1
100
21
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Thomas V. Barnes
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Thomas V. Barnes was born in Arkansas in 1936. His family moved to Gary, Indiana when Barnes was only four weeks old. He graduated from African American Roosevelt High School in 1954 and earned his Bachelor of Science degree in 1958. He attended law school, obtaining his Doctorate of Jurisprudence from DePaul University in 1972 [1].
Barnes began his political career in Lake County, when he won the Democratic nomination for Calumet Township assessor in 1978. His campaign established Barnes as a man “dedicated to community development…and respect for people” and he served as assessor for a decade [2], [3]. In 1987, he announced his candidacy for Mayor of Gary. The Mayor at the time, Richard Hatcher, had endorsed Barnes’ election to Township assessor. Now, they were political opponents [4].
Barnes won the Mayoral election, defeating Hatcher and promising hope to a city whose economy had been devastated by the decline of the steel mills in the 1970s. He vowed to combat the city’s economic decline and address the growing crime issue by hiring more police officers and increasing their salaries. After his election, Barnes announced his commitment to the city, stating that he could “see a Gary that is clean, safe and working" [5]. Barnes was re-elected in 1991, serving another four-year term [6]. Many of his years in office were dedicated to bringing riverboat casinos to Gary to stimulate economic development. His “last official act” as Mayor was a groundbreaking ceremony for two riverboat casinos, the Majestic Star and Trump Indiana [7]. Barnes lamented the brief five-year existence of Trump Indiana in Gary, admitting that he did not want to accept Trump’s proposal in the first place. His decision was overridden by the state, who had the final say in the matter [8].
In addition to his time as Mayor, Barnes served in the U.S. Army, retiring as a Colonel in 1986. In 1988, he was elected Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the U.S. Army for the State of Indiana. He also served as Co-Chair of the World Health Organization Conference in Sweden in 1990. He was DePaul University’s Distinguished Graduate of 1993, and in 1994 was placed in Purdue University’s Hall of Fame. In 1995, he was also inducted into Gary’s Steel City Hall of Fame. He is a life member of the NAACP and AMVETS, a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, and a former advisor and board member of Brothers Keeper [9]. When his years as Mayor came to an end in 1995, Barnes returned to work at Barnes Washer Repair and Parts, continuing the family legacy of fine service and hospitality at the business his father had established upon moving to Gary in 1936 [10].
Source
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[1] “48th Annual Black History Month Program,” Gary Public Library, Gary Public Library and Cultural center, February 2020, http://www.garypubliclibrary.org/clientuploads/barnes_flyer_2020_.pdf.
[2] “Calumet Attorney Wins Nomination for Assessor,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN) May 27, 1978.
[3] “48th Annual Black History Month Program,” Gary Public Library.
[4] Emma Lou Thornburgh, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century (Indiana University Press, 2000), 194.
[5] Dirk Johnson, “Economic Decline Seen as Factor in Hatcher Loss,” New York Times (New York, NY), May 7, 1987.
[6] “48th Annual Black History Month Program,” Gary Public Library.
[7] Carole Carlson, “Gary Mayors Offer Glimpse into City Hall Politics at Forum,” Chicago Tribune, Post-Tribune, January 9, 2019, https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/ct-ptb-gary-living-mayors-st-0110-story.html.
[8] Lauren Cross, “Gary’s Living Mayors Reflect on City’s Past, Present, and Future,” NWI, The Times, December 14, 2019, https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/garys-living-mayors-reflect-on-citys-past-present-and-future/article_d445ce73-3112-582a-a6e1-a5960aa1d4fc.html.
[9] “48th Annual Black History Month Program,” Gary Public Library.
[10] Michael Puente, “Former Gary Mayor Remembers When trump Came to Town,” Will Radio TV, Illinois Public Radio, April 30, 2016, https://will.illinois.edu/news/story/former-gary-mayor-remembers-when-trump-came-to-town
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Student Author: Gwyneth Harris
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
1950s-present
Gary
Lake County
NAACP
Politics
-
https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/0984fe1fc628453f04784573f058b81e.jpg
fad189176e104f6e7d8c078ccdbe42a4
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Robert Lee Bailey
Description
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Robert Lee Bailey was a successful Indianapolis lawyer and active member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He fought tirelessly against segregation and discrimination throughout his life [1]. Bailey was born in Alabama in 1885. After graduation from Talladega College, he moved north for job opportunities. In 1912, he graduated from the Indiana University School of Law [2]. Prior to entering law school, he worked as a railway mail clerk. During this time, he founded the National Alliance of Postal Employees, and later served as their general counsel [3]. During the 1920s and ‘30s, he served as a special judge in the Marion Circuit Court, ran for state representative, and was involved with several organizations and movements [4]. Among his many activities, he was involved with the Bethel Church, Southern Cross Lodge, No. 39, F. and A.M., where he was past master. He was also the chairman of the committee on foreign relations for the Indiana Grand Lodge F. and A.M., chairman of the redress committee for the Indiana NAACP, and a local NAACP branch president [5].
During the height of Indiana’s Ku Klux Klan activity in the 1920s, Bailey helped lead the Indianapolis NAACP against the growing power of the Klan. Mirroring the Klan’s rapid growth during this decade, the Indianapolis branch of the NAACP grew considerably under the leadership of Bailey and fellow lawyers Robert Lee Brokenburr, W.S. Henry, and Freeman Ransom [6]. Bailey was involved in several critical moments in Indianapolis’s African American Civil Rights history.
In the early 1920s, Bailey represented NAACP in court, asking the Indianapolis school board to reconsider their decision to build an all-black high school. Bailey and two African American lawyers asked for an injunction, believing the proposed school promoted segregation and unequal opportunities for Indianapolis’s African American students [7]. Despite pleas from the NAACP, Crispus Attucks High School opened in September 1927 [8].
In 1931, Indiana Attorney General James Ogden appointed Bailey as the assistant attorney general. He was the first African American to hold the position. In the same year, Bailey faced one of his most difficult cases. Brokenburr and Bailey defended James Cameron, a sixteen-year-old boy from Marion, Indiana, who had been charged with murder. Cameron’s friends, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, were beaten and hanged in what is known as the last lynching in Indiana’s history. Cameron narrowly escaped the same fate. If found guilty by the all-white jury, he faced life in prison or the death penalty. Bailey and Brokenburr provided evidence to reduce Cameron’s charges. He was found guilty as an accessory to voluntary manslaughter and served two years in the Indiana State Reformatory [9]. While Cameron’s narrow escape from the lynch mob was unique, lynching in Indiana was not. Besides Shipp and Smith, at least seven other African American men were lynched in Indiana between 1890 and 1902 [10].
Robert Bailey died in 1940 [11]. Newspaper accounts of his death remembered him as “one of the most brilliant attorneys ever to practice in the Indiana courts,” and an “honorable, straightforward…splendid citizen" [12]. Robert Lee Bailey was most known for his love for battle in the courtroom, which was “surpassed only by his thirst for justice" [13].
Source
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[1] “Our Branch History,” Indy NAACP, accessed March 19, 2021, https://www.indynaacp.org/branch-history.
[2] Ryan Schwier and Ravay Smith, “’Thirst for Justice’: Indiana’s Pioneering Black Lawyers,” Indiana Legal Archive, February 23, 2015, http://www.indianalegalarchive.com/journal/2015/2/18/thirst-for-justice.
[3] “Great Man Who Had Thirst for Justice,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), March 9, 1940.
[4] Ryan Schwier and Ravay Smith, “’Thirst for Justice’: Indiana’s Pioneering Black Lawyers.”
[5] “Great Man Who Had Thirst for Justice,” Indianapolis Recorder.
[6] Emma Lou Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century (Indiana University Press, 2000), 49. [7] Emma Lou Thornbrough, 57.
[8] Emma Lou Thornbrough, 58.
[9] Ryan Schwier and Ravay Smith, “’Thirst for Justice’: Indiana’s Pioneering Black Lawyers.”
[10] “Indiana Lynching Victims Memorial,” America’s Black Holocaust Museum, accessed March 22, 2021, https://www.abhmuseum.org/indiana-lynching-victims-memorial/.
[11] “Great Man Who Had Thirst for Justice,” Indianapolis Recorder.
[12] “Bailey’s Death Brings Grief to Multitudes,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), March 9, 1940.
[13] “Great Man Who Had Thirst for Justice,” Indianapolis Recorder.
Contributor
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Student Author: Gwyneth Harris
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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Courtesy Indiana University https://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/IUPUIphotos/id/31228/rec/1
1800s
1900-1940s
Civil Rights Movement
Indianapolis
Integration
Ku Klux Klan
law
Marion County
NAACP
-
https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/59fe3565c82ede814b2bc20240aa5b4b.jpg
977b38cab92e27f955780aeb74a01d79
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Rudolph Clay
Description
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Rudolph Clay was a renowned African American politician in Gary, Indiana. Clay was born in Hillsboro, Alabama, and following the death of his mother shortly after his birth, he was raised by his aunts in Gary [1]. He attended Israel Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church and was a graduate of Roosevelt High School in 1953. He studied at Indiana University in Bloomington and was awarded a track scholarship. Clay’s civil rights activism began at a young age with his membership in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Youth Council. In 1959, he was drafted into the United States Army and received an Honorable Discharge after two years of service. He returned to Gary to work as an insurance agent before entering politics.
He greatly influenced the African American community in Gary, as well as the state of Indiana during his time as a politician, breaking many racial barriers [2]. Clay participated in many Civil Rights demonstrations in Gary, including boycotts, sit-ins, and freedom rides, as well as marching alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. Jesse Jackson in the 1960s. In 1970, in recognition of his work with civil rights activism, Clay was awarded the Southern Christian Leadership Council Operation Bread Basket’s Outstanding Activist Award. From 1972 to 1976, Clay began his career in politics as Indiana’s first African American senator [3]. As an Indiana senator, Clay cast the deciding vote in 1974 to allow African Americans to serve as a Lake County Commissioner [4].
From 1978 to 1982, he served on the Lake County Council, and in 1984, he was elected as Lake County Recorder. In 1987, he was elected as Lake County Commissioner, the position that he had fought to integrate thirteen years earlier. For his continued work in politics and civil rights, Governor Evan Bayh awarded Clay the Outstanding Hoosier Award in 1994. In 2005, he was elected as the first African American Lake County chairman.
Following in the footsteps of Richard Hatcher, the first African American mayor of the city, Clay was elected mayor of Gary in 2006 [5]. As mayor, he worked to demolish dilapidated buildings, pave city streets, and improve public safety by increasing police presence. Education was always an issue of personal importance for Clay as well as the driving force for his political influence. He viewed education as a necessity to make things “better.” When asked about public and private education legislation, he responded that “education is everybody’s business” and promoted education as an avenue for bettering oneself and seeking out leadership roles [6].
Due to illness, Clay did not run for re-election as mayor in 2011. Upon his death in 2013, many who knew him remarked about his influence, not only as a politician, but also a political activist for over forty years, dedicating himself to civil rights [7]. Before his death, people would ask him what he hoped would be the outcome of his political influence in the city of Gary. "When all is said and done, I want Gary to become a better city, with better people, and better jobs" [8].
Source
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[1] Venisha Johnson, Ray Bernal, Mark Edwin Scoggins Sr., and Henrietta Tenney. "Rudolph Clay, Sr." RUDOLPH CLAY Obituary - Gary, IN | The Times. Accessed April 15, 2019. https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nwitimes/obituary.aspx?n=rudolph-clay&pid=165211746&fhid=4986.
[2] "Rudolph M ‘Rudy’ Clay." Findagrave.com. 2019. Accessed April 15, 2019. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/112701339/rudolph-m-clay.
[3] Anthony Thigpen.
[4] Anthony Thigpen.
[5] Anthony Thigpen.
[6] Anthony Thigpen.
[7] "Rudolph M ‘Rudy’ Clay."
[8] Anthony Thigpen.
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Student Authors: Emma Cieslik and Robin Johnson
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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PHOTO & VIDEO:
Genesis Towers & Gary State Bank, attributed to
Takingactioningary, Public domain, via Wikimedia commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Genesis_Towers_%26_Gary_State_Bank.JPG
1950s-present
Gary
Integration
Lake County
NAACP
Politics
-
https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/f10129612af9255804b18efac4f30526.mp3
c4a0a0f2e5c8ea3d1e1b91f2ef81db07
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Interview 5 with Junifer Hall (Mayor Richard Hatcher of Gary)
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<a href="https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/items/show/108">Mayor Richard Hatcher of Gary</a>
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Junifer Hall, a life-long resident of Gary, Indiana describes how Mayor Richard Hatcher promoted residents staying in the city and investing in the city with their dollars and how he impacted her experiences with racism.
<strong>***Trancript***</strong><br /><br /><span><em>Junifer Hall</em>: From a young child, I could hear Mayor Hatcher saying, “stay in Gary, buy in Gary. </span><span>You can be just as competitive. We have to control our own financial dollars,” and that is one of </span><span>the strongest memories I have from my childhood </span><span>because unfortunately, I did not have a lot of </span><span>the experiences of direct racism only because Mayor Hatcher has just pivoted to power.</span>
https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/5e1f80e04b5ad80202ae6bb16e688ba8.mp3
7ef09e0c7d0248f605751216ed9f6033
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Interview 6 with Junifer Hall (Mayor Richard Hatcher of Gary)
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<a href="https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/items/show/108">Mayor Richard Hatcher of Gary</a>
Description
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Junifer Hall, a life-long resident of Gary, Indiana, shares how Mayor Richard Hatcher opened doors for more African American individuals to hold political office, including her mother Represenative Katie Hall. Junifer Hall also describes Hatcher's impact on city hall and blazing a trail of opportunity for others.
<strong>***Transcript***<br /><br /></strong><em>Junifer Hall</em>: And he opened the door for my generation, so we didn’t have to experience as overtly, and we thank him for that, especially myself. Every time now that I go to city hall to serve on the Gary Historic Preservation Commission because if it weren’t for a trailblazer such as Richard Hatcher, there could not have been a Katie Hall, there could not have been a mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson, and I might be biased on this, and I might be sounded a little arrogant, but if it were not for Richard Gordon Hatcher opening the door for all of these people to follow, we could not have had the opportunity to serve, and my mother would often say when she first came to Gary, at city hall there was a receptionist and maybe a janitor people of color, and Mayor Hatcher knocked down so many barriers for so many to hold political offices including Katie Hall.
https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/3b4c44c02ceee2d822d65c497af9803c.jpg
b4062d10611267bea339e0e99e4a7729
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Mayor Richard Hatcher of Gary
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Richard Gordon Hatcher was born on July 10, 1933 in Michigan City, Indiana. He grew up during the Great Depression as the twelfth of thirteen children. His family went on welfare after his father lost his job with the Pullman Car Company [1]. Despite encouragement from his teachers to pursue a career in the trades, Hatcher aspired to be a lawyer, indicative of his future career in political office and civil rights activism. In 1951, Hatcher attended Indiana University on an athletic scholarship, with financial assistance from his older sisters. Hatcher began his activism as an active member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), participating in protests against segregated restaurants while still in college [2]. He earned a law degree from Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana, and then moved to East Chicago, Indiana, to practice law. While there, he served as a deputy prosecutor for Lake County.
In 1962, Hatcher moved to Gary, Indiana, to pursue a career in politics and civil rights. He ran for city council in the 1963 Democratic primary and won due to the large African American support in the city. He was then chosen to be council president. While in office, he helped pass a law to “end restrictive property covenants that forced blacks to live primarily in Gary's midtown section" [3]. In 1967, Hatcher ran for mayor and led a campaign that promoted racial unity and promised to rid the city of corruption and poverty, specifically among African American individuals. In November of that year, he won the election with the support of 96 percent of African American voters and twelve percent of white voters. His election made him the first African American mayor in Indiana and one of the first African American mayors of a large American city. He was elected despite the Democratic Party supporting his Republican opponent Joseph Radigan [4]. His campaign was largely funded by donors like Senator Robert Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey [5]. He appealed to voters as a “young, intelligent, a reputable lawyer, and a capable city council member" [6]. In order to appease white voters, he appointed a white police chief to help create a crime-free city. Hatcher served as mayor for twenty years and then went on to serve as chairman of Jesse Jackson’s Democratic presidential campaign in 1984 and as vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee in the early 1980s [7].
During his five terms as mayor, Hatcher was able to fundraise millions of dollars in order to change the face of Gary, Indiana, adding new public housing units, repaving streets, and coordinating regular garbage collection for multiple inner-city neighborhoods [8]. In supporting African Americans in political leadership, he appointed twenty-five African Americans as governmental department heads. Unfortunately, Hatcher could not resolve every problem Gary had, including the sharp decline in the steel industry, which caused many hardships within Gary and surrounding communities. By the early 1980s, about 25,000 people were laid off at U.S. Steel. Businesses closed down and crime increased [9]. By 1987, when Hatcher left office, about 50,000 people had left Gary, including considerable numbers of white individuals who moved south to Merrillville, Indiana [10].
As mayor, Hatcher fought against race-based inequalities in Gary. Hatcher was part of the lawsuit to allow African Americans to visit Miller Beach, a neighborhood on the southern shore of Lake Michigan. Despite pushback and eventual failure, Hatcher pushed for the development of a bank for Gary’s African American community and more regulations on gun usage. Hatcher also supported accessible housing, founding the $1 house program that allowed residents to purchase a house if they were able to improve it. He also brought African American leaders across the United States to Gary through as part of the first National Black Political Convention [11].
Hatcher continued to be recognized as a powerful voice for civil rights and African American representation in office throughout his life. According to former Lake Country Surveyor George Van Til, Former President Barack Obama personally thanked Hatcher during the 2008 presidential primaries for letting him stand on his shoulders and supporting African Americans running for American leadership position [12]. During his final years, Hatcher and his family lived in Chicago, Illinois. Richard Hatcher passed away on December 13, 2019 at the age of 86. He is still remembered in the African American community as someone who “did the impossible,” in the words of Democratic Representative Charlie Brown of Gary.
<a href="https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/show/235">Junifer Hall interview 4</a><br /><a href="https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/show/237">Junifer Hall interview 5</a><br /><a href="https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/show/239">Junifer Hall interview 6</a><br /><a href="https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/show/236">Junifer Hall interview 7</a>
Source
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[1] Emma L. Thornborough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 2000, pp. 175.
[2] Ibid, pp. 176.
[3] Associated Press. “Richard Hatcher, one of 1st black mayors of major city, dead at 86.” NBC News, 2019. Accessed May 1, 2020. Accessed at https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/richard-hatcher-gary-indiana-one-1st-black-mayors-major-u-n1102311.
[4] Craig Lyons. “1967 Gary election a ‘history marker’ with Richard Hatcher as Indiana’s first African-American major.” Chicago Tribune, 2017. Accessed February 2, 2021. Accessed at https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/ct-ptb-richard-hatcher-profile-st-1029-20171028-story.html.
[5] David Rutter. “Rutter: Hatcher still pays his dues for unforgiven ‘sins.’” Chicago Tribune, 2016. Accessed on February 2, 2021. https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/opinion/ct-ptb-rutter-hatcher-st-0309-20160308-story.html
[6] Emma L. Thornborough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century. pp. 177.
[7] Associated Press.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] David Rutter.
[11] Craig Lyons.
[12] Craig Lyons.
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Student Authors: Emma Cieslik and Robin Johnson
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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PHOTO & VIDEO:
Richard Hatcher 1967, Public domain, via Wikimedia commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Richard_Hatcher_1967_(a).jpg
1950s-present
Civil Rights Movement
Gary
Housing
Lake County
law
NAACP
Oral History
Politics
-
https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/5cb1c6337f8d4d1405c925c8cc2e0991.jpg
29775f0f2253a906528c3a038a6b4e93
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Reverend Julius James
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Julius James was born in 1918 [1]. After serving in the U.S Army, James graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1952, and the Morehouse School of Religion in 1954 [2]. James was a close friend with fellow Morehouse classmate Martin Luther King, Jr. [3] Reverend James served as pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church and Zion Hill Baptist Church in Georgia, [4] before accepting the call to become the Pastor of St. John Baptist Church in Gary, Indiana in October 1955 [5]. From 1959 to 1960, James served as president of the Baptist Minister’s Conference in Gary [6]. He was also involved in labor movements in Gary, walking among the picketers in the 1959 Steel Strike and supplying meals to protestors [7].
Reverend James brought the Civil Rights movement to St. John Baptist Church by hosting meetings and planning sessions for civil rights organizations in the late 1950’s and early 1960s. He invited prominent African American leaders to speak, including Jesse Jackson and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [8] His civil rights work in the community included serving as president of the Gary branch of the NAACP in the late 1950s [9]. James founded the “Gary Freedom Movement,” which coordinated economic boycotts of businesses that opposed civil rights legislation [10]. On posters, citizens were urged to “Sacrifice for Freedom in Gary. Don’t Buy Anything Anywhere for Easter. Wear Your Old Clothes for New Dignity. Boycott" [11]. In 1964, James organized a Christmas shopping boycott to protest businesses who opposed the Omnibus Civil Rights Bill [12].This organization later became the Gary Freedom Movement Council, and James served as chairman [13]. In the mid-1960s, he brought famous African Americans to the Gary for speaking engagements, including comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory, who encouraged 900 Gary residents to practice “selective shopping” at stores outside of Gary to protest continued racial injustice [14].
In recognition of his civil rights leadership, Reverend James was awarded the NAACP’s Mary White Ovington Award in 1964 for outstanding contributions to sustaining civil rights [15]. In March 1965, James bussed a group of congregants from St. John Baptist Church south to Atlanta to join the march from Selma to the state’s capital in Montgomery led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The protest march was in support of the supported the Voting Rights Act, prohibiting racial discrimination in voting. At home in Gary, James coordinated meetings between Dr. King and local Gary African American leaders. In 1966, Gary Mayor Richard Hatcher met Dr. King for the first time when Rev. James brought King to speak at St. John Baptist Church [16]. Dr. King spoke to 275 clergymen of various faiths at St. John Baptist Church, emphasizing interfaith solidarity [17].
Fair housing practices later became a focus of Reverend James’ activism. Under his leadership, St. John Baptist Church purchased a rundown housing complex at 22nd and Carolina Streets. Using government grants, the church remodeled the housing complex into the St. John Homes, which operated as one of the only viable non-profit housing developments in the U.S. until 1984 [18]. James founded the Fair Share Organization, focused on fair housing and employment practices, [19] with Cherrie White, secretary of the Gary NAACP, and Richard Gordon Hatcher, Gary’s first African America mayor [20].
Rev. James was inducted into the Steel City Hall of Fame in 1987, for making “broad, significant, and multiple contributions to the Gary community or to society at large" [21]. Rev. James died in 1994, after a lifetime dedicated to civil rights in Indiana and the nation [22].
Source
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[1] Correspondence from Julius James (Shiloh Baptist Church) to Martin Luther King, Jr, March 14, 1955. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. Accessed on February 5, 2021. https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/julius-james.
[2] Correspondence from Julius James, March 14, 1955.
[3] Becky Jacobs. “Man killed in Gary was great-grandson of pastor, civil rights activist.” Chicago Tribune, February 22, 2019. Accessed on February 5, 2021. https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/ct-ptb-julius-james-death-st-0213-story.html.
[4] Correspondence from Julius James, March 14, 1955.
[5] “Our Community.” St. John Baptist Church. Accessed on February 5, 2021. http://stjohnbcgary.com/community/
[6] Correspondence from Julius James, March 14, 1955.
[7] “Our Community.”
[8] “Our Community.”
[9] Correspondence from Julius James, March 14, 1955.
[10] James B. Lane. City of the Century: A History of Gary, Indiana. Indiana University Press, 1978, pp. 281.
[11] James H. Madison and Lee Ann Sandweiss. Chapter 11: Justice, Equality, and Democracy for All Hoosiers in Justice, Equality, and Democracy for All Hoosiers. http://indianahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/Hoosiers-and-the-American-Story-ch-11.pdf
[12] Becky Jacobs. “Man killed in Gary was great-grandson of pastor, civil rights activist.”
[13] “Gary woman heads Ind. Conference of NAACP.” Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 6 November 1965, pp. 12. Hoosier States Chronicles. Accessed February 5, 2021. https://newspapers.library.in.gov/cgi-bin/indiana?a=d&d=INR19651106-01.1.12&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------
[14] “Gregory Endorses Boycott.” Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 January 1965, pp. 6. Hoosier States Chronicles. Accessed February 5, 2021. https://newspapers.library.in.gov/cgi-bin/indiana?a=d&d=INR19650123-01.1.6&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------
[15] “Gary woman heads Ind. Conference of NAACP.”
[16] Joyce Russell. “Local residents recall the legacy of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the 50th anniversary of his death.” NWI.com. Accessed February 5, 2021. https://www.nwitimes.com/news/history/local-residents-recall-the-legacy-of-the-rev-martin-luther-king-jr-on-the-50th/article_9eb318e4-92e1-5fcd-b0a1-27058351c345.html
[17] Nancy Coltun Webster. “MILK’s life remembered as Northwest Indiana leaders continue to struggle.” Chicago Tribune, April 4, 2018. https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/ct-ptb-king-anniversary-indiana-st-0404-20180403-story.html
[18] “Our Community.”
[19] Correspondence from Julius James, March 14, 1955.
[20] Carmen M. Woodson-Wray and Gary Crusader. “After 103 years Cherrie White has truly had a productive life.” Crusader. Accessed on February 5, 2021. https://chicagocrusader.com/103-years-cherrie-white-truly-productive-life/ [21] “Steel City hall of Fame.” Gary Public Library. Accessed February 5, 2021. http://www.garypubliclibrary.org/steel-city-hall-of-fame/
[22] “Our Community.”
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Student Author: Emma Cieslik
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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PHOTO & VIDEO:
Sacrifice: Join Rev. Martin Luther King, Indiana Historical Society.
https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/V0002/id/1148/rec/2
1900-1940s
1950s-present
Civil Rights Movement
Gary
Housing
Lake County
NAACP
Religious Leaders
-
https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/bde97be0eff21f7dc1618d2c774fcf23.jpg
9a1a7038ffc1f135d54bd90b86f276b1
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Places
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Flossie Bailey Home
Description
An account of the resource
Katherine “Flossie” Bailey was born in Kokomo, Indiana in 1895 [1]. She graduated from Kokomo High School and married Dr. W. T. Bailey of Marion, [2] who was recognized as the city’s top African American physician [3]. She was also actively involved in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Marion, and was a member of women’s organizations and the Eastern Star [4].
Flossie Bailey’s legacy was as a civil rights leader and activist in Indiana, in an era when most civic leaders were white men. She founded the Marion branch of the Indiana National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1918 [5] and served as its first president [6] Under her leadership, the Marion NAACP had 100 members by 1930 [7]. She was elected as the Indiana NAACP president in 1930 and worked to organize the Indiana NAACP’s second annual meeting [8]. Her home at 1907 South Adams Street in Marion, Indiana served as the headquarters for the Indiana NAACP [9]. African American leaders in Indiana met at her home, and visiting African Americans stayed with her while traveling because the Spencer Hotel in Marion refused to welcome African American guests [10].
Bailey was instrumental in fighting for African American civil rights in Indiana. She notably called out discriminatory practices at Indiana University’s Robert W. Long Hospital, which did not allow black patients to receive care or black medical students to train at the facility. With her husband, she sued a theater in Marion for denying her admittance based on the color of her skin. Bailey also spoke avidly against school segregation [11].
As the president of the local NAACP, Bailey was integrally involved in seeking justice for the August 7, 1930 lynching of Tom Shipp and Abe Smith in Marion [12]. Shipp, Smith and their friend James Cameron were being held in jail in Marion accused of murder and sexual assault. Before they could stand trial, a local white mob removed the men from jail. They beat, mutilated and hanged Shipp and Smith outside the courthouse. As the crowd gathered outside the Marion courthouse, Bailey called Sheriff Jacob Campbell to warn him about the mob’s intention to lynch the young prisoners. After the Sheriff failed to respond, she reached out to Governor Harry G. Leslie to ask for troops to be sent to Marion, but was again ignored. After the lynching, Bailey worked to hold the mob accountable, imploring the Indiana NAACP to investigate the lynching. Bailey presented a formal resolution to Governor Leslie on behalf of NAACP leaders from Marion and Indianapolis asking for Sheriff Campbell’s immediate resignation [13].
In working to bring the mob to justice, Bailey and her husband received multiple death threats [14]. Bailey and her husband continued to collect the names of witnesses despite threats of violence. She also testified in court about her warnings to Sheriff Campbell. The National NAACP honored Bailey’s efforts to bring the lynchers to justice with the Madam C.J. Walker Medal [15]. Within months, she spearheaded anti-lynching legislation in Indiana. In 1931, when Democrats introduced an anti-lynching bill, Bailey orchestrated meetings and encouraged African Americans to reach out to their legislators [16]. Governor Leslie, despite spreading rumors about African American militancy in the aftermath of the lynching, signed the legislation into law, allowing the families of lynching victims to sue. After her success in Indiana, Bailey worked diligently to encourage national anti-lynching legislation. She penned editorials, wrote President Franklin Roosevelt, and shared educational materials [17]. Although futile in establishing a federal anti-lynching bill, her work raised national attention about the horrific realities of lynchings in both the North and South [18].
In 1952, Flossie Bailey died at the age of 55 [19]. Indiana University history professor James Madison wrote that Bailey “was a person of immense ability and dedication, a black women who showed a determination to persuade her town, state, and nation to recognize their professed ideas of equality and justice" [20].
Source
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[1] “Mrs. Flossie K. Bailey.” The Kokomo Tribune, Kokomo, Indiana, February 11, 1952, pp. 27. Newspapers.com. Accessed on February 4, 2021. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2239512/mrs-flossie-k-bailey-the-kokomo/; James M. Madison. “’What a Woman!:’ Bailey,” Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History, Winter 2000, Volume 12, Number 1, pp. 24. Indiana Historical Society. Accessed on February 4, 2021. https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/p16797coll39/id/5735.
[2] “Mrs. Flossie Bailey.”
[3] James M. Madison. “’What a Woman!:’ Bailey,” pp.24.
[4] Order of the Eastern Star, 2018. Accessed on February 4, 2021. https://www.easternstar.org.
[5] “Strange Fruit: The 1930 Marion Lynching and the Woman Who Tried to Prevent It.” Indiana History Blog: Indiana Historical Bureau of the Indiana State Library. Accessed on February 4, 2021. https://blog.history.in.gov/strange-fruit-the-1930-marion-lynching-and-the-woman-who-tried-to-prevent-it/
[6] “Mrs. Flossie Bailey.”
[7] “Mrs. Katherine Bailey.” America’s Black Holocaust Museum. Accessed on February 4, 2021. https://www.abhmuseum.org/freedoms-heros-during-jim-crow-flossie-bailey-and-the-deeters/.
[8] James M. Madison. “’What a Woman!:’ Bailey,” pp.25.
[9] Ibid.
[10] “Strange Fruit.”
[11] James M. Madison. “’What a Woman!:’ Bailey,” pp. 26.
[12] “Strange Fruit.”
[13] Ibid.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Roberta Heiman and Evansville Courier & Press. “Suffragists and activists are among 10 influential women in Indiana.” South Bend Tribune, 2020. Accessed on February 5, 2021.https://www.southbendtribune.com/news/indiana/suffragists-and-activists-are-among-10-influential-women-in-indiana/article_2dd6cce8-dd4a-11ea-a27a-832ed46a55c9.html
[16] “From Strange Fruit to Seeds of Change?: The Aftermath of the Marion Lynching.” Indiana History Blog: Indiana Historical Bureau of the Indiana State Library. Accessed on February 4, 2021. https://blog.history.in.gov/tag/flossie-bailey/
[17] “From Strange Fruit to Seeds of Change?”
[18] James M. Madison. “’What a Woman!:’ Bailey,” pp. 25.
[19] “Mrs. Flossie Bailey.”
[20] James M. Madison. “’What a Woman!:’ Bailey,” pp.23.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Student Author: Emma Cieslik
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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PHOTO & VIDEO:
Courtesy Marion Public Library https://www.chronicle-tribune.com/news/womens-history-flossie-bailey-created-lasting-change-in-indiana/article_bba4818b-7a2f-5a18-acea-91452c97bb3e.html/?sdfkljwelkj23lkjgd
1900-40s
1950s-present
African Methodist Episcopal (AME)
Grant County
Integration
Lynching
Marion
NAACP
Segregation
-
https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/877d44e0376f8d254bedb038e788b77f.jpg
840f7a125adf1ab78e56c882efd880f3
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Events
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Lockefield Place Riots
Description
An account of the resource
In June of 1969, the Lockefield Place neighborhood of Indianapolis erupted in violent protests in response to an alleged incident of police brutality. Lockefield Place, located northwest of downtown, was the most prominent African American neighborhood in Indianapolis. At the center of this residential area stood Lockefield Gardens, a large public housing complex built by the Public Works Administration during the Great Depression. Lockefield Gardens served Indianapolis’ African American community as a social hub, cultural center, and place of residency for many families. During the early-to-mid twentieth century, Indianapolis enforced discriminatory public policies that resulted in decades of inadequate housing, segregation of public facilities, and the lack of educational and employment opportunities for African Americans.[1] By the 1960s, the glaring issue that plagued Indianapolis’ African American residents and the Lockefield Place neighborhood was the growing friction between the African American population and the police.[2] Throughout the 1960s, this tension would mount until it exploded in a violent riot at the end of the decade.
Racial unrest tore throughout the United States during the 1960s, sparking both peaceful and violent demonstrations. Fearing violent clashes in Indianapolis, officers of the Indianapolis National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) called on Mayor John Barton and other city officials to train police officers in effective riot control, identify potential hot spots where unrest was most likely to break out, and create a program of action in the event of violence in 1966. The NAACP’s efforts to improve relations among African Americans and police officers and prevent riots proved ineffective, as city leaders failed to implement their demands. The Indianapolis Police Department had looked on black militarism with great suspicion since the beginning of the Civil Rights movement, and as the Black Panthers arrived in Indianapolis following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., police presence was increased in Lockefield Gardens.[3]
In June 1968, three members of the Indianapolis Black Panther chapter were arrested on charges of burglary and conspiracy to murder Indianapolis police chief Winston L. Churchill and head of the police vice squad Richard Jones.[4] The three men were arrested while stealing ammunition from the Marine Corp Training Reserve. According to prosecution, they were planning to use the weapons to incite a “racial outbreak.” The three were held under bonds of $20,000 a person- almost ten times the normal bond amount for this type of offense- for almost a year. In March 1969, two of the accused were convicted of burglary and conspiracy to murder and received two to 14-year sentences in prison.[5] The decision of the court was met with outrage in Indianapolis’ African American community. The Indianapolis Reporter, an African American newspaper, accused the police officer whose testimony was used to convict the two men of entrapment. Working undercover, the young African American officer had infiltrated the Black Panther group and helped members organize the burglary. [6] Mozell Sanders, a local Baptist reverend, urged the community to fight the conviction and raise funds to appeal the case.[7]
In the months following the sentencing, tensions ran high among police officers and the inhabitants of Lockefield Place. On Thursday, June 12, 1969, hostilities boiled over into a massive demonstration. The violence began after two white officers were ambushed by twenty young African American men while responding to an alleged fight in Lockefield Place. Although police denied the allegation, witnesses of the incident claimed that one police officer shot three volleys at a group of children playing while he was trying to halt a youth who had stolen a police revolver. As backup police officers arrived at Lockefield Place, a crowd of about 300 African American residents gathered and pelted them with bricks and bottles. The violent encounter erupted into a full-scale riot that lasted for two days and resulted in the arrests of over one hundred demonstrators, multiple riot-related injuries, and looting and damage to nearby businesses, including the total destruction of the Lockefield Big Ten Market.[8]
African American community leaders, including Reverend Sanders, called for peace from the mob. The Indianapolis Black Panthers and youth working for the neighborhood center “Our Place” were able to quell the riot by June 14. The solution proposed was that most police patrols be removed and only African American officers should be allowed in Lockefield Place. The Indianapolis NAACP also called on Indianapolis city leaders to create more educational and employment opportunities for the African American population. The riots in Indianapolis brought to light the issue of police brutality in African American neighborhoods and sparked disturbances in other Indianapolis cities, including in Kokomo and Marion.[9] Today, many buildings in Lockefield Place are listed on the National Register of Historic Places for their importance to the history of Indianapolis’ African American community.[10]
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
[1] Mary Giorgio, “The Many Lives of Indy’s Historic Lockefield Gardens,” Orangebean, March 20, 2020, https://orangebeanindiana.com/2020/03/20/the-many-lives-of-indys-historic-lockefield-gardens/.
[2] Emma L. Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000), 185.
[3] Ibid, 186.
[4] “Black police said he heard plans of assassination plot,” The Indianapolis Recorder, June 29, 1968, 1, 13.
[5] “Two get terms, third freed in armory burglary,” The Indianapolis Recorder, March 22, 1969, 1, 10.
[6] “Black police said he heard plans of assassination plot,” The Indianapolis Recorder. 1, 13.
[7] “Two get terms, third freed in armory burglary,” The Indianapolis Recorder, 1, 10.
[8] “Two nights of disorder rack Westside; calm restored Sat.,” Indianapolis Recorder, June 14, 1969, 1.
[9] Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century, 187.
[10] Giorgio, “The Many Lives of Indy’s Historic Lockefield Gardens.”
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Student Authors: Robin Johnson and Natalie Bradshaw
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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PHOTO & VIDEO:
Lockefield Big 10 Market Looted and Burned,
Indianapolis Recorder Collection, Indiana Historical Society.
https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/p0303/id/178/rec/1
1950s-present
Civil Rights Movement
Indianapolis
Marion County
NAACP
Police
Protest
Violence
-
https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/02aeacead59903046bc5ccd7e8764b26.jpg
30a9853f597251d349aaf4216c83f98b
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Curtis Strong
Description
An account of the resource
Born in 1915 to the “son of the slave owner who had owned his mother’s family”,[1] Curtis Strong was no stranger to racism or the effects that segregation had on African American lives. Born in Mississippi, Strong grew up in Dixon, Illinois, before moving to Gary, Indiana, with hopes of joining the Air Force as a pilot. [2] However, because of the same racism and segregation that he would fight his whole life, he was unable to become a pilot and instead began working in a Gary tin mill in 1937.[3] The same year that Strong became a member of Steelworkers Union Local 1014, he witnessed the Memorial Day Massacre; a Chicago incident where police rioted and fired on unarmed, protesting steelworkers, killing 10. [4]
Strong was appointed as the first African American union griever at the Gary Works coke plant, handling union members’ grievances and complaints against their employer. He quickly began working with other African American factory workers to form “independent organization” within the union.[5] Strong also knew that, given the time and power dynamics within the union, if African American workers wanted to see change they would need to align their own goals with those of their white coworkers. Consequently, Strong spent a great deal of time “building Black-White unity”, and worked together with others in the factory so that changes would benefit all workers.[6] Strong pushed for changes in discriminatory practices, including desegregating jobs and locker rooms, and worked with various union members to encourage other changes, like internal hiring preferences, that benefitted all workers regardless of race. [7] His approaches were not without opposition, however, and he narrowly escaped death after two “union goons” once threw him from the third story window of a hotel. Curtis was eventually appointed to the International Union, where he worked to improve work conditions for not only African American steelworkers, but factory workers everywhere. [8]
Curtis and his wife, Jeannette, were both very involved with the NAACP throughout their lives. Jeannette was a steelworker activist like Curtis, but she also worked with her husband and the Gary NAACP to combat segregated medical treatment, housing, and nearly an entirely white Gary police force.[9] With the support of other NAACP members and resources, the Strongs helped desegregate hospitals where, as Curtis recounts, “one woman delivered a baby in the hallway because she was black.”[10] Curtis Strong not only picketed outside predominantly white hospitals, but simultaneously helped plan for 500 Gary citizens to participate in the 1963 March on Washington, partook in the march, and then returned to picketing as soon as he returned to Gary. [11],[12]
Strong worked throughout his life to pave a path to a better future for the African American community. He played a key role in the 1968 campaign that saw Richard Hatcher become the first African American mayor of Gary, where he served for 20 years.[13] Strong died on September 16, 2003 as one of the most influential labor and civil rights leaders in America’s history, and his legacy and voice live on in the policies of labor and union workplaces, as well as in the hearts of all those impacted by the Gary NAACP. [14]
Source
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[1] “Black Freedom Fighters in Steel: Black Workers Commemorated on Broadway,” The Chicago Crusader, October 8, 2018. https://chicagocrusader.com/black-freedom-fighters-in-steel-black-workers-commemorated-on-broadway/
[2] “Remembering Curtis Strong, 1915-2003,” People’s World, October 3, 2003. https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/remembering-curtis-strong-1915-2003/
[3] “Black Freedom Fighters in Steel: Black Workers Commemorated on Broadway”
[4] “Remembering Curtis Strong, 1915-2003”
[5] “Black Freedom Fighters in Steel: Black Workers Commemorated on Broadway”
[6] “Remembering Curtis Strong, 1915-2003”
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] “Physicians Recall Integrating Hospitals,” The Post-Tribune, May 2, 1996.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Ruth Needleman. “Black Freedom Fighters in Steel: The Struggle for Democratic Unionism,” 2003.
[12] “Physicians Recall Integrating Hospitals”
[13] “Remembering Curtis Strong, 1915-2003”
[14] Ibid.
Contributor
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Student Author: Joel Sharp
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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PHOTO & VIDEO:
Gary Steel Works, United States Steel Corporation, 1959, attributed to Steven R. Shook, Public domain, via Flickr.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/shookphotos/4219006672/in/photostream/
1900-1940s
1950s-present
Civil Rights Movement
Gary
Integration
Lake County
NAACP
Organization
Politics
Steelworker Union
Union
Violence
-
https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/788e98b7ba620c49a925844dce0e643a.png
3af30f527214c7098334c09c95e2cf7d
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Jeannette Strong
Description
An account of the resource
Jeannette Strong played instrumental roles in the desegregation of both housing and hospital care in Gary, Indiana, throughout the 1960’s, and served as a major leader within the Gary chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Following a Gary City Council vote in July of 1962 that rejected moving towards desegregated housing, Strong and the NAACP helped organize a peaceful march to City Hall in protest of the “ghettoized housing conditions” that were being imposed on the African American community. [1] The protests were successful, and early in 1964 a “26-member Advisory Committee on Human Relations” was established to help protect the rights and relations of Gary’s African American community. [2]
In 1963, following the majority of her work to desegregate housing, Strong turned much of her attention to the disproportional hospital care that African Americans received when compared to the white population. Dr. Benjamin Grant, the first African American doctor to work for primarily white Gary Methodist Hospital, recounts times where African American patients would be forced to “die in the hall” while beds in dual occupancy rooms lay empty, for the sole reason that a white patient was already occupying one of the beds in the room. [3] Strong began working closely with the NAACP and other organizations, diligently attempting to form a picketed protest that could not be overlooked. In a letter directed to Gary clergy members, she urged them to take action and to support this cause by announcing information about the movement to their congregations. [4] Strong assured the clergy that their demonstrations would be held to the “highest level of Christian conduct”, and asked that they dedicate a portion of their offerings that month to her cause. [5] Her call was answered, and the clergy endorsed the cause by condemning segregation, which allowed Strong to turn her attention to Indiana Governor Matthew Welsh. She wrote to the Governor, insisting that the hospital’s refusal to release clear statements about how they planned to correct their unequal and heavily segregated healthcare was of the utmost importance for the growing population of African Americans in Gary. [6]
Following negotiations with the Methodist Hospital, it was understood that new protocol would be implemented over time at the hospital, eventually moving to a “first-come first-serve” basis with patients. [7] The hospital, despite agreeing to these terms, did not begin implementing new policies right away, which prompted Strong to once again reach out and request a meeting with the hospital committee. She was met with nearly a month of waiting while the hospital pushed aside her requests, insisting that they could not discuss it until their next committee meeting. [8] Finally, after much deliberation and years of unequal hospital treatment, Methodist Hospital implemented their new “first-come first-serve” policy. The committee was even convinced, thanks to a determined and resolute Strong, that “there should be more African American representation on the board. [9]
Strong was also a driving factor in key police reform that emerged following an incident in 1973 where a state trooper wrote “NIG” in the box meant for race while processing an African American’s paperwork. [10] This blatant act of racism sparked immediate outrage from the community and Strong. She not only sought fervently for the immediate termination of the involved officer’s job, but also for serious and permanent police reform. The NAACP demanded that reform include updated screening processes, hiring practices, and the elimination of discriminatory practices. [11] Strong also pointed out that of the total 1,400 Gary police department employees, a mere 14 were African American; “and four of those were janitors." [12]
On October 9, 1981 Jeannette Strong passed away at 61 years of age after serving in the NAACP for over 20 years, and as an active Democratic politician who acted as 1st District vice chairman. [13]
Source
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[1] James B. Lane, “City of the Century: A History of Gary, Indiana,” 1978, 279.
[2] Ibid.
[3] “Physicians Recall Integrating Hospitals”, The Post-Tribune, May 2, 1996.
[4] Jeannette Strong, “Letter to the Clergymen of Gary,” July 19, 1963.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Jeannette Strong, “Letter to Indiana Governor Matthew Welsh,” July 25, 1963.
[7] “Report of Meeting Between Members of Methodist Hospital Follow-Up Committee and Bishop Richard C. Raines,” February 19, 1964.
[8] “Civil Rights Co-Ordinating Committee,” The Methodist Hospital of Gary, INC, October 5, 1963.
[9] “Report of Meeting Between Members of Methodist Hospital Follow-Up Committee and Bishop Richard C. Raines”
[10] “State Police Charged with ‘Blatant Discrimination’, The Post-Tribune, January 26, 1974.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Ibid.
[13] “Jeannette Strong, Former NAACP Chief, Dies at 61,” The Post-Tribune, October 9, 1981.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Student Author: Joel Sharp
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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PHOTO & VIDEO:
Courtesy Chicago Tribune https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/ct-ptb-virtual-civil-rights-st-0405-story.html
1950s-present
Civil Rights Movement
Gary
Healthcare
Integration
Lake County
NAACP
-
https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/f574ba0c30954573d9fc40871454ff2d.mp3
ba5b8112e7b22cdb0b50959e297a9b8f
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Interview 1 with Patricia Brown (Indianapolis NAACP Branch 3053)
Subject
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<a href="https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/items/show/89">Indianapolis NAACP Branch 3053</a>
Description
An account of the resource
Patricia Brown, a life-long resident of Anderson, describes her mother's involvement in different Civil Rights organizations in the late twentieth century, including NAACP, Urban League, and LEOC along with her work in the PTA. She describes her mother's efforts to connect and impact others.
<strong>***Transcript***</strong><em><br /><br />Patricia Brown</em>: "The organizations that she was representing from those three different positions, never a paid position, always as a volunteer. She was a PTA individual, present in other PTAs for years. She took it to a state level and to a national level. She was the library association. She was NAACP. She was Urban League. She was LEOC. She was—oh, can I name them. I’m thinking how they sent the different wreaths at our funeral because I didn’t even know she was involved in a lot of these organizations, but that’s the type of person she was. She was touching wherever she could touch,in order to help people."
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af19c2ad3523702a87822313f409d07f
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224ba23a0d13b2be51fc0c90e6c73eb7
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Places
Dublin Core
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Indianapolis NAACP Branch 3053
Description
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In 1912, Mary Cable, then president of the Colored Women’s Civic Club, organized the Indianapolis branch of the National Association for the Advancement for Colored People (NAACP) to help the African American community of Indianapolis organize themselves in their struggle, on various fronts, against discrimination and racism.[1] Cable served as the founding president of the Indianapolis NAACP, the first NAACP branch in Indiana. After an all-woman board served the Indianapolis NAACP branch for 13 months, they then asked the men to take over as officers because “the men had more time.[2]”
In the 1920’s, the Indianapolis NAACP turned their focus to combating the Ku Klux Klan’s (KKK) rising political power. This was no easy task given the KKK’s vast influence on politics, city and state education, employment practices, and housing regulations throughout Indiana.[3] Without the organization of the NAACP or the collection of resources that it offered the African American community, the effects of the KKK’s overt segregationist and racist policies throughout the 1920’s would likely have been far worse. The NAACP worked tirelessly against the KKK’s agenda, and supported the Independent Voter’s League (IVL), an “Anti-Klan Organization” founded in 1924, to encourage African Americans to register to vote in favor of the Democratic Party. The efforts of the NAACP and IVL dramatically altered the future Indiana political landscape in favor of desegregation and improving racial equality.[4] , [5]
Early NAACP efforts failed to prevent the construction of a segregated African American high school for Indianapolis. However, the resulting Crispus Attucks High School quickly became a collective sense of pride for the African American community. With highly qualified teachers, partial funding for extracurricular activities, and an NAACP branch fighting fervently for the equality and desegregation of all school districts, Crispus Attucks High School became a centerpiece of the NAACP’s agenda in Indianapolis.[6] Robert Lee Brokenburr, the first African American Indiana state legislator and a former president of the Indianapolis NAACP, was successful in passing legislation that allowed African American student athletes to participate in state high school sports tournaments. Efforts like these paved the way for the iconic 1955 Crispus Attucks Tigers basketball team, starring Oscar Robertson, to become the first African American high school in the nation to win a state championship.[7]
In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, the Indianapolis NAACP began fighting to end de facto segregation in all public schools.[8] The NAACP also demanded police reform in 1966, when members met with the Indianapolis mayor in an attempt to reform racist and discriminatory hiring practices. Thanks to serious reforms that helped prevent systemic racism in the Marion County police department, Captain Spurgeon Davenport was able to become the first African American Inspector in Indianapolis Police Department history. [9]
The Indianapolis NAACP Branch #3053 is now located at 300 E. Fall Creek Parkway, and remains active in the Indianapolis community. One member claims, “no one should be fooled into believing that the NAACP no longer has a purpose.[10]” In 2009, the organization represented hundreds in a major lawsuit against discriminatory practices at Eli Lilly and Company, and, in 2020, they have been working with Indiana Governor Holcomb to protect low-income families from eviction in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic that has caused statewide unemployment.[11],[12] The Indianapolis Branch of the NAACP continues to act as a catalyst for improving the lives of the African American community, and helps protect their rights in the workplace, in equal housing opportunities, and educational settings.
<a href="https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/show/226">Interview 1 with Patricia Brown</a>
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[1] “Our Branch History,” Indy NAACP, accessed July 2, 2020. https://www.indynaacp.org/branch-history
[2] Ibid.
[3] William W. Griffin. “The Political Realignment of Black Voters in Indianapolis, 1924,” June 1983, Vol. 79(2) Pp. 134(5). Accessed via Indiana University Press (JSTOR).
[4] Ibid.
[5] “Our Branch History.”
[6] Indy WIN Committee of the Greater Indianapolis NAACP Branch #3053. “Greater Indianapolis Branch #3053’s History, 1912-2009.”
[7] Ibid.
[8] “Our Branch History.”
[9] Ibid.
[10] Perry A. Brandon. “Don’t Count NAACP Out: 100-Year-Old Organization Still Viable and Much Needed,” Indianapolis Recorder, July 9, 2020. http://www.indianapolisrecorder.com/news/features/article_fd7e85a7-4ec4-5d4b-b1ef-f268fa8d49aa.html
[11] Ibid.
[12] “Indianapolis NAACP Branch #3053,” Facebook, accessed July 2, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/indynaacp.org/
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Student Author: Joel Sharp
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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PHOTO & VIDEO:
NAACP leaders with poster, attributed to Al Ravenna, Public domain, via Wikimedia commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NAACP_leaders_with_poster_NYWTS.jpg
NAACP Freedom Rally March, Indianapolis Recorder Collection, Indiana Historical Society.
https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/p0303/id/387/rec/57
1900-40s
1950s-present
Indianapolis
Integration
Ku Klux Klan
Marion County
NAACP
Oral History
Organization
Segregation
Women
-
https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/759f5ba7d8084f0335d6d699b1b39b21.jpg
c363d1b9c57149587b9e00a95b07db24
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People
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J. Chester Allen J.D. and Elizabeth Fletcher Allen J.D.
Description
An account of the resource
J. Chester Allen and Elizabeth Fletcher Allen were African American attorneys in South Bend, Indiana who fought for civil rights in both their personal and professional lives. J. Chester Allen was born in 1900 in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. After graduating with a law degree from Boston College, he moved to South Bend in 1929.[1] Elizabeth Fletcher was born in Chicago in 1905, and married J. Chester Allen in 1928.[2] The couple were noteworthy trailblazers in both civil rights and opportunities for women. The two created the Allen & Allen Law firm, and they were one of the first husband and wife law partners in the area. Elizabeth Fletcher Allen was the first female attorney in St. Joseph County and the state of Indiana.[3] J. Chester Allen paved the way for African American representation in South Bend as the first African American to serve on the City Council and the school board. He was elected as president of the St. Joseph County Bar Association and to the Indiana state legislature, the first African American in both of those positions.[4] Elizabeth Fletcher Allen was a member of the many civic and African American community organizations, including the South Bend chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Black Business and Professional Women’s Association.[5] While the two had many significant contributions to the community, they are perhaps best known for their civil rights work in South Bend, specifically fighting to desegregate the Engman Natatorium.
It was common for public parks and playgrounds, and other recreational facilities to be segregated in the mid-twentieth century, and the Allen’s helped fight for desegregation in South Bend. The South Bend Engman Public Natatorium was built in 1922, and for the first 14 years, only the white public could enjoy the pool. In 1931, African American leaders, including the Allen’s, began to take action to gain access to the pool. In 1936, when the South Bend Common Council levied a special tax on the residents of South Bend for pool repairs, African American community leaders demanded access to the pool if they were going to be taxed. A petition presented to the state tax commission pointed out that tax money would be used to repair a facility that was not allowed to be used by some of the community that was paying the tax. The state tax commissioner agreed with them, and after 16 years, the facility was finally open to African Americans. However, African Americans were only allowed to use the pool on Mondays with no whites present.[6] After working for over two decades to end the city pool’s segregationist policies, in February 1950, J. Chester Allen, Elizabeth Fletcher Allen, and Maurice Tulchinsky represented the NAACP before the South Bend Park Board “threatening action, unless the Board ruled to integrate the Engman Natatorium immediately.”[7] This threat would finally be a turning point, and the Parks board would relent and desegregate the Natatorium.
The Engman Natatorium closed its door is 1970, and the building sat empty for years.[8] What was once known as the Engman Public Natatorium, a public recreation facility once caught in a fight for desegregation, is now the Civil Rights Heritage Center in South Bend.[9] In 2018, the Engman Natatorium was designated as a local historic landmark. The landmark status protects the building and ensures that the building remains as close to its original form for generations to come. The Civil Rights Heritage Center is an active learning center in the community and attracts more than 5,000 visitors each year.[10]
Source
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[1] “J. Chester Allen and Elizabeth Fletcher Allen Papers.” Indiana University South Bend Libraries. Accessed August 26, 2020. https://library.iusb.edu/search-find/archives/crhc/ChesterElizabethAllen.html
[2] “Eliz Fletcher Allen obituary 28 Dec. 1994, p. 15.” Accessed August 26, 2020 https://www.newspapers.com/clip/28608792/eliz-fletcher-allen-obituary-28-dec/
[3] “Local African American History: African Americans in the Workplace.” The History Museum. Accessed August 26, 2020. https://historymuseumsb.org/local-african-american-history/
[4] “J. Chester Allen.” The South Bend Tribune. Accessed August 26, 2020.
https://www.southbendtribune.com/news/local/keynews/community/j-chester-allen-sr/article_4855292c-9240-11e3-b4e5-001a4bcf6878.html
[5] “Eliz Fletcher Allen obituary.
[6] Harris, Dina. Divided Water: “Healing a Community’s Past,” 2013. https://clas.iusb.edu/centers/civil-rights/
[7] “Ruth Tulchinsky, Short Statement on Visiting the South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center,2010,” St. Joseph County Public Library Michiana Memory, March 22, 2016 Accessed August 26, 2020. http://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p16827coll4/id/2452/rec/6.
[8] Harris, Dina. Divided Water: “Healing a Community’s Past,” 2013. https://clas.iusb.edu/centers/civil-rights/
[9] “J. Chester Allen.”
[10] Baierl, Ken. “Engman Natatorium Designated Historic Landmark.” Indiana University of South Bend, October 16, 2018.
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:
J. Chester and Elizabeth Allen, South Bend Tribune https://www.southbendtribune.com/story/news/local/2021/09/18/south-bend-historical-marker-honors-black-husband-wife-lawyers/8400790002/
1900-1940s
1950s-present
Integration
law
NAACP
Segregation
South Bend
St. Joseph County
-
https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/4d26327d8b0f5a093cb2cca48b2ae82a.jpg
4483dbcbdbf3841d4091ad2bac46ae92
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Title
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Places
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Riverside Amusement Park
Description
An account of the resource
Riverside Amusement Park opened in May 1903, [1] on 30th Street, between the White River and the Central Canal in Indianapolis. [2] The park originally opened with only two attractions, but soon expanded with a new manager to “build a bigger, better, more thrilling park in Indianapolis” re-opening in 1906. Entrance was free, with rides and attractions costing a nickel or dime. In 1910, Riverside added a “bathing beach” as one of its attractions, which became the focus of the park. [3] Riverside Amusement Park remained open until 1971.
Until the mid-1960’s, Riverside Amusement Park was segregated, officially admitting African Americans to the park only one day a year. [4] This day was racistly named “Colored Frolic Day” and normally held at the end of the season. [5] These days were also known as Milk Day Picnics, “colored Milk Day” [6] or “milk cap day”, as they were sponsored by the Milk Council and The Milk Foundation of Indianapolis. Admission included a milk cap per guest. [7] Thursday August 31, 1939, was the 4th Annual Milk Day for “Colored People Only” as advertised in the Indianapolis Recorder. [8]
On the rare occasions that African Americans were admitted on a non-designated “Colored” day, they experienced discrimination throughout the park. Writing a column in The Indianapolis Recorder on the occasion of Riverside’s closing in 1971, Andrew Ramsey recounts his experience going to the park as boy with his friend in the early 1920’s. As African Americans, the two boys were not allowed to ride the amusements with white children, and would be the only passengers on the roller coaster or Ferris wheel during their visit while white children watched them rid. As Ramsey recalled, signs throughout the park and large signage outside the park reading “White patronage only solicited” were a mainstay of the park for decades. [9]
Throughout the years, groups including the NAACP, The Indianapolis Recorder, and other organizations protested the discrimination African Americans experienced at Riverside Amusement Park. In 1954, The Indianapolis Recorder reported that three members of Kappa Alpha Psi, an African American national fraternity, visited the park without any problems. The Recorder cautioned the premature celebration of the end of discrimination as the “White patronage only solicited” signs were still displayed prominently throughout the park. They were proclaimed to be “an affront to every decent resident of Indianapolis, white or Negro, and a stench in the nostrils of the city” and “they must come down”. [10]
In 1962, a meeting was held at the Riverside Park Methodist Church, sponsored by the NAACP. Those in attendance were informed by the director of the Indiana Civil Rights Commission, Harold O. Hatcher, that the “white patronage only” signs in the amusement park had been removed. [11] According to The Indianapolis Recorder, “This development appears to have followed others in keeping with the campaign against discrimination in the use of the amusement facilities in the park." [12]
The last vestiges of formal discrimination at Riverside Amusement Park were soon undone. In 1963, the NAACP Youth Council picketed the park, using posters to highlight discriminatory practices and human rights violations. In 1964, the park changed its admission policy, and African Americans and other minorities were finally admitted to the park without restriction. The victory was short-lived as the amusement park closed in 1971. [13]
Source
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[1] Zeigler, Connie J. “Worlds of Wonder: Amusements Parks in Indianapolis.” Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History. Summer, 2008, Volume 20, Number 3. Indiana Historical Society. Accessed September 28, 2020. https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/p16797coll39/id/6509/rec/19
[2] “Riverside Amusement Park: From heyday to demo day.” The Indianapolis Star. June 25, 2017. Accessed September 28, 2020. https://www.indystar.com/videos/news/history/retroindy/2017/06/25/riverside-amusement-park-heyday-demo-day/102920630/
[3] Zeigler, Connie J.
[4] Mullins, Paul. “Romanticizing Racist Landscapes: Segregation and White Memory in Riverside Amusement Park,” June 22, 2020. Accessed October 1, 2020. https://paulmullins.wordpress.com/2020/05/06/romanticizing-racist-landscapes-segregation-and-white-memory-in-riverside-amusement-park/ .
[5] Mullins, Paul R. “Archaeology and Urban Renewal of Indianapolis’s West Side.” Black History News & Notes. February 200, Volume 28, Number 1. Indiana Historical Society. Accessed September 28, 2020. https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/p16797coll66/id/34/rec/10
[6] Mullins, Paul. “Romanticizing Racist Landscapes: Segregation and White Memory in Riverside Amusement Park,”
[7] Mullins, Paul R. “Archaeology and Urban Renewal of Indianapolis’s West Side.”
[8] Advertisement in The Indianapolis Recorder. August 23, 1939. Accessed October 13, 2020. https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=INR19390826-01.1.5&srpos=2&e=------193-en-20-INR-1--txt-txIN-%22milk+day%22----1939--
[9] “Tears for Riverside bastion of local racism”. The Indianapolis Recorder. August 7, 1971. Accessed October 13, 2020. https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=INR19710807-01.1.9&srpos=3&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-%22Riverside+Amusement%22------
[10] “Riverside Hate Signs Must Come Down.” The Indianapolis Recorder. Marion County, Indiana. August 21, 1954. Accessed September 28, 2020. https://newspapers.library.in.gov/cgi-bin/indiana?a=d&d=INR19540821-01.1.10&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------
[11] “Public Facilities, To Be, Or Not --?” The Indianapolis Recorder. Marion County, Indiana.August 18, 1962. Accessed September 28, 2020. https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=INR19620818-01.1.10&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------
[12] “Public Facilities, To Be, Or Not --?” August 18, 1962. Accessed September 28, 2020. https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=INR19620818-01.1.10&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------
[13] Benedict Brown, Tiffany. “Backtrack: Riverside Amusement Park.” Indianapolis Monthly. July
26, 2016. Accessed October 1, 2020. https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/arts-and-culture/riverside-amusement-park
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:
Picketing Riverside Amusement Park, Indianapolis Recorder Collection, Indiana Historical Society.
https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/p0303/id/445/rec/1
1900-40s
1950s-present
Festivals
Indianapolis
Integration
Marion County
NAACP
Segregation
-
https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/c6fc0dd797dd211617eb6dab1395c304.jpg
054723b57755ceaea5b43e9c0579f1bb
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Places
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Gary Methodist Church
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Constructed in 1925, Gary Methodist Church once towered as the largest Methodist Church in the Midwest.[1] Originally named City Church, the impressive structure is located on 6th Avenue and Washington Street.[2] Development of the church was headed by Dr. William Grant Seaman, who had served as the pastor of Gary Methodist Church since 1916. Pastor Seaman intended the new building to serve as a place of religious revival for Gary’s citizens. Disliking the prominence of brothels and bars in the area, he hoped that the church would be the first step in shifting the community’s focus back to Christian culture and religion and building a larger congregation. U.S. Steel, the primary provider of jobs in Gary at the time, donated the plot of land and half the money needed for construction, approximately $400,000 of the $800,000 total cost. A well-known and reputable company, Lowe and Bollenbacher constructed the building in 21 months.[3] Once completed, the Gothic nine-story church contained stained glass windows, a magnificent vaulted sanctuary, oak-carved chancel and altar, and four-manual Skinner organ donated by Elbert Gary.[4] Seaman Hall, the second building on the property, included a fellowship hall, staff offices, a kitchen and dining area, a gymnasium, Sunday school rooms, a theater-sized screen, and a stage for concerts and community productions.[5]</p>
<p>The first service was held in the newly constructed Gary Methodist Church on October 3, 1926. After only a year, the congregation at Gary Methodist Church had grown to include over 1,700 individuals. The congregation reached its peak in the 1950s with over 3,000 members.[6] Despite Gary Methodist Church’s location in the heart of Gary’s industrial community, the congregation remained largely middle-class and white for its entire existence. Pastor Seaman sought integration and claimed that the church had the responsibility to minister to the immigrant populations and African American residents of Gary. He encouraged diverse civil and religious gatherings and hosted a race relations service in 1927, where members of nearby African American churches visited Gary Methodist Church to share services. Pastor Seaman’s beliefs about race were paternalistic however, and he believed that only white citizens should serve as leaders in the church. Although Pastor Seaman held racist beliefs himself, his admonishment of the Ku Klux Klan and aims to promote diversity provoked disdain in many white church members. As a result, Pastor Seaman was forced from Gary Methodist Church and transferred to an Ohio ministry in 1929.[7]</p>
<p>After Pastor Seaman’s expulsion, Gary Methodist Church ministered less to the city’s African American and immigrant populations. While few African Americans had actually attended church at Gary Methodist Church when Seaman was pastor, Seaman Hall had been utilized as a place for social gatherings and events. As the challenging years of the Great Depression and World War II threw Gary’s citizens into turmoil, churches became instrumental support services. Gary Methodist Church provided public relief and entertainment, such as theater shows and musical performances on Seaman Hall’s beautiful stage, but the events were likely restricted to white workers of Gary.[8]</p>
<p>While Gary Methodist Church made a few half-hearted attempts to promote membership among immigrant and African American families through events like Race Relations Sundays, the church did not come close to fulfilling Pastor Seaman’s mission of diversity until Reverend S. Walton Cole took over leadership. Under Reverend Cole’s pastorship, church members were encouraged to confront their own prejudices and welcome new members from diverse backgrounds. Reverend Cole was awarded the first Roy Wilkins award by the NAACP for his work promoting civil rights.[9]</p>
<p>The push to expand and revitalize Gary Methodist Church did not last long, however. For decades, the church had been dwindling in attendance. Following World War II, there were large number of layoffs in the steel working industry.[10] By 1973, most white families had moved to suburbs outside of Gary, and only around 320 members remained a part of the congregation. As the neighborhoods around Gary Methodist Church started being occupied by African American families, the church was unable to draw new members. Segregated since its construction in 1926, the church could not escape its history of discrimination. In addition to its shrinking congregation, the church became unable to foot the great cost of maintaining the massive building. After only 50 years of use, the Gary Methodist Church finally closed its doors in 1975.[11]</p>
<p>Gary Methodist Church, once the most magnificent church building in the Midwest, now stands in ruins. Seaman Hall was used as a satellite campus of Indiana University for a time, but the sanctuary was completely abandoned. Unattended, weathering the elements, the church quickly fell into disrepair. The damage was made worse when a fire destroyed parts of the building in 1997. In 2008, a large section of the roof caved, leaving only the shell of the structure.[12] Only as recently as 2019 was the church site granted a historical marker, signifying the great mark it left on the city of Gary.[13] Currently, the city is planning to transform the area around the church into a park and keep Gary Methodist Church as a historical centerpiece.[14]</p>
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
[1] “Gary's Abandoned City Methodist Church,” Architectural Afterlife, last modified October 24, 2018, https://architecturalafterlife.com/2018/10/24/garys-abandoned-city-methodist-church/ <br />[2] <span>“City United Methodist Church of Gary, Indiana,” Sometimes Interesting, last modified June 16, 2013, https://sometimes-interesting.com/2013/06/16/city-united-methodist-church-of-gary-indiana/<br />[3] “Gary’s Abandoned City Methodist Church.”<br />[4] “City United Methodist Church of Gary, Indiana.” “City Methodist Church,” Atlas Obscura, accessed June 10, 2020, https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/city-methodist-church.<br />[5] “City United Methodist Church of Gary, Indiana.”<br />[6] “Gary’s Abandoned City Methodist Church.”<br />[7] Nicole Poletika, “City Church: Spirituality and Segregation in Gary,” Indiana History Blog, May 13, 2019, https://blog.history.in.gov/city-church-spirituality-and-segregation-in-gary/<br />[8] Ibid.<br />[9] Ibid.<br />[10] “Welcome to City Methodist Church: About the Church,” City Methodist Church, accessed June 10, 2020, http://www.citymethodistchurch.com/CityMethodistChurch-about.htm<br />[11] Poletika, “City Church: Spirituality and Segregation in Gary.”<br />[12] “Gary’s Abandoned City Methodist Church.”<br />[13] Pete S. Joseph, “Gary's City Methodist Church gets historical marker.” The Times of Northwest Indiana, September 18, 2019, https://www.nwitimes.com/business/local/garys-city-methodist-church-gets-historical-marker/article_c606c730-f210-584a-a098-6315a504cca8.html<br />[14] “Gary’s Abandoned City Methodist Church.”</span>
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Student Authors: Mary Swartz and Natalie Bradshaw
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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PHOTO & VIDEO:
Gary City Methodist Church, attributed to Takingactioningary, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gary_City_Methodist_Church.JPG
1900-40s
1950s-present
Church
Gary
Integration
Lake County
NAACP
religion
-
https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/f4a0da160fc1d5b8e4aab68bc3378741.jpg
c4d9c2863de561c34db4149cd050b8be
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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Places
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Ransom Place Neighborhood, Indianapolis
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Ransom Place Neighborhood is a historic district located northwest of Monument Circle in the center of downtown Indianapolis. Bounded by 10th, St. Clair, West, and Camp Streets, this area includes subdivisions platted 1865 and 1871, and features historic homes built in the eclectic Queen Anne architectural style that was popular at the end of the nineteenth century. Ransom Place Neighborhood is considered the most intact neighborhood associated with the African American population of Indianapolis.[1] Named after prominent resident Freeman Briley Ransom, the district was listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1992.[2]</p>
<p>As early as the 1830s, the area that is now Ransom Place Neighborhood was identified as an African American settlement.[3] The land was originally developed by free African Americans and former slaves who moved north to find prosperity during the nineteenth century. This western section of Indianapolis, close to Fall Creek and the White River, was notoriously marshy and prone to flooding. The undesirable land was the only land that early African American settlers were permitted to purchase. Over the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth century, a thriving African American community formed in Ransom Place Neighborhood, and the area was converted into a residential area and profitable business district for African American families. Ransom Place Neighborhood was also the site of the first public housing project in Indianapolis, Lockefield Gardens.[4]</p>
<p>Many prominent professionals lived in Ransom Place Neighborhood, including African American community leaders, doctors, and attorneys. Churches, schools, and businesses provided for the needs of the residents.[5] Freeman Briley Ransom (1882-1947), the namesake of the neighborhood, lived with his family at 828 N. California St.[6] F. B. Ransom was a successful lawyer, business man, and civic leader who moved to Indianapolis in 1910. Most notably, Ransom served as the corporate attorney and manager of the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company, a pioneering African American cosmetics company. In addition to his legal work for Madam C. J. Walker, Ransom was an accomplished community leader who served as legal counsel for the Senate Avenue YMCA, Phyllis Wheatley YWCA, Indianapolis branch of the NAACP, and the Frederick Douglass Life Insurance Company, helped found the National Negro Business League and the Marion County Bar Association, and served on the Indianapolis City Council from 1939-1942.[7] F. B. Ransom’s son, Willard Ransom, was also a noted attorney and resident of Ransom Place Neighborhood.[8]</p>
<p>Ransom Place Neighborhood was expanded in 1945 when the Indianapolis Redevelopment Commission selected the area as its first redevelopment project. Helping repair houses in older parts of the neighborhood and constructing new homes in surrounding areas, the assistance of the Indianapolis Redevelopment Commission revitalized Ransom Place Neighborhood.[9] During the early 1960s, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) began buying property in order to develop a downtown Indianapolis campus. Between 1960 and 1980, IUPUI had obtained nearly 1,000 properties and had effectively surrounded Ransom Place Neighborhood.[10] The university’s pressures to redevelop the area for their own purposes, combined with the flight of many prominent African Americans to more prosperous Indianapolis neighborhoods in the early 1970s, led to a period of denigration for the historic neighborhood. In 1976, Lockefield Gardens, a major source of pride for Ransom Place’s community, was closed and converted into private apartments for IUPUI students.[11] Construction of the United Life Building in the 1980s removed a portion of Indiana Avenue, effectively blocking access from Ransom Place to downtown Indianapolis furthering marginalizing the African American community.[12]</p>
<p>Following a period of decline in the 1970s and early 1980s, Ransom Place Neighborhood was revitalized in the late 1980s when Jean Spears, an African American community leader who worked with the Indiana Avenue Association helped to renovate African American homes and businesses in Indianapolis, moved into 849 Camp Street in Ransom Place Neighborhood.[13] Spears started a campaign to promote the African American history of the neighborhood and, with a team of other community leaders, officially named the district Ransom Place Neighborhood in memory of the successful attorney Freedman Briley Ransom.[14] Following the naming, the Ransom Place Historic District was accredited by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, and the Ransom Place Neighborhood was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.</p>
<p>While Ransom Place Neighborhood is protected as a historic landmark, many locals fear that the neighborhood- a symbol of African American persistence and ingenuity- could be erased by gentrification. With much of the land surrounding Ransom Place being developed for private businesses and apartments, it is becoming increasingly expensive for long-time residents to remain in the area. Unless the gentrification includes local African American families, many fear that the African American community that built and sustained the neighborhood for generations will disappear.[15]</p>
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[1] <span>“Ransom Place Historic District,” National Park Service, accessed May 25, 2020, https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/indianapolis/ransomplace.htm.<br />[2] “Ransom Place Historic District,” Indiana Historical Bureau, accessed May 25, 2020 https://www.in.gov/history/markers/216.htm.<br />[3] “Ransom Place Historic District,” National Park Service.<br />[4] Richard Essex, “A changing neighborhood: Ransom Place,” Indianapolis WISH-TV, February 15, 2019, https://www.wishtv.com/news/a-changing-neighborhood-ransom-place/.<br />[5] “Ransom Place Historic District,” National Park Service.<br />[6] “Ransom Family Papers, 1912-2011,” Indiana Historical Society, accessed May 26, 2020, https://indianahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/ransom-family-papers.pdf.<br />[7] Ibid.<br />[8] “Ransom Place Historic District,” National Park Service.<br />[9] Ibid.<br />[10] Essex, “A changing neighborhood.”<br />[11] Ibid.<br />[12] National Park Service."Go Diagonal." Indianapolis: Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary. Accessed May 31, 2020. https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/indianapolis/textonly.html#diagonalessay.<br />[13] “Spears Family Papers, 1930-1986,” Indiana Historical Society, accessed May 26, 2020, https://indianahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/spears-family-papers-1930-1986.pdf. “Historical Ransom Place,” City of Indianapolis, accessed May 26, 2020, https://sites.google.com/view/city-of-indianapolis/home/ransom-place.<br />[14] Ibid.<br />[15] Essex, “A changing neighborhood.”</span>
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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/216.htm">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker</a>
1800s
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Jim Jones and The Peoples Temple
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<p>James Warren Jones was born on May 13, 1931 in Crete, Indiana[1] and the family moved to Lynn, Indiana in 1934.[2] He was invited to church by his neighbors, and it was those sermons that sparked Jones’ interest in religion and leadership. He studied various leaders including Marx, Gandhi, Hitler, and Stalin, noting their strengths and weaknesses.[3]</p>
<p>As a teenager, Jones was convinced that his father was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, as Lynn had a large KKK membership. Believing in equal rights and in reaction to his father’s actions, Jones became a strong advocate for racial equality and civil rights. Jones attended Indiana University and Butler University, and in 1952, became a student preacher for the Somerset Methodist Church in Indianapolis.[4] In 1956, he established the Peoples Temple of the Disciples in Christ in Indianapolis, and became ordained in 1964. Due to Jones’ passion for civil rights and his support for the underdog and downtrodden since his childhood, the Peoples Temple welcomed congregants from various racial backgrounds, the majority being African American. Jones and his wife adopted children of different races and claimed to be the first white couple in Indianapolis to adopt an African American child. Jones referred to his children as his “rainbow family”, with the Joneses receiving death threats towards their African American son.[5]</p>
<p>The Peoples Temple directly participated in the Civil Rights Movement in Indiana, including helping to desegregate movie theatres, hospitals, restaurants, and police departments. The Temple also created a “free restaurant, and homes for the mentally ill.” In 1961, Mayor Charles Boswell appointed Jones as head of the Indianapolis Human Rights Commission.[6]</p>
<p>Jones moved his Peoples Temple to San Francisco in the 1970s. The Temple attracted members of lower and middle classes of all races to hear Jones’ message of equality and anti-discrimination. Jones continued to donate to local causes such as the NAACP, and developed connections with politicians to spread his message and gain followers. California State Assembly Speaker Willie Brown was said to compare Jones to figures including “Martin Luther King, Angela Davis, Albert Einstein, and Chairman Mao.”[7]</p>
<p>Jones portrayed himself as someone with extraordinary powers, such as telepathy, faith healing, and clairvoyance. In reality, he had other Temple members search through “garbage cans and medicine cabinets for private information” or pretend to be disabled to make Jones’ powers look real. Jones controlled his congregants with abuse, beatings, sleep deprivation, constant work, and humiliation[8] This abuse caused some of even Jones’ most trusted members to leave the Temple and contact the media.[9] In 1974, threatened by an imminent media investigation, he moved his entire congregation to Guyana. There, the Temple sought to create a society where they were free to do as they wished without prejudice and hatred, and control by the US government. By 1977, “Jonestown” had nearly a thousand residents.[10]</p>
<p>Jones continued to maintain control over Jonestown residents by physical punishment and humiliations. Communication from inside and outside Jonestown was heavily controlled and censored. Phone calls were scripted, with Jones telling his followers what to say to their relatives in the US. He convinced his followers that staying in Jonestown was for their own safety, by falsely declaring that nuclear war was impending and concentration camps were being formed in the US. Despite these “warnings”, some members did leave Jonestown. As a test of loyalty, Jones even made his followers practice “revolutionary suicide” by drinking water said to be poisoned. Meanwhile in the US, relatives of the Jonestown population contacted the authorities to start an investigation into the Peoples Temple. Former members informed the media of the abuses and mass suicide threats that occurred in Jonestown.[11]</p>
<p>California Representative Leo Ryan, relatives of Temple members, and American journalists arrived in Jonestown on November 1978 to investigate. Jones and the residents put on public festivities to welcome their guests, but in private, Jones complained to Ryan about the American government interfering with the Peoples Temple.[12] The next day, a reporter handed Jones a note that was given to him by a Temple member reading “Help us get out of Jonestown.” Despite his anger, Jones told Ryan and the media that anyone who wanted to leave Jonestown could do so. As several groups of people prepared to leave the settlement, Peoples Temple members opened fire, killing Ryan and three others, and injuring 11.[13] In Jonestown, Jones convinced his congregation to drink from vats of Flavor-Aid that were laced with cyanide as a “revolutionary act.” A total of 918 people died by mass suicide that day, a third of them children.</p>
<p>Jones himself was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head, leaving an incomprehensible and tragic legacy of using civil rights and religion as a cover to further his political ideology resulting in human rights abuses and mass murder.[14]</p>
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[1] “Jonestown, The Life and Death of the People’s Temple: Jim Jones.” PBS. Accessed April 2, 2020. <br />[2] Hall, John R. (1987). Gone from the Promised Land. Transaction Publishers. Pg. 5. Accessed April 6, 2020.<br />[3] Reiterman, Tom; Jacobs, John (1982). Raven: The Untold Story of Rev. Jim Jones and His People. E. P. Dutton. P. 24. Accessed April 6, 2020.<br />[4] <span>“Ordination Service of Jim Jones into Disciples of Christ.” Alternative Considerations for Jonestown & Peoples Temple. San Diego University, 2019. Accessed April 3, 2020.<br />[5] “Jonestown, The Life and Death of the People’s Temple: Jim Jones.”<br />[6] “Jonestown, The Life and Death of the People’s Temple: Jim Jones.”<br />[7] ”Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple: The Peoples Temple in Guyana.” PBS. Accessed April 8, 2020.<br />[8] Ibid.<br />[9] Kildiff, Marshall and Phil Tracy. “Inside Peoples Temple.“ New West Magazine, August 1977. Accessed April 7, 2020.<br />[10] ”Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple: The Peoples Temple in Guyana.”<br />[11] Ibid.<br />[12] “Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple: November 18, 1978.” PBS. Accessed April 8, 2020. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/jonestown-nov-18-1978/<br />[13] Ibid.<br />[14] Ibid.</span>
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Student Author: Robin Johnson
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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1950s-present
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Willard B. Ransom
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Willard B. (Mike) Ransom was born in Indianapolis in 1916. He attended Crispus Attucks High School, newly opened as an African American high school in 1927. As an athlete at Attucks, he and his teammates were barred from competition against white schools by the Indiana High School Athletic Association.[1] Ransom graduated from Talladega College in Alabama in 1932 with summa cum laude honors and earned his Juris Doctorate from Harvard in 1939, as the only African American in his law school graduating class.[2]<br /><br />Just a few years after earning his law degree, Willard Ransom was appointed Indiana’s assistant attorney general. Only two months into his four-year term, he was drafted into the US Army in 1941. Ransom was eventually deployed to Belgium and France, and worked in the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Office. During his service, Ransom, along with other African American service men, experienced “blatantly discriminatory and humiliating treatment.” He recalls, “We were fighting discrimination. Black officers couldn’t go into officers’ clubs, enlisted men couldn’t go into the noncommissioned officers’ clubs.”[3] <br /><br />After the war, he returned to Indianapolis where he experienced prejudice and discrimination, as nearly all downtown restaurants, hotels, theaters, and other public places were segregated and closed to African Americans, which he considered an “overt slap in the face.”[4] During a 1991 interview, he said, “the contrast between having served in the Army and running into this discrimination and barriers at home was a discouraging thing.”[5] In order to fight the racial discrimination he and others experienced in Indiana in the 1940s, Ransom reorganized the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and served five terms as its chairman. He served as an Indiana delegate at the 1948 Progressive Party national convention, befitting his aggressive and relatively radical approach to leadership in the 1940s Civil Rights movement. Ransom organized local protests against businesses, before many of the marches and sit-ins that took place in the South.[6] He organized small sit-ins at a White Castle hamburger stand, drugstores, department stores, and restaurants.[7] He led over 50 protesters at a sit-in at the segregated bus station restaurant at the former Traction Terminal Building in downtown Indianapolis. Ransom recalls, “There was a big restaurant there, and there were so many blacks traveling on buses. We were insulted in that place because no one would serve us.”[8] His efforts to end segregation through protests and sit-ins lead to several arrests for Ransom.[9] <br /><br />Ransom worked closely with NAACP’s chief lawyer (and future Supreme Court Justice) Thurgood Marshall in the late 1940s regarding school desegregation in Indiana. He wrote Marshall in 1948 “we are going to approach the various school boards again with petitions asking abolition of segregated schools….” He was part of a group of lawyers who drafted the “Fair Schools” bill which was passed by the Indiana General Assembly in 1949, legally ended segregated schools in Indiana.[10] The African American Indianapolis Recorder proclaimed “we assert this is the greatest forward stride in democracy made by the Hoosier State since the Civil War.”[11] <br /><br />Willard served as the assistant manager of Madame C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company, the highly successful and well-known African American-owned cosmetics company, from 1947 to 1954, and then became the general manager until 1971, as well as Trustee of the Walker Estate. After the sale of the Walker Manufacturing Company in 1986, he served as a board member of the Madame C.J. Walker Urban Life Center, a non-profit organization which operated the Walker Building for educational, charitable, and cultural functions benefiting the African American community in Indianapolis.[12] <br />In 1970, Ransom co-founded the Indiana Black Expo and served as chair of the Finance Committee. He served on the board of directors of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, now known as the National Conference for Community and Justice. Ransom helped create the Concerned Ministers of Indianapolis, a group who focused on the integration of African Americans into the business world; in 1993, he received the organization’s Thurgood Marshall Award in 1993 for his dedication to civil rights.[13] Ransom became the first African American director of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce and board member of the Merchants National Bank and Trust Company.[14] Ransom was a partner in the Indianapolis law firm Bamberger & Feibleman from 1971 until his death at the age of 79 in November 1995.[15] <br /><br />Willard “Mike” Ransom was recognized on numerous occasions for his influence on Civil Rights in Indiana, and the Hoosier state would have looked very different for African Americans if not for his and his father’s (Freeman Ransom) ceaseless activism and pursuit of equal rights. The family lived in segregated downtown Indianapolis in what is now known as the Ransom Place Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992, honoring the family for their contributions to Civil Rights in Indiana.[16]
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[1] Madison, James. “’Gone to Another Meeting’:Willard B. Ransom and Early Civil Rights Leadership”. Indiana Magazine of History, 114 (September 2018).<br />[2] Jones, Jae. Willard Ransom: Pioneer in Civil Rights Movement in Indianapolis.December 9, 2017. Accessed February 12, 2019.<br />[3] St. Clair, James E. and Linda C. Gugin. Indiana’s 200: The People Who Shaped the Hoosier State.Indiana Historical Society Press. 2015. Accessed March 9, 2020. <br />[4] Madison, James.<br />[5] Henry Hedgepath, “Who’s Who,” The Indianapolis Recorder(1982), 3.<br />[6] Ransom family papers show attorneys' work to end discrimination.March 9, 2016. Accessed February 12,2019. <br />[7] Madison, James.<br />[8] Hedgepath, “Who’s Who,” 3.<br />[9] Madison, James.<br />[10] Madison, James.<br />[11] Indianapolis Recorder,March 12, 1949.<br />[12] Madison, James<br />[13] Pattillo, Rebecca. Ransom Family Papers, 1912-2011, 4. Indiana Historical Society. December 2015. Accessed March 9, 2020. <br />[14] Pattillo, Rebecca. Ransom Family Papers, 1912-2011, 4. Indiana Historical Society. December 2015. Accessed March 9, 2020. <br />[15] Pattillo, Rebecca. Ransom Family Papers, 1912-2011, 4.Indiana Historical Society. December 2015. Accessed March 9, 2020. <br />[16] Ransom Place Historic District, National Park Service. Accessed March 13, 2020. https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/92001650.
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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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<a href="https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/92001650" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Register of Historic Places</a><br /><a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/216.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker</a>
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https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/p0303/id/180/rec/2
1900-1940s
1950s-present
athletics
Entrepreneurship
Indiana Historical Bureau Marker
Indianapolis
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Jefferson County
law
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Madam C.J. Walker
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<p><span data-contrast="auto">Madam C.J. Walker, originally named Sarah Breedlove, was born </span><span data-contrast="auto">in</span><span data-contrast="auto"> 1867 in Louisiana to former slaves.</span><span data-contrast="auto"> At the age of </span><span data-contrast="auto">seven</span><span data-contrast="auto">, she became an orphan and lived with her older sister Louvenia</span><span data-contrast="auto">.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">1]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> Breedlove married Moses McWilliams at the age of 14 and </span><span data-contrast="auto">in 1885, </span><span data-contrast="auto">they had a daughter Lelia</span><span data-contrast="auto">. </span><span data-contrast="auto">Widowed </span><span data-contrast="auto">two years later, </span><span data-contrast="auto">Sarah </span><span data-contrast="auto">Breedlove McWilliams and her daughter moved to St. Louis, where she worked as a laundress and studied at night school.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">2]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">Breedlove McWilliams</span><span data-contrast="auto"> suffered from hair loss, which inspired</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">experiment</span><span data-contrast="auto">ation</span><span data-contrast="auto"> with homemade hair care remedies, resulting in products that promoted </span><span data-contrast="auto">healthy </span><span data-contrast="auto">hair growth.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">3]<br /></span><span data-ccp-props="{"335559740":480}"><br /></span><span data-contrast="auto">In 1906, while living in Denver, Colorado, Breedlove McWilliams married </span><span data-contrast="auto">Charles Joseph</span><span data-contrast="auto"> Walker</span><span data-contrast="auto">, who worked in advertising</span><span data-contrast="auto">. </span><span data-contrast="auto">She became known as Madam C.J. Walker and</span><span data-contrast="auto"> decided to sell her</span><span data-contrast="auto"> own hair care</span><span data-contrast="auto"> products under </span><span data-contrast="auto">her new moniker</span><span data-contrast="auto">.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">4]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">The </span><span data-contrast="auto">new name</span><span data-contrast="auto"> evoked a French flair </span><span data-contrast="auto">to make her products more impressive to potential buyers</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">as opposed to a</span><span data-contrast="auto"> “condescending name like ‘Aunt Sarah</span><span data-contrast="auto">.</span><span data-contrast="auto">’”[</span><span data-contrast="auto">5]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">In 1908, </span><span data-contrast="auto">while living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, </span><span data-contrast="auto">Walker founded Lelia College, named for her daughter, which offered a course in her</span><span data-contrast="auto"> hair care and beauty</span><span data-contrast="auto"> methods</span><span data-contrast="auto"> to aspiring “hair culturists”</span><span data-contrast="auto">.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">6]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">In 1910, </span><span data-contrast="auto">the Walkers </span><span data-contrast="auto">moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, where she opened a laboratory and a beauty school. </span><span data-contrast="auto">Walker and her husband </span><span data-contrast="auto">divorced</span><span data-contrast="auto"> in 1912.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">7]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-ccp-props="{"335559740":480}"> <br /><br /></span><span data-contrast="auto">The Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company included a factory, and along with the laboratory and beauty school, </span><span data-contrast="auto">manufactured </span><span data-contrast="auto">Walker’s beauty products and train</span><span data-contrast="auto">ed</span><span data-contrast="auto"> her nationwide sales force of “beauty</span><span data-contrast="auto"> culturi</span><span data-contrast="auto">sts” using the “The Walker System”. </span><span data-contrast="auto">With </span><span data-contrast="auto">the factory employees</span><span data-contrast="auto"> and</span><span data-contrast="auto"> thousands of </span><span data-contrast="auto">African American women sales </span><span data-contrast="auto">agents across the country, Walker ran a successful </span><span data-contrast="auto">line of </span><span data-contrast="auto">cosmetic and </span><span data-contrast="auto">hair care products that not only promoted hair growth, but hair </span><span data-contrast="auto">and skin </span><span data-contrast="auto">beautification as well</span><span data-contrast="auto">. </span><span data-contrast="auto">Her agents made sales and educated customers on the importance of hygiene and presenting oneself in a </span><span data-contrast="auto">clean </span><span data-contrast="auto">and </span><span data-contrast="auto">proper </span><span data-contrast="auto">manner.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">8]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> In 1916, her agents organized into the National Beauty Culturist and Benevolent Association of Madame C.J. Walker Agents</span><span data-contrast="auto">, </span><span data-contrast="auto">later </span><span data-contrast="auto">known as</span><span data-contrast="auto"> the Madam C.J. Walker Hair Culturists Union of America</span><span data-contrast="auto">, holding annual conventions</span><span data-contrast="auto">.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">9]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">Walker encouraged her sales agents to give back to improve society, </span><span data-contrast="auto">giving</span><span data-contrast="auto"> rewards to the sales agents </span><span data-contrast="auto">who made the largest philanthropic contributions in their African American communities. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"335559740":480}"> <br /><br /></span><span data-contrast="auto">Walker</span><span data-contrast="auto"> was </span><span data-contrast="auto">an active philanthropist and social activist in </span><span data-contrast="auto">Indianapolis. </span><span data-contrast="auto">In all areas of her life, she strove for and demanded</span><span data-contrast="auto"> equal rights,</span><span data-contrast="auto"> including</span><span data-contrast="auto"> filing suit against</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">the</span><span data-contrast="auto"> Isis Theater </span><span data-contrast="auto">for charging a higher admission rate (25 cents vs. 15 cents) </span><span data-contrast="auto">for African American patrons</span><span data-contrast="auto">. She</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">protested </span><span data-contrast="auto">segregation within the military during World War I</span><span data-contrast="auto"> and advocated for an African American army officer training camp</span><span data-contrast="auto">.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">10]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> Madam Walker </span><span data-contrast="auto">donated </span><span data-contrast="auto">to multiple </span><span data-contrast="auto">African American </span><span data-contrast="auto">charities</span><span data-contrast="auto"> and community organizations</span><span data-contrast="auto"> in Indianapolis </span><span data-contrast="auto">such as the Senate Avenue YMCA,</span><span data-contrast="auto"> the Bethel AME Church, Flanner House, and Alpha Home. </span><span data-contrast="auto">On a nationwide level, she contributed to campaigns to stop </span><span data-contrast="auto">lynching</span><span data-contrast="auto"> and supported the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which was newly- formed in 1909.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">11]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-ccp-props="{"335559731":720,"335559740":480}"> <br /><br /></span><span data-contrast="auto">Throughout her life, Madam C.J. Walker worked tirelessly to create a better life for herself</span><span data-contrast="auto">,</span><span data-contrast="auto"> her family</span><span data-contrast="auto">, an</span><span data-contrast="auto">d her African American community in a segregated Indianapolis</span><span data-contrast="auto">. </span><span data-contrast="auto">The</span><span data-contrast="auto"> hard work</span><span data-contrast="auto"> and hardship</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">took its toll</span><span data-contrast="auto">, and she</span><span data-contrast="auto"> developed </span><span data-contrast="auto">health issues</span><span data-contrast="auto"> in her </span><span data-contrast="auto">late </span><span data-contrast="auto">forties</span><span data-contrast="auto">.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">12]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">In</span><span data-contrast="auto"> April 1919, </span><span data-contrast="auto">she </span><span data-contrast="auto">passed away on May 25, 1919 at the age of 51.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">13]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">At the time of her death, she was worth an estimated $600,000 (over $6 million in 2020 dollars), and was considered the wealthiest African American woman in America.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">14]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">She is often lauded as the “America’s first self-made female millionaire."[15]<br /></span><span data-ccp-props="{"335559740":480}"><br /></span><span data-contrast="auto">The legacy of Madam C.J. Walker </span><span data-contrast="auto">is exemplified</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">in the</span><span data-contrast="auto"> personal</span><span data-contrast="auto"> pride</span><span data-contrast="auto">, entrepreneurship, and </span><span data-contrast="auto">sense of </span><span data-contrast="auto">civic </span><span data-contrast="auto">responsibility</span><span data-contrast="auto"> that her products, business, and personal life instilled in</span><span data-contrast="auto"> African American</span><span data-contrast="auto">s, especially</span><span data-contrast="auto"> African American</span><span data-contrast="auto"> women</span><span data-contrast="auto">,</span><span data-contrast="auto"> throughout the country</span><span data-contrast="auto">. </span><span data-contrast="auto">After Walker’s death, her daughter took over the </span><span data-contrast="auto">Walker Manufacturing Company</span><span data-contrast="auto"> and in 1927, moved the factory and headquarters to the newly built Walker Building</span><span data-contrast="auto"> in Indianapolis. The building included</span><span data-contrast="auto"> a ballroom, theater, hair salon, </span><span data-contrast="auto">other</span><span data-contrast="auto"> public</span><span data-contrast="auto"> spaces</span><span data-contrast="auto">,</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">and became an African American community cultural center.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">16]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> The Walker Building</span><span data-contrast="auto">, </span><span data-contrast="auto">and the surroundi</span><span data-contrast="auto">ng Indiana Avenue </span><span data-contrast="auto">neighborhood,</span><span data-contrast="auto"> became a hub for the</span><span data-contrast="auto"> African American arts, culture, and jazz scene in </span><span data-contrast="auto">segregated Indianapolis through the 1960s.</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">A tangible reminder of her legacy,</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">The</span><span data-contrast="auto"> Madame C.J.</span><span data-contrast="auto"> Walker Building </span><span data-contrast="auto">was listed in</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">the </span><span data-contrast="auto">National Register for Historic Places in 198</span><span data-contrast="auto">0 and was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1991</span><span data-contrast="auto">.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">17]</span><span data-ccp-props="{"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
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<span>[1] </span><span>Moore, Wilma, Alan Rowe, Lyndsey Blair, Rebecca Pattillo, and Maire Gurevitz. </span><span>“</span><span>Madam C.J. Walker Papers Addition, 1911</span><span>-</span><span>2005 (Bulk1950s</span><span>-</span><span>80s).</span><span>”</span><span>Indiana Historical Society. December 2017. Accessed March 12, 2020.<br /></span><span>[2] </span><span>Ibid.<br /></span><span>[3] </span><span>Latham Jr., Charles. “Madam C.J. Walker & Company.” </span><span>Traces</span><span>1989, Vol. 1, No.3, pp. 29.<br />[</span><span>4] </span><span>Michals, Debra. Madam C.J. Walker. National Women’s History Museum, 2015. Accessed March 12, 2020. <br /></span><span>[5] </span><span>Moore, Wilma, Alan Rowe, Lyndsey Blair, Rebecca Pattillo, and Maire Gurevitz. <br /></span><span>[6] </span><span>Mo</span><span>ore, Wilma, Alan Rowe, Lyndsey Blair, Rebecca Pattillo, and Maire Gurevitz. <br /></span><span>[7] </span><span>Ibid.<br />[8] Latham Jr., Charles. pp. 29.<br />[9] Ibid, 30-31.<br />[10] Ibid, 31.<br />[11] Latson, Jennifer “How America’s First Self-Made Female Millionaire Built Her Fortune”, accessed March 15, 2020.<br />[12] Latham Jr., Charles.pp. 32. <br />[13] Ibid.<br />[14] “Madam C.J. Walker”. The Philanthropy Hall of Fame. Philanthropy Roundtable, accessed March 13, 2020.<br />[15] Latson, Jennifer.<br />[16] Latham Jr., Charles. pp. 32.<br />[17] National Register of Historic Places, Madame C.J. Walker Building, accessed March 13, 2020.<br /><br /></span>
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Studen Authors: Robin Johnson and Sydney Schlock
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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PHOTO & VIDEO:
Madam C.J. Walker, attributed to Scurlock Studio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Madam_CJ_Walker_face_circa_1914.jpg
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<a href="https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/62762a1d-b804-482f-84c0-e4d5929dad2c?branding=NRHP" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Register of Historic Places</a>
1800s
1900-1940s
Entrepreneurship
Indianapolis
Integration
Marion County
NAACP
National Register of Historic Places
Segregation
Women
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https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/aa217bc3cf7c02abf491e3c2ae68216b.jpg
f160f7a28e1e0ff468093e4135bb8990
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Reverend Lester K. Jackson, St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church
Description
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<p>Reverend Lester K. Jackson, who served at the St. Paul Baptist church in Gary, Indiana, was a twentieth century Civil Rights leader known for his outspoken nature in all matters related to racial equality. Jackson, like many Civil Rights leaders, focused his efforts on areas of discrimination both locally and throughout the country. His drive and ambition helped bring about multiple Civil Rights advancements in the post-World War II era.</p>
<p>In 1946, Jackson worked tirelessly on a court case alongside the New Jersey chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to overturn law that prohibited African Americans from swimming in the Atlantic Ocean. This case was tried all the way to the Supreme Court and was a major victory for Jackson and the early Civil Rights movement.<span>[1]</span></p>
<p>In Gary, Jackson fought for the integration of Marquette Park.<span>[2]</span> In 1949, he endorsed an organization called “Beachhead for Democracy”, organizing a march from Gary City Hall to Marquette Park to commemorate the anniversary of black troops landing at Salerno Beach, Italy during WWII.<span>[3]</span> Gary mayor, Eugene Swartz, although agreeing with the notion that African Americans had the “right to use all city facilities,” refused to let police protect the demonstration.<span>[4]</span> Reverend Jackson called out businesses and other organizations within the city for their racist and discriminatory policies.<span>[5]</span> Jackson forced the Gary Transit Company to hire black conductors and motormen.<span>[6]</span> He would help to integrate the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), public beaches, and all public transportation. Jackson and the St. Paul Missionary Church fought for equality and justice in Gary, and “it was [their] integral efforts to improve employment opportunities and living conditions for African Americans and the Civil Rights struggles in the City of Gary that many whites in the community literally had problems with.”<span>[7]</span></p>
<p>Jackson’s efforts in Gary put him in a national spotlight, especially with President Dwight D. Eisenhower, with whom Jackson had met with other African American ministers of the period to discuss their movement toward equality. He corresponded with other leaders including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., President John F. Kennedy, and President Lyndon B. Johnson. Jackson would congratulate or criticize these leaders for their success or failure on Civil Rights matters. In his letter to President Johnson, dated March 12, 1965, he criticized the President for his actions toward Vietnam and his lack of attention for his own citizens being beaten and segregated in the South. Jackson urges the President to take action for the people and not to turn a blind eye to domestic affairs.<span>[8]</span></p>
<p>Jackson communicated with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in January 1966, inviting Dr. King to speak at a service for St. Paul Missionary Church’s new building. Jackson exemplifies his nature in these letters, very outspoken regarding all matters of civil rights. Dr. Martin Luther King Sr. supported this testament at a banquet honoring Jackson in 1973, referring to him as “the Daddy of the militant civil rights movement”<span>[9]</span> Many would consider Jackson just that, an outspoken leader, militant when he deemed necessary, calculated in his efforts, and relentless in his never-ending battle for civil liberties and equal rights.</p>
Jackson passed away on March 2, 1977. He lived a life dedicated to his church, his people, and defending civil rights for all. Jackson was relentless in his Civil Rights efforts and his actions impacted generations of African Americans.
<p></p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1"><span></span></a></p>
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[1] “Obituary” March 1977. Accessed April 8, 2019. <br />[2] Indiana Landmarks. “The Many Surprises of Gary’s Marquette Park. Accessed February 14, 2020. <br />[3] Lane, James B. ""The Old Prophet" Reverend L.K. Jackson of Gary, Indiana." Traces, Fall 2017, 29-35. Accessed April 7, 2019. <br />[4] Ibid. <br />[5] Davich, Jerry. “Gary church turns 100, faces new challenge.” Chicago Tribune. March 4, 2016. Accessed February 14, 2020. <br />[6] Lane, James B. ""The Old Prophet" Reverend L.K. Jackson of Gary, Indiana." Traces, Fall 2017, Page 35. Accessed April 7, 2019. <br />[7] Woodson-Wray, Carmen M. “St. Paul Missionary Baptis continues 100th Anniversary events in August”. Accessed February 19, 2020. <br />[8] Jackson, Lester K. Letter to President Lyndon B. Johnson. March 12, 1965. Accessed April 8, 2019 <br />[9] Lane, James B. ""The Old Prophet" Reverend L.K. Jackson of Gary, Indiana." Traces, Fall 2017, Page 35. Accessed April 7, 2019.
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Student Authors: Jake Bailey and Robin Johnson
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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Marquette Park Pavilion (Gary, Indiana), attributed to chicagogeek, Public domain, via Wikimedia commons.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marquette_Park_Pavilion_(Gary,_Indiana).jpg
1900-1940s
1950s-present
Civil Rights Movement
Gary
Integration
Lake County
law
NAACP
religion
Religious Leaders
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https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/7bdb388a2b5224838238e9f2bbe1a0f1.jpg
19519b423549936f2eaffe5e6c912274
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Lawyer Robert Lee Brokenburr,
Senate Avenue YMCA
Description
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Robert Lee Brokenburr was born in Phoebus, Virginia, on November 16, 1886, to Elizabeth Bakker Brokenburr and Benjamin Brokenburr, who was formerly enslaved. [1] Brokenburr attended the alma mater of Booker T. Washington, Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Hampton, Virginia, and graduated from the private black college in 1906. [2] He then studied law at Howard University where he earned his degree in 1909. [3] Following his graduation from Howard, Brokenburr moved to Indianapolis upon the advice of George L. Knox, owner of the illustrated black newspaper the Indianapolis Freeman. [4] He quickly established himself as a practicing attorney after being admitted to the Indiana Bar in 1910. [5] <br /><br />Soon after he arrived in Indianapolis, Brokenburr was introduced to successful black cosmetics business owner Madam C.J. Walker by George L. Knox, and he later became her general counsel. [6] While working with Walker, Brokenburr became a more visible figure in the city and the African American community. His association with Walker, who was quickly becoming a celebrity across black America, helped Brokenburr make a name for himself early in his law career. He was also a very active presence in the black institutions of Indianapolis. Brokenburr frequently supported African American organizations such as black fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi, the Senate Avenue YMCA, and the Flanner House, and served as the second president of the Indianapolis chapter of the NAACP. [7] <br /><br />During his first decade in Indianapolis, Brokenburr’s various activities around the city helped him to rise to a place of prominence within the black community of Indianapolis. One of his biggest contributions came in 1922, when he helped to organize the Better Indianapolis Civic League, which protested the construction of a segregated high school in Indianapolis. [8] In a petition brought before the Indianapolis School Board of Commissioners by Brokenburr on behalf of the League, he stated that the segregation of schools was “unjust, un-American, and against the spirit of democratic ideals.” [9] Despite the Better Indianapolis Civic League’s efforts, the school board voted to build Crispus Attucks High School, which served as a segregated black school for decades after its construction in 1927. [10] Although the fight was unsuccessful, Brokenburr garnered the attention of both black and white citizens of Indianapolis. <br /><br />After gaining this recognition, Brokenburr began to take on the legal struggles for civil rights in Indiana. As support for white supremacy rose in the 1920s with the rise of the KKK in Indiana, he took on many cases to protect African Americans. One such case was Gaillard v. Grant, in which he argued against a zoning ordinance that enforced segregation in Indianapolis neighborhoods. [11] In 1926, this ordinance was found to be unconstitutional, as a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. [12] Brokenburr also represented the plaintiffs in Bailey v. Washington Theatre Company, a case where a black couple—civil rights activists Katherine “Flossie” and Dr. Walter T. Bailey—was denied entry into a Marion movie theater. [13] Unfortunately, the couple’s case ended with a 1941 Indiana Supreme Court decision which upheld the right of a private business to arbitrarily exclude patrons. [14] <br /><br />Perhaps Brokenburr’s most important legal contribution to civil rights in Indiana was his decision to represent Herbert James Cameron quid pro quo in July 1931. Sixteen year old Cameron had been arrested with two other black teenagers the previous summer on charges of murder and rape in Marion, Indiana. [15] The other two teens, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, had been murdered in a brutal lynching on August 7, 1930, and while Cameron escaped the wrath of the abating lynch mob that night, he still faced charges for the alleged crimes. [16] As Cameron stood trial under the shadow of the electric chair, Brokenburr and fellow black Indianapolis attorney R.L. Bailey successfully delayed the trial and changed its venue in order to grant Cameron a more objective jury. [17] After more than a week of passionate arguments, the jury found Cameron guilty of being an accessory to voluntary manslaughter, a verdict which carried a maximum sentence of two to ten years in the Indiana State Reformatory. [18] Thanks to the efforts of attorneys Robert L. Brokenburr and R.L. Bailey, the teenaged lynching survivor had been “snatched from the jaws of death” a second time. [19] <br /><br />Brokenburr not only served Indianapolis as a lawyer, but also as a legislator. In 1912, 1932, and 1934, he ran for a seat in the Indiana House of Representatives, but lost each election. [20] However, in 1940 he won his race for State Senate, making him the first African American to be elected to that chamber. [21] During his terms in the senate from 1941 to 1947 and from 1953 to 1963, Brokenburr fought for progress towards civil rights in Indiana. [22] While in office, he authored more than 50 bills focusing on issues such as equality in housing opportunities and proportional representation of black officers in police forces across the state. [23] He also authored a bill that desegregated the Indiana National Guard in 1941. [24] Because of his success as a statesman in the Indiana Senate, Brokenburr was appointed by President Eisenhower and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as an alternate delegate for the United States at the United Nations General Assembly in 1955. [25] <br /><br />During his career, Robert Lee Brokenburr’s accomplishments advanced the livelihoods of not just the African American community, but of all Hoosiers. After serving the Indianapolis community for over half a century, Brokenburr retired in 1971. [26] In 1974, he passed away at the age of 87. [27] Brokenburr truly lived by the motto “live to serve,” as he dedicated his entire life to the fight for equality in Indiana. [28] Brokenburr, like countless other black lawyers across the country, devoted his career to helping “America move toward realization of its professed commitment to legal equality.” [29] Through his considerable efforts, Robert Lee Brokenburr improved the lives of all Hoosiers. [30]
Source
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[1] Stephen F. Thompson and Curtis R. Barsic, “Robert Lee Brokenburr Papers and Photographs, ca. 1937-1973,” last modified August 2010, https://indianahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/robert-lee-brokenburr-papers-and-photographs.pdf.
[2] Ibid.; “History,” Hampton University, accessed November 1, 2019, http://www.hamptonu.edu/about/history.cfm.
[3] Stephen F. Thompson and Curtis R. Barsic, “Robert Lee Brokenburr Papers and Photographs, ca. 1937-1973,” last modified August 2010, https://indianahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/robert-lee-brokenburr-papers-and-photographs.pdf.
[4] Stanley Warren, “Senator Robert L. Brokenburr: He Lived to Serve,” Black History News and Notes no. 83 (2001): 4.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid, 5
[8] Emma Lou Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century, ed. Lana Ruegamer, (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2000): 57.
[9] Connie A. McBirney and Robert M. Taylor, Peopling Indiana: the Ethnic Experience (Indianapolis, IN: Indiana Historical Society, 1996): 22.
[10] Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century, 57-58.
[11] Ibid., 53.
[12] Ibid.
[13] James H. Madison, A Lynching in the Heartland: Race and Memory in America (New York, NY, Palgrave, 2001): 97.
[14] Bailey v. Washington Theatre Co., 218 Ind. 513 (Ind. 1941).
[15] Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century, 67.
[16] Ibid., 67-69.
[17] Madison, A Lynching in the Heartland, 106
[18] Ibid., 106-107.
[19] Ibid., 108.
[20] Warren, “Senator Robert L. Brokenburr,” 4
[21] Stephen F. Thompson and Curtis R. Barsic, “Robert Lee Brokenburr Papers and Photographs, ca. 1937-1973,” last modified August 2010, https://indianahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/robert-lee-brokenburr-papers-and-photographs.pdf.
[22] Ibid.
[23] Warren, “Senator Robert Lee Brokenburr,” 6.
[24] “Brokenburr Guard Bill Becomes Law,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Mar. 15, 1941.
[25] Warren, “Senator Robert Lee Brokenburr,” 7.; United States Department of State, U.S. Participation in the UN: Report by the President to the Congress for the Year 1955, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1956): 271.
[26] Stephen F. Thompson and Curtis R. Barsic, “Robert Lee Brokenburr Papers and Photographs, ca. 1937-1973,” last modified August 2010, https://indianahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/robert-lee-brokenburr-papers-and-photographs.pdf.
[27] “Illustrious, History-Making Career Ends With Death of Atty. Robert L. Brokenburr,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Mar. 30, 1974.
[28] Warren, “Senator Robert Lee Brokenburr,” 7.
Contributor
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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
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<a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/4325.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker for Senate Avenue YMCA</a><br /><a href="http://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/items/show/45" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hoosier Civil Rights Museum - Senate Avenue YMCA</a><br /><a href="https://www.in.gov/history/markers/211.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indiana Historical Bureau: Historical Marker for Crispus Attucks High School</a>
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Willard Ransom and Robert Lee Brokenburr, Indianapolis Recorder Collection, Indiana Historical Society.
https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/p0303/id/85/
1900-1940s
1950s-present
Indianapolis
Integration
law
Lynching
Marion County
NAACP
Segregation
-
https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/f689aaf6f53766579dcd7dd3750e194a.jpg
f44204d673ce326bf89ce19cafcf5e03
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Reverend Dr. Andrew J. Brown, Jr.,
St. John's Missionary Baptist Church
Description
An account of the resource
Reverend Dr. Andrew J. Brown, Jr. was born in Mississippi in 1921, and would go on to become one of the most influential civil rights leaders in Indianapolis. [1] After graduating high school, Brown attended the historically black Bishop College in Marshall, Texas, where he studied Baptist ministry. [2] Upon receiving his degree, Reverend Brown served in World War II in both the European and Pacific theaters, as one of the few field chaplains who specifically sought to provide “spiritual guidance for Black soldiers.” [3] In 1947, Brown and his wife Rosa Lee settled in Indianapolis where he preached at St. John Missionary Baptist Church, and the couple “immediately became active in the civil rights struggle which was beginning to come to light” in the city. [4]
When Reverend Brown first came to St. John Missionary Baptist Church, its small congregation of just 57 members were worshipping in a basement. [5] Under Brown’s leadership, the church was soon able to move to its own building in central Indianapolis, where the congregation would grow to become “one of the largest, most progressive Black churches in the United States.” [6] From this thriving church on Martindale Avenue, Reverend Brown preached his social gospel, calling for his congregation to rise up against injustice in Indianapolis.
Rev. Brown quickly earned a reputation as a powerful orator, and was invited to Baptist churches across the South to perform revivals—daily sermons given to a congregation by a visiting preacher over a week or longer to renew the faith of believers and to convert new members. [7] It was on one of these revival trips that Rev. Brown met a young Martin Luther King, Jr. as he finished up doctoral studies in the early 1950s. [8] Throughout the next decade, Rev. Brown and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. became friends and colleagues; at one point, Rev. Brown fell ill on a revival trip to Atlanta and was taken in by King’s mother. [9] When King visited Indianapolis for speaking engagements, he stayed at the home of Reverend Brown. [10]
As the efforts of the Civil Rights Movement in the South came to national attention during the late 1950s and early 1960s, Reverend Andrew J. Brown, Jr., along with other black community leaders in the North, were inspired to take similar action. [11] Rev. Brown used his pulpit to attract national civil rights leaders to Indianapolis, hosting Coretta Scott King and Dr. Kelly Miller Smith at St. John Missionary Baptist Church. [12] Additionally, after his term as the president of the Indianapolis NAACP chapter, Rev. Brown formed his own organization to fight for civil rights in the city. [13] The Indianapolis Social Action Council (ISAC) arose at St. John Missionary Baptist Church during memorial services for assassinated Mississippi NAACP President Medgar Evers in 1963, with Rev. Brown as the group’s chairman, Local 117 Union President Herman Walker as executive director, attorney Willard B. Ransom as vice president, William Porter as treasurer, and Faye Williams as secretary. [14] ISAC’s initial goals were to increase black voter registration and to provide better opportunities “in the fields of employment, housing, education, citizenship participation, public accommodations, and all areas of health, welfare, and social action” for black Indianapolis residents. [15] The organization’s voter registration drive was especially impressive, resulting in “unprecedented numbers of African Americans voting in the city elections in November 1963,” which elected two African Americans to the City Council for the first time in 16 years. [16] Rev. Brown also established the Indianapolis Christian Leadership Conference as a Northern affiliate of the major civil rights organizing group, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. [17]
Reverend Brown and his congregants did not just fight for civil rights in Indianapolis, however. In August 1963, ISAC members bused to Washington, D.C. to participate in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. [18] In March 1965, Rev. Brown joined civil rights activists from across the country to march in Selma, Alabama, in protest of what has come to be known as “Bloody Sunday,” the beating of peaceful protestors by police on the Edmund Pettus Bridge as they planned to march from Selma to Montgomery. [19] Just four days after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination on April 4, 1968, Rev. Brown joined Coretta Scott King and other national figures in a march in Memphis, Tennessee, in solidarity with striking sanitation workers, and in memory of King. [20] The next month, Rev. Brown urged the black community of Indianapolis to join him in the Poor People’s March on Washington, to honor the memory and continue the legacy of Dr. King. [21]
Reverend Brown was also instrumental in creating lasting cultural institutions, which served the black community in Indianapolis and across the state. In 1970, Reverend Brown, alongside other Indianapolis African American religious and civil rights leaders, created the Indiana Black Expo (IBE), a charitable organization that empowers black Hoosiers through economic, educational, and medical assistance. [22] The IBE’s flagship event, the Summer Celebration, is an annual festival that celebrates black history and culture in Indiana. Reverend Brown was also the founder of the long-running Indianapolis radio program Operation Breadbasket. The popular program aired every Saturday morning on WTLC, and Brown used the platform to speak about civil rights issues and community interests, and to provide economic advice and spiritual messages for his listeners. [23]
Reverend Andrew J. Brown, Jr. retired from his position at St. John Missionary Baptist Church in 1990. [24] He passed away in 1996 at the age of 75, leaving behind an extraordinary legacy. Brown was remembered by Indiana Congressman Andrew Jacobs, Jr. on the floor of the House of Representatives as “Mr. Civil Rights in Indiana.” [25] From the moment he arrived in Indianapolis, Rev. Brown fought for the rights of not only his own congregation, but of people across the city, the state, and the country. In tribute to his foundational work, which made the city a far more inclusive place, Indianapolis has renamed Martindale Avenue, the location of St. John Missionary Baptist Church, to Dr. Andrew J. Brown Avenue in his honor. [26]
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[1] Tyler Fenwick, “Dr. Andrew J. Brown Brought National Civil Rights to Indianapolis,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Feb. 22, 2019. <br />[2] “Rev. A.J. Brown, Prexy, Speaker Sunday at Bethel,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Oct. 26, 1963; Amy Bertsch, “Bishop College,” East Texas History, accessed October 4, 2019, https://easttexashistory.org/items/show/141. <br />[3] “Rev. A.J. Brown, Prexy, Speaker Sunday at Bethel,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Oct. 26, 1963; “A.J. Brown, Jr.: The Man and the Liberating Theology,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Aug. 10, 1996. <br />[4] Tyler Fenwick, “Dr. Andrew J. Brown Brought National Civil Rights to Indianapolis,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Feb. 22, 2019; “Rev. Brown Praised for Religious, Civic Contributions at Testimonial,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Oct. 7, 1972. <br />[5] “A.J. Brown, Jr.: The Man and the Liberating Theology,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Aug. 10, 1996. <br />[6] “Rev. Brown Praised for Religious, Civic Contributions at Testimonial,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Oct. 7, 1972; “A.J. Brown, Jr.: The Man and the Liberating Theology,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Aug. 10, 1996. <br />[7] Wilson Fallin, Uplifting the People: Three Centuries of Black Baptists in Alabama, (Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 2007,) 83; Andrew J. Brown, Jr., “‘I Walked With Martin,’” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Apr. 13, 1968. <br />[8] Ibid. <br />[9] Ibid. <br />[10] Tyler Fenwick, “Dr. Andrew J. Brown Brought National Civil Rights to Indianapolis,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Feb. 22, 2019. <br />[11] Emma Lou Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century, ed. Lana Ruegamer (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2000), 164. <br />[12] “Freedom Concert Featuring Mrs. Martin Luther King,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Apr. 18, 1964; “Noted Rights Leader to Speak at Rally Sunday,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Dec. 14, 1963. <br />[13] “A.J. Brown Jr.: The Man and the Liberating Theology,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Aug. 10 1996. <br />[14] Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks, 174. <br />[15] “Rev. A.J. Brown Named Chairman of Organization,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Jul. 6, 1963. <br />[16] Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks, 175; “Noted Rights Leader to Speak at Rally Sunday,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Dec. 14, 1963. <br />[17] Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks, 164. <br />[18] “Goldstein Joins 200,000 in D.C. March,” Jewish Post and Opinion (Indianapolis, IN), 30 Aug. 30, 1963. <br />[19] “ISAC Prexy Tells Why ‘I Had to Go to Selma, Alabama,’” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Mar. 13, 1965. <br />[20] Andrew J. Brown, Jr., “‘I Walked With Martin,’” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Apr. 13, 1968. <br />[21] “A.J. Brown Jr.: The Man and the Liberating Theology,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Aug. 10 1996. <br />[22] Ibid. <br />[23] Rob Schneider, “Rights Leader Rev. Andrew J. Brown Dies,” Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, IN), Aug. 3, 1996. <br />[24] Ibid. <br />[25] Andrew Jacobs, Jr. “Honoring Andrew J. Brown,” Congressional Record 42, no. 125 (1996): 329. [26] “Contact Us,” St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church, accessed October 10, 2019, http://www.saintjohnsindy.net/contact/.
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Student Authors: Allison Hunt and Jake Bailey <br />Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson<br />Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
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PHOTO & VIDEO:
Reverend F. Benjamin Davis, Father Boniface Hardin and Reverend Andrew J. Brown, Indianapolis Recorder Collection, Indiana Historical Society.
https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/p0303/id/465/rec/31
1900s-1940s
1950s-present
Christianity
Civil Rights Movement
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Indianapolis
Marion County
NAACP
Politics
religion
Religious Leaders
-
https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/a6163717e024a8bad8c5a7a471f53328.jpg
6966361b2a4c0ff9424518fe8e8aba1e
Dublin Core
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African American lawyer Vernon E. Jordan working on a voter education project, seated at a desk with a typewriter at the Southern Regional Council, Atlanta, Georgia
Subject
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Vernon Jordan
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Warren K. Leffler
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Leffler, Warren K, photographer. African American lawyer Vernon E. Jordan working on a voter education project, seated at a desk with a typewriter at the Southern Regional Council, Atlanta, Georgia / WKL. Atlanta Georgia, 1967. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2014646460/.
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Library of Congress
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June 15th, 1967
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Events
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The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
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Vernon Jordan Assassination Attempt, Fort Wayne
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<p>On May 29, 1980 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the civil rights leader and National Urban League president Vernon Jordan was the guest speaker at the Equal Opportunity Dinner for the Fort Wayne chapter of the Urban League.[1] By all accounts, this appeared to be an ordinary day for Jordan.<br /><br />Vernon Eulion Jordan Jr. was a born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1935 and did his undergraduate studies at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He majored in political science and was intentional in choosing DePauw, which was a nearly all-white school at the time. Even at that young age Vernon Jordan wanted to challenge the established ways that things were done and pave the way for new opportunities for African American men and women. Upon graduating Depauw University as the only African American in a class of 400 students, Vernon Jordan studied at Howard University and graduated with a J.D. in 1960.[2] Since then, he had worked with Donald Hollowell fighting Jim Crow laws, the NAACP as a field secretary in Georgia, and as the director of the Southern Regional Council’s Voter Education Project.[3] Since 1971, Jordan had served as the president of the National Urban League.[4] In 1980 Jordan had been speaking across the country promoting the National Urban League and its significance to American society during the presidential election between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. His speaking engagement at the Equal Opportunity Dinner at the Fort Wayne Marriot Motor Inn was only one stop on his national tour.[5]</p>
<p>After the banquet, Jordan decided to go with a white woman named Martha Coleman to eat dinner at her house in the city.[6] When Jordan returned to the Marriot Motor Inn, Coleman dropped him off at the side entrance of the hotel, because it was closer to his room.[7] While getting out of the car, Jordan collapsed to the ground; he had been shot in the back with a bullet from a .30-06 rifle.[8] According to Jordan, the bullet left a hole in his back that was the size of a man’s fist, later causing him to have 5 operations to remove the bullet fragments and close the wound.[9] At first the police and FBI had trouble determining the identity of the shooter was because Jordan was shot in the back at night.[10] A year after the shooting the police identified and arrested Joseph Paul Franklin.[11]</p>
<p>Before this assassination attempt, Franklin was known across the country as an outspoken and violent racist. In 1980 alone, Franklin was linked to eleven racial killings.[12] One of the most disturbing incidents was when he killed two black men who were jogging with two white women in Utah.[13] Franklin did not hide his racist attitudes. He associated himself with the American Nazi Party, the Klu Klux Klan, and was not afraid to tell people about his hatred of interracial relationships.[14] Despite Franklin being arrested for shooting Jordan, the state did not believe that there was enough evidence to charge him with attempted murder, so the cause went to a federal court to determine if Jordan’s civil rights were violated.[15] In August of 1982 Joseph Paul Franklin was tried in northern Indiana under Judge Allen Sharp. Franklin was acquitted of the accusations in the Vernon Jordan case by an all-white jury.[16] Despite being acquitted in this case, Franklin was already serving four life sentences for other crimes he had committed across the country.[17] While serving these sentences, Franklin reportedly admitted to an inmate that he had shot Jordan.[18] After the case, Franklin spent the rest of his life in a Missouri prison where he was awaiting his execution for murdering a man in St. Louis outside of a synagogue in 1977. Thirty-six years later, Franklin would be put to death by lethal injection on November 20, 2013.[19]</p>
<p>After this attack on his life, Vernon Jordan continued to fight for what he believed in. However, Jordan decided in December of 1980 to resign as the President of the National Urban League.[20] After leaving the Urban League, he joined a private law firm in Washington, D.C. dealing with “corporate and political affairs.” In 1992 Jordan advised Bill Clinton’s Presidential Campaign and lead his transition team, but opted to remain an unofficial advisor during Clinton’s presidency.[21] Since his time in the Clinton administration, Jordan has continued to work in politics while also becoming an influence in the financial realm while still fighting for civil rights in the United States.[22] He has faced many challenges throughout his career, even an attack on his life, but he still continues to fight for the equality of Americans in modern society.</p>
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<p>[1] Jo Thomas, “Racist who Killed 2 Indicted in Shooting of Vernon Jordan,” Archives, <em>New York Times</em>, June 3, 1982, <span>https://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/03/us/racist-who-killed-2-indicted-in-shooting-of-vernon-jordan.html</span>.<br />[2] “Vernon Jordan Jr.,” Biography, accessed April 2, 2019, <span>https://www.biography.com/people/vernon-jordan-jr-9358120</span>.<br />[3] “Vernon Jordan Jr.,” Biography, accessed March 16, 2019, <span>https://www.biography.com/people/vernon-jordan-jr-9358120</span>.<br />[4] Ibid.<br />[5]Vernon E. Jordan and Annette Gordon-Reed, <em>Vernon can read!: a memoir</em> (New York: Public Affairs, 2001), 280.<br />[6] Ibid.<br />[7] Ibid, 281.<br />[8] Thomas, “Racist who Killed 2”.<br />[9] Jordan, and Gordon Reed, <em>Vernon Can Read: a Memoir</em>, 283.<br />[10] Linda G. Caleca, “A year later, few clues in Vernon Jordan shooting,” UPI, May 28, 1981, <span>https://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/05/28/A-year-later-few-clues-in-Vernon-Jordan-shooting/7539359870400/</span>.<br />[11] Jordan and Gordon-Reed, <em>Vernon Can Read: a Memoir</em>, 296.<br />[12] Linda G. Caleca, “Civil rights leader Vernon Jordan testified today he though…,” UPI, August 10, 1982. <span>https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/08/10/Civil-rights-leader-Vernon-Jordan-testified-today-he-thought/6415397800000/</span>.<br />[13] Thomas, “Racist who Killed 2.”<br />[14] Ibid.<br />[15] Jordan and Gordon-Reed, <em>Vernon Can Read: a Memoir</em>, 296.<br />[16] “Federal Jury Returns Verdict of Not Guilty in Jordan Shooting,” Archives, <em>New York Times</em>, August 18, 1982. <span>https://www.nytimes.com/1982/08/18/us/federal-jury-returns-verdict-of-not-guilty-in-jordan-shooting.html</span>.<br />[17] Ibid.<br />[18] “Vernon Jordan Jr.,” Biography, accessed March 16, 2019, <span>https://www.biography.com/people/vernon-jordan-jr-9358120</span>.<br />[19] Lateef Mungin, “Serial killer Joseph Franklin executed after hours of delay,” CNN, November 21, 2013, <span>https://www.cnn.com/2013/11/20/justice/missouri-franklin-execution/index.html</span>.<br />[20] Caleca, “Civil rights leader Vernon Jordan testified.”<br />[21] “Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.” Encycylopaedia Britannica, accessed April 2, 2019, <span>https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vernon-E-Jordan-Jr</span>.<br />[22] “Vernon Jordan ’57 Returning to Depauw to Address Class of 2018 at May’s 179<sup>th</sup> Commencement,” Depauw University, November 24, 2017, <span>https://www.depauw.edu/news-media/latest-news/details/33325/</span>.</p>
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PHOTOS & VIDEO: <br /><span>Vernon E. Jordan working on a voter education project, attributed to Warren K. Leffler, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<br />https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vernon_E._Jordan_working_on_a_voter_education_project.jpg<br /></span>
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Student Author: Ben Wilson <br />Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson<br />Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
1950s-present
Allen County
Fort Wayne
NAACP
Violence