Browsing by Subject "Black History"

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    The Female Impersonators of Indiana Avenue: Race, Sexuality, Gender Expression and the Black Entertainment Industry
    (2018-12) Lane, Stephen M.
    On Indiana Avenue, the female impersonators performed in the theaters, clubs and saloons dominated by jazz legends who were born in Indianapolis and others from around the country. Despite the appearance of female impersonator shows, the historical printed record created by Black newspapers in Indianapolis was largely silent from 1911 until 1933. This silence may be due to missing issues of the Indianapolis Recorder from 1917 to 1925. Historians state that the “Pansy Craze” swept the nation in the 1920s. After 1933, openly gay Black men controlled the Avenue’s drag scene. By the 1960s, performers wore women’s clothing in public even when they were not on stage. How we record these performers and their gender identity is an imperfect historical effort since queer themes are largely underrepresented in local archives and historical writings. Given the option, performers may have identified as transgender in today’s terminology.
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    “This Great Building Belongs To Everyone”: Interrogating Claims About Inclusiveness and Exploring the Role of Nostalgia in the 1970s and 1980s Historic Preservation Movement at Union Station in Indianapolis, Indiana
    (2022-05) Butterworth, Alexis Victoria; Shrum, Rebecca K.; Scarpino, Philip V.; Rowe, Stephanie
    Union Station is a unique historic building in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. The station, which first opened in 1853, has connected the history of the evolution of travel and the city of Indianapolis and, in the late twentieth century, became deeply embedded in local conversations about national issues at the intersection of race, historic preservation, and urban renewal. The station was a place of Black exclusion from public spaces throughout its existence, first as a train station, and later when it was repurposed as a Festival Marketplace. In preparation for the opening of the Festival Marketplace in the 1980s—complete with shops, restaurants, and a hotel—the developers invited people to write to them to preserve personal memories of experiences at the station from the era of train travel. Indiana residents, both white and Black, as well as Indianapolis city officials, and redevelopers of the station showed nostalgia for earlier eras when the station was active. This nostalgia, I argue, played an active and productive role in the process of saving Union Station. Importantly, those who contributed a letter to the “Remember Union Station” project were overwhelmingly white. Out of eighty-six letters, the race of seventy-three of them can be confirmed. Of those eighty-six, only two have been identified as Black. The two Black letter writers used the opportunity to contribute to the “Remember Union Station” campaign as a means to remember and claim the right to belong in Union Station for themselves, their families, and Black communities. As this project shows, the Indianapolis Union Station has always been more than just a building. It is a space that captures a part of the complex history of the city of Indianapolis and can hopefully provide more links to the past, present, and future for Hoosiers and visitors alike.