Ball State University African American Alumni Oral History Project Phase II

Ball State University African American Alumni Oral History Project Phase II: A Thesis An Honors Thesis (HONR 499) by Nicholas Evans Thesis Advisor Dr. Michael Doyle Ball State University Muncie, Indiana April 2019 Expected Graduation May 2019 Abstract Ball State University is over a hundred years old as of the writing of this document, yet the stories of its African American alumni, like at many other institutions of higher learning, remains relatively untold. Unless a student is to explore the hallowed establishments of Historically Black Colleges and Universities where the story of minority alumni is celebrated, the African American experience attending predominantly white, higher education institutions is largely unwritten. At Ball State University I have had the pleasure of working on two projects that were similar yet told two different stories of the university. One was the BSU Centennial Immersive project, which aimed to create a series of videos dedicated to telling the history of Ball State. However, these videos lacked one major piece of history, the distinctive experiences of minorities, and in particular, African American students and alumni. The second project was the African American Alumni Oral History Project-II, led by Dr. Michael Doyle. As a member of his team, I conducted two interviews of notable African American alumni from the mid- twentieth century, Col. Aaron (“AB”) Floyd and Ms. Ella McNeary. My thesis includes my research of my interview subjects, the transcriptions of those interviews, and the final documentary for which I served as the primary editor. Acknowledgments I would like to thank Dr. Michael Doyle for inviting me to be a part of this amazing project as well as organizing and leading it. I would also like to thank him for being my thesis advisor and a mentor. Without his incredible knowledge, drive, and understanding, the project would never have existed to begin with. I would also like to thank our Project Assistant Directors Frank Lacopo and Chris Reidy, as well as Eleanor Johnson for the tireless hours they contributed to the success of this effort. My fellow student team members of this project deserve recognition: Tanner Barton, Marquice Gee, Lauren Hendricks, Allison Hunt, Mitch Kissick, Jenn Kunkle, Anna Muckenfuss, Charity Munro, and La’Vonte Pugh. Thanks to your relentless dedication and work ethic, this project was immensely successful. I would also like to extend my heartfelt thanks and love to my two interviewees, Col. AB Floyd and Ella McNeary. The time I spent with you were some of the most enjoyable moments I have had as a student of Ball State University and I am proud that recording your stories are now part of my story, too. Table of Contents I. Process Analysis Statement II. Oral History Portfolio: Col. Aaron Floyd Pre-Interview Research and Notes Interview Questions Interview Transcript Thank-You Note III. Oral History Portfolio: Ella McNeary Pre-Interview Research and Notes Interview Questions Interview Transcript Thank-You Note IV. Appendices Sources V. Digital Supplements Link Process Analysis I. Pre-Interview Stage Dr. Michael Doyle first created the Ball State African American Alumni Oral History Project (BSUAAAOHP) in the spring of 2015 because he noticed the conspicuous lack of African American representation in the history of Ball State University from the mid twentieth-century forward. This is evident in Anthony Edmonds and E. Bruce Geelhoed’s book Ball State University: An Interpretive History1 that was published in 2001. While the book has an extensive recounting of the history of Ball State University from its founding to the time the book was published, the stories of African Americans are few and far between. This was mostly due to the lack of readily available research materials. The goal of the BSUAAAOHP was thus to create a historical record of the stories of African American alumni, and thus providing future researchers of Ball State University or the experience of African Americans in institutions of higher education. Another goal of the Project was to instruct students in the proper techniques of Oral History research. The first iteration of the project was carried out in 2015 with twenty-two interviewees of African American alumni. The video interviews and corresponding transcripts were placed into the Ball State Digital Media Repository. Two years later, during the spring semester of 2017, the second iteration of the Project began. I was selected along with nine other students to be a part of this Project. The first phase of our Project began by gaining a better understanding of the histories of Ball State, Muncie, and the experiences of African Americans. This involved 1 Anthony O. Edmonds and E. Bruce Geelhoed, Ball State University: An Interpretive History. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2001. 1 the reading of three books, discussed below. In February our class took a weekend trip to Washington, D.C. to explore two Smithsonian Institution facilities, the National Museum of American History and the National Smithsonian of African American History and Culture. When we returned we attended several workshops to gain the skills necessary to conduct oral history interviewers. Each book had a daily reading assignment and corresponding study questions. Six pop quizzes were administered over a period of seven weeks to test our knowledge and comprehension of the reading materials. The class met twice a week over this stretch and these class times would be spent going over the reading material, planning the finished documentary product, and highlighting key terms and specific interests. This introduction into our topic and the research that coincided with it helped tremendously to establish the themes and goals of our project. The first book that we read was Ball State University: An Interpretive History. As this Project is about Ball State African alumni, it was important for those of us in the Project to gain a deeper understanding the of the key ideas and events of the history of Ball State from its founding as a teacher’s college up to the turn of the 21st century. The book provided critical backstory and a look at how the school’s mission has changed from being a place for the preparation and education of teachers into a university that prepares students from across the world for the 21st century workforce. It also provided us with an insight into how Ball State operated and functioned throughout the different decades of the twentieth-century, equipping us with knowledge that we could later use in our interviews when discussing our interviewee’s time at Ball State University. One specific item that was mentioned in this reading was the “splendid isolation” at the University with regards to the social movements of the 60s I found that to be an 2 interesting anecdote and decided to later ask both of my interviewees about their experiences at Ball Sate University with regards to these social movements. The second book that we read as a class was The Other Side of Middletown: Exploring Muncie's African American Community by Luke Eric Lassiter, et al2. When sociologists Robert and Helen Lynd selected Muncie to be the location for their Middletown studies in the 1920s and ‘30s they were either unaware or decided to ignore the sizeable African American community that was present in the town. As a result, the Black community was left barely mentioned in the study. Due to this oversight, Lassiter and his collaborators wrote this book so as to showcase Muncie’s African American community. Lassiter’s book and the research were done in collaboration with the Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry and the Muncie African American community. This book gives us a greater understanding of the rich cultural and historical meaning behind African American communities, in particular, the impact on churches on African American communities and families. One of my interviewees grew up and lived in Muncie, which made the relevancy of the book and the useful information it presented all the more important. The weekend of February 10th through the 12th of 2017, our team took a trip to Washington, D.C. to visit Smithsonian Institution facilities, the National Museum of American History and the National Smithsonian of African American History and Culture. While at the latter institution our team was split up into three groups. Each group was tasked with exploring one of the three floors of the museum. There was a floor about 2 Luke Eric Lassiter, Hurley Goodall, Elizabeth Campell, and Michelle Johnson, eds. The Other Side of Middletown: Exploring Muncie's African American Community. Walnut Creek: AltaMira, 2004. 3 African American Culture, a floor about African American Communities, and a floor that started in the basement and rose to the main floor of the museum that was about the history of African Americans. While my group was unable to make it to the floor about history, we were able to explore both the floor dealing with communities and culture. The three hours spent at the museum provided me with a greater understanding and appreciation of African American communities and the cultural impact African American’s have had on the United States. As the official National Museum of African American history, it is without a doubt the most detailed, immersive, and educational museum possible. Upon our return from D.C. we began to read the final book of the three, Doing Oral History3 by Donald A. Ritchie. As Dr. Doyle was the only person with experience in conducting oral history projects, it was important that all of us gained the necessary rudimentary understanding of the subject. The book provided important information about the use of oral histories in historical research and the history of oral histories as a means of historical archiving.

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