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https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/f2a8ecd9cb14eeb430f9d854e66f718f.png
655d2e088af711b802ef98c0a86ca934
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Historian Emma Lou Thornbrough
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Born in Indianapolis in 1913, Dr. Emma Lou Thornbrough became one of the leading historians in African American history. After graduating from Shortridge High School, she attended Butler University where she obtained her bachelor’s in 1934, then her master’s degree in 1936. [1] She later received a Ph.D. in history from the University of Michigan in 1946. [2] After completing her education, Thornbrough began her career as a professor of American history, black history, and ancient Mediterranean history at Butler University in 1946. [3] She remained there until her retirement in 1983. During her tenure at Butler, she was appointed the McGregor Chair in History in 1981, and awarded an honorary doctorate in 1988. [4] She also received prestigious awards including the 1965 Outstanding Professor Award, given to “faculty members who excelled in all areas of their professional responsibilities,” and the Butler Medal, which recognizes Butler University Alumni who have provided “a lifetime of distinguished service to either Butler or their local community while at the same time achieving a distinguished career in their chosen profession and attaining a regional or national reputation.” [5] She also held visiting professor appointments at Indiana University and Case-Western Reserve University during her career. [6] <br /><br />Thornbrough’s interest in black history began during her doctoral studies at the University of Michigan. [7] Her dissertation, <em>Negro Slavery in the North: Its Constitutional and Legal Aspects</em>, became the basis for her first book, the seminal <em>The Negro in Indiana Before 1900: A Study of a Minority</em>. [8] Thornbrough was a pioneer in her profession, both as an established female academic in history during the mid-twentieth century, and as one of “few people of either sex … working in what was then called Negro history.” [9] She was remarkable in that she studied “the story of the Negro minority in a Northern state, Indiana,” while most black history at the time was focused on Southern states or major Northern cities, which had much larger African American populations. [10] Throughout her career, Thornbrough focused much of her research on black Hoosier history, publishing accounts of individual events, treatises covering centuries of the state’s history at a time, and biographical sketches of black community leaders. [11] However, she also published biographies of nationally renowned figures in black history, including educator and author Booker T. Washington and journalist T. Thomas Fortune. [12] <br /><br />Thornbrough’s work, though still objective, clearly demonstrates her views about the plight black Americans have faced. She describes “the discrimination and indignities” African Americans fight, along with “the gradual and uneven progress of the Negro minority toward equality” in the preface to <em>The Negro in Indiana Before 1900</em>, showing “that she perceives racial discrimination as a violation of morality and common sense.” [13] Furthermore, Thornbrough’s research on her still unpublished manuscript held at the Indiana Historical Society, <em>The Indianapolis Story: School Segregation and Desegregation in a Northern City</em>, was used by lawyers and Federal Judge Samuel Hugh Dillin in a Justice Department lawsuit which found Indianapolis Public Schools guilty of overt segregation. [14] <br /><br />Emma Lou Thornbrough not only wrote about the struggle for civil rights, but actively participated in the movement as well. She used her privileged position as a white, upper-middle-class “elegant lady scholar” to work against racism in Indianapolis. [15] After an unsuccessful run for the Indiana General Assembly in 1952, Thornbrough fought for civil rights through working with local organizations, serving on the executive boards of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union and the Indianapolis NAACP branch. [16] She also helped to organize the Indianapolis Human Relations Council, a diverse group which aimed to “foster and promote amicable relationships, mutual understanding, and mutual respect among ethnic, racial, national, religious, and other forms of groups” across the city. [17] <br /><br />Dr. Thornbrough worked to preserve and protect black Hoosier history up to her death on December 19, 1994. [18] Her final book, <em>Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century</em>, was published posthumously in 2000 after historian Lana Ruegamer Eisenberg edited the existing text and finished the final chapter. [19] As Eisenberg noted, “in both her scholarly work and her life as a reformer, Thornbrough worked to shape Indiana history.” [20] Emma Lou Thornbrough did the important, yet painstaking, work of piecing together a history of black Indiana from few and disparate primary sources. In the 1957 preface to The Negro in Indiana Before 1900, Thornbrough humbly acknowledges the limitations of her research, while displaying hope for the future of black Hoosier history: <br /><br />"The account which I have written of the gradual and uneven progress of the Negro minority toward equality is admittedly spotty and incomplete in some respects because materials necessary for a more complete treatment are not available. Sources showing what the white population thought about the Negro and his position are abundant, but those which reveal the thoughts and activities of Negroes themselves are meager. … In view of the limited educational opportunities and the low economic status of most members of the race during the period covered by the book it is not surprising that manuscript materials such as letters and diaries are almost nonexistent, at least in public collections. Undoubtedly some papers have been destroyed because they were regarded as worthless, while others still in private hands are unknown to me. I hope that the publication of my research may have the effect of bringing to light hitherto unused materials and inspiring more intensive research in aspects of Negro life and thought with which I was unable to deal adequately." [21]
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[1] Lana Ruegamer Eisenberg, “Thornbrough, Gayle,” in Indiana’s 200: The People Who Shaped the Hoosier State, ed. Linda C. Gugin and James E. St. Clair, (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press, 2015): 702.; Lana Ruegamer Eisenberg, “Thornbrough, Emma Lou,” in Indiana’s 200: The People Who Shaped the Hoosier State, ed. Linda C. Gugin and James E. St. Clair, (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press, 2015): 699. <br />[2] Ibid. <br />[3] Robert G. Barrows, Paul R. Hanson, and Peter J. Sehlinger, “Memorial Tribute to Emma Lou Thornbrough,” Indiana Magazine of History 91, no. 1 (1995): 2. <br />[4] Ibid. <br />[5] Ibid.; Marc Alan, “Outstanding Butler Faculty Honored,” last modified August 16, 2018, https://stories.butler.edu/content/outstanding-butler-faculty-honored.; “Butler Medal,” Butler University, accessed November 8, 2019, https://www.butler.edu/pastalumniawards. <br />[6] Barrows, Hanson, and Sehlinger, “Memorial Tribute to Emma Lou Thornbrough,” 2. <br />[7] Emma Lou Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century, ed. Lana Ruegamer, (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2000): i. <br />[8] Ibid. <br />[9] Eisenberg, “Thornbrough, Emma Lou,” 701. <br />[10] Emma Lou Thornbrough, The Negro in Indiana Before 1900: A Study of a Minority, (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1993): xi. <br />[11] Leigh Darbee and Wilma L. Gibbs, “Books and Articles by Emma Lou Thornbrough,” Indiana Magazine of History 91, no. 1 (1995): 16-17. <br />[12] Ibid. <br />[13] Thornbrough, The Negro in Indiana Before 1900, xiv; Wilson J. Moses, “Emma Lou Thornbrough’s Place in American Historiography,” Indiana Magazine of History 91, no. 1 (1995): 5. <br />[14] Emma Lou Thornbrough, “The Indianapolis Story: School Segregation and Desegregation in a Northern City” (unpublished manuscript, Indiana Historical Society, 1993), i.; Eisenberg, “Thornbrough, Emma Lou,” 698. <br />[15] Ibid., 699. <br />[16] Ibid., 698. <br />[17] Ibid.; “City’s Human Relations Council Program Aimed at Reactivation,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Jan. 17, 1959. <br />[18] Eisenberg, “Thornbrough, Emma Lou,” 697. <br />[19] Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century, ix. <br />[20] Eisenberg, “Thornbrough, Emma Lou,” 701. <br />[21] Thornbrough, The Negro in Indiana Before 1900, xiv-xv.
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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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PHOTO & VIDEO:
The Indianapolis Story School Segregation and Desegregation in a Northern City, Indiana Historical Society, BV2631.
https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/p16797coll72/id/76/rec/167
1900-1940s
1950s-present
historian
Indianapolis
Marion County
Politics