., http://indianaalbum.pastperfectonline.com/photo/82D69F28-E9A9-40A5-BF87-981528434361
<a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/4414.htm">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker</a>
Fox Lake Resort
<p>Fox Lake Resort was the first and only resort established in Indiana catering to African American families, and one of only a few in the Midwest. In September 1924, a group of white Fort Wayne businessmen purchased land in Angola, Indiana, under the name of the Fox Lake Land Company. Their intention was to market the land to the growing Indiana African American community, specifically to African Americans in search of an independent resort where they would not be excluded. Almost all summer resorts at the time in Indiana excluded or severely limited the participation of African Americans. Advertisements described the resort as “a place of their own where they could escape the heat of the cities and enjoy the pleasures of summertime activities.”[1]</p>
<p>The first African American family to vacation there was that of Viola Reynolds in 1927. Reynolds was secretary at the Madam C.J. Walker Company, an Indianapolis cosmetic manufacturing business, which was the largest and most successful African American-owned business in the nation at that time. The Reynolds family was invited to buy a cottage from the Boyd family, a white family who had purchased land from the Fox Lake Land Company. News quickly spread about the resort, initially bringing in African American clientele mostly from Indianapolis, but soon bringing in visitors from cities within a day driving distance such as Detroit, Chicago, Toledo, Marion, and Fort Wayne.[2]</p>
<p></p>
<p>The Fox Lake resort was listed in the Negro Motorist Green Book, a book published annually by Victor H. Green that listed establishments that served African American patrons. The Green Book was published from 1936 to 1966, during which that resort was listed as “ANGOLA: Fox Lake Resort - 1 1/2 miles S. W. of Angola” in the 1941 edition.[3]</p>
<p>In its initial decade, Fox Lake residents were required to use a community water pump until wells could be built on the properties. Finally, in 1936 electricity arrived and 1938 saw the arrival of the Fox Lake Property Owners Association which organized trash removal, road maintenance, and the like. By the 1940s, the resort’s clubhouse hosted many well known musicians. The resort also boasted recreational amenities including tennis courts, horseshoe pits, and basketball hoops.[4] Saddle horses were also available until the early 1950s. Other activities included trap shooting matches, weekly Family Night at the restaurant, and Sunday school held on the beach under the trees.[5]</p>
<p>For the African American youth that lived within driving distance, the resort served as a recreational destination for beach swimming, dancing, and socializing. During World War II, African American troops stationed at nearby Baer Field in Fort Wayne were invited to enjoy the resort on their free weekends. In addition, a variety of meetings of African American fraternal organizations, churches, and alumni groups were also held at the resort.[6]</p>
<p>In the present day, Fox Lake Resort is still a flourishing African American community. Traditions dating back to the 1930s remain upheld by second and third generation lake cottage owners.[7] A portion of Fox Lake Resort, with 27 contributing single dwelling cottages, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (since 2001) as a historic district.[8]</p>
[1] Ronald J. Stephens. FOX LAKE, ANGOLA, INDIANA (1927- ), 2014. Accessed April 29, 2020. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/fox-lake-angola-indiana-1927/ <br />[2] Ronald J. Stephens. <br />[3] Smithsonian Institution. The Negro Motorist Green Book, 2017. Accessed April 29, 2020. https://edan.si.edu/transcription/pdf_files/7955.pdf <br />[4] Ronald J. Stephens. <br />[5] National Register of Historic Places. Fox Lake Angola, Indiana, 2002. Accessed April 29, 2020. https://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/afam/2002/foxlake.htm <br />[6] National Register of Historic Places. <br />[7] National Register of Historic Places. <br />[8] United States Department of the Interior. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, 2001. Accessed April 29, 2020. https://secure.in.gov/apps/dnr/shaard/r/22fce/N/Fox_Lake_Steuben_CO_Nom.pdf
Student Author: Mary Swartz
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Fox Lake Resort, 760 Lane 130, attributed to MrHarman, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fox_Lake_Resort,_760_Lane_130_(NRHP),_Angola,_IN.jpg
Fox Lake, West End, (Angola), Ind., Indiana Historical Society, P0408.
https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/p16797coll72/id/1038/rec/45
<a href="%20https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/01000360">National Register of Historic Places</a>
African American Civil Conservation Corps (CCC)
<p>The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was one of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s most popular New Deal relief agencies, employing approximately three million men between the ages of 17 and 23, from 1933 to 1942, in 57 camps across the United States.[1] The CCC was heavily responsible for the creation of many structures and infrastructure within Indiana state parks and forests, as well as many other public works across the state.[2] Eight Indiana CCC companies were comprised solely of African Americans. Company 517-C, formed in 1934 with 250 men and based outside of Corydon, became the largest and most enduring African American CCC company.[3] The “-C” in the name designated it as a “colored” group.[4]</p>
<p>One member of Company 517-C, Francis Crowdus, recounted his experience in the CCC, saying “there was a sense of high expectation. We worked hard and were expected to do it right. We used our muscles…we built barracks, dams, fought forest fires, reclaimed streams, and planted forests. Even though the CCC was one of President Roosevelt’s job programs, I never felt I was on welfare.”[5] In addition to the work described by Crowdus, the 517-C worked in natural stone quarries, as well as helped in rescue efforts following the flood of 1937.[6]</p>
<p>The time spent in segregated camps afforded the men opportunities they would not have otherwise had. At Corydon, Company 517-C was isolated from the surrounding white community, cementing a sense of belonging for those in 517-C. Another former member of Company 517-C claimed “I’ve never seen such camaraderie anywhere, not even in a fraternity or a church. It’s like blood brothers.” With this strong sense of teamwork, Company 517-C coined the phrase “We Can Take It!” as their motto, highlighting their hard work and friendship.[7]</p>
<p>While New Deal historians argue that race relations did not see improvement on a national level as a result of the CCC, it can be argued that race relations did improve on a local level by the brotherhood developed among African American young men following the Great Depression. Many white farmers and landowners of southern Indiana openly accepted and appreciated the help of the African American CCC groups.[8][9]</p>
<p>However, members of the 517-C were the subject of great prejudice in other areas of Indiana. Company 517-C moved to Portland in Jay County in the fall of 1939 to repair a drainage system. Their arrival caused much anxiety throughout the community. An editorial in The Sun & Commercial asked local citizens not to be alarmed assuring that “during the few months they will be kept under strict discipline by their white officers.”[10] With no diversity in Portland, the men of 517-C traveled to Muncie or Fort Wayne for their weekend social activities. With Camp Portland close to town, the local community cultivated a growing distrust of the CCC workers.</p>
<p>One of the 517-C crew, Marshall Carter, walked through an alley on his way out of town one evening in December 1939. A local resident yelled at him to stop, then open fired without warning, severely wounding Carter, and he was rushed to the local hospital. The attack was initially ignored in the national CCC paper Happy Days, greatly upsetting many of the African American CCC members.[11] However, the December 1939 issue of Ditch Dots and Dashes, published by 517-C members, blared the headline “Local Citizen Shoots C.C.C. Boy, Marshall Carter is Victim”. Subsequent issues included submissions from 517-C crew lamenting racial injustice in the form of testimonials and poetry, including Carter with a poem titled So You’re the Judge.[12] It was reported in the February 1940 issue that Carter had recovered from his wounds.[13]</p>
<p>In 1942, the CCC disbanded nationally as young men were needed to fight in WWII. Many members of the 517-C met for annual reunions at their camps in Corydon and Portland until the last CCC reunion in 1994.[14]</p>
[1] <span>Barbara Quigley. CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS COMPANY 517 PHOTOGRAPHS, CA. 1934. Indiana History, 2004. Accessed May 4, 2020. https://www.indianahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/civilian-conservation-corps-company-517.pdf<br />[2] Katie Martin. “We Can Take It!” Race and the Civilian Conservation Corps in Indiana, 1934‒1941. Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research, 2014. Accessed May 4, 2020. https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1124&context=jpur<br />[3] Barbara Quigley.<br />[4] Katie Martin.<br />[5] Barbara Quigley.<br />[6] Barbara Quigley.<br />[7] Katie Martin.<br />[8] Katie Martin.<br />[9] Barbara Quigley.<br />[10] Katie Martin.<br />[11] Katie Martin.<br />[12] Ditch Dots and Dashes, December 1939, pp. 12, 19. Accessed May 7, 2020. https://dds.crl.edu/crldelivery/20158.<br />[13] Ditch Dots and Dashes, February 1940, p. 3. Accessed May 7, 2020. https://dds.crl.edu/crldelivery/20158.<br />[14] Katie Martin.</span>
Student Author: Mary Swartz
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Ditch dots and dashes, attributed to
Civilian Conservation Corps (U.S.), Public domain, via Indiana State Library
https://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16066coll49/id/632/rec/15
North Gleason Park, Gary
<p>North Gleason Park in Gary was first developed in 1920. Originally named Riverside Park, it was renamed after the U.S. Steel Superintendent and park board president William P. Gleason in 1933. The park board segregated the park into north and south parcels using the Little Calumet River as a divider. The north section of the park was designated for African American patrons, the south for Gary’s white residents.[1] The funding for the two sides of the park was never equal, with the south side of the park enjoying more and better quality amenities than the north side, including an 18-hole golf course in South Gleason as opposed to the 9-hole course in North Gleason. Despite the inequality, the African American community in Gary embraced North Gleason Park as their own place to unwind and enjoy.[2]</p>
<p>One of the most popular attractions in North Gleason Park was the 9-hole golf course. Bonded by the love of the sport, golfers at North Gleason Park developed the “Par-Makers” in 1949, a social club that enjoyed hosting tournaments and encouraging competition. The Par-Makers developed a scholarship fund, created a youth golf program, and contributed their time to support local causes within the African American community. The club worked to eliminate exclusion at South Gleason Park’s 18-hole golf course, even using professional boxer Joe Louis to persuade the Gary park board to allow African Americans to play at the South Gleason course.[3] Ann Gregory from Gary, who became the first African American golfer to play in a USGA Championship, also helped break the racial barrier at Gleason Park. After being told she could not play at South Gleason Park by a staff and a groundskeeper, Gregory remarked that “My tax dollars are taking care of the big course and there's no way you can bar me from it. Just send the police out to get me" and she proceeded to play all 18 holes on the south side.[4] Through persistent efforts by African American golfers, the South Gleason Park golf course became integrated by the 1960s.[5]</p>
<p>The North Gleason Park pavilion was another popular space for Gary’s African American community and was used primarily as a boxing gym, but also for meetings and gatherings. Boxing greats such as Angel Manfredy (a popular contender in the 1990s) and “Merciless” Mary McGee (Women's Super Lightweight Champion of the World in December of 2019)[6] were trained in the pavilion under the instruction of retired police officer, John Taylor. Taylor was known for bringing young people in off the streets and turning them into boxing champions.[7] Today, efforts are being made to add the North Gleason Park pavilion to the National Register of Historic Places. Currently, the pavilion is in severe disrepair after years of neglect.[8] However, multiple groups and individuals from Gary have stepped up to offer their labor in hopes of repairing the pavilion for use once again.[9][10]</p>
[1] <span>Indiana Landmarks. Divided History. Indiana Landmarks, 2018. Accessed May 5, 2020. https://www.indianalandmarks.org/2018/11/seeking-a-save-for-gary-north-gleason-park-pavilion<br />[2] Indiana Landmarks. Divided History.<br />[3] Indiana Landmarks. Divided History.<br />[4] Rhonda Glenn. Pioneer Gregory Broke Color Barriers. USGA, 2005. Accessed May 7, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20090826005546/http://www.usga.org/news/2005/February/Pioneer-Gregory-Broke-Color-Barriers<br />[5] Indiana Landmarks. Divided History.<br />[6] Joseph Phillips. Gary’s First boxing champion “Merciless” Mary McGee looks to successfully defend her title on Saturday Night, February 8. Accessed May 7, 2020. https://chicagocrusader.com/garys-first-boxing-champion-merciless-mary-mcgee-looks-to-successfully-defend-her-title-on-saturday-night-february-8<br />[7] Joseph Pete. Preservationists fighting to save historic boxing gym at Gary's North Gleason Park Pavilion. NWI Times, 2019. Accessed May 7, 2020. https://www.nwitimes.com/business/local/preservationists-fighting-to-save-historic-boxing-gym-at-gary-s/article_b56b9379-41b1-5bbe-8383-aefbdfacd040.html<br />[8] Joseph Pete. Groups hope to save historic Gary site. The Journal Gazette, 2019. Accessed May 7, 2020. https://www.journalgazette.net/news/local/indiana/20191117/groups-hope-to-save-historic-gary-sit<br />[9] Indiana Landmarks. Cleanup Kicks Off North Gleason Pavilion Preservation. Indiana Landmarks, 2019. Accessed May 5, 2020. https://www.indianalandmarks.org/2019/12/cleanup-kicks-off-north-gleason-pavilion-preservation<br />[10] Indiana Landmarks. Cleanup Kicks Off North Gleason Pavilion Preservation.</span>
Student Author: Mary Swartz
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Courtesy Indiana Landmarks https://www.indianalandmarks.org/2018/11/seeking-a-save-for-gary-north-gleason-park-pavilion/
Lincoln High School, Evansville
<p>Lincoln High School in Evansville was built as an exclusively African American high school in Evansville, Indiana.[1][2] When classes were first held in 1928, the Lincoln hosted grades K-12, with an enrollment of 300. Students were bussed in from surrounding Vanderburg, Posey, and Warrick counties to attend Lincoln, including the communities of Mt. Vernon, Rockport, Newburgh, and Grandview.[3]</p>
<p>The school included 22 classrooms, a gym, auditorium, sewing room, and other vocational training areas. However, the school did not contain a cafeteria. Compared to white schools at the time, Lincoln received less funding and students had decreased educational opportunities. Despite having a library, the school did not receive enough funding to purchase books. Lincoln’s first librarian, Mrs. Alberta K. McFarland Stevenson stocked the library shelves by collecting used books and monetary donations door-to-door from local residents.[4]</p>
<p>This was not the only inequality experienced by Lincoln students. Discrimination was rampant in Indiana high school sports in the 1930s and early 1940s, directly affecting the successful athletes at Lincoln. African American high school teams in Indiana were not allowed to compete in contact sports with white schools until 1943 when the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) was ordered by the Indiana legislature to open membership to all schools. This order was only six years before state law declared segregation of Indiana schools illegal.</p>
<p>Because Lincoln High School students were excluded from competing with white teams in Indiana, athletes traveled to Gary and Indianapolis to play teams from African American schools (Roosevelt and Crispus Attucks). They also traveled out of state to Dayton, Louisville, Missouri, Nashville, and St. Louis for athletic competitions. George Flowers, who was a member of the school’s track team, recalled “That’s the one time segregation was kind of a fun thing, because it allowed our young men to go to bigger cities.”[5]</p>
<p>Despite the lack of school funding, the teachers were held in high esteem for providing quality education and turning students into respectful young people. Dawn Whitticker, whose mother was a teacher at Lincoln, recounts “The teachers were excellent. They were really strong disciplinarians,” she said. “Even if you were a student who wasn’t as up to speed, they made sure you learned. We were all forced to stay together, even during our entertainment. My teacher would probably see my mother in the grocery store and the beauty shop.” This strong sense of community and the bond between African American residents and teachers created an atmosphere where students wanted to do well and created a Lincoln legacy that continues to this day.[6]</p>
<p>In 1949, Indiana state law opened the doors to all schools for African Americans. However, in many areas of the state there was no mechanism to promote integration while there many policies enacted to continue de facto segregation. Very few Lincoln students integrated to the previously all-white schools.[7] In 1962, the final solely African American class graduated from Lincoln High School, and the school was then converted into a K-8 facility as part of the school corporation’s integration plan.[8] The original Lincoln School building still stands and as of 2020, serves K-8 students.[9] The Lincoln Clark Douglass Alumni Association keeps the legacy of Lincoln High School alive, and as part of their mission they resolve to “encourage high culture, intellectual and moral standards among its members” and “to inspire such traits of character among the African American community members…. and throughout the community at large.”[10]</p>
[1] Nathan Blackford. Gone But Not Forgotten. Evansville Living, 2014. Accessed May 4, 2020. http://www.evansvilleliving.com/articles/gone-but-not-forgotten
[2] Charles E. Loflin & Virginia P. Vornehm-Loflin. Center on the History of the Indianapolis Public Schools. Gary Roosevelt, Indianapolis Attucks, and Evansville Lincoln, 2018. Accessed May 8, 2020.http://vorcreatex.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/1927-1928-Indianas-1920s-Jim-Crow-high-schools-Gary-Roosevelt-Indianapolis-Attucks-and-Evansville-Lincoln-What-do-they-have-in-common.pdf
[3] Lincoln School. About Us: History. Lincoln Lions, n.d. Accessed May 8, 2020. https://lincoln.evscschools.com/about_us/history
[4] Charles E. Loflin & Virginia P. Vornehm-Loflin.
[5] Chad Lindskog. 57 years after closure, Evansville's Lincoln High School's rich sports history remains. Courier & Press, 2019. Accessed May 8, 2020. https://www.courierpress.com/story/sports/high-school/2019/02/21/evansvilles-lincoln-high-schools-rich-sports-history-remains/2803388002/
[6] Chad Lindskog.
[7] Chad Lindskog.
[8] Evansville Museum. AN OVERVIEW OF THE 1960S IN EVANSVILLE. Evansville Museum, n.d.. https://emuseum.org/blog/an-overview-of-the-1960s-in-evansville
[9] Lincoln School. About Us: History.
[10] Lincoln Clark Douglass Alumni Association, Mission Statement, n.d. https://www.lincolnclarkdouglassaa.org/mission-statement
Student Author: Mary Swartz
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Lincoln High School, attributed to Harley Sheets Collection, Public domain, via Indiana Album
https://indianaalbum.pastperfectonline.com/photo/F194F4A9-4DED-4651-A624-768304442100
Froebel School, Gary
<p>Built in 1912, Froebel High School was one of the first schools in Gary, Indiana to accept African American students, decades before most other schools were desegregated. By 1944, approximately 40% of the school’s students were African American. Despite being an integrated school, African American students were still expected to remain in certain areas of the building, could not participate fully in extracurricular activities, and were often disliked and mistreated by many of their white classmates. Tensions continued to rise, until September 18, 1945 when around 1,400 white students took part in a massive walkout protest against the integration policies of Froebel High School.[1]</p>
<p>In their protest, white students pleaded that Froebel High School become a school designated for white students only, threatening to transfer schools if their demands were not met.[2] As a result of the ongoing protest, Gary African American ministers of all faiths banded together to form the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance (IMA) and defended the principal’s decision to maintain an integrated environment within the school.[3][4] The IMA released an appeal to Gary’s citizens, saying “It is indeed regrettable to note that after the nation has spent approximately 190 billion dollars, the colored citizens of Gary have sent about 4,000 of their sons, brothers, and husbands to battlefields around the world and have supported every war effort that our government has called upon us to support, in a united effort to destroy nazism and to banish from the face of the earth all that Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo stood for; to find in our midst those who are endeavoring to spread disunity, race-hatred, and Hitlerism in our community.”[5]</p>
<p>Despite the support of the IMA in favor of the school’s integration decision, otherschools joined the walkout. The Gary Post-Tribune reported that some members of the Froebel neighborhood supported the strike as they “feel their homes and churches have depreciated in value” with the influx of African American home-owners in the neighborhood.[6] The hate strike lasted well into November, but threats to continue the strike lasted into the following year. On August 27, 1946, the Gary Board of Education issued a policy technically ending segregation. However, in all practicality segregation within Gary schools continued to exist, supported by discriminatory policies. Lower grades at Froebel School more quickly adjusted to integration, while in 1948, African American students in grades 8-12 at Froebel still faced persistent discrimination when it came to the swimming facilities, band, theater, class offices, and other extracurricular activities.[7]</p>
<p>In 1951, Froebel School enrolled 56% African American students. After a transfer policy was enacted that allowed children to transfer to other schools for “better social adjustment”, Froebel School enrollment was 95% African American by 1961, while the district it served was 65% African American. The transfer policy in effect allowed segregation to continue. Other practices, such as offering fewer academic courses, hiring less qualified teachers, and overcrowding at predominately African American schools, coupled with school feeding patterns based on race, perpetuated de facto segregation.[8]</p>
<p>Due to declining enrollment and after several reductions of grade levels served, Froebel School finally closed in 1977 as part of district cost-cutting measures. The location of Froebel School and its role in school desegregation is commemorated with an Indiana Historical Bureau marker.[9]</p>
[1] D.L. Chandler. Little Known Black History Fact: Froebel High School. Black America Web. Accessed April 30, 2020. https://blackamericaweb.com/2018/09/18/little-known-black-history-fact-froebel-high-school/
[2] Casey Pfeiffer. A Challenge to Integration: The Froebel School Strikes of 1945. Indiana History Blog, 2017. Accessed April 30, 2020. https://blog.history.in.gov/a-challenge-to-integration-the-froebel-school-strikes-of-1945/
[3] Casey Pfeiffer.
[4] D.L. Chandler.
[5] Casey Pfeiffer.
[6] Students’ Walkout Mixed in Race Hate. The Indianapolis Recorder. September 29, 1945.
[7] Ronald Cohen. The Dilemma of School Integration in the North: Gary, Indiana, 1945-1960. June 1986. Indiana Magazine of History 82(2), pp. 161-184.
[8] Max Wolff. Segregation in the Schools of Gary, Indiana. February 1963. Journal of Educational Sociology 36(6), pp. 251-261.
[9] Indiana Historical Bureau. State Historical Marker, Froebel School. Accessed May 7, 2020. https://www.in.gov/history/markers/4109.htm
Student Author: Mary Swartz
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Froebel High School, Gary, Indiana, attributed to Tichnor Brothers, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Froebel_High_School,_Gary,_Indiana_(75204).jpg
<a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/4109.htm">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker</a>
Juanita and Benjamin Grant, M.D.: Mercy Hospital, Gary
<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>
[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.”
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
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Hoosier State Medical Association Meeting 1956, Indiana Historical Society, M0510.
https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/dc018/id/3389/rec/5
Clifford E. Minton, Gary
<p>Gary’s Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) was located in a massive stone building that faced north on Fifth Avenue. Funded by Elbert Gary and designed by architect Joseph Silsbee in 1909, the impressive structure served as a sporting and recreation center, dining facility, library, and temporary dormitory until its closure in 1976.[1] Although the YMCA was intended to provide entertainment and support for the young men of Gary, a large portion of Gary’s male population was excluded from enjoying the facility. The Gary YMCA, like many YMCAs throughout the United States, enforced strict segregation during the first half of the nineteenth century, barring African American men from membership. It was not until the 1960s that the Gary Urban League won the right to integrate Gary’s branch of the YMCA.[2]</p>
<p>African American communities throughout the country had long embraced the mission of the YMCA. Anthony Bowen, a freedman from Washington D.C., founded the first YMCA for African Americans in 1853. Although the YMCA movement was stalled by the social and financial hardship African Americans faced in many areas of the United States during nineteenth century, many cities had constructed African American YMCA branches by the early 1910s. These facilities served as meeting spots for African Americans to openly discuss politics, safe resting places for African American travelers, and learning centers where young African American men received education in business and management.[3]</p>
<p>In the early 1900s, almost all business and entertainment establishments in Gary were owned by white proprietors. Gary’s large African American community, prohibited from entering these establishments, was deprived of recreation facilities. At the recommendation of clergyman John W. Lee, who conducted a survey of the social and economic conditions of Gary’s African American neighborhoods for the Calumet Church Federation, Gary’s First Baptist Church established an African American YMCA community center at 19th Avenue and Washington Street in 1919.[4] This new symbol of recreation and opportunity only operated for a few short years, however, as the facility was forced to close when the Great Depression hit Gary. After the shuttering of the African American YMCA, pressure to integrate Gary’s main YMCA building mounted.[5]</p>
<p>The YMCA’s national policy of segregation ended in 1946 “when the National Council passed a resolution calling for local associations to ‘work steadfastly toward the goal of eliminating all racial discriminations,’ dissolved its Colored Work Department and abolished racial designations in all its publications.”[6] Local YMCAs responded to these institutional changes with varying degrees of compliance. At Gary’s branch of the YMCA, harsh segregation persisted for decades after the national policy of segregation ended. Clifford E. Minton, an active leader in Gary’s Civil Rights Movement and the long-time executive director of the Gary Urban League, spearheaded a campaign to integrate the facility.[7] Under Mayor George Chacharis, Minton successfully integrated Gary’s YMCA in the early 1960s.[8]</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Clifford Minton’s YMCA victory was short-lived, as the Gary YMCA closed only a few years after its integration. Facing competition from for-profit recreational centers, Gary’s YMCA was unable to stay afloat during the recession of the mid-1970s and shut down operations in 1976.[9] While the old YMCA building was demolished after the closure of the facility, postcards bearing its striking image can be viewed on the Digital Commonwealth website today.[10] The integration of Gary’s YMCA was only one of Clifford Minton’s many accomplishments as a Civil Rights leader and executive director of the Gary Urban League.</p>
[1] <span>“Y.M.C.A. Building for Gary Indiana,” Searching for Silsbee, last modified November 6, 2010, http://jlsilsbee.blogspot.com/2010/11/y-m-c-building-for-gary-indiana.html. Melissa G. Burlock, “The Battle Over a Black YMCA and its Inner-City Community: The Fall Creek Parkway YMCA as a Lens on Indianapolis’ Urban Revitalization and School Desegregation 1959-2003” (M.A. diss., Indiana University, 2014), 72.<br />[2] Calumet Regional Archives, “Clifford E. Minton Papers,” Indiana University Northwest, accessed May 19, 2020, https://cra.sitehost.iu.edu/cra_records/cra160.shtml. Dharathula H. Millender, Gary’s Central Business Community, (Charleston: Acadia Publishing, 2003), 102.<br />[3] “A Brief History of the YMCA and African American Communities,” University of Minnesota Libraries, accessed May 19, 2020, https://www.lib.umn.edu/ymca/guide-afam-history.<br />[4] James B. Lane, City of the Century: A History of Gary, Indiana, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978), 70. Neil Betten and Raymond A. Mohl, “The Evolution of Racism in an Industrial City, 1906-1940: A Case Study of Gary, Indiana,” The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 59, No. 1 (January 1974): 59, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2717140.<br />[5] Indiana History Blog, “City Church: Spirituality and Segregation in Gary,” Indiana Historical Bureau of the Indiana State Library, accessed May 19, 2020, https://blog.history.in.gov/city-church-spirituality-and-segregation-in-gary/<br />[6] “A Brief History.”<br />[7] Calumet Regional Archives, “Clifford E. Minton Papers.”<br />[8] Millender, Gary’s Central Business Community.<br />[9] Burlock, “The Battle Over a Black YMCA.”<br />[10] “YMCA Gary, Indiana, ‘the steel city’” Digital Commonwealth Massachusetts Collection Online, accessed May 19, 2020, https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:6w929s87c.</span>
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
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Y.M.C.A., Gary, Indiana, "The Steel City", attributed to Springfield College Archives and Special Collections, Public domain, via Picryl.
https://picryl.com/media/ymca-gary-indiana-the-steel-city-9ec6fb
Ralph Waldo Emerson High School
<p>Ralph Waldo Emerson High School was the first high school built in Gary, Indiana. Emerson High School was constructed in 1909 by St. Louis architect William Ittner.[1] William A. Wirt, superintendent of Gary school systems, played a large part in designing the building. Desiring to implement his innovative “Work-Study-Play” philosophy of education, in which students took vocational and athletic classes along with traditional high school courses, Wirt required the building to contain amenities such a foundry, large gymnasium, and printing shop. The three-story school building was intended to be a “total learning environment,” separated physically from the growing industrial city by a park and surrounding athletic fields.[2] While the design and teaching methods employed at Emerson were cutting edge for the time period, the school largely failed to provide for the educational needs of Gary’s growing population. Upholding policies of segregation, the school prevented most African Americans from joining the student body. In 1927, when 18 African American students transferred to Emerson High School, tensions boiled over, and white students staged a school walkout to protest the admittance of their African American classmates.[3]</p>
<p>Since Gary’s founding by the United States Steel Corporation in 1906, the city’s public schools had been segregated by residential boundaries and school board policies. As the African American population began to grow during the 1920s, African American families were sequestered into crowded, low-income neighborhoods. “The Patch,” later named Midtown, was one such neighborhood. The only school in The Patch, located on Virginia Street, could not meet the needs of its many students and was overcrowded by the late 1920s. In an effort to alleviate the school and push educational reform, Superintendent Wirt decided to allow 18 African American honor roll students to transfer to Emerson High School.[4]</p>
<p>On September 19, 1927, the 18 African American students entered Emerson High School for the first time. Superintendent Wirt did not expect the strong backlash that quickly followed. Within the first week, the new students began receiving harsh threats from their white classmates. According to former student Hazel Bratton Sanders, “the white students would line up on both sides of the sidewalk and stretch their arms over us.” As the African American students were forced to walk under them like an arch they yelled insults like “'Go away, darkies. This isn't your school.'”[5] The students were also subject to verbal abuse, and many were pushed and spit on by white students.[6]</p>
<p>Fearing that the admittance of the African American students would lead to more integration, white students and families planned a mass demonstration. On September 26, 1927, approximately 600 white students staged a school walkout at Emerson High School and refused to return until the African American students were removed. Protests continued for multiple days, and by Wednesday, over 1350 participants were involved.[7] Superintendent Wirt attempted to threaten the strikers, but the all-white school board sided with the demonstrators. The protests ended when the school board struck a deal with white protesters. Rather than integrating Emerson High School, the city would build an all-African American school and send the African American students back to their old school in “The Patch.”[8]</p>
<p>Three students appealed the decision to gain re-admittance into Emerson High School, but their appeal was denied. The new school for African American students, Theodore Roosevelt High School, was built in the center of Midtown and opened in 1931. For the students mistreated at Emerson in 1927, Roosevelt High School came too late. Although Roosevelt was a beautiful facility with many amenities, the decision to build the all-African American school in favor of integrating existing schools perpetuated the segregation of Gary public schools.[9]</p>
<p>Emerson High School was officially integrated in 1948, but the trauma sustained by the African American students never faded.[10] Due to Superintendent Wirt’s pioneering work in educational reform, Emerson High School has been deemed historically significant and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.[11] Declining enrollment in the 1970s, was the impetus for the transition into a magnet school in the early 1980s. With inadequate funds to maintain the building, the school board made the difficult decision to close Emerson School for the Visual and Performing Arts in 2008, just one year shy of the building’s centennial anniversary. Since its closure, the historic school has stood empty, quickly decaying due to the weather and vandalism.[12] While the building is listed under the National Register, there are currently no plans to restore the Emerson High School.[13]</p>
[1] Jerry Davich, “Is writing on wall for Gary's Emerson school?” Chicago Tribune, July 9, 2015, https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/opinion/ct-ptb-davich-dead-body-emerson-st-0710-20150709-story.html
[2] National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, “Emerson, Ralph Waldo, School,” United States Department of the Interior National Park Service, 1995, https://secure.in.gov/apps/dnr/shaard/r/217fb/N/Emerson_School_Lake_CO_Nom.pdf
[3] Carole Carlson, “Gary’s Roosevelt High was built for a growing city’s black students when schools resisted integration. Now it’s shuttered with an uncertain future,” Chicago Tribune, February 28, 2020, https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/ct-ptb-gary-roosevelt-history-st-0301-20200228-duwcmtbiqbeqpko76y7uw7u2mm-story.html
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] “Emerson School,” American Urbex, 2011, http://americanurbex.com/wordpress/?p=1370
[8] Carole Carlson, “Gary’s Roosevelt High was built for a growing city’s black students.”
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.
[11] “Emerson, Ralph Waldo, School,” United States Department of the Interior National Park Service.
[12] “Emerson School of Gary, Indiana,” Sometimes Interesting, June 12, 2013, https://sometimes-interesting.com/2013/06/12/emerson-school-of-gary-indiana/
[13] Davich, “Is writing on wall for Gary’s Emerson school?”
Student Author: Mary Swartz
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Ralph Waldo Emerson School in Gary, attributed to Nyttend, Public domain, via Wikimedia commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ralph_Waldo_Emerson_School_in_Gary.jpg
<a href="https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/95000702">National Register of Historic Places</a>
Longacre Swimming Pool
<p>Longacre Swimming Pool was once a popular spot for summer recreation in Indianapolis. Established by attorney Edwin Thompson in 1927, the pool was located on the southside of the city and was urban stop 6 on Madison Avenue. Longacre Swimming Pool was the centerpiece of Longacre Park, a massive recreational area that boasted baseball diamonds, basketball courts, tennis courts, picnic areas, a golf fairway, croquet, pony rides, a sand beach, paddle boats, a dance hall, and a playground.[1] The park’s impressive swimming pool was 400 feet long and 185 feet wide and was naturally supplied by Lick Creek.[2] Although Longacre Swimming Pool and Park are remembered fondly by many residents of Indianapolis as places for summertime fun, the history of the facility is plagued by discrimination. Like most public pools and recreational facilities in Indianapolis at the time, Longacre Swimming Pool enforced segregation and barred African American families from enjoying its many amenities.</p>
<p>During the early-to-mid twentieth century, swimming pools and beaches were among the most segregated public spaces in the country.[3] White residents of Indianapolis advocated for segregation of public pools by spreading false rumors that African American swimmers would spread diseases to white swimmers and by perpetuating the stereotype that allowing African American men into integrated swimming areas would pose a threat to white women’s safety.[4]</p>
<p>Additionally, Indianapolis city leaders feared that integrated pools would lead to violence among white and African American pool-goers. This fear was not unfounded, for white residents staged many attacks on African American patrons at swimming pools. In Cincinnati, for example, white attackers installed nails at the bottom of swimming pools to prevent African American patrons from swimming. White assailants in St. Augustine, Florida poured bleach and acid into pools occupied by African American swimmers. These incidents of racial violence were met with major protests in cities including Baltimore, Washington D.C. and Louisville. Although the violent outbreaks at swimming pools were incited by white pool-goers, African Americans were often blamed for the disorder. The fear of such unrest caused park owners to either ban admittance to African Americans or admit African Americans at their discretion, based on the “safety risks” the patrons presented.[5]</p>
<p>It was not until 1964 that the Civil Rights Act desegregated public swimming pools and parks. Although the law called for integration of swimming pools, some municipalities created clubs with membership fees to prevent African American patrons from entering. Others simply closed the city pools and filled them with concrete. During the 1960s and 1970s, many White families left Indianapolis in favor of neighborhoods outside the city. The rise of these affluent neighborhoods saw a dramatic increase in the number of gated communities, homeowners’ associations, and informally segregated private pools. As private swimming pools became more popular, cities began to decrease their funding to public recreational facilities, further preventing African American patrons from enjoying these amenities.[6]</p>
<p>Longacre Swimming Pool and Park, once a glaring example of Indianapolis’ segregated swimming pool policy, is now Longacre Mobile Home Park. Rufus Dodrill Jr., the second owner of the park, began developing the mobile home park in the 1960s with the hope that residents would frequent the pool and park amenities. As more Hoosiers invested in air conditioning and home pools and attendance dwindled, however, the cost of maintaining the facility became too heavy a burden.[7] Dodrill sold the facility in 1972, and the enormous pool was plowed a few years later.[8] All that remains of the impressive recreation park now are Longacre Mobile Home Park and the park’s original lake.[9]</p>
[1] <span>Rick Hinton, “Longacre Swimming Pool,” The Southside Times, November 23-29, 2017, https://ss-times.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/sstimes_nov23-29_2017-web.pdf<br />[2] Dawn Mitchell, “Whatever happened to: Longacre swimming pool,” Indy Star, September 8, 2017, https://www.indystar.com/story/news/history/retroindy/2017/09/08/whatever-happened-to-longacre-swimming-pool/641864001/<br />[3] Victoria W. Wolcott, “The forgotten history of segregated swimming pools and amusement parks,” The Conversation, July 9, 2019, https://theconversation.com/the-forgotten-history-of-segregated-swimming-pools-and-amusement-parks-119586<br />[4] Ibid.<br />[5] Ibid.<br />[6] Ibid. <br />[7] Mitchell, “Whatever happened to: Longacre swimming pool.”<br />[8] Hinton, “Longacre Swimming Pool.”<br />[9] Mitchell.</span>
Student Authors: Mary Swartz 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
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Longacre Pool, Bass Photo Co. Collection, Indiana Historical Society.
https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/dc012/id/13298/rec/2
Corydon Colored School (aka Leora Brown School)
In 1891, the Corydon Colored School was constructed at a cost of $1100. [1], [2] The school was built to educate the increasing number of African American school-aged children living in Corydon and Harrison County. These children were descendants of about 100 enslaved African Americans who migrated into the Corydon area in the early nineteenth century with a white couple, who eventually gave the group their freedom.[3] Corydon Colored School served both elementary and secondary students and held its first graduation in May 1897.[4] In 1925, the high school closed due to lack of enrollment.[5] The elementary school remained open until 1950,[6] when African American students from Corydon were sent to nearby previously all white schools.[7] The closure of the Corydon Colored School greatly affected the African Americans who taught there, as very few African Americans were hired to teach at segregated schools within the school district.[8]
After sitting unused for decades, the school was purchased in 1987 by Maxine Brown, who created the Leora Brown School, Inc., a non-profit organization named in honor of her aunt. Leora Brown Farrow graduated from Corydon Colored School in 1923, and then spent a year studying education at Madame Blaker’s Teachers College in Indianapolis. She returned to teach at the Corydon Colored School from 1924-1950,[9] becoming the longest serving teacher at the school. Even though she had tenure, Leora Brown was one of the African American teachers who was not retained by the school district when Corydon Color School closed in 1950.[10]
Leora Brown School, Inc. used funding from individuals, foundations, and corporations to rehabilitate and preserve the building. The Leora Brown School opened to the public as a cultural and educational center in 1993, and is used for community functions and to promote tourism in Harrison County.[11] As perhaps the oldest African American educational institution still remaining in Indiana[12] , the Leora Brown School was commemorated with an Indiana Historical Bureau marker in 1995, listed on the Indiana Register of Historic Places,[13] and is part of the Indiana African American Heritage Trail. [14]
[1] “Leora Brown School Marker Text Review Report.” Indiana Historical Bureau. October 21, 2013. Accessed September 21, 2020. https://www.in.gov/history/files/31.1995.1review.pdf
[2] “Leora Brown School.” Journey Indiana. February 28, 2016. Accessed September 21, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eWWoGuL5mk
[3] Brown, Maxine F. “Mitchems of Harrison County.” Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History. Spring 2009. Volume 21, Number 2. Indiana Historical Society. Indianapolis, Indiana. Accessed September 21,2020. https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/p16797coll39/id/6623/rec/1
[4] “Leora Brown School Historical Marker.” Indiana Historical Bureau. Corydon, Indiana. 1995. https://www.in.gov/history/markers/132.htm.
[5] “Leora Brown School.”
[6] Esarey, Jenna. “Ind. African American Heritage Trail Gets Boost,” February 20, 2015. Accessed, September 21, 2020. https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/indiana/2015/02/19/ind-african-american-heritage-trail-gets-boost/23693067/.
[7] “Leora Brown School Marker Text Review Report.”
[8] Wilson, Carrol. “Leora Brown School.” Indiana Historical Bureau. November 17, 2013. Accessed September 21, 2020.https://www.in.gov/history/4226.htm
[9] “Leora Brown School Fund.” Accessed October 5, 2020. https://hccfindiana.org/esDonations/details/41/Leora-Brown-School-Fund.
[10] “Leora Brown School.”
[11] Esarey, Jenna.
[12] Indiana Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology, “Leora Brown School,” Discover Indiana, accessed September 21, 2020, https://publichistory.iupui.edu/items/show/338.
[13] “Leora Brown School Fund.”
[14] Esarey, Jenna.
Student Author: Molly Hollcraft
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Leora Brown School, attributed to Cool10191, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leora_brown_school1.jpg
<a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/132.htm">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker</a>
Riverside Amusement Park
Riverside Amusement Park opened in May 1903, [1] on 30th Street, between the White River and the Central Canal in Indianapolis. [2] The park originally opened with only two attractions, but soon expanded with a new manager to “build a bigger, better, more thrilling park in Indianapolis” re-opening in 1906. Entrance was free, with rides and attractions costing a nickel or dime. In 1910, Riverside added a “bathing beach” as one of its attractions, which became the focus of the park. [3] Riverside Amusement Park remained open until 1971.
Until the mid-1960’s, Riverside Amusement Park was segregated, officially admitting African Americans to the park only one day a year. [4] This day was racistly named “Colored Frolic Day” and normally held at the end of the season. [5] These days were also known as Milk Day Picnics, “colored Milk Day” [6] or “milk cap day”, as they were sponsored by the Milk Council and The Milk Foundation of Indianapolis. Admission included a milk cap per guest. [7] Thursday August 31, 1939, was the 4th Annual Milk Day for “Colored People Only” as advertised in the Indianapolis Recorder. [8]
On the rare occasions that African Americans were admitted on a non-designated “Colored” day, they experienced discrimination throughout the park. Writing a column in The Indianapolis Recorder on the occasion of Riverside’s closing in 1971, Andrew Ramsey recounts his experience going to the park as boy with his friend in the early 1920’s. As African Americans, the two boys were not allowed to ride the amusements with white children, and would be the only passengers on the roller coaster or Ferris wheel during their visit while white children watched them rid. As Ramsey recalled, signs throughout the park and large signage outside the park reading “White patronage only solicited” were a mainstay of the park for decades. [9]
Throughout the years, groups including the NAACP, The Indianapolis Recorder, and other organizations protested the discrimination African Americans experienced at Riverside Amusement Park. In 1954, The Indianapolis Recorder reported that three members of Kappa Alpha Psi, an African American national fraternity, visited the park without any problems. The Recorder cautioned the premature celebration of the end of discrimination as the “White patronage only solicited” signs were still displayed prominently throughout the park. They were proclaimed to be “an affront to every decent resident of Indianapolis, white or Negro, and a stench in the nostrils of the city” and “they must come down”. [10]
In 1962, a meeting was held at the Riverside Park Methodist Church, sponsored by the NAACP. Those in attendance were informed by the director of the Indiana Civil Rights Commission, Harold O. Hatcher, that the “white patronage only” signs in the amusement park had been removed. [11] According to The Indianapolis Recorder, “This development appears to have followed others in keeping with the campaign against discrimination in the use of the amusement facilities in the park." [12]
The last vestiges of formal discrimination at Riverside Amusement Park were soon undone. In 1963, the NAACP Youth Council picketed the park, using posters to highlight discriminatory practices and human rights violations. In 1964, the park changed its admission policy, and African Americans and other minorities were finally admitted to the park without restriction. The victory was short-lived as the amusement park closed in 1971. [13]
[1] Zeigler, Connie J. “Worlds of Wonder: Amusements Parks in Indianapolis.” Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History. Summer, 2008, Volume 20, Number 3. Indiana Historical Society. Accessed September 28, 2020. https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/p16797coll39/id/6509/rec/19
[2] “Riverside Amusement Park: From heyday to demo day.” The Indianapolis Star. June 25, 2017. Accessed September 28, 2020. https://www.indystar.com/videos/news/history/retroindy/2017/06/25/riverside-amusement-park-heyday-demo-day/102920630/
[3] Zeigler, Connie J.
[4] Mullins, Paul. “Romanticizing Racist Landscapes: Segregation and White Memory in Riverside Amusement Park,” June 22, 2020. Accessed October 1, 2020. https://paulmullins.wordpress.com/2020/05/06/romanticizing-racist-landscapes-segregation-and-white-memory-in-riverside-amusement-park/ .
[5] Mullins, Paul R. “Archaeology and Urban Renewal of Indianapolis’s West Side.” Black History News & Notes. February 200, Volume 28, Number 1. Indiana Historical Society. Accessed September 28, 2020. https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/p16797coll66/id/34/rec/10
[6] Mullins, Paul. “Romanticizing Racist Landscapes: Segregation and White Memory in Riverside Amusement Park,”
[7] Mullins, Paul R. “Archaeology and Urban Renewal of Indianapolis’s West Side.”
[8] Advertisement in The Indianapolis Recorder. August 23, 1939. Accessed October 13, 2020. https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=INR19390826-01.1.5&srpos=2&e=------193-en-20-INR-1--txt-txIN-%22milk+day%22----1939--
[9] “Tears for Riverside bastion of local racism”. The Indianapolis Recorder. August 7, 1971. Accessed October 13, 2020. https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=INR19710807-01.1.9&srpos=3&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-%22Riverside+Amusement%22------
[10] “Riverside Hate Signs Must Come Down.” The Indianapolis Recorder. Marion County, Indiana. August 21, 1954. Accessed September 28, 2020. https://newspapers.library.in.gov/cgi-bin/indiana?a=d&d=INR19540821-01.1.10&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------
[11] “Public Facilities, To Be, Or Not --?” The Indianapolis Recorder. Marion County, Indiana.August 18, 1962. Accessed September 28, 2020. https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=INR19620818-01.1.10&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------
[12] “Public Facilities, To Be, Or Not --?” August 18, 1962. Accessed September 28, 2020. https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=INR19620818-01.1.10&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------
[13] Benedict Brown, Tiffany. “Backtrack: Riverside Amusement Park.” Indianapolis Monthly. July
26, 2016. Accessed October 1, 2020. https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/arts-and-culture/riverside-amusement-park
Student Author: Molly Hollcraft
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Picketing Riverside Amusement Park, Indianapolis Recorder Collection, Indiana Historical Society.
https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/p0303/id/445/rec/1
Division Street School, New Albany
In 1869, an Indiana law mandated that the public education of African American children be separate but equal.[1] To adhere to this law, in June 1884, the New Albany School Board authorized a new elementary school to serve the growing number of African-American children. Division Street School opened in 1885, a simple one-story wooden building with two classrooms.[2] Enrollment ranged from anywhere between 60 and 70 students in first through sixth grades. Improvements were made to the building over the years, including repairs after two fires in 1913 and 1922.[3] As in many segregated Indiana school districts in the early 20th century, former pupils recount how they had to walk past white schools on their way to their African American-only Division Street School. [4]
In 1944, the Division Street School was expanded to include seventh grade. In May 1946, the New Albany School Board voted to close the school and transferred the students to a different segregated elementary school.[5] Upon closing as a school, the building was used as a Veterans’ Affairs office. After a few years of vacancy, the New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corporation used the building for a storage and maintenance facility for 40 years until 1999.[6]
After the community heard there were plans to tear the school down, they banded together to restore and preserve one of the oldest remaining African American schools in Indiana.[7] , [8] Organizing as the Friends of Division Street School, the restoration became a joint project with the New Albany-Floyd County School Corporation. The building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2002, and was given a historical marker by the Indiana Historical Bureau in 2005. [9] One of the former classrooms houses an African American heritage museum, hosting educational programs and focusing on the importance of African American education in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The other room is set up as a 1920s classroom. The Division Street School still serves its educational function, as every fourth-grader in the New Albany-Floyd School District spends a day in the 1920s classroom to experience its history and significance on-site.[10] The Division Street School also serves as a community building and is a source of pride for New Albany residents as one of the most visible preservation efforts in New Albany.[11] “We think it is a real crown jewel for race relations and goodwill in this community,” said Victor Megenity, director of Division Street School. [12]
[1] “Division Street School Historic Marker.” Indiana Historical Bureau. Accessed September 14,2020. https://www.in.gov/history/markers/479.htm
[2] Alex Covington, Jacob Burress, Trish Nohalty, and Tommy Skaggs, “Division Street School,”Discover Indiana, accessed September 14, 2020, https://publichistory.iupui.edu/items/show/111.
[3] Dreistadt, Laura. National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form: Division Street School. Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana. Jeffersonville, Indiana. October 15, 2001. Accessed September 14, 2020. https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/a2459f57-29ba-4162-a9b0-56c2c078cb31
[4] Goforth, Melissa. “At New Albany’s Division Street School, unity is found: Ice cream social celebrated historic significance.” News and Tribune. Jeffersonville, Indiana. July 8, 2018. Accessed September 14, 2020. https://www.newsandtribune.com/news/at-new-albanys-division-street-school-unity-is-found/article_fb2d70a2-82e3-11e8-b2ae-4f0c4fbf9b50.html and https://www.newsandtribune.com/multimedia/video-inside-division-street-school/video_a3d7a838-b3c2-5f5d-b567-0675a1d521e4.html
[5] Dreistadt, Laura.
[6] Alex Covington, Jacob Burress, Trish Nohalty, and Tommy Skaggs.
[7] Goforth, Melissa.
[8]“2-Room school being revived.” The Indianapolis Star. January 6, 2001.
[9] “Division Street School Historic Marker.” Indiana Historical Bureau. Accessed September 14,2020. https://www.in.gov/history/markers/479.htm
[10] Goforth, Melissa.
[11] “Preserve America: New Albany, Indiana.” Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. Accessed September 14, 2020. https://www.achp.gov/preserve-america/community/new-albany-indiana
[12] Goforth, Melissa.
Student Author: Molly Hollcraft
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Division Street School, attributed to Bedford, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Division_Street_School.jpg
<a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/479.htm">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker</a><br /><a href="https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/02000193%20">National Register of Historic Places</a>
Lyles Consolidated School
Lyles Station, an African American town in Gibson County, was founded by Joshua and Sanford Lyles in 1849. The two were freed men, formerly enslaved in Tennessee. At the turn of the twentieth century, Lyles Station was at its peak, with a population of 600, and boasted a railroad station, a post office, a lumber mill, two general stores, two churches, and elementary school. Much of the town was destroyed by a flood that occurred in 1912. [1] Even after the floods, Lyles Station still remained one of the most intact African American settlements in the state,[2] as one of the few communities in Indiana where freed African Americans bought land and settled before the Civil War. [3]
In 1865, the first schools were created in Lyles Station. There were a total of three subscription schools, where each student’s family paid a monthly “subscription” or tuition directly to the teacher. This monthly fee could range from $1 to $1.50.[4] Lyles Consolidated School was built in 1919 merging the three subscription schools. Lyles Consolidated School produced high-achieving graduates until it closed in 1958, including Alonzo Fields, chief butler for Presidents Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower[5] , and Matthias Nolcox, the first principal of Indianapolis’ Crispus Attucks High School.[6]
Lyles Consolidated School enrolled white students in 1922. That same year, a white student was punished by an African American teacher, setting off disagreements about the severity of the punishment. Soon after, all white students were transferred to school in nearby Princeton. Due to desegregation issues such as this, Lyles Consolidated School remained a segregated African American school until 1958.[7]
A very dark chapter of Lyles Consolidated School’s history occurred in 1928. Ten African American students were chosen by county health officials to be part of what was touted as a treatment study for ringworm of the scalp. Unbeknownst to their parents, the students were not given ringworm treatment, but instead were experimentally exposed to high levels of radiation. The extreme radiation caused disfiguring scars, head malformations, physical complications, and emotional trauma that many of the victims dealt with the rest of their lives.[8] Like the 40-year Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the African American Male study[9] , the radiation treatment of these 10 students is an example of how minority and underrepresented populations were part of unethical and illegal experimentation in the early twentieth century. [10] Many years later one of the Lyles Consolidated School radiation victims, Vertus Hardiman, spoke out about his ongoing physical and mental trauma from the radiation. His story was featured in the 2011 documentary Hole in the Head: A Life Revealed. [11]
After closing in 1958, the school became a collapsing ruin over the next decades. Community members formed the Lyles Station Historic Preservation Corporation in 1998 to rescue the building, which was listed as one of Indiana’s Ten Most Endangered Places by the Historic Landmarks Foundation. The schoolhouse was listed in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1999, and building restoration began in 2001.[12] The schoolhouse now operates as the Lyles State Historic School & Museum. It tells the story of rural African American life in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and functions as a living-history classroom, [13] The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture recognized the community of Lyles Station in 2016, and features artifacts from the community. [14]
In addition to being on the NRHP, Lyles Station and Lyles Consolidated School were commemorated with an Indiana Historical Bureau marker in 2002. As then Senator Evan Bayh said in 2001, when announcing a major federal grant for the restoration of Lyles Consolidated School, “At its peak, Lyles Station was renowned as a place for African American freedom and equal opportunity in education and commerce. As one of Indiana’s most valuable treasures, it is vitally important that we preserve Lyles Station and help maintain it as a living symbol of African American pride, determination, and accomplishment.” [15]
[1] “Telling the Story of Lyles Station, a Rural African American Community” Indiana Landmarks. March 7, 2017. Accessed September 7, 2020. https://www.indianalandmarks.org/2016/06/telling-the-story-of-lyles-station/
[2] “Lyles Station Historic Marker.” Indiana Historical Bureau. Accessed September 7, 2020. https://www.in.gov/history/markers/424.htm.
[3] Montgomery, David. “A Pre-Civil War Haven for Free Blacks Is Now Honored in the African American Museum.” The Washington Post. WP Company, September 25, 2016. Accessed September 7, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/for-the-people-of-lyles-station-ind-a-trip-to-the-african-american-museum-lets-them-witness-their-legacy/2016/09/25/1e84db02-8279-11e6-b002-307601806392_story.html .
[4] “Once Thriving Predominately Black Town, Lyles Station, Ind., Revisited.” Indianapolis Recorder, January 18, 1984. (pg. 21). Accessed September 7, 2020. https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=INR19840218-01.1.21&srpos=2&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-%22Lyles+Consolidated+School%22------
[5] “Telling the Story of Lyles Station, a Rural African American Community”
[6] “Once Thriving Predominately Black Town, Lyles Station, Ind., Revisited.”
[7] Zent, Julie. National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form: Lyles Consolidated School. Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana. November 15,1998. Accessed September 7, 2020. https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/67f3c96f-a888-4036-8a10-1341ed50b682
[8] “VUJC to Show Documentary on Horrific Radiation Experiments That Occurred in Southern Indiana.” Dubois County Free Press, October 29, 2012. Accessed September 9, 2020. https://www.duboiscountyfreepress.com/vujc-to-show-documentary-on-horrific-radiation-experiments-that-occurred-in-s-indiana/
[9] The Tuskegee Timeline. U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee. Accessed October 4, 2020. https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm
[10] “VUJC to Show Documentary on Horrific Radiation Experiments That Occurred in Southern Indiana.”
[11] Lim, Vincent. “A Documentary with the Power to Save Lives.” USC News. University of Southern California, March 5, 2013. Accessed September 9, 2020. https://news.usc.edu/47522/a-documentary-that-has-the-power-to-save-lives/
[12] “Lyles Station Historic Marker.”
[13] “Telling the Story of Lyles Station, a Rural African American Community”
[14] “National Museum of African American History and Culture to Visit Historic Black Indiana Family Community for Collection Event”, April 27, 2016. Accessed October 4, 2020. https://nmaahc.si.edu/about/news/national-museum-african-american-history-and-culture-visit-historic-black-indiana-farming
[15] “Bayh, Lugar and Carson secure funds for historic Lyles Station School.” The Muncie Times. November 1, 2001. Accessed October 4, 2020, https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=BALLMT20011101-01.1.28&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------
Student Author: Molly Hollcraft
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Lyles Station School, Indiana Historical Society, P0500.
https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/p16797coll72/id/746/rec/100
Lyles Station, attributed to Kmweber, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Lyles_Station.jpg
<a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/424.htm">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker </a><br /><a href="https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/99001111">National Register of Historic Places</a>
Jeffersonville Colored High School
Jeffersonville Colored High School was built in 1891 to educate Clark County’s African American students from grades 1 to 12.[1] The building included 10 classrooms, and separate entrances and stairways for girls and boys. The building lacked indoor plumbing, central heating, and a gymnasium, all of which were typically found in neighboring schools serving white students. Flora Clipper, who attended the school from 1936 to 1940, recounted her time at the school. “We had no kind of gyms, we had no kind of extracurriculars… We were always very unhappy about the condition of the segregated schools… We wanted an education equal… to the white schools.”[2] The school was renamed Taylor High School in 1924 after Robert Taylor who served as principal of Jeffersonville Colored School for 40 years.
The building was remodeled in 1949. [3] In June of 1951, 14 students graduated from Taylor High School. The students were honored guests at a Sunday service at Trinity Baptist Church before their Tuesday commencement. Reverend L.F. Burton preached to the graduates, parents, and friends on the principles of right living. “Every student of this class should keep his eye on the stars by striving to be as perfect as possible. As you go through life you should never lose sight of your ultimate aim."[4] Corden Porter, Taylor High School teacher and principal since 1928, was master of ceremonies at commencement exercises, held at the local fieldhouse.
Indiana banned segregated schools in 1949, and in 1952 Taylor School was officially desegregated.[5] It was renamed the Wall Street School.[6] However, even after official desegregation, African American students found that there was still discrimination. African American students were often ignored in the classroom, and were discouraged from participating in extracurricular activities. African American students were not allowed to play sports at Taylor High until 1955.[7]
After desegregation, African American teachers at Taylor High School were also discriminated against. The non-tenured African American teachers were fired and the tenured teachers were given two options: they could accept reassignment to non-teaching jobs or they could quit. With the loss of their former teachers, African American students lost important role models and mentors.[8] Even Principal Porter was reassigned. According to the Indianapolis Recorder, the “integration of the schools at Jeffersonville created a new position in the Jeffersonville Schools, and Mr. Porter was appointed to assist in the keeping of records in the superintendent's and high school principal’s offices."[9]
At the end of the 1950s, the Wall Street School closed. In 2009, a historical marker was erected by the Taylor High School Alumni Association, Inc. in front of the school building. The historical marker honored former principals Robert Taylor and Corden Porter. The building is still in good condition, and is privately owned.
[1] “Taylor High School.” Indiana Historical Bureau: Historic Marker. Jeffersonville, IN. 2009.
[2] Reel, Greta. “The History and Legacy of Jeffersonville's Taylor High School,” May 12, 2020. Accessed August 31,2020. https://thehyphennews.com/2020/05/12/taylor-high-school-jeffersonville/
[3] Indiana Historical Society. “Jeffersonville (Town).” Early Black Settlements by County. Accessed August 31, 2020. https://indianahistory.org/research/research-materials/early-black-settlements/early-black-settlements-by-county/
[4] “14 Students in Taylor Hi Class, Jeffersonville.” The Indianapolis Recorder. June 2, 1951 (pg. 5).Accessed August 31, 2020.
https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=INR19510602-01.1.5&srpos=1&e=------195-en-20--1--txt-txIN-%22Taylor+High+School%22------
[5] Indiana Department of Natural Resources: Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology.“Jeffersonville Colored School Supporting Documentation.” Indiana Historic Sites and Structures Survey: Structures.
[6] “Taylor High School.” Indiana Historical Bureau: Historic Marker. Jeffersonville, IN. 2009.
[7] Indiana Department of Natural Resources: Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology. “Jeffersonville Colored School Supporting Documentation.” Indiana Historic Sites and Structures Survey: Structures.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Blaha, Paula. The Indianapolis Recorder. November 1, 1952 (pg. 7).Accessed August 31, 2020. https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=INR19521101-01.1.7&srpos=3&e=------195-en-20--1--txt-txIN-%22Taylor+High+School%22------
Student Author: Molly Hollcraft
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Courtesy Indiana Landmarks https://www.indianalandmarks.org/2021/04/historic-schools-provide-ties-to-african-american-experience/
J. Chester Allen J.D. and Elizabeth Fletcher Allen J.D.
J. Chester Allen and Elizabeth Fletcher Allen were African American attorneys in South Bend, Indiana who fought for civil rights in both their personal and professional lives. J. Chester Allen was born in 1900 in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. After graduating with a law degree from Boston College, he moved to South Bend in 1929.[1] Elizabeth Fletcher was born in Chicago in 1905, and married J. Chester Allen in 1928.[2] The couple were noteworthy trailblazers in both civil rights and opportunities for women. The two created the Allen & Allen Law firm, and they were one of the first husband and wife law partners in the area. Elizabeth Fletcher Allen was the first female attorney in St. Joseph County and the state of Indiana.[3] J. Chester Allen paved the way for African American representation in South Bend as the first African American to serve on the City Council and the school board. He was elected as president of the St. Joseph County Bar Association and to the Indiana state legislature, the first African American in both of those positions.[4] Elizabeth Fletcher Allen was a member of the many civic and African American community organizations, including the South Bend chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Black Business and Professional Women’s Association.[5] While the two had many significant contributions to the community, they are perhaps best known for their civil rights work in South Bend, specifically fighting to desegregate the Engman Natatorium.
It was common for public parks and playgrounds, and other recreational facilities to be segregated in the mid-twentieth century, and the Allen’s helped fight for desegregation in South Bend. The South Bend Engman Public Natatorium was built in 1922, and for the first 14 years, only the white public could enjoy the pool. In 1931, African American leaders, including the Allen’s, began to take action to gain access to the pool. In 1936, when the South Bend Common Council levied a special tax on the residents of South Bend for pool repairs, African American community leaders demanded access to the pool if they were going to be taxed. A petition presented to the state tax commission pointed out that tax money would be used to repair a facility that was not allowed to be used by some of the community that was paying the tax. The state tax commissioner agreed with them, and after 16 years, the facility was finally open to African Americans. However, African Americans were only allowed to use the pool on Mondays with no whites present.[6] After working for over two decades to end the city pool’s segregationist policies, in February 1950, J. Chester Allen, Elizabeth Fletcher Allen, and Maurice Tulchinsky represented the NAACP before the South Bend Park Board “threatening action, unless the Board ruled to integrate the Engman Natatorium immediately.”[7] This threat would finally be a turning point, and the Parks board would relent and desegregate the Natatorium.
The Engman Natatorium closed its door is 1970, and the building sat empty for years.[8] What was once known as the Engman Public Natatorium, a public recreation facility once caught in a fight for desegregation, is now the Civil Rights Heritage Center in South Bend.[9] In 2018, the Engman Natatorium was designated as a local historic landmark. The landmark status protects the building and ensures that the building remains as close to its original form for generations to come. The Civil Rights Heritage Center is an active learning center in the community and attracts more than 5,000 visitors each year.[10]
[1] “J. Chester Allen and Elizabeth Fletcher Allen Papers.” Indiana University South Bend Libraries. Accessed August 26, 2020. https://library.iusb.edu/search-find/archives/crhc/ChesterElizabethAllen.html
[2] “Eliz Fletcher Allen obituary 28 Dec. 1994, p. 15.” Accessed August 26, 2020 https://www.newspapers.com/clip/28608792/eliz-fletcher-allen-obituary-28-dec/
[3] “Local African American History: African Americans in the Workplace.” The History Museum. Accessed August 26, 2020. https://historymuseumsb.org/local-african-american-history/
[4] “J. Chester Allen.” The South Bend Tribune. Accessed August 26, 2020.
https://www.southbendtribune.com/news/local/keynews/community/j-chester-allen-sr/article_4855292c-9240-11e3-b4e5-001a4bcf6878.html
[5] “Eliz Fletcher Allen obituary.
[6] Harris, Dina. Divided Water: “Healing a Community’s Past,” 2013. https://clas.iusb.edu/centers/civil-rights/
[7] “Ruth Tulchinsky, Short Statement on Visiting the South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center,2010,” St. Joseph County Public Library Michiana Memory, March 22, 2016 Accessed August 26, 2020. http://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p16827coll4/id/2452/rec/6.
[8] Harris, Dina. Divided Water: “Healing a Community’s Past,” 2013. https://clas.iusb.edu/centers/civil-rights/
[9] “J. Chester Allen.”
[10] Baierl, Ken. “Engman Natatorium Designated Historic Landmark.” Indiana University of South Bend, October 16, 2018.
Student Author: Molly Hollcraft
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:
J. Chester and Elizabeth Allen, South Bend Tribune https://www.southbendtribune.com/story/news/local/2021/09/18/south-bend-historical-marker-honors-black-husband-wife-lawyers/8400790002/
Indianapolis NAACP Branch 3053
In 1912, Mary Cable, then president of the Colored Women’s Civic Club, organized the Indianapolis branch of the National Association for the Advancement for Colored People (NAACP) to help the African American community of Indianapolis organize themselves in their struggle, on various fronts, against discrimination and racism.[1] Cable served as the founding president of the Indianapolis NAACP, the first NAACP branch in Indiana. After an all-woman board served the Indianapolis NAACP branch for 13 months, they then asked the men to take over as officers because “the men had more time.[2]”
In the 1920’s, the Indianapolis NAACP turned their focus to combating the Ku Klux Klan’s (KKK) rising political power. This was no easy task given the KKK’s vast influence on politics, city and state education, employment practices, and housing regulations throughout Indiana.[3] Without the organization of the NAACP or the collection of resources that it offered the African American community, the effects of the KKK’s overt segregationist and racist policies throughout the 1920’s would likely have been far worse. The NAACP worked tirelessly against the KKK’s agenda, and supported the Independent Voter’s League (IVL), an “Anti-Klan Organization” founded in 1924, to encourage African Americans to register to vote in favor of the Democratic Party. The efforts of the NAACP and IVL dramatically altered the future Indiana political landscape in favor of desegregation and improving racial equality.[4] , [5]
Early NAACP efforts failed to prevent the construction of a segregated African American high school for Indianapolis. However, the resulting Crispus Attucks High School quickly became a collective sense of pride for the African American community. With highly qualified teachers, partial funding for extracurricular activities, and an NAACP branch fighting fervently for the equality and desegregation of all school districts, Crispus Attucks High School became a centerpiece of the NAACP’s agenda in Indianapolis.[6] Robert Lee Brokenburr, the first African American Indiana state legislator and a former president of the Indianapolis NAACP, was successful in passing legislation that allowed African American student athletes to participate in state high school sports tournaments. Efforts like these paved the way for the iconic 1955 Crispus Attucks Tigers basketball team, starring Oscar Robertson, to become the first African American high school in the nation to win a state championship.[7]
In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, the Indianapolis NAACP began fighting to end de facto segregation in all public schools.[8] The NAACP also demanded police reform in 1966, when members met with the Indianapolis mayor in an attempt to reform racist and discriminatory hiring practices. Thanks to serious reforms that helped prevent systemic racism in the Marion County police department, Captain Spurgeon Davenport was able to become the first African American Inspector in Indianapolis Police Department history. [9]
The Indianapolis NAACP Branch #3053 is now located at 300 E. Fall Creek Parkway, and remains active in the Indianapolis community. One member claims, “no one should be fooled into believing that the NAACP no longer has a purpose.[10]” In 2009, the organization represented hundreds in a major lawsuit against discriminatory practices at Eli Lilly and Company, and, in 2020, they have been working with Indiana Governor Holcomb to protect low-income families from eviction in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic that has caused statewide unemployment.[11],[12] The Indianapolis Branch of the NAACP continues to act as a catalyst for improving the lives of the African American community, and helps protect their rights in the workplace, in equal housing opportunities, and educational settings.
<a href="https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/show/226">Interview 1 with Patricia Brown</a>
[1] “Our Branch History,” Indy NAACP, accessed July 2, 2020. https://www.indynaacp.org/branch-history
[2] Ibid.
[3] William W. Griffin. “The Political Realignment of Black Voters in Indianapolis, 1924,” June 1983, Vol. 79(2) Pp. 134(5). Accessed via Indiana University Press (JSTOR).
[4] Ibid.
[5] “Our Branch History.”
[6] Indy WIN Committee of the Greater Indianapolis NAACP Branch #3053. “Greater Indianapolis Branch #3053’s History, 1912-2009.”
[7] Ibid.
[8] “Our Branch History.”
[9] Ibid.
[10] Perry A. Brandon. “Don’t Count NAACP Out: 100-Year-Old Organization Still Viable and Much Needed,” Indianapolis Recorder, July 9, 2020. http://www.indianapolisrecorder.com/news/features/article_fd7e85a7-4ec4-5d4b-b1ef-f268fa8d49aa.html
[11] Ibid.
[12] “Indianapolis NAACP Branch #3053,” Facebook, accessed July 2, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/indynaacp.org/
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
PHOTO & VIDEO:
NAACP leaders with poster, attributed to Al Ravenna, Public domain, via Wikimedia commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NAACP_leaders_with_poster_NYWTS.jpg
NAACP Freedom Rally March, Indianapolis Recorder Collection, Indiana Historical Society.
https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/p0303/id/387/rec/57
Douglass School, Kokomo
Douglass School, positioned at 1104 N. Bell Street in Kokomo, was named after freed slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass and opened its doors to African American students in 1920.[1] The school was designed by the well-known architectural firm Elmer Dunlap and Company, and was praised in local papers as “a modern building in every particular, with all the conveniences and appliances of any other school in the city”.[2] However, the reality of the school’s construction was far bleaker and came with a great deal of ambiguity. Prior to the construction of Douglass School, African American students simply went to the school that was closest to their home. For nearly three decades following Douglass School’s construction, until Indiana’s anti-segregation law was passed in 1949, African American students throughout the entire district were forced to exclusively attend Douglass School, which, for many African American students, meant walking past one or more schools that were designated for “white students only” on their long treks to and from class. [3]
Douglass School did provide “four classrooms, a community room, and a gymnasium”, [4] which gave African American students a way to participate in extracurricular activities without persecution and helped the school maintain a high quality of education, even without the same level of funding that all white schools received. A turning point for Douglass School came in 1926, when now Howard County Hall of Legends recipient Reverend H.A. Perry took over as its principal.[5] Reverend Perry, along with other members of staff at Douglass School, persistently reached out to then First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt with letters, phone calls, and telegraphs in an attempt to align themselves with the First Lady’s agenda to support the quality and “importance of education for all Americans.” [6],[7] The Kokomo community was ecstatic by the First Lady’s visit to Kokomo in March 1940, and some community members were awestruck that she chose to visit Douglass School of all the schools in Kokomo. Reverend Perry built on the community excitement to receive more funding for Douglass School and later to construct the Carver Community Center. The community center offered recreational opportunities specifically for African American children facing fervent racism and daily segregation throughout the community. [8]
Following its 1950’s merger with Willard School, a neighboring all-white school, Douglass School slowly declined before eventually closing its doors to students in 1968.[9] For the next four decades, the building had a myriad of owners and uses, ranging from an employment center to a nursing school, before purchased by the city of Kokomo on August 19, 2019.[10] The original wooden lockers, floors, and blackboards that were present during Roosevelt’s visit in 1940 are still part of the Douglass school building.[11]
Today, Douglass School is under the ownership of Pastor Rev. William Smith Jr., who has been working diligently with the surrounding community to preserve the immense historic value that the building holds for Kokomo.[12] Indiana Landmarks has recently allocated a $10,000 grant for the restoration of Douglass School, and the building is also being considered for a nomination to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. [13]
[1] “Kokomo Plans to Revitalize Douglass School,” Indiana Landmarks, October 28, 2019, https://www.indianalandmarks.org/2019/10/kokomo-plans-to-revitalize-douglass-school/
[2] Ibid.
[3] “Douglass School: Mute Reminder of Past Segregation,” Howard County Historical Society, February 2019, https://howardcountymuseum.org/subpage/douglass-school-mute-reminder-of-past-segregation-id-6
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] “Kokomo Plans to Revitalize Douglass School”
[7] “As She Enters Hall and Hearts of Hosts,” Hoosier State Chronicles, March 29, 1940 https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=INR19400330-01.1.9&srpos=3&e=-------en-20-INR-1--txt-txIN-%22douglas+school%22+kokomo------
[8] “Local Pastor sees new Life for Douglass School,” Kokomo Tribune, February 11, 2020 https://www.kokomotribune.com/news/local_news/local-pastor-sees-new-life-for-douglass-school/article_bd0346a4-4c3f-11ea-b5fd-f34512ccb370.html
[9] Ibid.
[10] “Historic Sites in Kokomo, Including Douglass School, Targeted for Preservation.” Kokomo Tribune. September 15, 2019. https://www.kokomotribune.com/news/local_news/historic-sites-in-kokomo-including-douglass-school-targeted-for-preservation/article_ab00c168-d578-11e9-b735-9f814f97a760.html
[11] “Local Pastor sees new Life for Douglass School"
[12] Ibid.
[13] “Historic Sites in Kokomo, Including Douglass School, Targeted for Preservation”
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
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Courtesy Indiana Landmarks https://www.indianalandmarks.org/2021/04/historic-schools-provide-ties-to-african-american-experience/
Freeman Field / African American 477th Bombardment Group
The United States declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941 following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Immediately, the country was thrust into an international war that required the mobilization of American people and resources. Many new military bases and training facilities were founded throughout the country, including Freeman Army Air Field, a pilot training school constructed southwest of Seymour, Indiana. Named after the distinguished Army Air Corps pilot Richard S. Freeman, Freeman Field was activated on December 1, 1942. The impressive facility contained 413 buildings and four 5,500-foot runways.[1]
World War II was not only a time of international conflict; within the United States, domestic tensions grew as the war highlighted the racial inequality African Americans endured. Segregation persisted in the military, forcing African American service men into segregated units, limiting their opportunities for promotions, and barring their entrance to officer’s clubs. [2] Segregation was strictly enforced at Seymour’s Freeman Field under the command of Col. Robert Selway. Freeman Field’s discriminatory treatment of African American airmen gained national attention in 1945, as members of the all-African American 477th Bombardment Group staged a non-violent demonstration to protest the Army Air Corps racist practices. This event, now called The Freedmen Field Mutiny, was instrumental to the fight for the desegregation of the U.S. armed forces. [3]
The 477th Bombardment Group was formed by the Army Air Corps in 1945. First assigned to Selfridge Field, near Detroit, the 477th trained at fields in Michigan, Kentucky, and Indiana. At every base, the African American unit faced discrimination and racism. Upon their arrival at Freeman Field in March 1945, the 400 African American officers that made up the 477th were listed as “trainees,” while their white counterparts were listed as “instructors” to maintain segregated base protocols. Because they were designated as “trainees,” the African American airmen were forbidden from utilizing comfortable Officer’s Club #2 and forced into Officer’s Club #1, a run-down building lacking amenities. [4]
Frustrated by their unequal facilities, the African American airmen decided to stand up for their rights and try to enter Officer’s Club #2. Led by Lt. Coleman Young, a group of African American officers requested permission to enter the all-white club on April 5, 1945. The group was told to leave, and a second group attempted to enter the building a few minutes later. Again, the airmen were denied entry, but this group refused to turn away. Pushing past the on-duty officer, the leader of the group entered Officer’s Club #2, and the rest of the demonstrators followed. The next evening, more than 60 African American officers were arrested for trying to enter the white club. Col. Selway punished the African American unit by instituting Regulation 85-2, which officially segregated housing, dining facilities, and officer’s clubs by race and gave him the right to confine any violators of the order. Despite the fact that the segregation of public facilities on military bases was forbidden by US Army Regulation 210-10, Selman tried to force the African American officers to sign a statement saying that they had read and agreed with Regulation 85-2. [5]
More than 100 of the officers refused to sign the statement. The arrested officers were sent away to Godman Field, where they were guarded by armed men and dogs. As the incident began gaining national attention, the War Department felt pressured to drop the charges against the officers. On April 23, Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall ordered the release of the 101 African American officers. Although free from military prison, each officer involved in the mutiny had letters of reprimand placed in their military files. [6]
In response to the demonstration, Col. Selway was relieved of his duties and replaced at Freeman Field by Col. Benjamin O. Davis Jr.[7] By the time the facility was deactivated in 1948, over 4,000 pilots had graduated from training. [8] The U.S. armed forces were officially desegregated by Executive Order 9981, enacted by President Harry S. Truman on July 26, 1948.[9] The reprimands were removed from the military files of the African American officers under President Clinton in 1995. [10] Today, parts of Freeman Army Air Field are preserved as a museum, and Freeman Field Mutiny is marked with a plaque from the Indiana Historical Bureau. [11] The air men’s quest for equal rights was an important turning point in the early years of the Civil Rights Movement that paved the way for non-violent sit-in protests in the following decades and pushed the United States military to desegregate. [12]
[1]“Freeman Field,” Indiana Historical Bureau, accessed June 23, 2020, https://www.in.gov/history/2501.htm.
[2] Nicole Poletika, “‘Blacks Must Wage Two Wars:’ The Freeman Field Uprising & WWII Desegregation,” Indiana History Blog, July 31, 2017, https://blog.history.in.gov/blacks-must-wage-two-wars-the-freeman-field-uprising-wwii-desegregation/.
[3] “The Freeman Field Mutiny,” National Park Service, accessed June 23, 2020, https://www.nps.gov/tuai/learn/historyculture/stories.htm.
[4] “The Freeman Field Mutiny,”
[5] Ibid.
[6] “The Freeman Field Mutiny,”
[7] Ibid.
[8]“Freeman Field.”
[9]Poletika, “Blacks Must Wage Two Wars.”
[10] “The Freeman Field Mutiny.”
[11] “Freeman Field.”
[12]“History,” Freeman Army Airfield Museum, accessed June 23, 2020, http://www.freemanarmyairfieldmuseum.org/about.html.
[13] Poletika, “Blacks Must Wage Two Wars.”
Student Authors: Mary Swartz 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
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Freeman Field Mutiny, attributed to Master Sergeant Harold J. Beaulieu, Sr., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Freeman_Field_Mutiny.jpg
<a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/366.htm">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker</a>
Miller Beach
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.
[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.
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
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
Flanner Guild Settlement House
In 1898, the Charity Organization Society of Indianapolis established the Flanner Guild, a social service center dedicated to aiding Indianapolis’ African American population. The Guild originated as a center for black youth in the western part of Indianapolis as an attempt to create separate spaces for African American and white children. The guild was named after Frank W. Flanner, a white mortician from Indianapolis who offered the use of his land and cottage on Rhode Island Street to establish the “Negro Service Center" [1]. In Indianapolis specifically, racial prejudice and discrimination led to an absence of economic opportunity for the black community. The Flanner Guild’s solutions to the rise of unemployment and a lack of health care focused on “self-help” training and “the promotion of social, spiritual, moral and physical welfare of African Americans" [2]. The Flanner Guild social service program started in 1908, but lack of funding limited the abilities of the program. In the early 20th century, the Flanner Guild offered domestic training classes in millinery, sewing, and cooking [3]. Despite lack of funds, the Flanner Guild managed to care for unmarried mothers and their children in the Flanner Guild Rescue Home that opened in 1908 [4]. In 1909, the services of the Flanner Guild began to be recognized by the general public, and with the increase of donations, the Flanner Guild began to flourish. New programs emphaized children, including programs to prevent juvenile crime, boys’ and girls’ clubs, a day care nursery, and a Child Development Center [5].
Financial worry was further quelled in 1912, when Flanner Guild became affiliated with the Christian Women’s Board of Missions (CWBM). In the same year, Frank Flanner passed away, and the CWBM changed the name of the organization to Flanner House [6]. In 1918, Flanner House relocated to a series of buildings on north West Street, which allowed the organization to expand its services to help the Indianapolis black community in new ways [7]. Some of the new services included a settlement house for training domestic servants and providing more self-help training, as well as health programs and a tuberculosis clinic [8]. The clinic was especially helpful to the black community because diseases like tuberculosis were rampant in poor neighborhoods and African Americans were not welcome in white hospitals [9].
In 1935, Flanner House was rebranded as a non-profit organization by the newly appointed director, Cleo W. Blackburn [10]. Under the leadership of Blackburn, Flanner House managed to target key issues that were facing the black community at large. By 1944, the once small organization offered a large assortment of programs including social services, vocational aids, self-help services, and garden cultivation [11]. Flanner House did its best to fulfill any possible need the black community had. In 1950, Blackburn created Flanner House Homes, Inc., a housing project that provided low-cost homes to African American families. To make the houses affordable, men built their future homes with their own hands, all while keeping a full-time job. Ultimately, 181 houses were built as part of the Flanner Homes, Inc. project [12].
Today, Flanner House is located on Martin Luther King Jr. Street, where it was moved in 1979. The cluster of buildings include a child development center, a senior center, and the Flanner House Branch of the Indianapolis Public Library [13]. In the 1990s, the Flanner House Homes district was placed on the National Register of Historic Places for its significant contribution to Indianapolis’ African American history [14].
[1] Flanner House History in Highlights: 1898 to 1976. Manuscript. From Indiana Historical Society, Flanner House of Indianapolis. https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/dc018/id/3772 (accessed January 27, 2021.
[2] Flanner House Records: ca. 1906-1979. Manuscript. From Indiana Historical Society, Flanner House of Indianapolis. https://indianahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/flanner-house-records.pdf.
[3] Flanner House Records: ca. 1906-1979.
[4] Flanner House History in Highlights: 1898 to 1976.
[5] Flanner House Records: ca. 1906-1979.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Britanny D. Kropf, “Flanner House,” Discover Indiana, Public History IUPUI, April 2, 2019, https://publichistory.iupui.edu/items/show/16.
[8] “Flanner House Homes,” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, United States Department of the Interior National Park Service, October 1990. https://secure.in.gov/apps/dnr/shaard/r/235c6/N/Flanner_House_Homes_Marion_CO_Nom.pdf.
[9] Flanner House Records: ca. 1906-1979.
[10] “Flanner House Homes,” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, United States Department of the Interior National Park Service, October 1990.
[11] Flanner House Records: ca. 1906-1979.
[12] “Flanner House Homes,” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, United States Department of the Interior National Park Service, October 1990.
[13] Britanny D. Kropf, “Flanner House,” Discover Indiana, Public History IUPUI.
[14] “Flanner House Homes,” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, United States Department of the Interior National Park Service, October 1990.
Student Authors: Gwyneth Harris and Phillip Brooks
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Flanner House Guild Tea, Indianapolis Recorder Collection, Indiana Historical Society.
https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/dc018/id/2659/
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/132003839">National Register of Historic Places</a>
Pryor’s Country Place, Fox Lake
In the early 1900’s, African American families often lived in poverty as they were forced to move wherever labor jobs were available, living off very modest wages for exhausting, and often dangerous, work. This left families with little to no extra money for things like vacations or luxury goods. While the majority of African Americans in the early twentieth century lived in poverty conditions, a number of African Americans emerged as wealthy, influential members of society with disposable income. Despite this market, few white businessmen were willing to sell them goods or services. The growing demand for luxury amenities and attractions in the African-American community was soon filled by wealthy white investors, who began developing land targeted at this market. One example is Fox Lake, which was purchased and developed in the late 1920’s exclusively for use by African-Americans [1].
Built in 1927, Fox Lake included a dance hall, tennis courts, horseback riding trails, watersports, a bathhouse, piers, a barn and a small farmhouse, which was converted into a quaint hotel, Pryor’s Country Place, featured in the Green Book [2]. The Green Book was a 20th century motorist guide to establishments and towns that were safe for African-Americans to visit [3]. Pryor’s Country Place sites on five acres overlooking Fox Lake and is especially significant to the past and current owners of 32 Fox Lake cottages [4]. The cottages, nearly all of which were constructed before World War II, hold great historical and personal significance for the families who have been coming to Fox Lake for multiple generations. Pryor’s Country Place was a source of lively entertainment for wealthy individuals who owned vacation homes at Fox Lake [5],[6]. Pryor’s Country Place served as a getaway for African Americans of all walks of life, including teenagers, soldiers, famous athletes, even heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis. It offered these individuals and African American families a chance to escape from the racism that confronted them in their everyday lives and lines of work [7],[8].
Pryor’s Country Place has interesting historical connections to the past and present. For example, during prohibition, there was a still near the lakefront that manufactured liquor so Pryor’s Country Place could operate as a speakeasy [9]. Today, many residents of Fox Lake live in cottages that have been passed down through generations, including the prominent families of Freeman B. Ransom and Carl Wilson Sr., who is remembered by past and present residents as “the Father of Fox Lake" [10]. Wilson purchased the first plots of land available at Fox Lake and built three cottages, all overlooked by Pryor’s Country Place. He and his son, Carl Wilson Jr., continued to dedicate a large portion of their lives and wealth from Wilson Sr.’s successful exterminator business to the development of this “sanctuary of sorts for African Americans in the Midwest" [11]. Wilson Sr. played a major role in overseeing Fox Lakes’ development. He worked diligently throughout his life to shift power and ownership of Fox Lake primarily to African-Americans, effectively helping to organize the amenities like wells and trash pickup routes that the community still enjoys today [12].
The unique history of Pryor’s Country Place, and its historical and personal significance to the modern African American community in Fox Lake, supported its nomination to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001 [13]. Since then, however, Pryor’s Country Place has ended up on Indiana Landmarks’ list of “Indiana’s 10 Most Endangered” places twice. The first listing was in 2016, when the five-acre plot of land including Pryor’s Country Place went up for sale. Pryor’s Country Place is located in an area where developable premium lakeside property is becoming scarce, which worried members of the community [14]. In 2017, Indiana Landmarks placed it on their endangered list for a second time, with the intent to “identify a preservation-inclined buyer” in order to preserve its unique history [15].
[1] Mark S. Foster. “In the Face of “Jim Crow”: Prosperous Blacks and Vacations, Travel and Outdoor Leisure, 1890-1945,” Spring 1999. PDF accessed July 9, 2020 via JSTOR.
[2] “Fox Lake: Angola, Indiana,” National Register of Historic Places, 2002. Accessed July 9, 2020. https://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/afam/2002/foxlake.htm
[3] “Road Tripping in the Era of the Green Book,” Indiana Landmarks, March 10, 2017. Accessed July 9, 2020. https://www.indianalandmarks.org/2017/03/road-tripping-in-the-era-of-the-green-book/ [4] Darrin Wright. “Angola Building Among “Most Endangered” Landmarks,” May 2, 2017. Accessed July 9, 2020. https://www.wowo.com/angola-building-among-endangered-landmarks/
[5] “Fox Lake: Angola Indiana.”
[6] Angelica Robinson. “Hidden History: Fox Lake Grew from Era of Racism, Segregation,” February 12, 2018. Accessed July 9, 2020. https://www.wane.com/black-history-month/hidden-history-fox-lake-grew-from-era-of-racism-segregation/
[7] Ibid.
[8] “National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Fox Lake,” United States Department of the Interior National Park Service, March 6, 2001. Accessed July 9, 2020. https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/0c6b54b7-921f-4e4f-89c1-fa0f2eacaa13
[9] Ibid.
[10] Angelica Robinson.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Ibid.
[13] “Announcing Indiana’s 10 Most Endangered,” Indiana Landmarks, June 27, 2016. Accessed July 9, 2020. . https://www.indianalandmarks.org/2016/06/announcing-indianas-10-most-endangered/
[14] Ibid.
[15] “Pryor Country Place Returns to State 10 Most Endangered List,” KPC News Service, May 1, 2017. Accessed July 9, 2020. https://www.kpcnews.com/news/latest/heraldrepublican/article_09a978a1-454a-5a69-b7ad-4d041d3069f2.html
Student Authors: Joel Sharp and Emma Cieslik
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Pryor's Country Place, Angola, attributed to Indiana Landmarks, Public domain, via Flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/historic-landmarks-foundation-indiana/26631702516
<a href="https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnpgallery.nps.gov%2FAssetDetail%2FNRIS%2F01000360&data=04%7C01%7Ctlhayes2%40bsu.edu%7Ca9ad6f224e4a4311ddae08d8c87acbdd%7C6fff909f07dc40da9e30fd7549c0f494%7C0%7C0%7C637479777153547548%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=qw9CYViDvGC6dh8XfMmdgZyf4H1725p%2F9pNsSFG1gag%3D&reserved=0">National Register of Historic Places</a>
Flower Mission Hospital
The Indianapolis Flower Mission was a women’s charity organization founded by Alice Wright in 1876 [1]. The organization met every two weeks to give the patients of Indianapolis City Hospital a wide variety of flowers and gifts [2]. Early activities also included setting up a boarding house for homeless boys in 1879 [3]. After years of maintaining and raising funds for the boarding home, members envisioned a hospital that specialized in the care of women and children [4]. Due to a lack of funding, this idea did not come to fruition; instead the Mission set up the country’s second training school for nurses, which they ran until the City Hospital took over in 1896 [5]. The Flower Mission also started the city’s first visiting nurse program, for which they hired a nurse to visit patients at home to provide care and supplies. The school closed in 1980, having offered nursing training for almost a century [6].
The Mission received needed funding in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, thanks to very generous donations from Colonel Eli Lilly, a local philanthropist and pharmaceutical entrepreneur [7] Eleanor Hospital, the mission’s first hospital which focused on the care of sick children, was named after the Colonel’s deceased daughter [8]. The mayor of Indianapolis at the time, John Holtzman, was another big supporter for the Mission. Upon the opening of the Mission’s first hospital for late-stage tuberculosis patients in 1903, Holtzman was quoted in a local newspaper as having said, “I want to assure the ladies of the Flower Mission that the present administration will give every assistance in the great work of earing for the sick and poor.” He claimed that any person that suffered from “the great white death” deserved the utmost care [9].
When it opened, The Flower Mission was one of the only medical institutions in Indiana that dealt with patients who were in the final stages of tuberculosis [10]. However, this quality of care was not available to African Americans. The early twentieth century surge of tuberculosis hit the black community particularly hard. Living conditions for African Americans in Indianapolis were already poor, and the effects of tuberculosis only made it worse. There was no medical facility in the city where black tuberculosis patients could receive the appropriate care they needed [11]. In 1916, the Indianapolis Women’s Improvement Club (WIC) appealed to the Flower Mission Hospital to accept African American patients. The WIC was organized by African American women to benefit the Indianapolis black community [12]. While the hospital did initially agree to WIC’s plea to accept black patients, a short time later, it rescinded this action and no longer accepted African Americans. A year later, the Flower Mission financially aided the WIC in employing a black social worker who provided at-home care to African American patients, much like their own visiting nurses. In 1918, WIC members were allowed to furnish a room in the Flower Mission Hospital to be used exclusively by black patients. When the Mission opened their final hospital on Fall Creek Boulevard in 1938, they provided a segregated ward for African American patients [13]. Years after the opening of the Mission’s first hospital in 1903, Mayor Holtzman’s words were true to the hospital’s purpose: any person who suffered from tuberculosis deserved care, and finally, African Americans were included, albeit still segregated from white patients. After the 1930s, activity slowed for the Indianapolis Flower Mission. The tuberculosis crisis was under control, and the Flower Mission primarily became a grant funding institution until they disbanded in 1993. The Flower Missions Memorial Hospital is now home to the Bellflower Clinic and the Wishard Memorial Nursing Museum, where the public can learn of the Flower Mission’s history [14].
<a href="https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/show/227">Interview 2 with Patricia Brown</a>
[1] Brittany D. Kropf, “Indianapolis Flower Mission,” Discover Indiana, last updated April 2, 2019, https://publichistory.iupui.edu/items/show/18.
[2] Kropf, “Flower Mission.”
[3] Indianapolis Flower Mission Records: 1884-1987, 1976.0206, 1997.0125. Indiana Historical Society Archives, Indianapolis, Indiana.
[4] Indianapolis Flower Mission Records.
[5] Indianapolis Flower Mission Records.
[6] Kropf, “Flower Mission.”
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] “Mission Gives Hospital Keys to the Mayor,” The Indianapolis Star, November 27, 1903, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4068531/flower-mission-hospital-opening-mayor/.
[10] Kropf, “Flower Mission.”
[11] Earline Rae Ferguson, “The Woman's Improvement Club of Indianapolis: Black Women Pioneers in Tuberculosis Work, 1903–1938,” Indiana Magazine of History 84, no.3 (1988): 237-61, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27791176.
[12] Ferguson, “The Woman's Improvement Club of Indianapolis”
[13] Ibid.
[14] Kropf, “Flower Mission.”
Student Authors: Gwyneth Harris and Phillip Brooks
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Flower Mission Tuberculosis Hospital, Indiana Historical Society, M0384.
https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/tuberculosi/id/99/rec/13
Benjamin Banneker School, Bloomington
Benjamin Banneker School, an African American elementary school, opened its doors in 1915 in Bloomington, Indiana. Three teachers taught 93 students [1]. The school’s first principal decided to name the institution after Benjamin Banneker, a freed slave originally from Maryland who went on to become a prominent scientist, inventor, and architect. The staff and board of Banneker school constantly sought to provide new opportunities for their students, culminating with the construction of a gymnasium in 1942 for the entire Bloomington community [2], [3]. In 1937, the school opened to the public as a community center offering after school clubs and programs for children of all ages, providing healthy, productive, and consistent after school programs to the entire community [4]. In 1951, Benjamin Banneker School reopened as the integrated Fairview Annex school, three years before the monumental Brown v. Board of Education ruling declared that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional [5]. This school building held integrated sixth grade classes for Fairview and Banneker students prior to the completion of the new integrated Fairview Annex school on 8th Street [6].
In 1954, the building closed as a school as students moved to the new Fairview Annex school, and the former Benjamin Banneker school building reopened in 1955 as Westside Community Center [7]. It provided community recreation programs for decades. In 1994, modern
repairs were made to the building, including the installation of central air conditioning and an elevator. The Westside Community Center was renamed as the Benjamin Banneker Community Center in order to keep the name of the original school alive. The new name honored the building’s rich African American history and continued importance within the community, as well as paid homage to Benjamin Banneker School’s first principal who decided on the original name. Today members of the community center remember the history and legacy of Benjamin Banneker School. In 2015, a ceremonial walk was held celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Benjamin Banneker Community Center and former school [8].
Today, the original site of Benjamin Banneker School sits behind a historical marker dedicated in 2008 by the Indiana Historical Bureau in honor of its historic importance as a once segregated school, as well as to honor the site for its rich and diverse past, and its important place in the community [9].
[1] Michael Tanner and Michelle Prichard. “Benjamin Banneker School (1915-1951) – Fairview Annex (1951-1954) – Westside / Benjamin Banneker Community Center,” January 18, 2018. Accessed July 8, 2020. https://www.theclio.com/entry/6740
[2] Ibid.
[3] “Banneker History Project Involves IU Education Students, City Government, Community Residents,” IU News Room, February 19, 2003. Accessed July 8, 2020. https://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/789.html
[4] Michael Tanner and Michelle Prichard.
[5] Ibid.
[6] “Benjamin Banneker School,” Indiana Historic Bureau, Accessed July 8, 2020. https://www.in.gov/history/markers/545.ht
[7] Ibid.
[8] Megan Banta. “Banneker Community Center Celebrating 100 Years,” December 2, 2015. Accessed July 8, 2020. https://www.hoosiertimes.com/herald_times_online/news/local/banneker-community-center-celebrating-100-years/article_f80e2c90-a18a-53ee-8e48-de1117477163.html
[9] “Benjamin Banneker School,” Indiana Historic Bureau, Accessed July 8, 2020. https://www.in.gov/history/markers/545.htm
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Seventh Street West 930, Banneker School, Bloomington West Side, attributed to Nyttend, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seventh_Street_West_930,_Banneker_School,_Bloomington_West_Side_HD.jpg
<a href="https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.in.gov%2Fhistory%2Fstate-historical-markers%2Ffind-a-marker%2Fbenjamin-banneker-school%2F&data=04%7C01%7Ctlhayes2%40bsu.edu%7C09d8fccc215d41c36a7108d8cbd4f94b%7C6fff909f07dc40da9e30fd7549c0f494%7C0%7C0%7C637483463321953783%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=lX7OO1bPOKbvFx8s63awcarF9RBVNDEAknHq6RdDYyA%3D&reserved=0">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker</a>
Flossie Bailey Home
Katherine “Flossie” Bailey was born in Kokomo, Indiana in 1895 [1]. She graduated from Kokomo High School and married Dr. W. T. Bailey of Marion, [2] who was recognized as the city’s top African American physician [3]. She was also actively involved in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Marion, and was a member of women’s organizations and the Eastern Star [4].
Flossie Bailey’s legacy was as a civil rights leader and activist in Indiana, in an era when most civic leaders were white men. She founded the Marion branch of the Indiana National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1918 [5] and served as its first president [6] Under her leadership, the Marion NAACP had 100 members by 1930 [7]. She was elected as the Indiana NAACP president in 1930 and worked to organize the Indiana NAACP’s second annual meeting [8]. Her home at 1907 South Adams Street in Marion, Indiana served as the headquarters for the Indiana NAACP [9]. African American leaders in Indiana met at her home, and visiting African Americans stayed with her while traveling because the Spencer Hotel in Marion refused to welcome African American guests [10].
Bailey was instrumental in fighting for African American civil rights in Indiana. She notably called out discriminatory practices at Indiana University’s Robert W. Long Hospital, which did not allow black patients to receive care or black medical students to train at the facility. With her husband, she sued a theater in Marion for denying her admittance based on the color of her skin. Bailey also spoke avidly against school segregation [11].
As the president of the local NAACP, Bailey was integrally involved in seeking justice for the August 7, 1930 lynching of Tom Shipp and Abe Smith in Marion [12]. Shipp, Smith and their friend James Cameron were being held in jail in Marion accused of murder and sexual assault. Before they could stand trial, a local white mob removed the men from jail. They beat, mutilated and hanged Shipp and Smith outside the courthouse. As the crowd gathered outside the Marion courthouse, Bailey called Sheriff Jacob Campbell to warn him about the mob’s intention to lynch the young prisoners. After the Sheriff failed to respond, she reached out to Governor Harry G. Leslie to ask for troops to be sent to Marion, but was again ignored. After the lynching, Bailey worked to hold the mob accountable, imploring the Indiana NAACP to investigate the lynching. Bailey presented a formal resolution to Governor Leslie on behalf of NAACP leaders from Marion and Indianapolis asking for Sheriff Campbell’s immediate resignation [13].
In working to bring the mob to justice, Bailey and her husband received multiple death threats [14]. Bailey and her husband continued to collect the names of witnesses despite threats of violence. She also testified in court about her warnings to Sheriff Campbell. The National NAACP honored Bailey’s efforts to bring the lynchers to justice with the Madam C.J. Walker Medal [15]. Within months, she spearheaded anti-lynching legislation in Indiana. In 1931, when Democrats introduced an anti-lynching bill, Bailey orchestrated meetings and encouraged African Americans to reach out to their legislators [16]. Governor Leslie, despite spreading rumors about African American militancy in the aftermath of the lynching, signed the legislation into law, allowing the families of lynching victims to sue. After her success in Indiana, Bailey worked diligently to encourage national anti-lynching legislation. She penned editorials, wrote President Franklin Roosevelt, and shared educational materials [17]. Although futile in establishing a federal anti-lynching bill, her work raised national attention about the horrific realities of lynchings in both the North and South [18].
In 1952, Flossie Bailey died at the age of 55 [19]. Indiana University history professor James Madison wrote that Bailey “was a person of immense ability and dedication, a black women who showed a determination to persuade her town, state, and nation to recognize their professed ideas of equality and justice" [20].
[1] “Mrs. Flossie K. Bailey.” The Kokomo Tribune, Kokomo, Indiana, February 11, 1952, pp. 27. Newspapers.com. Accessed on February 4, 2021. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2239512/mrs-flossie-k-bailey-the-kokomo/; James M. Madison. “’What a Woman!:’ Bailey,” Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History, Winter 2000, Volume 12, Number 1, pp. 24. Indiana Historical Society. Accessed on February 4, 2021. https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/p16797coll39/id/5735.
[2] “Mrs. Flossie Bailey.”
[3] James M. Madison. “’What a Woman!:’ Bailey,” pp.24.
[4] Order of the Eastern Star, 2018. Accessed on February 4, 2021. https://www.easternstar.org.
[5] “Strange Fruit: The 1930 Marion Lynching and the Woman Who Tried to Prevent It.” Indiana History Blog: Indiana Historical Bureau of the Indiana State Library. Accessed on February 4, 2021. https://blog.history.in.gov/strange-fruit-the-1930-marion-lynching-and-the-woman-who-tried-to-prevent-it/
[6] “Mrs. Flossie Bailey.”
[7] “Mrs. Katherine Bailey.” America’s Black Holocaust Museum. Accessed on February 4, 2021. https://www.abhmuseum.org/freedoms-heros-during-jim-crow-flossie-bailey-and-the-deeters/.
[8] James M. Madison. “’What a Woman!:’ Bailey,” pp.25.
[9] Ibid.
[10] “Strange Fruit.”
[11] James M. Madison. “’What a Woman!:’ Bailey,” pp. 26.
[12] “Strange Fruit.”
[13] Ibid.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Roberta Heiman and Evansville Courier & Press. “Suffragists and activists are among 10 influential women in Indiana.” South Bend Tribune, 2020. Accessed on February 5, 2021.https://www.southbendtribune.com/news/indiana/suffragists-and-activists-are-among-10-influential-women-in-indiana/article_2dd6cce8-dd4a-11ea-a27a-832ed46a55c9.html
[16] “From Strange Fruit to Seeds of Change?: The Aftermath of the Marion Lynching.” Indiana History Blog: Indiana Historical Bureau of the Indiana State Library. Accessed on February 4, 2021. https://blog.history.in.gov/tag/flossie-bailey/
[17] “From Strange Fruit to Seeds of Change?”
[18] James M. Madison. “’What a Woman!:’ Bailey,” pp. 25.
[19] “Mrs. Flossie Bailey.”
[20] James M. Madison. “’What a Woman!:’ Bailey,” pp.23.
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
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Courtesy Marion Public Library https://www.chronicle-tribune.com/news/womens-history-flossie-bailey-created-lasting-change-in-indiana/article_bba4818b-7a2f-5a18-acea-91452c97bb3e.html/?sdfkljwelkj23lkjgd
Rogers Corner
W.H. Rogers opened his drugstore in Madison, Indiana in 1847. Located on the corner of West and Main Streets, Rogers Drug Store quickly became a prominent business in downtown Madison. While the business changed ownership multiple times over the years, it primarily stayed in the Rogers family. By 1964, the drugstore had transformed to Rogers Corner. The updated store featured a soda fountain and served ice cream, while maintaining its original drugstore. It was a well-known, popular place for the people of Madison to visit before and after basketball games and movies [1]. Many people fondly remember the days when they could stop in to laugh with friends over a soda or milkshake [2]. For the first century after its creation, however, Rogers Corner did not welcome all Madison citizens. Many African Americans remember Rogers Corner differently than the white residents of Madison.
The African American community was well established in Madison. Before and during the Civil War, Madison was a “hotbed of antislavery activity,” playing an important role in the Underground Railroad. After the war, African Americans continued to build the Black community in the city, primarily settling in the Georgetown Neighborhood [3]. In recent years, African Americans have recalled the blatant racism and segregation they faced as children in mid-twentieth century Madison.
African Americans had designated, segregated seats in the local theater, and were forced to go in the side door at restaurants and stores. Rogers Corner is remembered as being particularly strict with the side-door policy. African Americans were not allowed to sit and enjoy their ice cream inside Rogers, but instead had to leave the store immediately after purchasing their treats [4]. Allen Watson, born in Madison in 1952, explained that “the people that ran the drugstore didn’t want Black people there…it’s like we were good enough to buy something and pay for it, but we weren’t good enough to sit at the counter or sit in a booth, like everybody else did" [5]. Denise Carter, born in Madison in 1959, admitted there was a “zone of infamy” around Rogers. “Black people didn’t like to go there,” she said, “I remember going in there once and being watched real close, like I was somewhere I wasn’t supposed to be” [6]. On one occasion, another Black Madison native was simply turned away from buying ice cream at Rogers Corner as a child [7]. Eventually, African Americans were allowed to sit in the store, although they could not be served. They continued frequenting Rogers, until finally, in the 1960s, African Americans were allowed to sit in a booth and be served like white customers [8].
Today, the storefront on the corner of West and Main still proudly displays the label “Rogers Corner.” The location housed Rogers Corner Diner from 2000 to 2010, then was bought by a sports bar that still serves out of the old Rogers Corner [9]. The building is located in the expansive 130-block Madison Historic District, noted in both the National Register of Historic Places and as a National Historic Landmark for its fine examples of nineteenth century architecture and historical significance [10].
<a href="https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/show/275">Interview 5 with Allen Watson</a>
[1] “Shooter’s,” Madison’s Treasures Tours, Pocket Sights, accessed March 22, 2021, https://pocketsights.com/tours/place/Shooter%27s-16411.
[2] Don Ward, “Ratcliffs Buy Rogers Corner, Plan to Rebuild Soda Fountain,” RoundAbout, April 2000, http://www.roundaboutmadison.com/InsidePages/ArchivedArticles/2000/0400RogersCorner.html.
[3] “Madison Historic District,” National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior, accessed March 22, 2021, https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/madison/Madison_Historic_District.html.
[4] Don Wallis, All We Had Was Each Other (Indiana University Press, 1998), 116.
[5] Don Wallis, 125.
[6] Don Wallis, 132.
[7] Don Wallis, xiii.
[8] Allen Watson, interview by Carrie Vachon, April 12, 2019, Ball State University.
[9] “Shooter’s,” Madison’s Treasures Tours.
[10] “Madison Historic District,” National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form,” United States Department of the Interior National Park Service, May 25, 1973, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/132003437.
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
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Mich Rd Start 19-10-16, attributed to Chris Light, Public domain, via Wikimedia commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mich_Rd_Start_19-10-16_221.jpg
<a href="https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/73000020">National Register of Historic Places</a><br /><a href="https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/madison/Madison_Historic_District.html">Madison Historic District National Historic Landmark</a><br /><a href="https://www.in.gov/history/state-historical-markers/find-a-marker/madison-historic-district/"> Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker</a>