Artwork by Shannon Zahnle
BY DOUGLAS WISSING,
ART BY SHANNON ZAHNLE
Read the full story here!
(Additional photos can be found at the bottom of this page.)
A different color of skin gives you a different perspective on Indiana’s past 200 years. In this bicentennial year, it’s important to incorporate and honor that perspective and the extraordinary contributions that African-Americans have made to Indiana in politics, law, education, entertainment, sports, business, and the everyday work of serving community and family — often achieved only by overcoming vicious and systemic racism.
Indiana’s preeminent historian James H. Madison, an Indiana University professor emeritus, says revealing the oft-veiled stories of African-Americans is complicated. “It’s a question of ambiguity; it’s a question of difficulty. Even in the 21st century, race is still a difficult subject,” he says. “The stories are there, but are unheard.” Yet placing African-Americans into the mosaic of Indiana history is essential to fully understanding Hoosier culture today. “Once you crank those stories into the picture, the whole story changes,” says Madison.
Here is an overview of some of those stories and their impact. —the editor
While reading the latest Bloom (which I always enjoy), I was quite surprised to see the picture of Jared Jeffries, a player I enjoyed watching for 4 years at Bloomington High School North, named as a “Crispus Attucks graduate and NBA player. . ” I hope that you will make the correction in your next magazine. We Bloomington North fans are very proud of Jared and all of his accomplishments (Trester Award winner,Indiana’s Mr. Basketball, IU star, etc.). He is a fine young man and a credit to Bloomington. Crispus Attucks should not get the credit for him. An article on him and his family’s Bloomington history might be a great Bloom article
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. It appears it was a mistake in the caption, while the story remains correct. We have fixed the caption in our web gallery.