The journey our university and country has undergone
Imagine a world where you couldn’t drink from the ‘white’ fountain, but had to drink from the ‘black’ fountain, where restaurants would not serve those who weren’t white and where seats in the front of the bus were designated for whites only.
What we know as our world today wasn’t even in existence 50 years ago. It was a world where prejudice and policy were often found together.
Here’s a look at some of the journeys that our country went through:
The mid 1940s saw the early stirring of the Civil Rights movement when President Truman appointed a committee on Civil Rights to investigate violence against African-Americans and to recommend preventative measures.
The Brooklyn Dodgers made history in 1947 when they listed the first African-American on their roster, Jackie Robinson. In 1948, Truman also banned racial discrimination when hiring federal employees in the late ‘40s.
The 1950s saw Rosa Parks and her courage to stand up to what society said was the norm and take her seat at the front of the bus, along with the Bus Boycott that followed.
In the early 1960s, four young African-American men sat down at a white’s only lunch counter in North Carolina.
From the mid-1940s to the 1970s, the Civil Rights movement was propelled to notoriety behind a wave of progressive policy. People would stand and say what they believed in and fight for it. And, one African-American man would stand out above them all, and say what his dreams were for our country and it’s approach on racism: Dr. Martin Luther King.
The University of Indianapolis was founded in this era of controversy, according to the University of Indianapolis Archivist, Christine Guyonneau.
There were problems in the 1930s and ‘40s that the university faced with African-American student-athletes; many restaurants would not allow African-Americans to dine, the bus for the athletes would not stop if they couldn’t take all of the students into the restaurant.
Usually lunches were packed for the players and they would eat on the road, Guyonneau said.
Florabelle Williams, a 1949 graduate of UIndy, (married and became Florabelle Wilson) was one to encourage black history at the university. She took part in the decorating of the library and would display African-American authors in the building, Guyonneau said.
It wasn’t until 1970 that there was a lecture series on “History of the Negro, 1865 to Present.”
“It was a recognition of black culture,” Guyonneau said.
In 1974, Indiana Central University (precursor to the University of Indianapolis) presented Black Culture to the students, and the next year, in 1975, a Black Student Committee was formed.
Greg R. Whitley wrote in the Feb. 12, 1976 issue of The Reflector, that not only was it Leap Week, but also Black History week.
“…That period of the year in which we at ICU commemorate the contributions of black people to our society,” Whitley wrote.
It was at this time that Wilson was head librarian, and the organizer for these events.
It wasn’t until the 1980s that Black History Week turned into Black History Month at UIndy.
Today, students celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when our university holds its annual MLK Day Celebration, but we no longer have Black History events that take place.
This country has evolved from one of racial discrimination, ‘white’ only places and violence to a world without that segregation.
