Indiana Historical Society - Manuscripts and Archives Department

BLACK WOMEN IN THE MIDDLE WEST-
MISCELLANEOUS, 1890-1984

Collection #'s
M 499
OM 301

Table of Contents

Collection Information
Historical Sketch
Scope and Content note
Folder Listing
Cataloging Information

Processed by
Robert W. Eherenman

COLLECTION INFORMATION

HISTORICAL SKETCH

  "If you want the history of a white man, you go to the library. If you want the history of black women, you go to the attics, the closets, and the basements." This was one black woman's summation on the availability of Black women's history materials. In 1977, the Black Women in the Middle West project was initiated to correct this neglect of the black women's story. From 1977 to 1981 the Indianapolis Section of the National Council of Negro Women responded to the appeal of their national leaders to write state-based histories of black women. The NCNW created a local collecting organizations and amassed numerous collections of miscellaneous photographs and other documents about black women from all over the state of Indiana. From 1982 to 1983 a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to plan the resultant Black Women in the Middle West Project. This second phase focused on demonstrating the necessity and feasibility of collecting and preserving documents pertaining to Black women's history and ended with a planning conference at Purdue University in March 1983. The third phase, 1984-1985, began in January 1984 when the NEH awarded $150,000 to implement the project. It ended twenty months later with the issuing of the Black Women of the Middle West Project: A Comprehensive Resource Guide Illinois and Indiana.

Source: The Black Women in the Middle West Project: A Comprehensive Resource Guide Illinois and Indiana, p. 9.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

The material in this collection was gathered under the auspices of the Black Women in the Middle West Project. It pertains to wide variety of people and organizations throughout the state of Indiana. The collection is divided into four manuscript boxes.

The one box collection contains material pertaining to eight different women around the state. The Anna Hutchinson materials (folder 1) relate to Mt. Zion Baptist Church, the Saint Pierre Ruffin Club, the Olivet AME Church, and St. Peters Lodge in South Bend Indiana. There are also some original poems written 1979 by P.J. Gibson (folder 6). Other materials pertain to Leora Brown (Corydon), Barbara Hodge (Peru), Dorothy Ann Malone (Logansport), Lorene Taylor (Indianapolis), Marcia Warrington (Indianapolis), George and Ida Goins (Indianapolis) and Margaret Bush Wilson (St. Louis, MO).

Also in this box are the Helen C. Whitelowe materials dated from 1964 to 1980. Folders 13-18 contain materials on the Soul People Repertory Company, an acting troop associated with Indiana Central University (now the University of Indianapolis). Included are letters, programs, pictures, promotional posters, and news clippings. There are also other programs from performances where Whitelowe participated.

Folders 21-24 contain a copy of Walk Along with Us, a book by Barbara Shannon that traces a section of Black History from Africa in the 17th century to present day Harrison County, Indiana. Records pertaining to the Chumming Club of Kokomo, Indiana, a charitable, non-profit organization that raises funds for scholarships, nursing homes, the poor, and the sick are in folder 25. There is also a file on the Indiana Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, which contains "Hoosier Women and Their Work," dated 1924. The book has a number of historical sketches of the local chapters of the Indiana Federation of Colored Women's Clubs. There is also a miscellaneous folder containing a 1983 article on black coal miners, biographical newspaper clippings, a 1947 bulletin from the Indianapolis Medical Society, and a 1924 edition of the Indianapolis Informer.

Background information on four Black churches in Indiana: the South Calvary Baptist Church, the Mt. Paran Baptist Church, and the Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Indianapolis and the Mt. Pisgah Missionary Baptist Church in Kokomo is contained in folders 28-31.

The oversized manuscript folders contain two newspapers: a 1929 edition of the South Bend Liberty, the black newspaper in South Bend which has articles on the First AMEZ Church and Oscar DePriest; and a 1925 gravure pictorial of the South Bend New-Tribune.

FOLDER LISTING

CATALOGING INFORMATION

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
2. Click on the "Local Catalog" icon.
3. Search for the collection by its call number, using the letter or letters designation and four digits (e.g., M 0715, SC 2234).
4. When you find the collection, go to the "Holdings" screen for a list of headings that can be searched for related materials.

END