Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 16 August 2001 — Page 20

The Muncie Times, August 16, 2001, page 20

From African Americans in Muncie 1890-1690

by Hurley Goodall and J. Paul Mitchell

Early Pioneers:

Muncie’s Negro community in the 1920s looked hopefully to the services and leadership provided by three physicians and one dentist. Dr. D. A. Bethea, a recent arrival from Terre Haute, became an assistant in the Tuberculosis Clinic in the Home Hospital (located south of downtown) and assumed charge of the Baby Clinic each Wednesday at the Phyllis Wheatly Y.W.CA Dr! M. E Reynolds came from Indianapolis and Anderson to Muncie because of the need for colored physicians. He set up practice in the home of Mr. Fred Morin, 925 E. First Street, where he was quite busy in a general practice that specialized in obstetrics and gynecology The newspaper urged its readers: “Never fear to call him because he comes promptly when •called.” He became an active member of Bethel A. M. E. Church as well. By 1924 Dr. William R Braden had set up for practice in his home at 720 E. Seymour Street. A man who oflered both professional expertise and community leadership was Dr. A Wayne Brooks, who began his dental practice in the Goddard Building in the 1920s. Dr. Brooks organized the Y M. C. A Bible class for boys, managed the Muncie Meteors basketball team, headed the K. of R, and was active in Eagles Lodge No. 14,

American Woodman Camp No. 20, and Calvary Baptist Church. By their skills these physicians directly served the needs of Muncie’s colored residents, and by their education and professional standing they generated high hopes for a better life and for better treatment by whites during the Klan era.

• The Negro press praised a Negro business woman as a model of success. Mrs. Cora Taylor owned “the best equipped and most modem dressing parlor in the city and she caters to women of race.” The modem facilities at her home and establishment, 812 Monore Street, featured the latest treatments and methods, including the “Sexo System” and the “Sexo Hair Grower.” Mrs. Taylor stayed so busy at her work that she found little time for club or social work, though she gave money liberally and helped when really needed.

• Mrs. G. L. Riffe and Mrs. Ernest Haywood first organized a YWCA group for young girls in the Calvary Baptist Church in 1919.

married Hattie Shoter. The first interracial marriage was also a felony in the state of Indiana.

• November 30, 1899, W. T. Stokes was appointed as the first “colored” policeman in Muncie. His beat was the Industry area, a blacksmith by trade, Stokes was described as a “fine representative of his.

race.

• Wick Adams was a member of the Muncie Fire Department in 1896 or 1897.

• Henry T. Burnham became a clerk in the City Post Office in 1897.

• Miss Jesse May Nixon was the first Negro from Muncie to graduate from Ball State Teachers College in 1925.

• Dan Kelley Sr. was the owner of the Pekin Hotel in Muncie.

• Geraldine Findley was the first African American female school teacher in Muncie. (Sept. 1952)

• Mrs. Maria Artist helped to found Muncie’s first Negro church known then as the African American Methodist Episcopal Church of the City of Muncie, Indiana now known as Bethel AME Church located at 1020 E. Jackson St, The Rev. Barbara Harris is pastor.

• Allen Bennett was the only “colored” cabinet maker in Muncie around 1908

• In 1986 James Walker

observation about politics in its April 23,1938, issue: Another stumbling block to file progress of the colored race is we have not learned how r to agree, if we had to disagreed. For an example, if we disagreed over politics during an election as we have in the past and when it was over we continue to disagree with malice and hatred. Now folks, facts are not reflections; you know our disagreement hinders our work in church, in the state, and elsewhere. You must agree with me on this fact. Then let us agree to learn how to differ on one point and agree on another point and still be friends. We fight and make enemies among ourselves over the white man’s election to office, and after it’s over, the white victor receives congratulations from his defeated opponent and then they join hands and hearts and go out and make a million dollars. What happens to our hating brethren? One of them gets a job in the alley and the other gets a job on the dump and they continue to hate each other until the white man calls another election. Now friends the day has passed for this stupidity.

the victims of Marion’s lynching, made a lasting impression on Muncie’s colored community. He came here shortly after World War I with little more than a suitcase, did some preaching, and decided to stay. In addition to preaching, he opened an undertaking establishment on the north side of the Burnham home at Lowell and Wolfe streets; from there he moved to a large brick building in McCulloch Park, and then to 1414 Highland Avenue, where the mortuary remained for many years. Reverend Johnson was reputed to possess an Egyptian embalming secret that preserved bodies for long periods of time. Many Negroes believed that white morticians tried hard to get him to reveal his embalming secrets, but he refused to divulge them, although he occasionally did work for white establishments. If he did have such a secret, it died with him when complications from an automobile accident caused his untimely death.

• Rev. Jerry Maynard was the first paid executive secretary of the Muncie Human Rights Commission.

• The Indiana Herald, a Negro newspaper which appeared briefly in Muncie during the 1930s, made this

• Reverend Benjamin F. Adams edited the Indiana Herald, assisted by Tommy Sheton, Mrs. Jane Taylor, and Georgia Goens. Reverend Adams also was the pastor of Shaffer Chapel AM.E. Church

• The Reverend J. E. Johnson, who had embalmed

• The world of sports, both locally and nationally provided Muncie’s Negro community with a spiritual lift and race pride. At Muncie Central, big Jack Mann led the Bearcats to some of their most glorious basketball moments. Aso, continuing the tradition of track stardom begun by Millie Fowlkes, Walt Sheton went on to gain national notice at Marquette University

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