Black History News & Notes
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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. INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION Name(s)_______________________ Address_________________________________________________ City___________________State______ Zip____________ Birthdate Year ______________________ E-mail_________________Day Phone_______________ Evening Phone ________________________ Membership Categories (Check One) □ Student $20 (Under 23 years old) D Individual $40 □ Family/Dual $50 □ Sustaining $100 □ Benefactor $250 □ History Patron $500 I wish to receive the following publications (please check all those that you wish to receive): ____ Traces o f Indiana and Midwestern History, a popular history magazine _____ Indiana Magazine of History, a scholarly journal _____ The Hoosier Genealogist, a family history publication ___ Black History News & Notes, a Hoosier African American history newsletter Signature Date 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