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16 places in Indiana make black history book

3-year effort produces a listing that gives details on 830 properties of note throughout the country.

KYLE NIEDERPRUEM

Published Dec. 25, 1994

Off Ind. 250 in Lancaster is the site of a well-kept secret.

The Eleutherian College, built in the middle 1800s, was the first in the state to make a college curriculum available to blacks.

Little known, little noticed.

Perhaps until now.

The southern Indiana college is a landmark designated in a new book published through the National Park Service: African American Historic Places.

The book is the product of a three-year collaborative effort involving the Park Service, the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Sixteen of the 830 properties mentioned in the book are in Indiana.

Beth L. Savage, an architectural historian with the National Register of Historic Places, is the editor.

She had several goals:

Make the information now compiled electronically in the register more accessible to the public.

Convince blacks that historic preservation is a viable career path.

Spread the word about the importance of black contributions to U.S. history.

She believes the book has succeeded on all counts.

Only 5,000 copies were printed in the first run by Preservation Press.

But the copies have been stockpiled in some prestigious bookstores like the Smithsonian Institution and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Wilma Gibbs, archivist for black history with the Indiana Historical Society, said similar books have been written, but they are more or less directories, or listings.

"I don't think they were very well done, personally," she said.

The historical society has yet to receive a copy of the new publication, but Gibbs has no doubts it will be sought after.

"People are always looking for information on historic sites and the importance of people's heritage," she said.

She said the Eleutherian College, for example, is probably not widely known outside of Jefferson County.

The book should bolster the efforts of other groups, too.

The African American Tourism Council of Indiana is already working to find appropriate locations and incorporate them in maps, brochures, road signs and other tourist information.

Some states aren't represented in the book, but it hasn't been for lack of trying.

The register's database of 63,000 properties was searched by three black graduate students. Each state's historic preservation officer was also contacted. Only the pressure of deadline cut the search to the properties that were eventually published.

The book lists buildings, sites, objects, structures and districts.

In Richmond, a historic neighborhood known as Little Africa is recognized for having been the heart of the city's free black community before the Civil War.

A lot of the people mentioned under Indiana listings weren't black, nor are races always disclosed. Savage said that was done intentionally. Inclusionism was the goal, not separatism.

"Some of these people aren't African-American, but they're significant for their contributions to abolition," she said.

Savage has hopes that future projects can focus on the contributions of other ethnic groups.

"The interest is out there."

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