In the midst of Indy’s mid-1990s homicide crisis, when thousands of young teens and young adults packed Black Expo’s exhibit halls, events and choked downtown sidewalks and streets, Black Expo officials never used metal detection wands to screen attendees.
But Sunday, the last day of the 45th Black Expo, with attendance down from last year’s subpar attendance, metal detection wands were used for the first time with no explanation or evidence of any credible threat to downtown. In fact, on the contrary, downtown had its most peaceful Black Expo weekend in years.
It’s inept actions like that, that continues to cause Black Expo’s attendance, sponsor and vendor involvement to deteriorate. A reality that continues to put Expo in dire peril.
Indiana Black Expo had good moments – inspiring speeches by the real life Blind Side mom Leigh Ann Touhy and actor Derek Luke; improved attendance at McDonald’s Gospel Concert with the best attendance since the late Al “The Bishop” Hobbs stopped producing Expo’s Gospel Concert three years ago.
But the good moments were sporadic. The problems, missteps, forced and enforced errors, lack of care and concerns for patrons, sponsors, vendors, volunteers and community continue unchecked and undealt with.
I’m not going to repeat Expo’s myriad of problems here. Just go back through the Indianapolis Recorder archives to my July columns the past five years.
This year’s new layout, a wide-open space of 239,000 square feet where the Domed Stadium used to be, provided a wide vista and a seeming end to scores of empty space where exhibit booths should be. But the space Expo used for exhibits and the health fair, not including meal events and the gospel concert, was 25.1 percent less, some 80,000 square feet, than the last 15 years.
Expo’s biggest strength used to be its bipartisanship; befitting an organization founded by Republicans and Democrats.
But you wouldn’t know that by how Expo’s board treats Democrats. The board’s blind partisanship eliminated the elected officials’ reception. The board’s petty politics prevented a Democratic- elected official from joining Mayor Greg Ballard in bringing greetings at Expo’s opening event, the Ecumenical Service.
Though they had booths in the exhibit hall, Democrats feel marginalized and belittled by Expo’s board.
It’s time, dear readers, that you know the men and women who have sanctioned Black Expo’s precarious position financially, artistically and operationally. The ones personally responsible for turning a community pride institution into a shadow of its former strength and vitality.
May I reveal, posted as of July 19 on Expo’s website, Indiana Black Expo’s Board of Directors.
Gregory Wilson, chair; Arvis Dawson, executive vice-chair; Regional Vice-Chairs, Leroy Robinson and Robert Hayes Sr.; Gary Hobbs, treasurer; Paulette Kemp, secretary; and members Tony Kirkland, Demarius “Mauri” Miller, Niquelle Allen, Kim Pennycuff, Melissa Reese, Jacquelyn Thomas-Miller, Mickey Maurer, Charles Green, Murray Miller, Gary Hentschel, Kristian Little, Jamal Smith, Marilyn Goree, Jan Mansfield-Stith, Kathy Carr, John Davis, Tara Morris, John Thompson, Demetrius “Dee” Harris and John Young.
These are the men and women who our community must understand will be responsible for the looming demise of a valued Indianapolis institution.
What I’m Hearing in the Streets
There’s raw, naked anger against the heartless, insensitive executives at Chase Bank who ordered one-third of the city’s banks located in Black-majority neighborhoods be closed. The anger is expressed by elected officials, would be elected officials, some pastors and ordinary folks.
Interviewed on our WTLC-AM (1310) “Afternoons with Amos” program live from Black Expo, Congressman Andre Carson, Sen. Joe Donnelly and mayor candidates Chuck Brewer and Joe Hogsett expressed strong anger and disgust at Chase’s actions. Including their lack of plausible explanations of the apparent racially motivated closings and the abandonment of key neighborhoods like Riverside/United Northwest Area Development Corporation and the Meadows.
Folks came up to me as I walked around Black Expo telling me horror stories of insensitivity by Chase toward their accounts.
Several pastors bitterly complained Chase officials routinely diss their attempts for loans to expand their church ministries; despite their church’s deposits of thousands in Chase banks.
Three lions of our African-American community have recently been called home by God.
Judge Taylor Baker, 79, who died July 5, was an African-American legal pioneer in Indianapolis/Marion County. In the 1960s he became the first African-American city prosecutor and served 24 years on the bench in a variety of courts, including as presiding judge.
Joseph Kimbrew is forever an indelible part of Indianapolis’ history as the first African-American fire chief. Kimbrew died July 16 at age 86. Picked by Mayor Bill Hudnut in 1987, Kimbrew’s appointment galvanized a community that had never seen their own in charge of a key public safety position.
A dedicated 37 year firefighter, Kimbrew’s five years as chief paved the way for Indianapolis’ two African-American police chiefs and public safety directors in our city/county’s history. And current Fire Chief Ernest Malone follows Kimbrew’s legacy of professionalism.
Gilbert Holmes blazed many trails in Indianapolis and Indiana. He managed a restaurant, worked for Methodist Hospital, Lincoln National Corporation. But he made history as the first and only African-American to run Indiana’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles, Indy’s public transit system, IndyGo and Indiana’s branch of the American Civil Liberties Union.
But what many didn’t know was Holmes was career military retiring as a major. A Vietnam veteran, Gilbert Holmes earned the Bronze Star Medal for valor and heroism.
Holmes passed June 24 in Phoenix where he’d retired. He was 79. He’ll be buried later this summer, with full honors, at Arlington National Cemetery.
My deepest sympathies to the families of Baker, Kimbrew and Holmes. These three selfless servants and community lions are now standing with Honor in Heaven’s Pantheon of Trailblazers.
See ‘ya next week!
You can email comment to Amos Brown at acbrown@aol.com.
