1
100
22
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/2b8bfb4cb5725f4128060b15b142c3f5.jpg
440120bfd31e63aa1ba836d00f731022
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Events
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Richmond High School Protests
Description
An account of the resource
Although Indiana mandated that public schools be desegregated in 1949, African American students continued to be subjected to unfair and unequal treatment in desegregated schools for decades longer [1]. At Richmond High School in 1971, one such incident shut down the high school for a week as a result of the racial divisions felt within the community. With a population of 4,000 African American citizens compared to over 38,000 white citizens in Richmond in the early 1970s, racial hatred and acts of bigotry were not uncommon in the community and the public school system [2]. In March 1971, white Richmond High School teacher John Dechant reportedly “man handled” an African American student while using racial slurs and derogatory language. The next day, on March 7, nearly 100 protestors marched outside the school in pursuit of equality, justice, and permanent reform [3].
The sole African American on the Richmond school board, Paul Patterson, immediately handed in his resignation following the board’s decision to acquit Dechant. The school board alerted police officers about the protest and every on-duty police officer in Richmond became involved. The protest was organized and heavily orchestrated by members of nearby Earlham College. Close to 70 Richmond High School students marched on the first day alongside other members of the community [4]. The intensity of the protest and the number of demonstrators grew throughout the week . The school board closed the doors of Richmond High School indefinitely on March 8 to protect the rest of the students after demonstrations led to 89 arrests and a large number of student suspensions [5].
Countless Earlham College students and faculty were arrested alongside some prominent members of the community, including George E. Sawyer, the lawyer who had called for Dechant’s dismissal [6]. Numerous people realized waiting for some “legal magic from Washington” was futile. Instead of focusing on legislation and administrative programs, Dr. Rachel Davis DuBois of Earlham College proposed that Richmond work on their local, personal relationships first. She proposed the creation of a “resources center for promoting dialogue.” The proposed solution would help bridge gaps between people of different races, economic class, age, and religious affiliation by promoting open communication. This proposal also suggested that the community, Richmond High School, and Earlham College would work together to proactively promote diversity and discussions rather than allowing problems to escalate as they did during the protests [7]. Finally, after a one-week closure following three days of protest, Richmond High School opened its doors back up to its students [8]. Dechant, the teacher involved in the altercation, was allowed to keep his job at Richmond High School, and he later resigned on his own accord [9].
The site of these week-long protests, Richmond High School, stands today as a prime example of Colonial Revival architecture and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its significance in education, architecture, and art [10]. Richmond High School principal Rae Woolpy remarked “The attention to detail, the craftsmanship – it’s beyond words,” after learning that the building was taking its “rightful place on the National Register of Historic Places” in 2015 [11].
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
[1] Sydney Hough Solomon, “Civil Rights & Earlham Archives,” Earlham Exhibits. Accessed July 9, 2020. https://exhibits.earlham.edu/exhibits/show/civil-rights/crmidwestedu
[2] “Richmond Board,” Indianapolis Recorder, March 20, 1971. Accessed July 9, 2020. https://newspapers.library.in.gov/cgi-bin/indiana?a=d&d=INR19710320-01.1.13&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------
[3] Sydney Hough Solomon.
[4] Sydney Hough Solomon.
[5] “Richmond High School Opened this Week,” Indianapolis Recorder, March 27, 1971. Accessed July 9, 2020. https://newspapers.library.in.gov/cgi-bin/indiana?a=d&d=INR19710327-01.1.15&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------
[6] Indianapolis Recorder, March 20, 1971.
[7] “A Proposal-For A Resource Center for Promoting Dialogue and Cooperation along Racial, Age and Religious Groups,” 1971. Accessed July 9, 2020. https://exhibits.earlham.edu/items/show/209.
[8] Indianapolis Recorder, March 27, 1971.
[9] Sydney Hough Solomon.
[10] “Richmond High School,” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, United States Department of the Interior National Park Service, August 2015.
[11] Louise Ronald, “Richmond High School makes National List of Historic Sites,” Indiana Economic Digest. October 5, 2015. Accessed July 9, 2020. https://www.pal-item.com/story/news/education/2015/10/05/rhs-makes-national-list-historic-sites/73386678/.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Student Authors: Joel Sharp and Gwyneth Harris
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
Relation
A related resource
<a href="https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnpgallery.nps.gov%2FAssetDetail%2FNRIS%2F15000602&data=04%7C01%7Ctlhayes2%40bsu.edu%7C09d8fccc215d41c36a7108d8cbd4f94b%7C6fff909f07dc40da9e30fd7549c0f494%7C0%7C0%7C637483463321963779%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=n5eBqaKJ6spGqwsxErGp%2FjLzgYcIqiHpBXycaFxawHE%3D&reserved=0">National Register of Historic Places</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Richmond High School, Richmond, IN, attributed to Warren LeMay, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Richmond_High_School,_Richmond,_IN_(48500522411).jpg
1950s-present
education
Integration
National Register of Historic Places
Protest
Richmond
School
Wayne County
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/089e4c7068bcd95d98e082767a856f30.jpg
765338e36c88b46fedd83f8e84fd9f8c
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Title
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Places
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Title
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Benjamin Banneker School, Bloomington
Description
An account of the resource
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].
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
[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
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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<a href="https://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>
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Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
1900-40s
1950s-present
Bloomington
education
Indiana Historical Bureau Marker
Integration
Monroe County
School
Segregation
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/72897f1d2513a1a85e827d345f242e12.jpg
bf60d10fb1f25dbd22fbf6f1a489dfb4
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Title
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Places
Dublin Core
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Title
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Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church
Description
An account of the resource
The Hammond Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church was established around 1919. The church began with a small, humble congregation that grew considerably under Reverend William Davis [1]. For thirty years after its creation, Mt. Zion’s church leaders and congregates met in temporary spaces. In 1949, Mt. Zion established its permanent home in a one-story brick building designed by a local architectural firm [2]. Not only did Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church play a role in the religious, political, social, and civic life of Hammond’s African American community, but their long time preacher Reverend Albert R. Burns was a significant figure in Hammond [3].
Reverend Albert R. Burns was the great-grandson of slaves and grew up in Enterprise, Mississippi, where segregation limited his freedom and access to quality education. Despite these restrictions, Burns loved reading works by Booker T. Washington, who inspired him to turn his ill feelings toward his hometown into compassion. This compassion, in addition to a promise to God during a terrible illness, pushed Burns to “spread [God’s] word" [4]. Beginning in 1935, Burns preached in Mississippi until the early 1940s. Burns moved to Hammond and continued his education, and in the winter of 1944 when the pastor of Mt. Zion became ill, Burns was ordained and filled in for the pastor. Burns’ position became permanent after the pastor passed away [5].
From 1945 to 1998, Reverend Burns served as the Mt. Zion’s pastor. Together, Burns and Mt. Zion worked continuously to challenge racial injustice, often with the help of the local Chapter of the NAACP and the Hammond Human Relations Commission [6]. Burns’ passion for racial justice and his leadership inspired Mt. Zion congregants to fight for civil rights, quality housing, and job opportunities for Hammond’s African American community [7].
In 1958, in a court case against local school officials, Burns fought for the right for African-Americans to teach in Hammond schools. The next year, his daughter, Annie Burns-Hicks, a graduate of Ball State Teachers College, filled the very position for which her father had fought. Burns-Hicks was Hammond’s first African American teacher [8].
Reverend Burns aspired to provide quality housing for the elderly in Hammond [9]. The opening of Mt. Zion Pleasant View Plaza in 1983 attests to Burns’ ability to manifest his hopes into concrete benefits to his community [10]. Mt. Zion Pleasant View Plaza continues to provide affordable senior housing with 127 one-bedroom rental units.
In 1996, at the age of 85, Burns criticized Hammond Mayor Duane W. Dedelow Jr. for breaking his campaign promise to hire more African American police officers [11]. This is just one example of the civil rights work that Reverend Burns was doing in Hammond late into the 1990s, before retiring in 1998 after 53 years at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church [12].
In 2019, the Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church was honored with an Indiana Historical Bureau historical marker. The marker “celebrated Mt. Zion’s place in the community as both a religious and civic leader and comes as the church celebrates its centennial anniversary" [13].
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
[1] “Historic Marker: Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church.” Indiana Historical Bureau. Indianapolis, Indiana. 2019. Accessed October 7, 2020. https://www.in.gov/history/markers/4477.htm
[2] “Mt. Zion Church Marks History as a Hammond Mainstay.” Indiana Landmarks. Indianapolis, Indiana. February 26, 2020. Accessed October 7,2020. https://www.indianalandmarks.org/2020/02/mt-zion-church-marks-history-as-a-hammond-mainstay/
[3] “Mt. Zion Church Marks History as a Hammond Mainstay.” Indiana Landmarks. Indianapolis, Indiana. February 26, 2020. Accessed October 7,2020. https://www.indianalandmarks.org/2020/02/mt-zion-church-marks-history-as-a-hammond-mainstay/
[4] Franklin, Lu Ann. “A Fisher of Men.” The Times. March 8, 1998. Accessed October 7, 2020 .https://www.nwitimes.com/uncategorized/a-fisher-of-men/article_8889ea0c-3a45-5cd0-97a5-b4e7210fc498.html
[5] Franklin, Lu Ann. “A Fisher of Men.” The Times. March 8, 1998. Accessed October 7, 2020 .https://www.nwitimes.com/uncategorized/a-fisher-of-men/article_8889ea0c-3a45-5cd0-97a5-b4e7210fc498.html
[6] “Historic Marker: Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church.” Indiana Historical Bureau. Indianapolis, Indiana. 2019. Accessed October 7, 2020. https://www.in.gov/history/markers/4477.htm
[7] “Mt. Zion Church Marks History as a Hammond Mainstay.” Indiana Landmarks. Indianapolis, Indiana. February 26, 2020. Accessed October 7,2020. https://www.indianalandmarks.org/2020/02/mt-zion-church-marks-history-as-a-hammond-mainstay/
[8] Yovich, Daniel J. “East Hammond pastors deal with city’s divisions.” The Times. October 2,1996. Accessed October 7, 2020. https://www.nwitimes.com/uncategorized/east-hammond-pastors-deal-with-city-s-divisions/article_b3aa6155-dfcd-5003-b4b2-4325887408fd.html
[9] Steele, Andrew. “State Marker Honors Black Church’s Commitment to Service.” The Times. July 20, 2019. Accesses October 7, 2020. https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/lake-newsletter/state-marker-honors-black-church-s-commitment-to-service/article_cb31e201-55fe-5484-baf5-85d6d6c868cf.html
[10] “Historic Marker: Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church.” Indiana Historical Bureau. Indianapolis, Indiana. 2019. Accessed October 7, 2020. https://www.in.gov/history/markers/4477.htm
[11] Yovich, Daniel J. “East Hammond pastors deal with city’s divisions.” The Times. October 2,1996. Accessed October 7, 2020. https://www.nwitimes.com/uncategorized/east-hammond-pastors-deal-with-city-s-divisions/article_b3aa6155-dfcd-5003-b4b2-4325887408fd.html
[12] Franklin, Lu Ann. “A Fisher of Men.” The Times. March 8, 1998. Accessed October 7, 2020 .https://www.nwitimes.com/uncategorized/a-fisher-of-men/article_8889ea0c-3a45-5cd0-97a5-b4e7210fc498.html [13] “Indiana State Marker Honors Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church for its Longtime Commitment to Service in the African-American Community.” Black Christian News Network One. July 21, 2019. Accessed October 7, 2020. https://blackchristiannews.com/2019/07/indiana-state-marker-honors-mt-zion-missionary-baptist-church-for-its-longtime-commitment-to-service-in-the-african-american-community/
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Student Authors: Gwyneth Harris and Molly Hollcraft
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
Relation
A related resource
<a href="https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.in.gov%2Fhistory%2Fstate-historical-markers%2Ffind-a-marker%2Ffind-historical-markers-by-county%2Findiana-historical-markers-by-county%2Fmt-zion-mb-church%2F&data=04%7C01%7Ctlhayes2%40bsu.edu%7C5ed160245b3244a2680208d8c6c04bf9%7C6fff909f07dc40da9e30fd7549c0f494%7C0%7C0%7C637477876498563775%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=vwuNi1hBtbWgz49GDxxP8ZlQpV64avn5xDIpPfB5yC0%3D&reserved=0">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Courtesy Indiana Landmarks https://www.indianalandmarks.org/2020/02/mt-zion-church-marks-history-as-a-hammond-mainstay/
1900-40s
1950s-present
Church
education
Equality
Hammond
Indiana Historical Bureau Marker
Lake County
religion
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/086ab8473c1150c5c6e38c342bbfbb33.jpg
dc262b2a7f652d12e7afb03bb90db2a7
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Places
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
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Douglass School, Kokomo
Description
An account of the resource
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]
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
[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”
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Student Author: Joel Sharp
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Courtesy Indiana Landmarks https://www.indianalandmarks.org/2021/04/historic-schools-provide-ties-to-african-american-experience/
1900-40s
1950s-present
education
Howard County
Kokomo
Segregation
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/66be5ba570b0f921cfad836d673e978d.jpg
86d04df9bf58d2d5f978f03cd028b676
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Places
Dublin Core
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Jeffersonville Colored High School
Description
An account of the resource
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.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
[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------
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
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
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PHOTO & VIDEO:
Courtesy Indiana Landmarks https://www.indianalandmarks.org/2021/04/historic-schools-provide-ties-to-african-american-experience/
1800s
1900-40s
Clark County
education
Integration
Jeffersonville
School
Segregation
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/5325e8997ce8c7ae3a388e8137ad3d9b.jpg
596194c253bbe1e9127f06932e446c11
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Places
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Lyles Consolidated School
Description
An account of the resource
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]
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
[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-------
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
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
Relation
A related resource
<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>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
1800s
1900-40s
education
Gibson County
Indiana Historical Bureau Marker
Integration
Lyles station
National Register of Historic Places
Segregation
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/0213a9b0debf429ac5f16e15b17d716d.jpg
69c4a3c2d7549141143e496af982d4cc
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Places
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Division Street School, New Albany
Description
An account of the resource
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]
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
[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.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
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
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Division Street School, attributed to Bedford, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Division_Street_School.jpg
Relation
A related resource
<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>
1800s
1900-40s
1950s-present
education
Floyd County
Indiana Historical Bureau Marker
National Register of Historic Places
New Albany
School
Segregation
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/ce5084554e048c0e83d9c813807a2daf.jpg
b716119f57960b1ead9176485c2394d8
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Places
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Corydon Colored School (aka Leora Brown School)
Description
An account of the resource
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]
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
[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.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
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
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Leora Brown School, attributed to Cool10191, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leora_brown_school1.jpg
Relation
A related resource
<a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/132.htm">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker</a>
1800s
1900-40s
1950s-present
Corydon
education
Harrison County
Indiana Historical Bureau Marker
School
Segregation
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/faf2388f3c9ab7929c9bb6c2cf4943f2.jpg
808aec862d2265a84890c280c4276c11
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Places
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Ralph Waldo Emerson High School
Description
An account of the resource
<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>
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
[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?”
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
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
Relation
A related resource
<a href="https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/95000702">National Register of Historic Places</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
1900-40s
1950s-present
Architecture
education
Gary
Integration
Lake County
National Register of Historic Places
Segregation
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/d0ed920a55cfacf6cf6f7f367234509e.jpg
29f546bd746accc4eecc72ebdb137899
Dublin Core
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Places
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Martin University, Indianapolis
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Martin University is Indiana’s only predominately African American institution of higher education. Founded by Reverend Father Boniface Hardin and Sister Jane Shilling in 1977, the private, non-for-profit university is named after two influential “Martins”: Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and St. Martin de Porres, a Peruvian saint who dedicated his life to serving the poor and became the first bi-racial Catholic saint. Originally located at 35th Street and College Avenue, Martin University is now situated on North Sherman Drive in the Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood of Indianapolis, Indiana.[1]</p>
<p>Most historically African American colleges and universities, such as Tuskegee University and Bethune-Cookman University, were established in the mid-to-late nineteenth century to provide valuable knowledge and skills to African Americans in order to promote equality and provide opportunities for formerly enslaved people. Although Martin University was established a century after many of these historical institutions, it was founded on the same values of freedom. Established in 1977, during a time when educational opportunities were limited for African Americans who lived in the inner city of Indianapolis, the original mission of the University was “to serve low-income, minority, and adult learners” in the Indianapolis community.[2]</p>
<p>Martin University is known for its home-like atmosphere, supportive staff, and dedication to service. The institution has produced over 1,500 alumni, many of whom have become recognized leaders in Indianapolis. Notable Martin University graduates include “a former Deputy Mayor for the City of Indianapolis, an Administrator for the Pike Township Fire Department, a former Marion County Sheriff, a Marion County Chaplain, a McDonald's Franchise Owner, a Pastor of a 16,000 member church, clergymen, social workers, daycare workers and owners, police officers, and published authors.”[3]</p>
<p>Co-founder Boniface Hardin was the first president of Martin University and led the institution from 1977 until he retired thirty years later in 2007. Under Hardin’s leadership, the small university earned accreditation and became a fixture in Indianapolis. Following Hardin’s retirement, Martin University went through a period of unstable leadership, as three presidents passed through the institution in a five-year period. The university had also been struggling with funding for many years, even during Hardin’s presidency, and by 2013, Martin University was in danger of closing.[4] The university desperately needed a strong and dedicated leader to restore its finances and credibility.</p>
<p>Dr. Eugene White, former superintendent of Indianapolis Public Schools and friend of Boniface Hardin, came out of retirement to assume the position of president of Martin University in August 2013. Under his stable leadership, the institution put a strategic plan in place to get out of debt and improve its standing with the government and local community. While the first years of White’s presidency were very challenging, with the cutting of programs and revaluation of everything from curriculum to budget, White found inspiration in the dedication of Martin University’s staff. Between 2013 and 2016, White’s strategic restoration plan successfully restructured the school and saved it from the brink of closure.[5]</p>
<p>Martin University celebrated the fortieth anniversary of its founding in 2017, a triumph made even greater by the institution’s recent rejuvenation. Dr. Sean L. Huddleston, former Vice President and Chief Equity & Inclusion Officer for the University of Indianapolis, succeeded Dr. Eugene White as president of Martin University in 2019.[6] The institution is currently working toward expanding its catalog of degree programs, providing salary increases to staff, and increasing its student population.[7] Martin University has long-served Indianapolis as an urban educational center of excellence and is on the path for continued growth in the coming years.[8]</p>
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
[1] <span>“About Martin University,” Martin University, accessed June 1, 2020, https://www.martin.edu/about-martin.<br />[2] “Martin University History,” Martin University, accessed June 2, 2020, https://www.martin.edu/history.<br />[3] “Martin University History.”<br />[4] Amber Stearns, “The rise, fall and resurrection of Martin University,” NUVO News, July 26, 2017, https://www.nuvo.net/news/the-rise-fall-and-resurrection-of-martin-university/article_88bc5f06-7209-11e7-abee-ab81a1d1ced2.html<br />[5] Ibid.<br />[6] “Huddleston Named President Of Martin University,” WFYI News, January 7, 2019, https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/huddleston-named-president-of-martin-university. “President Huddleston’s Bio,” Martin University, accessed June 2, 2020, https://www.martin.edu/office-of-the-president<br />[7] Stearns, “The rise, fall and resurrection of Martin University.”<br />[8] Ibid.</span>
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Student Author: Natalie Bradshaw
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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Information about rights held in and over the resource
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Father Boniface Hardin, President of Martin University, Public domain, via Wikimedia commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Father_Boniface_Hardin,_President_of_Martin_University.jpg
1950s-present
education
Entrepreneurship
Indianapolis
Marion County
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/86b7c599044cc0b5879be2d75cc1b3d2.jpg
dcd19a1efa9a3fe28a3a6f25bb018642
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Events
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Title
A name given to the resource
South Bend Washington High School Walkout
Description
An account of the resource
<p>On September 20, 1968, 200 African American students staged a walkout at Washington High School in South Bend, Indiana. The walkout was a protest of the lack of representation of African Americans students in the school’s sports teams and extracurricular activities. The center of the conflict revolved around the fact that there was not a single African American cheerleader on Washington High School’s “all white” cheerleading squad. The walkout was organized and carried out by the Student Organization for Unity and Leadership (S.O.U.L.), a student-run organization that advocated for the representation of African American students in all areas of student life at Washington High School. Prior to the walkout, S.O.U.L. held two meetings to plan the demonstration at the LaSalle Park Center on Western Avenue. The pep assembly walkout involved many students and gained the attention of the South Bend African American newspaper The Reformer, where it made the front page of the September 29, 1968 edition.[1]</p>
<p>As one of the last Northern states to officially desegregate public schools, Indiana has a long history of racial inequality in its educational systems. The move to integrate public schools came in 1949, only five years preceding the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, when the Indiana General Assembly passed the Indiana School Desegregation Act in 1949.[2] Although the law required schools to start integrating, segregation persisted throughout the state due to residential zoning. South Bend’s public school system had never officially been segregated; however, the city enforced extremely discriminatory housing practices that made it very difficult for African Americans to become property owners, forced African American families into segregated neighborhoods, and perpetuated unofficial segregation in public schools.[3]</p>
<p>Even in school buildings that were officially integrated, African American students were often denied access to recreational facilities and discouraged from participating in school teams and clubs in South Bend.[4] These discriminatory practices caused African American students to feel unrepresented in their schools and culminated in a large public protest at Washington High School. In its coverage of the 1968 Washington High School walkout, The Reformer reported that one student demonstrator said, “We’ve been given frustration in place of equal representation.”[5] Despite the large African American population at Washington High School, African American students felt unable to participate fully in their school community. Marching out of the all-school pep assembly, over 200 students mobilized in order to upend the school’s prejudiced operations.</p>
<p>The year 1968 saw many school walkouts staged by students seeking to promote civil rights. The largest and most influential demonstration was the East Los Angeles School walkouts of March 1968.[6] It is likely that the 200 students who walked out of Washington High School on September 20, 1968 were inspired by this and similar walkouts earlier in the year.</p>
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
[1] Val Maxwell, “Washington Students Stage Walkout,” The Reformer, September 29, 1968, 1.
[2] “A Look Back: Hoosier inequality,” South Bend Tribune, January 18, 2016, https://www.southbendtribune.com/news/local/history/a-look-back-hoosier-inequality/article_14aff11b-7be0-5594-a12d-499a0c02e67d.html
[3] Annette Scherber, “’Better Homes wants to have a fair shake:’ Fighting Housing Discrimination in Postwar South Bend,” Indiana History Blog, last modified May 18, 2017, https://blog.history.in.gov/tag/housing/
[4] “Segregation in South Bend,” St. Joseph County Public Library, accessed June 1, 2020, https://sjcpl.org/node/7579.
[5] Maxwell, “Washington Students Stage Walkout,” 1.
[6] “The Walkout — How a Student Movement in 1968 Changed Schools Forever (Part 1 Of 3),” United Way Greater Los Angeles, last modified February 26, 2018, https://www.unitedwayla.org/en/news-resources/blog/1968Walkouts/.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Student Author: Natalie Bradshaw
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Washington High School South Bend 2015, attributed to IH Havens, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Washington_High_School_South_Bend_2015.jpg
1950s-present
Civil Rights Movement
education
Integration
South Bend
Sports
St. Joseph County
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/bd782ac322021e30251eb539e63917c4.jpg
725dbc9c60634f23188e4207f88f5cf1
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Places
Dublin Core
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Title
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Froebel School, Gary
Description
An account of the resource
<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>
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
[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
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
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
Relation
A related resource
<a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/4109.htm">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
1900-40s
1950s-present
education
Gary
Indiana Historical Bureau Marker
Integration
Lake County
School
Segregation
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/c040e35be3b23096c829f79719c257e2.jpg
4b3791cb27a9eabebe3ae6465f481afb
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Places
Dublin Core
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Title
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Lincoln High School, Evansville
Description
An account of the resource
<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>
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
[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
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
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
Rights
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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
1900-1940s
1950s-present
education
Evansville
Integration
School
Segregation
Vanderburgh County
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/b8943a604790c9d4ea3b0a8f33b77df7.jpg
f6af3bd85d62755f2b9102b00d1a709a
Dublin Core
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Title
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People
Dublin Core
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Title
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Evangeline Harris Merriweather
Description
An account of the resource
<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>
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
[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
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
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
Relation
A related resource
<a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/4414.htm">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
PHOTO & VIDEO:
Evangeline Harris Merriwether 1949, public domain, via Indiana Album Inc., http://indianaalbum.pastperfectonline.com/photo/82D69F28-E9A9-40A5-BF87-981528434361
1900-1940s
education
Indiana Historical Bureau Marker
Segregation
Terre Haute
Vigo County
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/0b71b8bf54d29b6cba08da7a9192fca2.jpg
a1efcbd591251b7394c7e831915eaf57
Dublin Core
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Places
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Crispus Attucks High School
Description
An account of the resource
<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>
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[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>
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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
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Crispus Attucks High School, attributed to Nyttend, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crispus_Attucks_High_School.jpg
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<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>
1900-40s
1950s-present
education
Indiana Historical Bureau Marker
Indianapolis
Marion County
National Register of Historic Places
Segregation
Sports
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https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/64408b4e80b6d2e11d9e2eabaee2e452.jpg
306a20deaf5d9182797ccacbdc788064
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/6b6b850b39871aac303ba44613a6baf2.jpg
98d2a6e316cfbd92beeb2e393bc79054
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Gary Roosevelt High School
Description
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<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>
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<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>
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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
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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
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<a href="https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/12001059" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Register of Historic Places</a>
1900-40s
1929
1950s-present
education
Gary
Lake County
National Register of Historic Places
Segregation
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/15e8f137dd0efcc480bfcd373d259962.jpg
c31a63342bbeaceebfc1da3ce3368c51
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Kappa Alpha Psi
Description
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<p>Greek life and its associated activities is a dominant thread in many college students’ lives. Kappa Alpha Psi was one of the first African American social fraternities in the United States.<span>[1]</span> The fraternity was founded in 1911 at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, a predominantly white institution at a time when racism and prejudice were high. Kappa Alpha Psi has since dedicated their efforts to an equal brotherhood, bound only by a willingness to succeed and not by skin color, race, or background.</p>
<p>Its founders, ten African American students at Indiana University, first organized the fraternity (originally named Kappa Alpha Nu until 1915) in January 1911<span>[2]</span>. The men often gathered at the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Bloomington before they had their own fraternity house. The original motto, “Achievement in every field of Human Endeavor” formalized their goal of helping members to attain high “intellectual, moral and social worth”.[3] Kappa Alpha Psi gave African American men at Indiana University a way to participate in campus social events. In Indiana University in the 1910s, African Americans were not allowed to reside in campus housing, were denied use of university facilities, and could not participate in contact sports, leaving only track and field as athletic options.<span>[4]</span></p>
<p>Kappa Alpha Psi, like many other Greek organizations across colleges and universities in the United States, has evolved over time. Over the years, Kappa Alpha Psi has sponsored national programs under its name feeding the homeless, funding youth and after-school programs, providing scholarships, and sponsoring other philanthropic efforts.<span>[5]</span> It now has over 700 chapters and 125,000 collegiate members worldwide.<span>[6]</span> <span> </span>Kappa Alpha Psi takes pride in the fact that their Constitution has never included any language that “either excluded or suggested the exclusion of a man from membership merely because of his color, creed, or national origin”.<span>[7]</span> Notable Kappa Alpha Psi members include Hollywood director John Singleton (University of Southern California), former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick (University of Nevada), author and television personality Marc Lamont Hill (University of Pennsylvania), political author on race relations Charles Blow (Grambling State University)<span> [8]</span>, and former president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Dennis Hayes (Indiana University).<span>[9]</span></p>
<p>The alpha Kappa Alpha Psi chapter at Indiana University dedicated its fraternity house as the Elder Watson Diggs Memorial in 1961, honoring founder and first Grand Polemarch Elder W. Diggs. In 2008, the Indiana Historical Bureau and Indiana University installed a historical marker on the site of the Elder Watson Diggs Memorial chapter house. The marker commemorates the formation of Kappa Alpha Psi and the role it played in race relations and civil rights in Indiana.<span>[10]</span></p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1"><span></span></a></p>
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<p><span>[1]</span> Kappa Alpha Psi. “A Brief History.” Kappa Alpha Psi, Inc. <span>https://kappaalphapsi1911.com/page/History</span>. Accessed February 7, 2020.<br /><span>[2]</span> "Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity." Original People. January 24, 2014. Accessed April 12, 2019.<br /><span>[3]</span> Ibid.<br /><span>[4]</span> Kappa Alpha Psi. “A Brief History.” Kappa Alpha Psi, Inc. Accessed February 7, 2020.<br /><span>[5]</span> Kappa Alpha Psi. “A Brief History.” Kappa Alpha Psi, Inc. Accessed February 7, 2020.<br /><span>[</span><span>6</span><span>]</span> "Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity." Original People. January 24, 2014. Accessed April 12, 2019.<br /><span>[7]</span> Kappa Alpha Psi. “A Brief History.” Kappa Alpha Psi, Inc. Accessed February 7, 2020.<br /><span>[8]</span> Ibid.<br /><span>[9]</span> <em>Kappa Alpha Psi to make a historic 'pilgrimage' to IU Bloomington to mark its centennial. </em>Indiana University, IU News Room. Accessed February 10, 2020.<br /><span>[10]</span> Indiana Historical Bureau, Indiana Historical Markers. Accessed February 10, 2020.</p>
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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
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<a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/555.htm">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker</a>
1900-40s
1911
1950s-present
Bloomington
education
Indiana Historical Bureau Marker
Indiana University
Integration
Monroe County
Organization
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03c8947448ae5f9410331a1cd73cae28
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H. Theo. Tatum, Principal Gary Roosevelt High School
Description
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Harbart Theodore Tatum, known as H. Theo. Tatum, was born January 18, 1894 in Columbus, Texas. At the age of 15, he graduated as valedictorian of his class at Charlton-Pollard High School in Beaumont, Texas.[1] He continued his education at Wiley College, then Columbia University where he graduated with a Master of Arts in Educational Administration, with post-graduate study at the University of Chicago.[2] Tatum was first a teacher and later vice-principal of McDonough High School in New Orleans, Louisiana. <br /><br />In 1925, he moved to Gary, Indiana and served as principal of Virginia Street School and East Pulaski High School. In his book,<em> Children of the Mill: Schooling and Society in Gary Indiana, 1906-1960</em>, Ronald D. Cohen says that, “Virginia school principal H. Theo Tatum epitomized the mixture of racial pride and integrationist principles.”[3] In 1931, the East Pulaski school had an enrollment of 998 pupils and 27 teachers, and “H. Theodore Tatum, the principal has been here nearly ten years…[4] It is generally conceded by both races that Mr. Tatum has very few equals and no superiors among the administrators of the Gary school system.”[5] Tatum was an administrator in the Gary Public School System for 36 years.[6] Tatum was said to have “represented pride within the black community.”[7]<br /><br />In 1933, H. Theo. Tatum became principal of Roosevelt High School, an all-black school, and he world serve that role for over 20 years. Tatum was “a firm advocate of integration as promoted by the NAACP.”[8] Theodore Roosevelt High School (also popularly known as Gary Roosevelt) was the first and only exclusively African American high school in Gary. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012, both for its architecture and design, and for the role it played with the development of the city’s African American community.[9]<br /><br />In 1961, Tatum retired as principal of Gary Roosevelt High School. He served as the local chairman of the National Negro College Fund,”[10] and he had a life membership in the NAACP. He was also the President of United Council of Negro Organizations in Gary.[12]<br /><br />Tatum died at the age of 89 on June 16, 1983. After his death, his son-in-law, Randall Morgan Sr. and former teachers under Tatum, remembered him and his contributions to his community. Morgan stated, “Many local people did not know it, but Mr. Tatum had quite a national reputation. For about 12 years, he taught a graduate course at Hampton Institute during the summer. Black schoolteachers and administrators from all over the country came there to hear him. His classes were filled to capacity, giving lessons on administration. He was one of only a few blacks with that kind of expertise in education.”[13]<br /><br />Mrs. Ida B. King, a teacher under Tatum, said, “he wanted to expose the community to artists of color, to give incentive to graduating seniors and those growing up- since Roosevelt was kindergarten through 12th grade at the time.”[14] She goes on to say that, “young blacks were inspired during those years - in the 1940s and 1950s- to see their own people progress in spite of obstacles that racism tossed in their path.”
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[1] “The Service of Worship In Memory of H. Theo. Tatum. June 1983. <br />[2] Ibid. <br />[3] Cohen, Ronald D. <em>Children of the Mill: Schooling and Society in Gary, Indiana, 1906-1960,</em> 98. <br />[4] Bethea, Dennis A."The Colored Group in the Gary School System." <br />[5] Ibid. <br />[6] Woodson-Wray, Carmen M. "Retired Educator H. Theo Tatum to Be Honored." <br />[7] Cohen, Ronald D. <em>Children of the Mill: Schooling and Society in Gary, Indiana, 1906-1960.</em> <br />[8] Abell, Gregg. <em>National Register of Historic Places Nomination Roosevelt High School.</em> <br />[9] Ibid. <br />[10] “H. Theo Tatum Biographical Sketch.” <br />[11] “The Service of Worship In Memory of H. Theo. Tatum. June 1983. <br />[12] “H. Theo. Tatum Personal Information.” <br />[13] Williams, Vernon A. “Tatum a Roosevelt Tradition.” [14] Ibid.
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Student Authors: Molly Hollcroft and Robin Johnson
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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<a href="https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/12001059">National Register of Historic Places</a>
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PHOTO & VIDEO:
Theodore Roosevelt High School, Gary Indiana, attributed to T. Tolbert, Public domain, via Wikimedia commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Theodore_Roosevelt_High_School,_Gary_Indiana.jpg
1900-1940s
1950s-present
education
Gary
Integration
Lake County
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Bethel AME Church, Indianapolis
Description
An account of the resource
In 1787, the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church was founded in Philadelphia by Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, after they left the Methodist Church due to racial prejudice. Allen and Jones retained some of the teachings and beliefs of the Methodist denomination, but the AME leaders were all African Americans. Through the AME Church, African Americans were able to form and lead their own congregations. In 1836, the first AME congregations in Indiana appeared in Richmond and Indianapolis. Revered William Paul Quinn, who settled in Richmond and served as the bishop of its AME church in 1844, established both churches. Richmond provided opportunities and a higher chance of equal treatment for African Americans because of the large Quaker population.[1] <br /><br />Bethel AME Church was founded in Indianapolis in 1836, at a time when nearly five percent of the city was African American. Augustus Turner, a local barber, came up with the idea to form an AME congregation while overhearing the conversations of his customers. The church began meeting in Turner’s log cabin, and after petitioning the Philadelphia AME Conference, the group was recognized as an AME church. Reverend Quinn from Richmond was sent as a circuit rider to what was known at the time as “Indianapolis Station.” A small frame house used as a church building was built five years later on Georgia Street, between the Canal and modern-day Senate Avenue.[2] In 1848, the church grew to 100 members. Indianapolis Station hosted the Annual AME Conference in 1854, and during the nine-day conference, the Constitution of the William Paul Quinn Missionary Society was adopted. Other benevolent societies and self-improvement groups were connected to Bethel AME Church, including several literary and temperance societies.[3] Three years later, the Bethel AME congregation bought the shuttered Christ Church building and physically moved it from the Indianapolis Circle area to Georgia Street as their new place of worship.[4] <br /><br />Beginning in 1858, Bethel AME Church organized the first school for African American children, as African Americans in Indianapolis were not allowed to attend public schools. This AME-sponsored school taught geography, grammar, history, physiology, reading, writing, and arithmetic. The African American community in Indianapolis was able to keep the school operating through donations and tuition.[5] The Bethel congregation was also active in the Underground Railroad, helping runaway slaves on their journey to Canada. Because of their involvement, some believed that slavery sympathizers started the fire which destroyed the church in the summer of 1862; others suggested that disgruntled African Americans, who had been cast out of the church, had set the fire.[6] The fire and the Civil War led to financial troubles, and unrest within the congregation led to several members leaving Bethel and forming their own church, Allen Chapel. After purchasing land on Vermont Street for $5,000, construction of a new Bethel AME Church building began in 1867. Two years later, the congregation occupied the partially completed building.[7] <br /><br />By the 1880’s, the church’s membership had grown to 600, and Sunday School pupils numbered 300.[8] However, the congregation had to sell the church building because of debt; the purchaser gave them one year to redeem the property or it would be lost to them forever. The African American community of Indianapolis helped Bethel to recover, and an increase in membership led to a remodeling of the building. In 1894, a pipe organ was installed, and electric lights, stained glass windows, and steam heat were added, and the parsonage was converted to a Parish House with a Prayer Chapel.[9] <br /><br />Church leadership changed throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and other renovations and additions took place. In the early 1900s, the Indianapolis Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the State Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs were organized at the church.[10] The Ethical Culture Society, an organization devoted to the enlightenment of young people, met at the church for over four decades. In 1957, Bethel AME became involved with feeding the hungry and offering counseling services to the community, and in 1973, a Human Resources Development Center was established to aid youth and senior citizens. Bethel AME Church, in partnership with the Riley-Lockerbie Association of Churches, maintains a food and clothing pantry.[11] The church has also had a credit union, a well-baby clinic, an adult daycare program, and other social programs. <br /><br />Bethel AME is known as the “Mother Church” of African Methodism in Indiana, as Allen Chapel, Coppin Chapel, Saint John, and Wallace (Providence) were all AME churches that were off-shoots of Bethel AME.[12] In 1991, the Bethel AME Church was added to the National Register of Historic Places.[13] Bethel AME Church continues not only to improve the lives of its members, but also to help to those in Indianapolis who are in need from its new location north of the city.[14] The Bethel AME Church building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009 and is commemorated by an Indiana Historical Bureau historical marker, installed in 2009.
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A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<p><span>[1]</span> National Register Nominations: Bethel A.M.E. Church, Marion County, 12-19-90, Elisabeta Goodall, Author, 7.<br /><span>[2]</span> B.R. Sulgrove, <em>History of Indianapolis and Marion County</em> (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts, 1884), 404-05.<br /><span>[3]</span> Earline Rae Ferguson, “In Pursuit of the Full Enjoyment of Liberty and Happiness: Blacks in Antebellum Indianapolis, 1820-1860,” <em>Black History News and Notes,</em> no. 32 (May 1988), 7.<br /><span>[4]</span> B.R. Sulgrove, History of Indianapolis and Marion County (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts, 1884), 404-05.<br /><span>[5]</span> Ferguson, “In Pursuit of the Full Enjoyment of Liberty and Happiness: Blacks in Antebellum Indianapolis, 1820-1860,” 6.<br /><span>[6]</span> Stanley Warren, “The Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church,” <em>Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History</em>, 19 no. 3 (2007), 33.<br /><span>[7]</span> Ibid, 34.<br /><span>[8]</span> Sulgrove, <em>History of Indianapolis and Marion County, </em>405.<br /><span>[9]</span> National Register Nominations: Bethel A.M.E. Church, Marion County, 12-19-90, Elisabeta Goodall, Author, 9.<br /><span>[10]</span> Aboard the Underground Railroad. “Bethel AME Church”. National Park Service.<br /><span>[11]</span> National Register Nominations: Bethel A.M.E. Church, 9-10.<br /><span>[12]</span> Warren, “The Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church,” 35.<br /><span>[13]</span> Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Indiana Historical Bureau. Accessed January 29, 2020. <br />[14] Warren, “The Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church,” 35.</p>
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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
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PHOTO & VIDEO:<br />Bethel A.M.E. Church Organizations and Clubs, Indiana Historical Society, M1270.<br /><br />
<table width="529">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="529"><a href="https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/p16797coll9/id/2456/rec/109">https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/p16797coll9/id/2456/rec/109</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Relation
A related resource
<a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/Bethel.htm">Indiana Historic Bureau: Historical Marker</a><br /><a href="https://npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/00000925.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Register of Historic Places</a>
1800s
1836
1900-40s
1950s-present
African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church
Church
education
Indiana Historical Bureau Marker
Indianapolis
Marion County
National Register of Historic Places
religion
Underground Railroad
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/6ce739452ac8017bc12d310bc7779f9d.jpg
68a8176676b2a5b0515fc6311c1b1f32
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Events
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Unigov: Unifying Indianapolis and Marion County
Description
An account of the resource
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.
Source
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[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.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Student Authors: Allison Hunt and Jake Bailey <br />Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson<br />Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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PHOTO & VIDEO:
City-County Building (Indianapolis), attributed to Momoneymoproblemz, Public domain, via Wikimedia commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:City-County_Building_(Indianapolis)_exterior.jpg
1950s-present
education
Indianapolis
Integration
Marion County
Organization
Politics
School
Segregation
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/c6c670f2fcc22001b66284cc3d885cec.jpg
2b1c889ac24057e6c006b3019330e243
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John H. and Sarah Tibbets Home
Description
An account of the resource
John Henry Tibbets was born in Clermont County, Ohio, to Dr. Samuel and Susanna Combs Tibbets circa 1820. [1] He was the last son born in the staunchly abolitionist family. The Tibbets were motivated “to help fugitive slaves by personal religious conviction,” as part of their Baptist faith. [2] In the fall of 1838, John aided his “first fugitive from slavery,” riskily escorting the man on horseback at nighttime to a safe location about 15 miles away, with the help of his cousin Thomas Coombs. [3]
In 1843, John H. Tibbets moved to Jefferson County, Indiana, which already boasted a strong community of abolitionists. In 1839, 73 men and women, led by abolitionist Methodist minister Louis Hicklin, established the Neil’s Creek Anti-Slavery Society just north of Madison, Indiana. [4] One of the founding members of this society was Sarah Ann Nelson, who was just 19 at the time the group was formed. [5] In the fall of 1844, John H. Tibbets married Sarah Ann Nelson, and the couple moved to Neil’s Creek to reside with Sarah’s parents, who were also “strong Anti-slavery people” and fellow founders of the Neil’s Creek Anti-Slavery Society. [6] The couple worked together as conductors on the Underground Railroad from their advantageous location just north of the Ohio River. Other prominent conductors operating out of the free black Georgetown neighborhood in nearby Madison, such as George DeBaptiste, Elijah Anderson, and John Carter, were their colleagues in helping fugitive slaves escape northward toward freedom.
In 1853, John and Sarah Tibbets, along with their three young sons, James, Samuel, and Charles Francis, moved just miles northwest of Madison to Lancaster, Indiana where a “whole abolitionist community” of families was gathering. [7] The Tibbets, along with several other families involved in the Neil’s Creek Anti-Slavery Society, which later became Neil’s Creek Abolitionist Baptist Church, founded the Eleutherian College in Lancaster. [8] This institution provided higher education to students regardless of race or gender, and was one of just two schools “west of the Allegheny Mountains to offer its students college-level experience in an integrated atmosphere prior to the Civil War.” [9] Segregation in public schools was not legally prohibited in Indiana for nearly a century, until the Indiana General Assembly enacted a law doing so in 1949. [10] Though the enrollment at Eleutherian College was quite small, the school attracted black students from across the country, including some who had been born into slavery. [11]
In 1870, John, then 52, and his wife Sarah, then 50, moved their family to Labette County, Kansas. Here, he built a small Baptist Church, and set aside land for a cemetery. John and Sarah are buried in that cemetery on their homestead which was located four miles south of Mound Valley, Kansas. [12] The church and graves still stand today.
John H. Tibbets is remarkable in that he recorded significant evidence of his work as a conductor in the Underground Railroad in his 18 page memoir, Reminiscence of Slavery Times. Although the memoir was written in Kansas three decades after his work on the Underground Railroad, Tibbets recalls details of incidents spanning more than 20 years, from 1837 to 1858. [13] The “account overflows with names and places,” and specifications of “dozens of locations that can be traced today on the landscape of southern Ohio and southeastern Indiana,” along with details of each journey undertaken to help at least 37 people towards freedom. [14] Unlike other memoirs of Hoosier Underground Railroad conductors, such as Levi Coffin, Tibbets’ Reminiscence of Slavery Times recounts more than just his own efforts. He documents the network of people working together in Jefferson County to aid freedom seekers, and names 34 of his compatriots. [15] Tibbets’ memoir recalls harrowing situations on his journeys, vividly illustrating “the unexpected difficulties that members of the Underground Railroad faced and solved.” [16]
The Tibbets home still stands in Madison, Indiana today. In 2006, the Indiana Historical Bureau dedicated a Historical Marker in front of the house, honoring the family’s place in Hoosier history. [17] John H. and Sarah Tibbets dedicated their lives to the pursuit of not only the abolition of slavery, but also to providing equal treatment and opportunity to black people in Indiana.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
[1] “John H. and Sarah Tibbets,” Indiana Historical Bureau, accessed October 15, 2019, https://www.in.gov/history/markers/521.htm. <br />[2] Cox, Stephen F. “Twenty Years on the Underground Railroad: John H. Tibbets's ‘Reminiscence of Slavery Times’” The Hoosier Genealogist: Connections 46, no. 4 (2006): 164. <br />[3] “Reminiscences of Slavery Times,” Tibbets Family Antislavery History, accessed October 15, 2019, https://fordwebtech.com/tibbets-history/JohnTibbetsLetter.php. <br />[4] Cox, “Twenty Years on the Underground Railroad,” 164. <br />[5] Ibid. <br />[6] “Reminiscences of Slavery Times,” Tibbets Family Antislavery History, accessed October 15, 2019, https://fordwebtech.com/tibbets-history/JohnTibbetsLetter.php.; Cox, “Twenty Years on the Underground Railroad,” 164. <br />[7] Ibid., 166. <br />[8] Jeffrey D. Bennett, National Historic Landmark Nomination Eleutherian College Classroom and Chapel Building, Lancaster, IN, Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana, 1996. <br />[9] Ibid. <br />[10] Dwight W. Culver, “Racial Desegregation in Education in Indiana,” The Journal of Negro Education 23, no. 3 (1954): 296. <br />[11] Emma Lou Thornbrough, The Negro in Indiana Before 1900 (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1993): 179. <br />[12] Cox, “Twenty Years on the Underground Railroad,” 168. <br />[13] Ibid., 166. <br />[14] Ibid. <br />[15] Ibid. <br />[16] Ibid., 165. <br />[17] “John H. and Sarah Tibbets,” Indiana Historical Bureau, accessed October 15, 2019, https://www.in.gov/history/markers/521.htm.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
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
Relation
A related resource
<a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/5.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a><a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/521.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker for John H. and Sarah Tibbets</a><br /><a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/5.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker for Eleutherian College</a><br /><a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/521.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></a>
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PHOTO & VIDEO:
Eleutherian College, Public domain, via Wikimedia commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eleutherian_College.jpg
1800s
1900-40s
Abolition
education
Indiana Historical Bureau Marker
Jefferson County
Madison
Underground Railroad
-
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/bcefd587b60b4f5edc93d980b595a318.jpg
eaafb6ba24b0e3a6eb837efc99ed325b
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Reverend Moses Broyles,
Eleutherian College
Description
An account of the resource
Moses Broyles was born in 1826 in Maryland [1]. At the age of four, he was separated from his parents and purchased by a Kentucky planter named John Broyles. John Broyles often entrusted Moses with the care of the Broyles children and eventually, he was entrusted with management of farm affairs. Moses learned to read and discovered a love of history through the books he read, including the Old and New Testament, books about United States History, the lives of George Washington and Francis Marion, and history of the Baptists, among others. While still enslaved, he traveled to Paducah, Kentucky, where he preached and helped establish the first colored Baptist meetinghouse [2].
When he was fourteen (1840), John Broyles told Moses that he would be freed in 1854. However, Moses could not wait, and in 1851 he began working to purchase himself. He had bought a horse and dray to earn money more rapidly and was eventually able to purchase his freedom. After extricating himself from slavery, Moses moved to Lancaster, Indiana, and attended Eleutherian College. Allegedly prone to coughing and choking spells during debates and public speeches, he was very bashful when he first attended the college. In spite of Broyles reserved personality, Dr. William T. Stott, the former president of Franklin College in Franklin, Indiana, said “Eleutherian Institute would have amply justified its existence and cost, if it had educated no other pupil than Moses Broyles" [3]. A second individual made a similar remark, stating “that school, even if it had done nothing more, justified its claim to recognition by the successful education of Rev. Moses Broyles, the leader of the colored Baptists of Indiana" [4]. Clearly, Moses Broyles was an exceptionally intelligent and high achieving student who was able to succeed in the face of challenging circumstances.
Broyles moved to Indianapolis in the spring of 1857 where he entered the ministry. He became a member of the Second Baptist Church, and hoped to become its pastor. By November of 1857, he was ordained as the pastor of the Second Baptist. Because the church could only pay for three years of lodging, Broyles worked as a schoolteacher for twelve years at one of the first African Americans schools in the city [5].
By the time Moses Broyles became a pastor, the Underground Railroad had been in use for nearly two decades, reaching its peak in the 1850s. The anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was published in 1852 and sold half a million copies within its first six months. The Civil War shook the young nation, and in the war’s last year, President Lincoln was assassinated, the Ku Klux Klan formed, and the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments soon followed, which changed the lives of African Americans in many ways but did not lead to complete equality. In 1871, Congress gave President Grant authority to use military force against the KKK and similar groups, but African Americans would continue to live in fear for decades.
Under Broyles’ leadership, the church’s membership grew, and by 1877 it had sent twenty-one men into the ministry. In 1864, the church outgrew its space as its membership doubled in size, and in 1867 it grew again, resulting in the purchase of a larger building for $25,000. Broyles was a major factor in the organization of a State Association of Colored Baptists in Indiana, as well as the establishment of six colored churches in the state since 1866 [6]. In 1876, Broyles wrote The History of Second Baptist Church. He was a known Republican and encouraged other African Americans to join the party of Lincoln and Grant. Broyles and his wife Francis had seven children by 1880. He remained the pastor of Second Baptist until his death on August 31, 1882 [7]. Rev. Broyles created many opportunities for African Americans in Indiana, especially in education and religion. It would be nearly another century before African Americans would be able to attend schools with whites, but like other civil rights leaders, Rev. Broyles was a single spark that fueled an inferno of social change which is still burning.
Source
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[1] Cathcart, William, "The Baptist encyclopedia: a dictionary of the doctrines, ordinances...of the general history of the Baptist denomination in all lands, with numerous biographical sketches...& a supplement" Philadelphia: L. H. Everts, 1883.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Carrol, J. C. "The Beginnings of Public Education for Negroes in Indiana." The Journal of Negro Education 8 no. 4 (October, 1939).
[4] Ibid.
[5] “History of Greater Indianapolis”, New York Public Library.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Brown, Ignatius, “Indianapolis Directory…History of Indianapolis”, Logan & Co., 1868.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Student Author: Melody Seberger <br />Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson<br />Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
Relation
A related resource
<a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/5.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker for Eleutherian College</a>
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PHOTO & VIDEO:
Eleutherian College from northwest in evening, attributed to Nyttend, Public domain, via Wikimedia commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eleutherian_College_from_northwest_in_evening.jpg
1800s
community
education
Indianapolis
Jefferson County
Marion County
religion
Slavery