BLACK HISTORY NEWS & NOTES

INDIANAHISIOmCAlSOCIETY

WINTER 2007 VOLUME 29, NUMBER 1

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. DAY AT IHS

The Indiana Historical Society (IHS) “Lincoln’s Assassination & Trial of opened its doors for an inaugural Martin Conspirators” in the Faces of Lincoln Luther King, Jr. celebration day to com­ Gallery. memorate the life and legacy of the man Several Indiana Historical Society vol­ who became a Baptist minister and an unteers helped the King Day celebration American icon for human and civil rights. flow smoothly. Over one thousand peo­ Ordinarily closed on Mondays, the ple came for the day’s events. The Historical Society had an array of activi­ Historical Society sponsored crafts, activ­ ties for visitors on Monday, January 15 ities, performances, and films. The activ­ from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. One highlight of ities included making demonstrator pins, the day was an exhibition, “Sharing the Storyteller Celestine Bloomfield picture frames, decorated paper “friends,” Dream: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in engaged her audience. and collage cards. There were numerous David Turk, Indiana Historical Society Indiana,” on display at the Indiana presentations by groups including The History Center from January 6 through Write Me Project, a spoken word per­ March 31, 2007. The exhibit in the community sponsor for the day. They formance organization; Metropolitan Society’s Lacy Gallery showcased photo­ made free one-day bus passes available to Youth Orchestra, a children’s community graphs and letters from the library collec­ visitors. Big Brothers Big Sisters of group; and the Kenyetta Dance Company, tions that demonstrated King’s associa­ Central Indiana, Martin University, and performers of contemporary and modern tion with Indiana cities and Hoosier the Indiana Repertory Theatre staffed dancing. The Indiana Repertory Theatre participation in the Civil Rights tables and provided activities and infor­ provided excerpts from August Wilson’s Movement. A scrapbook of news clip­ mation about their organizations. play, Gem of the Ocean, and the Asante pings gave visitors a sense of print media As they do during normal business Children’s Theatre Kwanzaa Choir ren­ coverage during the period. The multi- hours, all visitors during the celebration dered gospel selections. Individuals also media exhibit also included a record­ had access to the William Henry Smith ing of King’s voice as he deliv­ Memorial Library, as well as the Indiana ered his “I Have a Dream” Historical Society’s vast historical hold­ speech on the steps of the ings, which include 5,500 cataloged col­ Lincoln Monument in lections, 1.6 million photographs, 45,000 ^ Washington, D.C. on printed items, 14,000 pieces of sheet V August 28, 1963. music, and thousands of other historical­ Indy Go ly significant items. IHS materials used served as in the development of the Sharing the Dream exhibit included the Indianapolis Recorder, Henry J. Richardson, and The “Sharing the Dream: Dr. Martin vv\ Harvey N. Middleton collections. Luther King Jr. and Indiana” exhibit Visitors also spent time enjoying two in the Lacy Gallery encouraged other exhibits in the building: “Hoosiers young visitors to learn more about in Hollywood” in the Rapp Family the Civil Rights era. YY a V * ^ Gallery and on the Mezzanine and David Turk, Indiana Historical Society

BHNN_2007_NO1 offered various public displays of talent including Melita Carter, a young poet; Kevin Caraher, a Robert F. Kennedy interpreter; and Celentine Bloomfield, a storyteller. As the final activity of the day, the Historical Society hosted the annual Martin Luther King Multi-Service Center’s Legacy Awards-an event that includes recognition of individuals who have supported the work of the Center, as well as, presentations by the children and young people involved with the organization. The event was held in the Society’s Frank and Katrina Basile Theater. This was the first time that the King Center had held its awards program outside of its own facility. Ten local leaders received “Legacy Recognition” awards for their leadership and advocacy of young people. Brooke Moreland, the Broad Ripple High School Key Club president and the 2006 Hoosier Girls State Governor, received the Center’s coveted “Living the The Kenyetta Dance Company performed in the Legacy Award.” The program included performances by various youth includ­ Great Hall. The diverse company especially ing James A. Knight II, an Eagle scout, who performed King’s “I have a explores modern and contemporary dance. dream” speech; students from LaPlaza’s Diversity & Leadership Youth Training program; and the newly formed Hip Hop Congress-Indianapolis Chapter.

Indiana Historical Society volunteers like Nancy Webster, Director of Admissions, and her students from University High School of Indiana in Carmel helped young children with Kevin Caraher re-created and several different craft activities. performed the speech that Robert F. Kennedy gave in Indianapolis the night (April 4, 1968) that Martin Luther King was assassinated. All photographs by David Turk, Indiana Historical Society.

Black History News and Notes is a quarterly publication of the Indiana Historical Society Library. Essential to the Black History Program’s success is community involvement and commitment to the study of Indiana’s African American heritage. To become a Society member or for further information, write the Indiana Historical Society, 450 West Ohio Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46202 (317) 232-1882. Correspondence concerning Black History News and Notes should be addressed to Wilma L. Moore, Editor ([email protected]). This issue of Black History News and Notes is made possible through collaboration with the Office of the Vice President for Institutional Development and Student Affairs at Indiana University.

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2 Indianapolis and Slavery: “A Moral Refrigerator” T. A. Hendrickson

Who was the first African American to immediate emancipation. Noah Webster 1852. Douglass adopted the view that the speak frequently and effectively on behalf defined abolition in his 1841 dictionary Constitution was not inimical to abolition, of antislavery? Most people might assume and careful writers like Abraham Lincoln that the Union should be preserved, and it was Frederick Douglass. Many have capitalized the word. Many Northerners that emancipation should be sought probably not heard of Charles Lenox disliked slavery but were gradualists. They through political parties, moral persuasion Remond. Remond came to Indiana on a wishfully thought slavery might go away and the ballot box. group lecturing tour in September 1843. someday. The general public looked upon The Indianapolis event was organized He spoke at Cherry Grove in Randolph abolitionists as fanatical and dangerous.2 by Luke Munsell, one of the founders of County; Camden (now Pennville) in Jay Indianapolis was considered the “west” the Indiana Anti-Slavery Society. In 1835 County; Jonesboro in Grant County; and was at the western end of the lecturing he had been Corresponding Secretary of Westfield in Hamilton County; and Old path for the abolitionists. The group began the Kentucky Anti-Slavery Society upon Milan in Ripley County. He was unable to in western Massachusetts in July 1843 and its formation and almost immediately fled join with his white colleagues at crossed New England, New York, Ohio, Kentucky, fearing for his life. He had Noblesville in Hamilton County because and eastern Indiana to make countless directed the Kentucky State School for the of a mobbing, and at Indianapolis and talks. They would return east to Philadel­ Deaf that attracted students from Indiana Greenwood, Johnson County, because of phia by December, lecturing across south­ before the state had a comparable institu­ threats of mobbings. ern Ohio and Pennsylvania. A second team tion. A doctor, surveyor, and mapmaker, Remond, small and wiry, age 33, was a that included Douglass (still a fugitive Munsell had surveyed the Kentucky- native of Salem, Massachusetts, and was slave), George Bradbum, and William A. Tennessee line and taught at Centre College born free. He had campaigned five years White lectured in nearby areas. in Danville, Kentucky. In Indianapolis he for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery and Depending on housing, contributions of became town surveyor, its mapmaker, and American Anti-Slavery Societies, of which local sympathizers, and funds raised by a daguerreotypist. William Lloyd Garrison was the moral ladies in Massachusetts, this so-called In August 1843 Munsell wrote other leader. After lecturing and raising vital “Hundred Conventions” national tour with abolitionists: “No building can be obtained donations in the British Isles during many speakers was never duplicated. for the holding of such a meeting. 1840-1841, Remond was in the forefront The Douglass team, with the addition of Abolitionists are a hissing and a by-word of persuading Massachusetts railroads to Ann Reynolds, was to speak in Richmond, here; and I am not sure that they would not desegregate their passenger cars. Indiana on September 29, 1843. Dangers be mobbed in open day, if they were to Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery of mobbing were greater in cities like attempt to hold a convention here in the in 1838 and joined Remond on the lecture Indianapolis and Richmond than in country open fields. For one, I am, however, will­ circuit in 1842. The powerful platform pair towns. The Indiana planners chose these ing that the trial should be made. Let a day assailed racism and slavery together in centers and the date in order to commemo­ be set, and let as many friends from abroad New England and western New York. rate the shame they conceived in Henry as possible be present. There are some true Remond, Sydney Gay, and James W. Clay's visit to these places a year earlier as and hearty friends of the cause of liberty Monroe planned to present morning and he began his campaign for the Whig Party and Humanity here, who will not easily be afternoon talks from the steps of the old during the 1844 presidential nomination. In driven from their integrity."5 State House in Indianapolis on Friday, September 1842 Clay, accompanied by his Ardent abolitionist and physician, September 29, 1843. enslaved servant, spoke to a throng of peo­ Edwin Fussell of Pendleton foresaw a need Gay was 39 and had been recruited by ple at Richmond and then was feted at a for listeners to come from beyond Remond only weeks earlier. He studied at barbecue in Indianapolis.3 Indianapolis because “Indianapolis is the Harvard and then for the law. Recently he As Clay spoke before the Richmond very fortress of pro-slavery in this State. It had been a teacher. A skilled writer, Gay crowd a petition was presented by aboli­ is a moral refrigerator..."6 Fussell's hyper­ traveled as far west as Illinois and as far tionists beseeching him to free his fifty bole probably spoke to the climate of the east as China. Monroe was only 22, had slaves in Kentucky. Clay deliberately and city. Effects of the devastating depression Quaker upbringing, and graduated from unwisely scolded the presenter, saying “go of 1837 were prevalent. Indianapolis the Plainfield Academy near his Connecti­ home and mind your own business.” lawyer Calvin Fletcher was antislavery and cut home. He sprinkled his talks with Whigs loved the put down but abolitionists a friend of African Americans. He was humor. Garrison recruited him after he hoped, some say prophetically, to make against radicals that might shatter the spoke at the American Anti-Slavery Clay regret this challenge in the 1844 elec­ Union. He passed up the lectures.7 Society's meeting in May.1 tion outcome.4 Munsell was a close friend of Austin The North and South spoke different Douglass was fast becoming one of the Ackley who was a doctor, temperance lec­ languages. To many Southerners the terms finest orators of the nineteenth century. turer, and fellow abolitionist. They were “abolitionism” and “antislavery” were syn­ Remond might well have become jealous leaders in their church who were admon­ onyms, but elsewhere “abolitionism” or of Douglass, but they worked together ished for wayward behavior by their mem­ “abolitionist” specifically meant a belief in until separating over principles around bers. Munsell was forced to apologize

3 before the congregation for his drinking. three abolitionists were supposed to speak Pendleton on September 15, 1843. A charge of marital infidelity against on Saturday, September 30. (Douglass made no report, the mob having Ackley was dismissed for lack of evi­ Remond and the others took these broken his writing hand on the following dence. According to a fellow parishioner rumors seriously. Remond continued to day.) The Baptist minister had opened his they both eventually left Indianapolis lecture in Westfield and wrote a letter to church for morning lectures, but closed it because they could not make a living there supporters in Rochester, New York. The in the afternoon because of threats to while espousing abolitionism. The parish­ supporters, the Posts, had been so warm destroy the building. Bradburn, a minister ioner wrote: “Bold enough to avow their that Remond and Douglass had returned himself, labeled the unnamed pastor a cow­ principles, they were exceedingly unpopu­ from Buffalo to Rochester and nearby ard. The minister, who had cofounded the lar with the masses, and in their struggle to Mendon for unscheduled talks, missing local antislavery society likely was con­ combat popular opinion found it extreme­ most of their Ohio itinerary. Some years cerned about destruction of his sanctuary.10 ly difficult to support themselves and their later Douglass settled in Rochester. On Professional abolition agents had families. They literally had no practice."8 September 30, Remond rode in the rain the organized antislavery and abolition soci­ Remond and his colleagues lectured thirty miles from Westfield to Greenwood eties all over the North before 1843, but within the safety of Westfield, twenty to rejoin Gay and Monroe. No report exists none in Indianapolis. Beside Munsell and miles north of Indianapolis. Quakers at of his having any companion on this Ackley, the only known abolitionists Westfield were among a minority of potentially hazardous ride. spending time in Indianapolis were Friends in Indiana adopting abolition prin­ While word had spread of the mobbing Charles Beecher, church music director ciples early in 1843. Probably on of the Douglass team at Pendleton two and brother of Henry Ward Beecher; Thursday, September 28, 1843, shortly weeks earlier, Indianapolis newspapers Alexander Graydon, an organizer of the before 2 a.m., Gay and Monroe, without printed no word about it until November, Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society before Remond, together with four Westfield when the Whig Journal editorialized that he moved West and opened his hardware No riot or mobbing took place in Indianapolis . . .

Friends, and Fussell, a Hicksite Quaker, the Pendleton riot was incited by “shame­ business; and Jeremiah Sullivan, an mounted their horses and rode toward less itinerants” from the East. It made fun Indiana Supreme Court judge, best known Indianapolis. Why they left in the dark is of the Douglass team as “preaching for giving Indianapolis its name. Attorney not known, but perhaps they wished not to prowlers upon the public peace.” The John L. Ketcham, Charles Beecher, and be seen on the road or needed all coming paper detested abolitionists even more Luke Munsell served as hosts to the visit­ daylight to post notices. than the Democrat Sentinel because a few ing abolitionists.11 The Whig Journal and Democrat Whigs were joining the abolitionist No riot or mobbing took place in Sentinel vied with each other in their Liberty Party.9 Indianapolis and one can only speculate on hatred of abolitionists and printed nothing Abolitionist journals were equally one­ the reason why. The “officers” reported as about the lecturers coming to town. The sided. While church-going was a major present might have been the township con­ entourage knew they had to scout part of American culture, Garrison had stables, the county sheriff, or militiamen, Indianapolis for reasons of their own safe­ labeled ministers “a brotherhood of as the town is thought not to have had ty. Gay reported that “it was thought not thieves” and “pious foes.” Abolitionists police. A week or two earlier the Indiana safe for Remond to go with us, or even insisted that ministers sermonize against governor called out two hundred militia to safe that we should enter the city until men slavery as a sin and open their church protect the jail at Anderson from a mob had been sent forward to ascertain the state doors to abolition lectures, dismissing the threatening to break out a prisoner from of affairs." risk of destruction to their church build­ the Pendleton jail. These mounted militia­ His friends had persuaded Remond that ings. Most people thought slavery and men might have been confused as putative it was too dangerous for him to visit racism to be intractable political issues, mobbers by Fussell’s informant.12 Indianapolis or go to the following not church issues. Abolitionists insisted Munsell, Ackley, Graydon, Ketcham, engagement in Greenwood. Warning had that American churches could not remain Charles Beecher, the Town Council presi­ come from Fussell, who had organized the Christian while tolerating slavery. They dent, and the militia commander were Pendleton talks and witnessed the riot made no exceptions for ministers that sup­ members of the Second Presbyterian there resulting in injuries to both Douglass ported them. For example, the abolitionists Church of Indianapolis, lead by minister and White. In Westfield he heard stories of reported that Gay and Remond spoke at Henry Ward Beecher, age thirty. Beecher an organized mob parading in the streets the Greenwood Presbyterian Church but strongly believed in free speech and possi­ of Indianapolis in open day, with banners did not mention the name of the minister bly exercised a calming influence. That flying and rifles loaded, all ready to shoot or that he too was an abolitionist that had night a mobbing took place in Richmond down abolitionists with an avowed inten­ helped organize the Greenwood Anti- and White was egged. Racism might have tion “to bum, kill and destroy” if the meet­ Slavery Society, unusual for any minister played a part in these differences. It was ings were held. There was also report of a at the time. commonly known that Remond was not in mob on horseback at Greenwood, ten Another example is the reports of aboli­ Indianapolis but the Richmond mobbers miles south of Indianapolis, where the tionists concerning their experiences at wrongly thought they would find Douglass

4 present because he had spoken there in the afternoon. A surprise was that Henry Ward Beecher placed himself beside Gay and Monroe on the Indiana State House steps, seizing the symbolism as a defining instant in his path to antislavery and free speech honor during the 1850s and 1860s. Yet all his life, even after abolitionists gained respect during the Civil War, Beecher denied being an abolitionist. He stated the case graphically, saying that to be thought an abolitionist was worse than to be known to have the plague. Abolitionism was a kind of civil religion. Beecher considered slavery sinful and held to his own religion.14 Beecher's stance on the State House Old Indiana State House in Indianapolis, as approached from the northeast, showing steps was surprising because he had Whig yard and steps. parishioners supporting Clay and he had Bass Photo Co Collection, Indiana Historical Society been critical of abolitionists. In May 1836 while editing a weekly Presbyterian paper speeches a success and that a breach had afternoon in the State House yard, and he criticized the radicalism of abolition­ been made in the walls of the ‘pro-slavery though there were some hints of a mob, ists. He spoke in favor of colonization citadel of the State.’ He wrote that some and some indications of one, no distur­ (relocation of blacks to Africa)-an anathe­ came “with baskets in their hands, loaded bances occurred. Two or three friends, and ma to abolitionists, while he was a pastor with provisions-mostly eggs-which they those with us, think a good work was done in Lawrenceburg, Indiana during 1838. In intended to present to us; but the officers in obtaining a hearing, though out of 1840 he gratuitously criticized George gave them to understand that they ‘ought doors.”16 Thompson, an iconic English abolition not to entertain strangers’ in that way; and Beecher was called to Brooklyn in lecturer. While in Crawfordsville, Indiana, they quietly remained, and peacefully 1847. Remond continued his hazardous just prior to his appearance on the State departed.” lecturing career during slavery times, later House steps, he had criticized both the Monroe wrote that “The assembly in becoming a light inspector and then a “harsh voice” of abolitionists and support­ the morning was small. In the afternoon it Boston customs clerk. Monroe graduated ers of slavery.15 increased to two or three hundred and from Oberlin College. He served in the Newspapers did not report Beecher’s many of the most influential people in the Ohio House and Senate, as Lincoln's con­ stance at the State House. The Sentinel place were present. Frequent threats of sul to Brazil during the Civil War, in the presented a brief garbled account of the violence were made during the day, but U.S. Congress during the 1870s, and then Richmond lectures and stated that the owing to the efforts of the more as an Oberlin professor. Gay became a Indianapolis meetings were “very small respectable portions of the citizens, perfect newspaper editor, most notably managing and passed off without disturbance.” It order was maintained-one offender of the editor of Horace Greeley's influential New gave no other news of the event. The ‘peculiar institution’ put a brickbat into his York Tribune during the Civil War. Journal printed nothing about the pocket to throw at my head while I was In some respects Beecher's quiet stand Indianapolis lectures. Fussell reported that speaking but was prevented by the watch­ on the State House steps was not unchar­ “...instead of finding [Indianapolis] as we fulness of the friends. Gay made an inter­ acteristic. He was ever a consummate expected-all excitement and violence, it esting speech in the afternoon upon the illustrator and demonstrator, in easy com­ was more like the dead calm which pre­ political connection of the North with mand of informal and captivating gestures, cedes the earthquake. All the moral ele­ Slavery, which was listened to with pro­ and a master of colorful expression.17 ment seemed to be hushed to sleep, and a found attention. I followed him for two Before Beecher died Frederick Douglass coldness, like unto death, filled the atmos­ hours and a half upon the principles and paid him the following tribute: “As a col­ phere. . .In the morning, about one hundred measures of the abolitionists. I believe my ored man and one who has felt the lash and and fifty men were present; in the after­ remarks were very well received. The sting of slavery, I cannot forget the power­ noon about three hundred of the elite of friends of the cause here regarded the con­ ful words of this man in the cause of jus­ the town (only five women) attended.” S. vention here as a decided triumph of our tice and liberty, and in the righteous H. Gay made a strong speech on the polit­ cause...the respectful silence with which denunciation of slavery. Standing in his ical “bearings of the question.” the great truths of anti-slavery were lis­ own place outside the abolition ranks, he Fussell wrote that Monroe followed tened to by its inhabitants taught us to probably did more to generate antislavery with a dynamic speech that made listeners believe the abolitionists were beginning to sentiment than he could have done by tak­ alternately laugh and then catch their be respected at head and quarters of the ing his stand inside those ranks.”18 breath in seriousness. Fussell thought the State.. .We spoke both in the morning and

5 ENDNOTES reprint), p. 117; and Free Labor Advocate Chronicle, Oct. 20, 1843; and Berry R. and Anti-Slavery Chronicle, Sept. 8, 1843. Sulgrove, History of Indianapolis and 1. National Anti-Slavery Standard, Sept. 6. Free Labor Advocate and Anti- Marion County (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts 7, 1843; August Meier and Elliott Rudwick, Slavery Chronicle, Sept. 8. 1843. & Co., 1884; Evansville, Indiana: “The Role of Blacks in the Abolitionist 7. William Wesley Woollen, Biograph­ Unigraphic, 1974 reprint), p. 121. Movement,” in John H. Bracey, Jr., August ical and Historical Sketches of Early 13. Jane Elsmere, Henry Ward Beecher: Meier, and Elliott Rudwick, editors, Blacks Indiana (Indianapois: Hammond & Co., The Indiana Years, 1837-1847 in the Abolitionist Movement (Belmont, 1883, Arno Press, 1975 reprint), 464, 466 (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, California: Wadsworth Publishing and Gayle Thombrough and Dorothy L. 1973), p. 78. Company, 1970), p. 112; Carter G. Riker, eds., The Diary of Calvin Fletcher, 14. Free Labor Advocate and Anti- Woodson and Charles H. Wesley, The Vol. II 1838-1843 (Indianapolis: Indiana Slavery Chronicle, Oct. 6, 13, 1843; Negro in Our History (Washington, D. C.: Historical Society, 1973). William C. Beecher and Rev. Samuel Associated Publishers, 1922, 10th ed. 8. Jacob Piatt Dunn, Jr., Greater Scoville, assisted by Mrs. Henry Ward 1962), pp. 315-16; Dictionary of American Indianapolis, Vol. I (Chicago: The Lewis [Eunice] Beecher, A Biography of Henry Biography, biographies of Remond on Publishing Co., 1910; repr. Evansville, Ward Beecher, pp. 185-6; Constance Indiana public library database, Inspire. Indiana: Unigraphic 1977), p. 394; Free Mayfield Rourke, Trumpets of Jubilee Raimond Erhard Goerler, “Family, Self and Labor and Anti-Slavery Chronicle, 20 Oct. (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1927), p. Anti-Slavery: Sydney Howard Gay and the 1843; Martha White Talbert Diary 1826- 180; J. H. Tewksbury, ed., Henry Ward Abolitionist Gay Commitment,” Ph.D dis­ 1890, p. 6.; The Protectionist, Aug. 7. Beecher As His Friends Saw Him (Boston: sertation (Cleveland, Ohio: Case Western 1841; and William C. Beecher and Rev. the Pilgrim Press, 1904), p. 12; and Reserve University, 1975), pp. 201-3; C. Samuel Scoville, assisted by Mrs. Henry Dwight Hillis Newell, ed., Lectures and Peter Ripley, Donald Yacavone, Michael F. Ward [Eunice] Beecher, A Biography of Orations by Henry Ward Beecher (New Hembree, eds., The Black Abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher (New York: Charles York: 1913; AMS reprint, 1970), p. 216. Papers, Vol. 3 (Chapel Hill: University of L. Webster & Company, 1888}, pp. 185-6. 15. Milton Rugoff, An American Family North Carolina Press, 1991), p. 235; 9. Free Labor Advocate and Anti- in the Nineteenth Century (New York: Biographical Directory of American Slavery Chronicle, Oct. 20, 1843. National Harper & Row, 1981), p. 251; Paxton Congress, 1774-1971 (Washington, D. C.: Anti-Slavery Standard, Nov. 2, 1843. Hibben, Henry Ward Beecher: An U. S. Government Printing Office, 1971), p. Indianapolis Session issue of Indiana State American Portrait (New York: George H. 1425; Catherine M. Rokicky, James Journal, Nov. 14, 1843. Doran Company, 1927), p. 92; Jane Monroe: Oberlin's Christian Statesman and 10. Russel B. Nye, William Lloyd Elsmere, Henry Ward Beecher: The Reformer, 1821-1898 (Kent, Ohio: Kent Garrison and the Humanitarian Indiana Years, 1837-1847, p. 68; and State University Press, 2002); and William Reformers (Boston: Little, Brown, 1955), Henry Ward Beecher, An Address L. Garrison, The Letters of William L. pp. 42,51,136; Philip Sydney Cleland, A Delivered Before the Platonean Society of Garrison, Vol. 3, #64, Louis Ruchames, Sermon. Delivered. Sabbath, July 4, 1841, the Indiana Asbury University, September editor (Cambridge, Massa-chusetts: in the Greenwood Presbyterian Church, 15, 1840, (Indianapolis: the Author, 1840); Belknap Press of Harvard, 1971), p. 157. Greenwood, Indiana; National Anti- and Henry Ward Beecher Collection, 2. Abraham Lincoln capitalized the Slavery Standard, Oct. 19, 1843; Library of Congress, sermon notes, word “Abolitionist.” Benjamin P. Thomas, Philadelphia National Enquirer, Aug. 3, Container 3. Abraham Lincoln, A Biography (New 1837; Emancipator, Aug. 17, 1837; 16. Indiana State Sentinel, Oct. 10, York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1952), p. 151. National Anti-Slavery Standard, Oct. 19, 1843, from Richmond's The Jeffersonian; 3. Free Labor Advocate and Anti- 1843 and Nov. 2, 1843; and Free Labor National Anti-Slavery Standard, Nov. 2, Slavery Chronicle, Oct. 4, 1843 and Advocate and Anti-Slavery Chronicle, Oct. 1843 and Free Labor Advocate and Anti- Liberator, Sept. 2, 1843. 20, 1843. Slavery Chronicle, Oct. 20, 1843. 4. New York Daily Tribune, 21 Oct. 11. Mary Ellen Graydon Sharpe, A 17. See endnote 1 for biographies. 1842 and Cincinnati Philanthropist, Oct. Family Retrospective (Indianapolis: The Lewis O. Brastow, D. D., Representative 11, 1842. Hollenbeck Press, 1909), pp. 27, 50, 58; Modern Preachers (Freeport, New York: 5. Hubert Vance Taylor, “Slavery and Emancipator, Feb. 9 and June 1, 1837; Books for Libraries Press, 1904; 1968 the Deliberations of the Presbyterian William Wesley Woollen, Biographical reprint), pp. 98, 139. General Assembly, 1833-1838,” Ph.D. and Historical Sketches of Early Indiana 18. Lyman Abbott, D.D., assisted by Dissertation (Evanston, Illinois: (Indianapois: Hammond & Co., 1883; Rev. S. B. Halliday, Henry Ward Beecher: Northwestern University, 1964), p. 140; Amo Press, 1975 reprint), p. 366; and A Sketch o f His Career (New York: Proceedings of the Indiana Convention, Proceedings of the Indiana Convention, American Publishing Company, 1887), p. Assembled to Organize a State Anti- Assembled to Organize a State Anti- 362. Slavery Society, held in Milton, Wayne Co., Slavery Society, held in Milton, Wayne Co., T. A. Hendrickson is a lawyer and on September 12th, 1828 (Cincinnati: Samuel September 12th, 1828. the Board of the Indiana Freedom Trails, a A. Alley, Printer, 1838). Indiana State 12. Jacob Piatt Dunn, Jr., Greater statewide Underground Railroad group. Sentinel, Sept. 11, 1835; Jacob Piatt Dunn, Indianapolis, Vol. I (Chicago: The Lewis The organization advocates for historical Jr., Greater Indianapolis, Vol. I (Chicago: Publishing Co., 1910; Evansville, Indiana: research of sites and people associated The Lewis Publishing Co., 1910, Unigraphic 1977 reprint), p. 136; Free with the movement. Evansville, Indiana: Unigraphic 1977 Labor Advocate and Anti-Slavery

6 THE MEMORY OF THE HOME FUNERAL Jason Meyers

Perhaps you are sitting in a offered even deeper personal mean­ comfortable chair in your living ing. An outdoorsman’s club might room as you read your copy of present a rod and reel tribute to their Black History News & Notes. If so, brother. Fellows at the firehouse you may find it ironically fascinat­ might send a fire engine for their ing while reading this article that comrade. The style and scope was the term “living room” emerged as only limited by imagination and a direct result of changing budget. American death practices, and that In addition to handling the your descendants once used the liv­ incoming numbers of floral tributes, ing room’s historical counterpart, the funeral director also provided \ the parlor, for their loved ones’ chairs and other paraphernalia nec­ funerals. essary for the funeral service itself. It is encouraging to see how During the earlier Victorian Era in * the Museum of Funeral Customs’s Martha Lattimore in her sister’s home at 421 the last decades of the 19th century, exhibits often resurrect long buried Hiawatha Street in Indianapolis, 1907. this included draping much of the memories for many older visitors Frances Patterson Collection, Indiana Historical Society parlor with plenty of black crepe, who experienced a home funeral, keeping the room subdued and illu­ generally as a young child. Their minated with only a couple of gas or stories are almost universally the same. The undertaker arrived oil lamps. Following the funeral service, pallbearers carried the and all but took over the house. After meeting with the immedi­ coffin or casket from the parlor to a waiting hearse outside, at ate family to plan the funeral, the undertaker then prepared the which point the procession would begin its way to the cemetery. body. While not usually privy to this operation, most visitors While away, the undertaker and/or assistants would stay behind to recall that embalming took place in the kitchen, and for quite log­ pack up their equipment and return the home to normal. ical reasons. The room usually did not have carpet (so the under­ During the 1920s more and more funeral directors began ren­ taker need not worry about stains). It often had a more discreet ovating homes or building new businesses to create what is rec­ back door (so the undertaker need not traipse through the house ognized today as the modem funeral home. While not a transition with equipment), and it had access to water (necessary for clean­ occurring overnight, the home funeral gradually gave way to the ing the body and diluting embalming fluids). The undertaker mortuary service as Americans became comfortable with the idea embalmed the body on a portable table brought to the house for of the funeral director taking away their loved ones and conduct­ that purpose, along with other equipment required for prepara­ ing services outside the confines of the home. Other practical tion. In some cases, the funeral director may have used a bed in matters influenced this shift. One, it proved more convenient for one of the bedrooms. both the funeral director, who no longer had to transport all of the After preparation, the body was dressed and casketed and equipment to the house, and for the family, whose home was no affairs moved to the parlor, the room designated for social func­ longer encumbered by paraphernalia and crowds. Additionally, tions. Friends and family would call upon those in mourning dur­ the rise of apartment complexes and other multi-family housing ing reasonable hours for the next day or two and some volun­ meant that many families simply did not have enough room in teered to stay up with the deceased during the night. Then there their homes to accommodate a funeral. were the flowers. Growing in popularity and quantity beginning By the end of World War II, the majority of burial rites took in the 1870s, floral tributes offered comfort and beauty during place in the funeral home, as opposed to the family home. The such difficult times, and often added a little stylized statement. It practice of home funerals, once universal throughout the country was not uncommon for basic sprays, baskets, and vases to fill one across many cultural communities, faded quickly after that, end of the parlor, literally surround­ although the practice was not entirely ing the casket around, below, and uncommon in rural areas even into , above. Standard or customized “set the 1960s. Today they are very rare pieces” - flowers and greenery events. arranged into specific designs and And what of the parlor? It, too, * objects were often interspersed in has faded from the modem scene; its between these tributes. The pieces association with death and funerals symbolized a certain idea or theme, deemed negative and gloomy. In its and might have portrayed a particular stead, “living room” seemed an religious or personal aspect of the appropriate term to bury the popular deceased. Common designs might images conjured up by its historical be the broken wheel representing the synonym. loss in a family’s unity; a cross or anchor signifying faith; a broken col­ Jason Meyers is an historian by umn denoting a short life; or the education and the curator o f the wreath embodying eternity. Museum of Funeral Customs in Elaborately customized “set pieces” Springfield, IL.

7 L e g a c y : T r e a s u r e s o f major new contribution to African eties to twenty-first century art and poli­ B l a c k H is t o r y American history. The Black experience tics, making this book as definitive as it is A National Geographic Publication and its impact on our nation’s culture and beautiful—a priceless resource that will character come alive in twelve chapters inform and fascinate serious students and Legacy: Treasures o f Black History that sweep from ancient Africa and the casual readers alike. presents the astonishing collection of slave trade to such key eras as the Civil Battle, director of the Moorland- African Americana from the treasures of War, Emancipation, Reconstruction, the Spingam Research Center since 1986, is an Howard University’s Moorland-Spingarn Harlem Renaissance, the Jim Crow Era, the author, lecturer, historian, and consultant. Research Center. While researching and modern Civil Rights and the Black He is the co-author of Black Bibliophiles accessing the collections of the Moorland- Power/Black Arts movements. and Collectors: Preservers of Black Spingarn Research Center (MSRC) for The more than 150 historic items show­ History and Howard in Retrospect: Images other publishing projects, the editorial staff cased here include documents, letters, of the Capstone. of National Geographic became keenly images, and artifacts. Readers will find Donna M. Wells is prints and photo­ aware of the vastness and richness of the eighteenth century maps of Africa; the pin­ graphs librarian at the Moorland-Spingarn Center’s resources. Inspired by its treas­ cushion of Elizabeth Keckley, Mrs. Research Center. She has served as adviser ures, National Geographic published the Lincoln’s seamstress; Depression-era on numerous history-related projects and book in October 2006 (ISBN 1-4262-0006- images by Robert M. McNeil; and a has published and presented on Washing­ 4; $35.00). Langston Hughes letter in which he first ton, D.C. history and on the African- Legacy is edited by Thomas C. Battle shares his famous poem I, Too, Sing American image. and Donna M. Wells of the Moorland- America. John Hope Franklin is the James B. Spingarn Research Center. The book Rare photographs show a unique Duke Professor Emeritus of History and focuses on various themes and chronologi­ daguerreotype of Frederick Douglass in former professor of legal history at the law cal periods and is richly illustrated with profile and the Fisk Jubilee Singers, circa school of Duke University. He is a recipi­ selections from the Center’s many graphic 1880. Objects include a bell belonging to ent of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. resources and artifacts. Sally Hemmings, Thomas Jefferson’s slave His books include the award-winning From From its introduction by the revered and and companion and NAACP membership Slavery to Freedom: A History of African distinguished John Hope Franklin to an buttons from the 1960s. Americans. For additional information afterword by the notable scholar and author Twenty-six prominent scholars offer contact Howard University, Moorland- Charles Blockson, Legacy represents a expert insights on the collection, on sub­ Spingarn Research Center, (202) 806- jects ranging from traditional African soci­ 7239/40.

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