“We Return Fighting”:

Defense and Defiance in Muncie

Join our monthly conversation with historians, researchers, and educators as we discuss topics related to Indiana’s Black heritage.

Our speaker will be local historian, Anthony Conley. His presentation will focus on the courageous role Black congregants of Muncie’s Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church had in one of the most grisly episodes in our state’s racial history.

On the evening of August 9, 1930, a white mob stormed the Grant County Jail where Thomas Shipp and Abraham Smith were being held following their arrest after being falsely accused of raping a young white woman. The men were forcibly removed and hanged from a tree in a nearby square.

Over twenty-four hours elapsed before congregants of Bethel AME Church (Muncie, IN), along with a white Delaware County law-enforcement officer, were able to retrieve the two lynching victims, protecting them from further desecration.

Bethel AME’s actions that evening, this presentation maintains, exhibited the spirit W.E.B. DuBois’ “We Return Fighting” essay captured as venerable activist and intellectual implored African Americans to “marshal every ounce of our (Black) brain and brawn” to fight against racism and injustice in postwar America.

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.