‘Black Experience at IU’ garners CASE silver award

Exhibit on display at Bloomington’s IMU

By Jayne Spencer

Black Experience at Indiana University: Realizing the Dream 1816-2002 has won an international award from the Committee for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) for the Indiana University Office of the Vice President for Student Development and Diversity and the IU Office of Publications.

The exhibit, created in conjunction with the formal opening of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center on the Bloomington campus in January, depicts in photographs, texts and reproductions of original news clippings and university documents the odyssey of African Americans at IU from the founding of the university.

The exhibit is currently on display at the East Lounge of the Indiana Memorial Union in Bloomington and runs through July 25

In IU's early years, blacks were not permitted to enroll. They were prohibited by the state constitution from attending any public institution of learning. Many barriers were broken after the Civil War, leading to the enrollment of several African Americans and the graduations of Marcellus Neal and Frances Eagleson Marshall, for whom the Neal-Marshall Center is named.

The exhibit's timeline continues through the first protests at IU in 1925, the integration of facilities and athletic teams in the 1940s, and the election of IU's and the Big Ten's first black student body president in 1960. It presents the stormy years of the late 1960s, out of which grew the Black Student Union, the Department of Afro-American Studies and the establishment of high-level administrative posts dedicated to diversity.

Marcia Busch-Jones, director of the IU Office of Publications, designed the exhibit and an accompanying brochure. Erika Knudsen of the Office of Publications and Mike Wilkerson of the Office of the Vice President for Student Development and Diversity contributed text, and photography research was provided by Brad Cook of IU Archives. Betty Bridgwaters and Joseph Russell, former IU dean of Afro-American affairs, provided additional research.

The Circle of Excellence silver designation award for the exhibit will be presented during the CASE International Assembly, meeting in Chicago next month.

"This is a very comprehensive look at all kinds of accomplishments that blacks have achieved at

IU," said Charlie Nelms, IU vice president for student development and diversity. "The photos, text and documents are moving and tell a powerful story that continues to be exciting to this day."

The exhibit is divided into six topics: academics; athletics; student life and organizations; activism; change agents; and creative and performing arts. Each topic has its own kiosk, and highlights of each are collected in a master timeline display.

Plans call for the exhibit to travel to other cities in Indiana during the next academic year.

Take a tour of the new Theater/Neal-Marshall Centers at this archival IU Home Pages site:

http://homepages.indiana.edu/020102/text/nealmarshall.html

In the years before World War II, black students lived separately from white students and weren’t served food on campus or in local restaurants in Bloomington. “Change agents” at e have come from many backgrounds and perspectives. An award-winning exhibit tells the story of those agents and the impact they have had on social justice and the culture of one Midwestern university community.