Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 6 February 2003 — Page 23

The Muncie Times, February 6, 2003, page 23

Goodall's Work Continues to Educate and Enlighten

By Charles Gulubane

Goodall at the scholarship dinner.

Hurley Goodall was one of the most popular civil rights figures that area students identified and wrote about in this yera's Martin Luther King essay competition. The reason is not hard to decipher. Apart from having been active in politics and serving in the state legislature, Goodall has also been very instrumental in opening the eyes of many people to the deficiencies of popular historical accounts on the region, and filling in the ethnic gaps those accounts left bare. It is indeed a matter of utmost importance to a people and a nation that a truly all encompassing and objective history of their common heritage be handed down to progeny. 'Our Land, Our Souls, Our Freedom 1 is an exhibit that Goodall collaborated in that tells the largely unknown story of African American pioneers who settled in these parts as farmers before the civil war. "I had been doing research on my family history. My great grandfather came from the south and ended up in one of three African American settlements that had been set up in Randolph county in the mid 1800's. There were about 500 black people in each of the communities. Each community owned a lot of land in Indiana," said Goodall. " With the discovery of

natural gas in Delaware county, the Ball brothers came here to set up their glass factories and other companies set up their steel factories. These industries depended on a lot of heating and heating gas was easier to get here. A lot of the African Americans in the settlements moved here to work in the factories," he said. Thus when Minnetrista asked Goodall if he could help with the exhibit, he already had been gathering related information and collecting historical photos. On February 1st, the exhibit will help kick off black History Month at the new Indiana State Museum and will continue until March 30th. "As a member of the African American Advisory Committee at the Indiana State Museum I urged them not to concentrate on Indianapolis

alone but to reach out across the state and think about the whole state of Indiana," Goodall said. The result of Goodall's efforts will be on display when guests attend the East Central Indiana Day at the Indiana State Museum on February 15th. Goodall was born in Muncie on May 23rd 1927. He attended Muncie community schools and graduated from Muncie Central High School in 1945. From 1945 to 1947 he served with the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Pacific Theater. From 1948 to 1949 he attended Indiana Business College. In 1952 he took courses in Advanced Time and Motion at Purdue University until 1955. He worked at Ball Brothers Company from 1943 to' 1944 and at Muncie Malleable Foundry Company from 1944 to

1958. In 1958 he joined the Muncie Fire Department until 1978 when he became a state legislator. He also worked in the Delaware County Engineer's Office from 1978 to 1980. He founded Hur-Co Inc. in 1982 which he owned until 1987. Goodal's first elected office was that of Precinct Committeeman (1966 to 1986). He was then elected to the Muncie Board of School Trustees (1970 to 1978). In 1978 he went into the state legislature until 1992. He has been involved in many community boards and committees. Goodall is also the recipient of over 40 awards and recognitions. He is the author of "Inside the House" (1996) and coauthor of "A History of Negroes in Muncie" (1974). He is currently visiting scholar at the Middleton Center at Ball State University where he is working with 14 students on a photographic history of Muncie called "The Other Side of Middleton" which has yet to be published. The research seeks to document the history of the blacks living in the midwest which was left out by the authors of the popular "Middleton" works. He is married with two children, seven grandchildren

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