Room Six, 1906, Knox High School, had 2 Black Students Please click on the photo to have a closer look. I think a story could be written about the young man and young lady in question simply from studying this picture. The young man stands apart from the group, carefully choosing a background to enhance his appearance. He is very well dressed and is the only student with a hat. The young lady presses against the teacher and nearly fades into the background. Note the class clown next to our nearly invisible young lady. We could say that the young black man upstages the entire class and makes this a photographic moment just about him. The young black woman couldn’t be more invisible.
Today's trivia question to prepare you for the “Clash of Civilizations”.
What is the xenophobia?Fear or hatred of strangers, people from other countries, or of anything that is strange or foreign. From dictionary.com......................
What is the xenophobia?Fear or hatred of strangers, people from other countries, or of anything that is strange or foreign. From dictionary.com......................
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What historical forces made Knox an all-white city? Indiana is an historically xenophobic state, perhaps more so than any other state in the union. From Indiana’s earliest days legal, political and social forces joined to keep out all sort of racial, cultural, and religious differences. So to a strong degree we simply reflect our State’s sorry-ass intolerant history. Although Indiana was a so-called “free” territory most of the early black residents of Indiana were essentially slaves. To the small degree that free blacks did live in early Indiana, they generally lived along the Underground Railroad routes where Quakers or other religious groups protected those fleeing slavery. As we established in Part 2 of this little series, Knox did not have an Underground Railroad or a friendly Quaker settlement. So there were no friendly, racially tolerant institutions in Knox to moderate the intolerant tone of the state.
In the early 20th century Knox was a Ku Klux Klan stronghold. In spite of that fact, several Jews and quite a few Catholics came to Knox and thrived. So it is a bit of a puzzle as to why no blacks came to Knox and endured. I have heard that there were isolated black families in rural Knox up to the 1940s. I have not been able to verify this fact. Perhaps a reader can help. A search a 1906 Sandbur yearbook from Knox High School revealed 2 identifiably black children. None could be found in the 1919 Sandbur.
One of the bright spots in Knox’s history is the conduct of our native son, Henry F Schricker. In 1949, during his 2nd term as Governor, Schricker signed House Bill No. 242, abolishing segregation and discrimination in public schools, colleges and universities. You can see Gov. Schricker’s prominent signature at the top of the bill just below the signature of the Speaker of the House.
What historical forces made Knox an all-white city? Indiana is an historically xenophobic state, perhaps more so than any other state in the union. From Indiana’s earliest days legal, political and social forces joined to keep out all sort of racial, cultural, and religious differences. So to a strong degree we simply reflect our State’s sorry-ass intolerant history. Although Indiana was a so-called “free” territory most of the early black residents of Indiana were essentially slaves. To the small degree that free blacks did live in early Indiana, they generally lived along the Underground Railroad routes where Quakers or other religious groups protected those fleeing slavery. As we established in Part 2 of this little series, Knox did not have an Underground Railroad or a friendly Quaker settlement. So there were no friendly, racially tolerant institutions in Knox to moderate the intolerant tone of the state.
In the early 20th century Knox was a Ku Klux Klan stronghold. In spite of that fact, several Jews and quite a few Catholics came to Knox and thrived. So it is a bit of a puzzle as to why no blacks came to Knox and endured. I have heard that there were isolated black families in rural Knox up to the 1940s. I have not been able to verify this fact. Perhaps a reader can help. A search a 1906 Sandbur yearbook from Knox High School revealed 2 identifiably black children. None could be found in the 1919 Sandbur.
One of the bright spots in Knox’s history is the conduct of our native son, Henry F Schricker. In 1949, during his 2nd term as Governor, Schricker signed House Bill No. 242, abolishing segregation and discrimination in public schools, colleges and universities. You can see Gov. Schricker’s prominent signature at the top of the bill just below the signature of the Speaker of the House.
Of course Knox had no black population to segregate so this bill was rather meaningless in its effect on Knox.Note on the usage of the word Negro. The word is often considered offensive. I use it here to reference historic and scholarly documents and in order to capture the archaic flavor of life in Knox.
1 comment:
As to your comment "As we established in Part 2 of this little series, Knox did not have an Underground Railroad or a friendly Quaker settlement."
I think maybe you might want to do a little more research on this. I have been in the basement of the the old Falvey's store on several occasions. At the front of this basement is an old walkway that is as wide as both the Men's & Lady's side of the store and has been filled in on both ends, I was told it used to be a part of the underground railroad.
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