Join our monthly conversation with historians, researchers, and educators as we discuss topics related to Indiana’s Black heritage.
This month, Anthony Conley will discuss Black Migration to Indiana in the 19th Century and how The Gas Boom of the 1880s-1890s transformed East-Central Indiana’s industrialization and urbanization. The discovery in 1886 of the 5,120 square-mile pocket of natural gas which extended across eastern Indiana and western Ohio, activated business ventures ranging from glass manufacturing to real-estate speculation. Increased urbanization followed on the heels of the region’s rapid industrial expansion. Small towns grew into cities as Hoosiers left rural communities for more promising economic prospects in the numerous factories and supporting enterprises which sprang up in nearby cities. Black migrants from rural communities and towns in Indiana and Ohio were part of this urbanization process. African Americans’ arrival in cities such as Richmond, Muncie, New Castle, Anderson and Marion not only increased these cities’ overall populations; they also formed the foundations of their Old Guard Black communities. This Old Guard population was instrumental in forming local religious and social institutions which bonded together group members and sustained them during a period of rapid cultural, political and economic transformation.
Sponsored by Indiana Landmarks’ Black Heritage Preservation Program, Indiana Humanities, IUPUI Africana Studies Program, and ASALH Joseph Taylor Branch (Association of the Study of African American Life and History).
Event is free but registration is required. Click here to reserve your ticket.
In Person: Doors open at 5:30 p.m. at Indiana Landmarks, 1201 N. Central Avenue, Indianapolis, IN and talk begins at 6:00 p.m.
Online: Livestream will begin at 6:00 p.m.
