Collection Information
Biographical Sketch
Scope and Content Note
Cataloging Information
Processed
by:
Wilma L. Gibbs
28 October 1992
Updated 21 April 2004
Manuscript and Visual Collections Department
William Henry Smith Memorial Library
Indiana Historical Society
450 West Ohio Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202-3269
VOLUME OF COLLECTION: one bound volume
COLLECTION DATES:
PROVENANCE: Emma Lou Thornbrough, Indianapolis, IN, October 1992
RESTRICTIONS: None
COPYRIGHT: Held by the Indiana Historical Society
ALTERNATE FORMATS: None
OTHER FINDING AIDS: None
RELATED HOLDINGS: None
ACCESSION NUMBER: 1993.0029
NOTES: The manuscript, "The Indianapolis Study: School Segregation and Desegregation in a Northern City," was originally completed by Emma Lou Thornbrough in compliance with a University of Illinois Press contract.
Emma Lou Thornbrough (1913-1994), professor emeritus, Butler University was born in Indianapolis, where she received her early education. A recipient of degrees from Butler University and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Michigan, she is a pioneer among professional historians who have researched and published in the field of African-American history. Although she has written numerous scholarly articles and books, the concentration of her work has been in Indiana history with a focus on African-Americans. Her vast range of interest and expertise is suggested by a selected review of her published works which include Black Reconstructionists, Booker T. Washington, Eliza A. Blaker: Her Life and Work, Indiana in the Civil War Years, The Negro in Indiana before 1900, Since Emancipation: A Short History of Indiana Negroes, 1863-1963, and T. Thomas Fortune, Militant Journalist.
Source: Directory of American Scholars, 8th ed. Jacque Cattell Press (ed.) New York: R.R. Bowker, 1982.
The collection consists of one bound copy of Emma Lou Thornbrough's original, unpublished manuscript, "The Indianapolis Story: School Segregation and Desegregation in a Northern City." The 620-page study, completed in 1989, contains a preface, twelve chapters, notes, and a bibliography. Chapters 1 and 2 give an overview of the historically pervasive climate of segregated education in Indiana and Indianapolis. Commencing in chapter 3, Thornbrough details the city's desegregation strides dating from the passage of the 1949 Indiana School Desegregation Law. She presents in great depth the roles of the Indianapolis Public School (IPS) Board, various advocacy groups, and the public-at-large in response to a lawsuit initiated by the United States Justice Department against IPS. Although the lawsuit was brought in 1968, the case did not come to trial until 1971 when IPS was found guilty of practicing de jure segregation. The case, along with subsequently related trials, was held in the Federal District Court of Southern Indiana before Judge Samuel Hugh Dillin.
The study demonstrates the posturing of several school-related groups, Citizens for Quality Schools, CHOICE, Citizens School Committee, Non-Partisans, and the Citizens Advisory Committee; civic organizations, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Indianapolis Urban League, League of Women Voters, Butler-Tarkington Neighborhood Association, and the Young Women's Christian Association; and governmental agencies, Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee and the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, as city residents struggled for two decades to develop an acceptable plan to desegregate their schools. Although there were many changes instituted in the school district as a result of the lawsuit, the most dramatic consequence was the decision to impose one-way busing (black children were bused out of the inner city to predominantly white township schools) to achieve integration.
For additional information on this collection, including a list of subject headings that may lead you to related materials:
1. Go to the Indiana Historical Society's online catalog: http://157.91.92.2/
2. Click on the "Basic Search" icon.
3. Select "Call Number" from the "Search In:" box.
4. Search for the collection by its basic call number (in this case, BV 2631).
5. When you find the collection, go to the "Full Record" screen for a list of headings that can be searched for related materials.