Black Community Leaders Spotlight Local African American History

By Joseph Paul 

Jan 18, 2023

Jean Wright speaks during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration in Lafayette.

Black community leaders are emphasizing a lesser-known side of local lore; one that paints the city in a different light.

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) — Black community leaders are emphasizing a lesser-known side of local lore; one that paints the city in a different light.

Their spotlight this year on local African American history started Monday with a Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration at the Tippecanoe County Public Library.

Keynote speaker Jean Wright remembers Lafayette's only segregated school, which eventually became the Hanna Center.

"My brothers did attend Lincoln school," Wright told News 18 after the event. "It closed in '51 and African Americans were allowed to go to city schools at that time."

Those memories are sometimes painful to recall, Wright says.

"My brothers, when they talked about, it was more of an embarrassment to be known you weren't allowed to go here or go there," she says "I know Columbian Park pool was segregated at a time where black people could only swim on certain days. Those are really sad times."

Library Director Jos Holman says most people pass by the Lincoln Center every day without knowing its past.

"Given that our community is a community that is filled with commuters, as well as a very transitional community as people come and go, I think that probably one of out every 10 have no clue," he says.

Lydia Wells gave closing remarks at the event.

She remembers an expansion by St. Elizabeth, now known as Franciscan Health, disbanding her tight-knit African American neighborhood.

"My kids ... they've never experience living in a predominantly Black neighborhood," Wells says. "That's not something they've experienced at all. ... I tell the stories over and over again to anybody that will listen. Definitely, my kids know the story."

Holman says those stories are worth repeating.

"In order to really consider, who are we in our community? What's relevant to our community? What our race relations in our community? We have to understand a bit more of the past," he says.

Holman and other leaders are planning a tour of historic places associated with local African American history.

The tour is planned for this spring in Lafayette's Lincoln and Hanna neighborhoods.