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Monday, October 20, 2025

Will Children’s Museum lead or lag in Black business involvement?

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To those visiting Indianapolis for Super Bowl XLVI, Welcome! Thanks for picking up a copy of the Indianapolis Recorder, at 117 years, one of America’s oldest African-American newspapers.

You won’t read this in the many Super Bowl visitors’ guides, but Indianapolis’ African-American community is 256,418 (2010 Census); larger than Boston’s (163,629) and one-tenth the size of New York’s African-American population (2,228,145).

Fact: more Blacks live in Indy than live in Manhattan Island in the Big Apple.

You might not feel it in the crowds’ downtown, but this city’s 28.3 percent Black, compared with Boston’s 26.5 percent and New York’s 27.3 percent.

Indy’s Super Bowl Organizing Committee did a great job incorporating African-Americans, and other minorities, into committee leadership and insuring that African-American owned businesses got a cut of the millions spent.

When you watch the game inside Lucas Oil Stadium, you can enjoy ribs and other food delights from African-American-owned vendors. They’ve been part of our stadium since the late lamented Hoosier/RCA Dome.

More than 20 percent-plus of the prime and sub-contractors who built the stadium, where the Patriots play the Giants, were minority (including Black) businesses.

Could African-American participation in our Super Bowl have been better? Absolutely. But we’re proud of the strides Indianapolis’ Super Bowl did in improving the level of minority inclusion and participation.

I wish I could say the same about another major Indianapolis institution.

Just five miles from the Super Bowl hoopla is The Children’s Museum, the best children’s museum in the country and perhaps the world.

For over three decades, The Children’s Museum has led in outreach to the 80 percent-plus African-American neighborhood where it sits. Currently, the museum is embarking on a major redevelopment project of a neighborhood eyesore.

But even though the project’s funded with federal and private funds, and despite being a leader in diversity and inclusion, the museum last week revealed that they only plan to do the minimum of 15 percent minority-owned business participation in this project. And the museum refuses to even hint at the level of African-Americans to be employed in this massive project.

A couple of months ago, on our WTLC-AM (1310) “Afternoons with Amos” program, museum President/CEO Jeffrey Patchen seemed open to insuring the museum’s minority participation goals would exceed the city’s 15 percent minimum.

But that’s not what was published in the request for proposals released last week.

Interviewed last week on our program, Anthony Bridgeman, the museum’s point person on the project, doggedly stuck to his position the museum would achieve the city’s minimum, vaguely promising they’d “do better,” but refusing to commit to a higher minority target.

Bridgeman strikes me as someone afraid to lead his institution into being the bold community institution it once was.

As the developer, The Children’s Museum could’ve had formally proposed any minority participation goal they wished.

They could have and should have made the minority participation level at least 20 percent. Given the track record of many African-American contractors and subs who have experience on projects the museum is proposing, a minimum 20 percent participation figure as the minimum is right and proper; especially a development within a majority-Black neighborhood.

Bridgeman’s lack of guts and the museum’s and Patchen’s accession to timidity is sad for a major institution that has worn its devotion to diversity as a badge of honor.

The African-American members of The Children’s Museum Board of Directors should press Patchen to reign in Bridgeman and insist on a minimum of 20 percent minority participation level for the museum’s Winona redevelopment.

What I’m hearing

in the streets

The folks at The Mind Trust are trying to get the community to re-engage in discussions over its plan to reform the Indianapolis Public Schools, including mayoral control.

But a larger community discussion is brewing; namely the role of a new deputy mayor of education.

Mayor Greg Ballard will appoint this individual probably in a month. It’s expected the person will have experience working with “Democrats.”

But in a live town hall meeting Friday with City-County Council members, education issues came up. Not IPS issues, but problems of educational equity and educational leadership incompetence in township and charter schools.

My sense from the council members who participated in the first live radio broadcast from the City-County Council chambers, is that there will be close scrutiny of this new deputy mayor position.

Thanks to the councilors who participated in the groundbreaking radio town hall. They were: Council President Maggie Lewis; Majority Leader Vernon Brown, Democratic Councilors Zach Adamson, John Barth, Monroe Gray, William Oliver, Vop Osili, Pam Hickman, Joe Simpson and Leroy Robinson. Plus Republicans Christine Scales and Marilyn Pfisterer.

* * * * *

At first I was upset over WRTV/Channel 6’s recent anchor assignments. Since September’s departure of Trisha Shepherd, Erika Flye has been the station’s solo female lead anchor.

Then last week, Channel 6 breathlessly said Flye had been “promoted” to anchoring the station’s 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts. But they also announced a white female, Jenna Kooi, would anchor prime time 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts.

Flye has far more experience as a reporter and anchor than Kooi, yet didn’t receive any prime time newscast assignments.

But, while perturbed at Channel 6 management, several days later I get the announcement that Terri Cope Walton, the station’s community affairs director has been promoted to assistant news director. According to the station, recently acquired by Scripps, lauded Walton’s “seasoned news judgment.”

To my knowledge, Walton becomes the only African-American in news management in Indianapolis television. (If I’m not correct, I’m sure I’ll get a correcting e-mail).

While Walton’s promotion is a positive for minorities, there was another loss for minorities as Joy Dumandan, Indy’s first Asian-American TV anchor left WISH-TV/Channel 8.

Dumandan vanished from Channel 8’s morning newscasts first of the year. Station officials told trade media, Dumandan was on vacation, but late last week, all traces of Dumandan were removed from Channel 8’s website.

Joy Dumandan had been at Channel 8 for more than 10 years, first at 5:30 p.m., then later moved to the increasingly critical morning TV news shift.

Dumandan was a very visual representation of Indy’s small, but growing Asian community. Her departure from the airwaves is distressing for minority representation in our city’s media.

See ‘ya next week.

You can email comments to Amos Brown at acbrown@aol.com.

 

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