Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 3 October 2002 — Page 26

The Muncie Times, October 3, 2002, page 26

SYMPOSIUM from page 25

Patricia Payne, discussed the role of the Indianapolis Public Schools Crispus Attucks Multicultural Center in the Indianapolis community. Payne is the director of the Indianapolis Public Schools Center for Multicultural Education at Crispus Attucks Middle SchooL.on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. St. in

Indianapolis.

The center includes the IPS Office of Multicultural Education and the Crispus Attucks Cultural Museum, which opened in 1998. Payne joined IPS in 1962 as an elementary school teacher until 1987 when she was appointed to open the center and become its

director.

She serves on the boards of the Madame Walker Theater Center, Conner Prairie History Museum, Peace Learning Center, Urban Arts Consortium and executive committees of the Mayor’s Commission on the African American Male and Consortium Student Foundation. She is a past presi-

dent of the Indianapolis education Association (1979-81). Muncie Times Pub-

lisher Bea Moten-Foster told the audience how she started her newspaper with $50 in her pocket and a determination to succeed, where others had failed. She spoke of how, with absolutely no experience in the newspaper business, she put her interpersonal and sales skills to work and, with the help of a journalism professor at Ball State University, Dr. Tendayi Kumbula, she launched the paper in

1991.

The newspaper now has a circulation of more than 10,000 readers and blankets Muncie’s African American community. Moten-Foster said she faced many challenges as a woman running a fledgling newspaper. She told her audience to be persistent until they get what they

want.

She also had two words of advice for those aspiring to start their own papers: hard work. Moten-Foster grew up in Selma, Ala.

Her first job was picking cotton, before she moved to Birmingham, Ala. where she worked as a radio announcer. From Birmingham she moved to Miami, Fla., where she hosted an allnight jazz show, until the mid 1960s when the radio station turned Spanish and she moved to New York. In New York City, she introduced a program called “African Profiles,” which introduced her to many African heads of state and diplomats. This led her to become the first African American radio announcer at the United Nations. From New York, Moten-Foster moved to Indianapolis, where she worked in radio and television. Her marriage to Ball State University professor Dr. Robert O. Foster brought her to Muncie, where she launched the Muncie Coalition of 100 Black Women, the citywide Black History Month and helped launch the Muncie chapter of Black Expo. Her awards include Outstanding Minority

Business Person of the Year (1996), The Spirit of Chief Muncee, and two keys to the City of Muncie. Hurley C. Goodall, a retired Indiana Assemblyman and visiting scholar at Ball State University’s Middletown Center, also spoke at the symposium. Luncheon guests listened to Goodall’s vivid account of a touching interview he had with a former slave in 1935, about how families were torn apart, seperated and sold, never to see one another again. As part of his presentation, Goodall distributed a pamphlet titled “A History of Muncie and Delaware County’s African American Community.” The work, prepared and published by Goodall in 1997, is a chronological listing of some significant dates and events. Goodall has been on the forefront of Muncie’s African American history for the past several years and has collected numerous narratives and photographs of Muncie’s African American community. He has numerous

publications on the subject of African Americans in Muncie and Delaware County, including one on his experiences as a legislator. He has received numerous awards for his work including the Distinguished Hoosier Award from Gov. Frank O’Bannon. Singer, storyteller/ actress Vickie Daniel came in just in time to turn the serious looking after-lunch faces in the symposium into a beaming, childishly attentive and cheering lot. With a style that can only be described as magnificent, she had the audience literally eating out of the palm of her hand.

Needed: Freelance Writers immediately. Call (765) 741-0037. Ask for Bea.

Fall Youth

Events

Classes

Programs

September 29:

October 3:

Family Fun Float Night

Youth Climbing Class Begins

(Register by October 2!)

October 11:

Kid’s Night Out

■®

October 8:

“Beach Party”

American Red Cross

Muncie Family YMCA

Babysitters Course Begins

November 22:

Downtown YMCA Northwest YMCA

(Register by October 71)

Kid’s Night Out

500 S. Mulberry St. 3500 Chadam Lane

Muncie, IN 47305 Muncie, IN 47304

rirate jNignr

Phone: 288-4448 Phone: 286-0818

We build strong kids, strong families, strong communities.

■P^ ‘Financial assistance may be available based upon demonstration of need.