By Ellie Kaverman, Bicentennial Graduate Assistant
We wish to congratulate the Black students of Indiana University whose persistent struggle for institutional recognition of their unique needs has resulted in the establishment of the Black Culture Center.–Herman Hudson, 1976.[1]
The Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center (NMBCC) is the result of several decades of student advocacy at Indiana University. Although the roots of the center can be found in 1960s student activism, the story of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center is a history of Black student life on IU Bloomington’s campus.
Early History
The namesakes of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center are Marcellus Neal and Frances Marshall, the first known African American man and woman to graduate from Indiana University. Neal graduated with his A.B. in Mathematics in 1895 and Marshall graduated with her A.B. in English in 1919.[2] While Indiana University accepted Black students before many institutions in the late 19th century, Black student enrollment has been a constant challenge for this institution.
In a 1982 interview with the Indiana Daily Student, Marshall described her unique student experience at IU in the early 1900s.
When I said I was going to college, people thought I was crazy,” Marshall said. “It was unusual for a woman to go to college, especially a black woman…I never worried about being a woman going to school. I never worried about being black going to school. I just went on with what I had to do.[3]
During the over 20-year gap between Neal and Marshall’s graduations, other important milestones in Black student life occurred at Indiana University.
In 1911, Kappa Alpha Psi, a historically Black fraternity, was founded on the Indiana University’s Bloomington campus in response to university policies that discriminated against Black students in housing and other university facilities.[4] The fraternity represented a way for Black students to build a community within the racially divided campus.
The fraternity was the first established Black Greek Letter Organization at Indiana University. In 1922, Alpha Kappa Alpha chartered Tau chapter at Indiana University becoming the first sorority for Black female students.[5]
In 1935, students formed one of the first recorded student activist organizations on campus, the Interracial Commission. The group consisted of both Black and white students concerned with the social inequities on campus with the goal of examining the university environment to pinpoint the scale of discrimination at IU.
The Interracial Commission conducted surveys of over 500 students and the results highlighted the reality of racism on campus: Black students were denied entry to honorary societies, student organizations, university dances, the campus barbershop, and more. University dining facilities and the university pool were segregated, along with housing which began accepting Black students in 1946.[6]
The commission continued to survey students, produce reports, and present them to university officials. When the commission completed its second report and presented it in 1937, it had a new audience member, the newly installed president, Herman B Wells.
President Wells was prepared to begin addressing the needs outlined in the report. This included removing signs that segregated the Indiana Memorial Union dining facilities, desegregating the pool, and working to secure better off-campus housing for Black female students (before university housing desegregated female dormitories in 1949).[7]
Apart from these reforms, the Interracial Commission lobbied university officials and local church leaders to begin educational programs on racial inequality. In April 1940, the Interracial Commission hosted a conference on racial justice, sponsored by the university and the city of Bloomington. The conference continued for several years and served as a way to educate the community on racial injustice and discrimination.[8]
The Interracial Commission represented an early example of student activism on Indiana University, leaving a strong precedent for later Black student movements of the 1960s, which successfully petitioned for the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center.
During the 1940s and 1950s, Black student life was enriched by the installation of several more Greek organizations on the Bloomington campus. Within a span of three months in 1947, the fraternities Alpha Phi Alpha and Omega Psi Phi, as well as the sorority Delta Sigma Theta, all established chapters.[9]
In 1960, Thomas Atkins was elected student body president–making Atkins not just the first Black individual to hold the office at IU, but also the first of any institution in the Big Ten Conference.[10]
While this victory seemingly marked a new chapter in student life at IU, the past still lingered as it received a violent backlash: the local Ku Klux Klan burned at least two crosses on campus the night Atkins was declared victorious.[11]
Student Activism: A Catalyst for Change and The Push for a Black Culture Center
During the 1960s, student protests were held throughout college campuses across the country on a variety of subjects including the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, and continuation of university policies and procedures that discriminated against students of color.
In 1967, IU students protested when Dow Chemical, a company that produced napalm gas used by the U.S. in Vietnam, came to recruit IU students to join the company after graduation.[12] During the protest several students were beaten and arrested. This event was a catalyst for more serious student activism in the following years.
In the spring of 1968, one of those students who was beaten during the Dow Chemical protest, Robert Johnson, helped to create the Afro/Afro-American Student Association (AAASA) along with fellow graduate student, Clarence “Rollo” Turner.[13]
They led the AAASA and IU students in several marches on campus, where they petitioned for university administration action against racism and discrimination, as well as for better recruitment of Black faculty and students.[14]
In an open 1968 letter to Indiana University President Elvis J. Stahr, AAASA students demanded that more Black faculty and students be recruited and proposed a black studies program. The letter also called for a position within the university administration that would specifically advocate for issues faced by Black students.[15]
At the Statewide Conference on the Negro in Higher Education, IU President Stahr commented on the status of Black student life on Indiana University’s campus indicating a lackluster commitment to improving relations on campus.
This further ignited tensions between Black students and the university administration.[16] Consequently, in April 1968, the AAASA led a march and sit-in outside President Stahr’s home to protest his remarks and the lack of student input on the university commission on discriminatory practices.[17]
On May 10, 1968, a group of 50 students led by the AAASA staged a sit-in inside Memorial Stadium, the day before the 1968 Little 500.[18] The students’ protest centered on the often-discriminatory nature of the white Greek sororities and fraternities that participated in the Little 500.
The students asserted that, “The Greeks symbolized an acceptance by the University [administration] of discriminatory practices,” of which many university officials were members of the fraternities or sororities themselves.[19]
The 1968 Little 500 sit-in lasted until Sunday, when the fraternities and sororities presented evidence of having removed discriminatory clauses from their charters, apart from one fraternity that failed to produce evidence and was thus banned from that year’s race.[20]
In December 1968, the Black Market was firebombed. The Black Market opened in the fall of 1968 and served as a Black cultural center, sold African inspired goodies, and was an educational center for the Black community in Bloomington. The market was started by AAASA co-founder Rollo Turner and financed by Black faculty and staff .[21] Three members of the local Ku Klux Klan orchestrated the firebombing that led to the market’s destruction. [22]
The land the market was on is now People’s Park and is still used for protests and gatherings.
In May 1969, just five months later, the infamous lock-in at Ballantine Hall occurred. Earlier in the academic year, university officials announced an enormous 67% raise in student tuition fees, which incited student anger across campus. A meeting between students and administrators to discuss the fee hike was planned to take place May 8, 1969.
That evening, a group of 150 Black students, led by Rollo Turner, interrupted the Ballantine Hall meeting and demanded to speak with the IU Trustees about the fee raise; Turner and other Black student leaders viewed the fee hike as a method of preventing Black students from attaining college degrees at IU.[23]
While the situation was intense, the conversation was productive, as noted by acting chancellor John Snyder and dean of the law school William Harvey.[24] The 1968-1969 school year came to an end after an intense and tumultuous year.
The Office of Afro-American Affairs and The Creation of the “Black House”
The Office of Afro-American Affairs was established in the spring of 1968 as part of the AAASA’s demands under the student leadership of Robert Johnson and Rollo Turner.
The faculty member who served as an advisor to AAASA, Orlando Taylor, was appointed to serve as the office’s first director. Taylor promptly suggested that in order for the office to be successful in addressing student needs, the creation of a vice chancellor administrator position was needed.
Despite some hesitation from university administration, the Bloomington Faculty Council unanimously approved the proposal for a Black studies program and the new position of vice chancellor of Afro-American Affairs.[25]
Taylor was originally extended an offer to be the first person to hold this position in April 1969, but the fallout from the Ballantine lock-in resulted in the rescission of the position.[26]
Amid doubt as to whether the university would make good on its promise to find a vice chancellor after rescinding the offer to Taylor, the university appointed Herman Hudson as the first vice chancellor for Afro-American Affairs in 1970.
When the office originally began in 1968, its major goals included establishing a Black Studies Program, recruiting more Black administrators and faculty for that program, and increasing of the enrollment of Black students–all of which were now Vice Chancellor Hudson’s responsibility.[27]
The creation of the Office of Afro-American Affairs, was the first iteration of today’s Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center. The office initially operated out of a building on Atwater Avenue, which became known as the “Black House.” The Black House served as an academic resource and welcoming social environment for Black students at IU. [28]
In 1972, the Black Culture Center Library opened, with Wilma Moore as the head librarian; later, in the 1990s and early 2000s, Grace Jackson-Brown led the Black Culture Center library and was responsible for computerizing its systems.[29]
The year 1973 proved to be a vital year for the program and center. In 1973, the Office of Afro-American Affairs moved to a former fraternity house, with a more central location on North Jordan, and was renamed the Black Culture Center.[30]
Additionally, Caramel Russell became the first director of the Black Culture Center–a position she served in for 18 years and is fondly remembered as “Mother Culture.” [31]
Bottom: The Black Culture Center Building on Jordan Avenue, 1973. Courtesy of NMBCC Librarian’s Special Collection
A pamphlet about the new Black Culture Center paints this picture:
“The best features of the old Black House are still there–the friendliness, the informality, the quiet corners for study, the kitchen for snacks, and the stereo sounds.”[32]
In 1981, Hudson and Russell, along with other administrators, formally proposed the creation of today’s Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, a new building that would contain space for student study rooms, classrooms, rehearsal rooms, and a library. After the initial proposal, it took many years and the dedication of numerous individuals to raise enough money to make this dream come to fruition.[33]
When Vice Chancellor Hudson stepped down in 1981, Joseph J. Russell took over the position from 1981 to 1990; Hudson served yet again from 1990 until 1993.[34] From 1993 through 1998, Elizabeth Lewis Brooks served as the director of the newly renamed, African American Culture Center.[35]
In 2001, construction was completed on the new 97,000 square foot building to house the Black Culture Center at 275 North Jordan Avenue. The following year, the building was dedicated as the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center.[36]
The Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center celebrated its 50th anniversary of providing a resource and welcoming space for Black students during IU’s bicentennial celebration in 2020.
At the core of the center’s role at IU is the history of the Black student experience on campus which began in the 1900s and continues to this day.
Bibliography
- “1967 Dow Chemical Sit-in part 1,” Indiana University Archives Exhibit. http://collections.libraries.indiana.edu/iubarchives/exhibits/show/studentdemonstrationsatiu/1967dowchemicalsitinpt1.
- “1968 Little 500 Sit-in,” Indiana University Archives Exhibits, http://collections.libraries.indiana.edu/iubarchives/exhibits/show/studentdemonstrationsatiu/1968little500sitin.
- “1969 Ballantine Lock-in part 1,” Indiana University Archives Exhibits, http://collections.libraries.indiana.edu/iubarchives/exhibits/show/studentdemonstrationsatiu/1969ballantinelockinpt1
- “A Brief History,” Kappa Alpha Psi. https://kappaalphapsi1911.com/page/history
- “About Marcellus Neal and Frances Marshall,” Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies, Indiana University. https://aaads.indiana.edu/about/history/neal-and-marshall.html
- “Administrative History,” Indiana University Office of African American Affairs records, 1950-1998. Indiana University Archives. http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/findingaids/view?doc.view=entire_text&docId=InU-Ar-VAA2658
- Beck, Frank. Some Aspects of Race Relations at Indiana University, My Alma Mater.
- Beckley, Lindsey. “The 1968 Black Market Firebombing: Revolution and Racism in Bloomington, Indiana.” Indiana History Blog, Indiana Historical Bureau. February 11, 2020. https://blog.history.in.gov/tag/afro-afro-american-students-association/
- Bottoms, Megan. “If They Come, We Will Build It: The Creation of the Office of Afro-American Affairs at Indiana University,” Journal of the Student Personnel Association at Indiana University. June 11, 2017.
- Capshew, James H. Herman B Wells: The Promise of the American University. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012.
- Clapacs, J. Terry. Indiana University Bloomington: America’s legacy campus. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2017.
- “Historical Enrollment,” University Institutional Research and Reporting, Indiana University. https://uirr.iu.edu/facts-figures/enrollment/historical/index.html
- “History: Addressing a gap in access + scholarship,” Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies, Indiana University. https://aaads.indiana.edu/about/history/index.html
- Hudson, Herman. “Acknowledgements,” Black Culture Center” Booklet, 1976. Indiana University Archives, Black Culture Center Reference Files
- IU Chronology,” Indiana University Archives. https://libraries.indiana.edu/iu-chronology
- Lesnick, Gavin. “Marshall, Neal were IU Pioneers.” Indiana Daily Student. October 18, 2005. https://www.idsnews.com/article/2005/10/marshall-neal-were-iu-pioneers
- Indiana University President’s Office records, Collection C304, Indiana University Archives, Bloomington
- IU Trustee Minutes, Indiana University Archives, Bloomington.
- Office of Afro-American Affairs, “Concept of a ‘Black House’,” Afro- American Activities” booklet page five. Accession #0784, Indiana University President’s Office records of John W. Ryan.
- “The Story of ‘Our House,’” Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center. https://blackculture.indiana.edu/about/history.html
- Wynkoop, Mary Ann. Dissent in the Heartland: The Sixties at Indiana University. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002, pp. 121-130.
Notes
[1] Herman Hudson, “Acknowledgements,” Black Culture Center” Booklet, 1976. Indiana University Archives, Black Culture Center Reference Files.
[2] “About Marcellus Neal and Frances Marshall.”
[3] Gavin Lesnick, “Marshall, Neal were IU Pioneers,” Indiana Daily Student, 18 October 18, 2005. URL: https://www.idsnews.com/article/2005/10/marshall-neal-were-iu-pioneers.
[4] “A Brief History.”
[5] “The Story of ‘Our House.’”
[6] Frank Beck, Some Aspects of Race Relations at Indiana University, My Alma Mater, 1959.
[7] James Capshew, Herman B Wells: The Promise of the American University (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012), pp. 138-139, 166-170.
[8] “The Story of ‘Our House.’”
[9] “The Story of ‘Our House.’”
[10] Capshew, Herman B Wells, pg. 265.
[11] “The Story of ‘Our House.’”
[12] “1967 Dow Chemical Sit-in part 1.”
[13] Mary Ann Wynkoop, Dissent in the Heartland: The Sixties at Indiana University (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002), pp. 121-126.
[14] Megan Bottoms, “If They Come, We Will Build It: The Creation of the Office of Afro-American Affairs at Indiana University,” Journal of the Student Personnel Association at Indiana University. June 11, 2017.
[15] Wynkoop, Dissent in the Heartland, pp. 121-126
[16] Elvis J. Stahr, “Special Report to the University and the Public,” 17 May 1968, Indiana University President’s Office records, Collection C304, Indiana University Archives, Bloomington.
[17] Wynkoop, Dissent in the Heartland, pp. 121-126.
[18] “1968 Little 500 Sit-in.”
[19] Bottoms, “If They Come.”
[20] “1968 Little 500 Sit-in.;” “Black Students Make Little 500 Weekend Really Great,” The Inside Agitator, no. 15, 18 May 1968, pg. 1 and 4. URL: https://collections.libraries.indiana.edu/iubarchives/files/original/e5375722109eb1e1f0334782b8abc33c.jpg.
[21] Lindsey Beckley, “The 1968 Black Market Firebombing: Revolution and Racism in Bloomington, Indiana.” Indiana History Blog, Indiana Historical Bureau, 11 February 2020.
[22] Beckley, “The 1968 Black Market Firebombing.”
[23] “1969 Ballantine Lock-in part 1.”
[24] Bottoms, “If They Come.”
[25] Bottoms, “If They Come.”
[26] IU Trustee Minutes, 24 May 1969, Indiana University Archives, Bloomington.
[27] “Administrative History.”
[28] “History: Addressing a gap in access + scholarship.”
[29] “The Story of ‘Our House.’”
[30] “History: Addressing a gap in access + scholarship.”
[31] “The Story of ‘Our House.’”
[32] Office of Afro-American Affairs.
[33] “The Story of ‘Our House.’”
[34] IU Trustee Minutes, 07 April 1990, Indiana University Archives, Bloomington; IU Trustee Minutes, 24 August 1993, Indiana University Archives, Bloomington
[35] “The Story of ‘Our House.’”
[36] J. Terry Clapacs,. Indiana University Bloomington: America’s Legacy Campus (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2017) pg. 111.