31.9 F
Indianapolis
Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Researching racial injustice 

2024 Wilma Gibbs Moore fellowship recipients announced

HANNA RAUWORTH
HANNA RAUWORTH
Hanna Rauworth is the Health & Environmental Reporter for the Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper, where she covers topics at the intersection of public health, environmental issues, and community impact. With a commitment to storytelling that informs and empowers, she strives to highlight the challenges and solutions shaping the well-being of Indianapolis residents.

More by this author

Indiana Humanities has announced the 2024 Wilma Gibbs Moore fellowship recipients, who will each receive $5,000 to explore racial injustice issues in Indiana. The humanities-based research projects will examine anti-Black racial injustice and structural racism in Indiana.  

“Since we began this fellowship in 2020, many impressive fellows have been able to dive deeper into issues like political activism and environmental justice,” George Hanlin, director of grants at Indiana Humanities, said in a press release. 

The Wilma Gibbs Moore Fellowships are names for a librarian and former Indiana Historical Society archivist who was a preeminent scholar in Indiana for Black history. The program’s mission is to spark meaningful discussions and research about race in Indiana.  

The recipients were selected by an advisory panel of humanities scholars who reviewed each proposal thoroughly. These projects were the selected few: 

A Timeline of Black Hoosier Oppression in Knox County: From Code Noir to the 20th Century 

man in blue shirt and glasses
Tom Bartholomew

Fellow: Tom Bartholomew 

A team of archivists and historians at the Knox County Public Library, led by Bartholomew, will research the timeline of laws addressed towards the Black and people of color in the Northwest Territory, Indiana Territory and State of Indiana. The team will also explore the responses to the laws and the establishment, enforcement and evolution of the legal frameworks. 

Vigo County, Indiana, and the 1942 Lynching of James Edward Person 

man in grey suit sits on yellow chair
Renatto V. Carr

Fellow: Renatto V. Carr 

Carr will study the lynching of James Edward Person, a Black WWII veteran from Somerville, Tennessee. Diagnosed by a family doctor as suffering from a “persecution complex,” Person warned his family that he was being targeted as he boarded a train to Chicago in 1942. For unknown reasons, Person deboarded the train in Libertyville, Indiana, and asked nearby residents for food and water. The white community felt threatened by his presence and called the Vigo County Sheriff’s Department, who chased Person for eight miles until killing him across the border in Illinois. Carr will examine Person’s story, the white supremacy in Vigo County, and the racial, cultural and political forces that led to violence against Black Americans. 

woman in blue tank
Ursula Tracy Doyle

Cactus Flower: The Life of Patricia Roberts Harris 

Fellow: Ursula Tracy Doyle 

Patricia Roberts Harris was the first Black woman to serve on a presidential cabinet as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Jimmy Carter. During her time, Harris implemented the Urban Development Action Grant, which provided funding to cities in Indiana for large building projects. Doyle will utilize the fellowship to research Harris’ Hoosier ancestors and how they play a role in her biography. 

Southside Mosaic: Interracial Relationships and Grassroots Activism in Indianapolis’ Babe Denny Neighborhood 

woman in black suit with glasses and grey hair
Susan Hyatt

Fellow: Susan Hyatt 

Hyatt will research the Babe Denny neighborhood on the near south side, known as being a gateway for many races and ethnicities. European settlers, Black migrants and Jewish immigrants paved the way for the neighborhood to be one of the most diverse areas in Indiana. Despite Jim Crow Laws, the neighborhood was relatively integrated and had a unique emergence of bonds that spanned beyond religious, social and racial boundaries. Hyatt will examine these facts along with the neighborhood institutions that fostered integration in her work under the fellowship. 

Preserving Black Indy: An Assessment of Community-led Archives in Norwood 

man in short sleeved shirt stands in front of books
Stephen Lane

Fellow: Stephen Lane II 

Indiana University Librarian Stephen Lane II will conduct research to determine if the Norwood neighborhood could feasibly build a physical and virtual archive to preserve its history. Norwood is a historically Black neighborhood on the southeast side where many of the current residents are descendants of the neighborhood’s founders from the Civil War. In recent years, Wilma Gibbs Moore fellow Kaila Austin has been gathering oral histories and examining their personal collections of historical artifacts. Through his research, Lane hopes to preserve these historical artifacts and empower communities like Norwood to serve as a beacon for change. 

“It’s a privilege to support these accomplished experts as they take often-overlooked histories and bring them to light. We’re grateful to have the ability to continue the conversation around the complexities of race in Indiana,” Hanlin said in a press release. 

Wilma Gibbs Moore fellowship to study racial injustice deadline approaching  – Indianapolis Recorder

For more information about Indiana Humanities, visit IndianaHumanities.org. To learn more about the Wilma Gibbs Moore Fellowship, visit indianahumanities.org/wgmfellowship

Contact Health & Environmental Reporter Hanna Rauworth at 317-762-7854 or follow her on Instagram at @hanna.rauworth. 

- Advertisement -

Upcoming Online Townhalls

- Advertisement -

Subscribe to our newsletter

To be updated with all the latest local news.

Stay connected

1FansLike
1FollowersFollow
1FollowersFollow
1SubscribersSubscribe

Related articles

Popular articles

Español + Translate »
Skip to content