Researching African-American History in Indiana: Ask Dr. Tim Lake about early Black settlements in Indiana. He’ll share how he and Wabash College students have discovered that, 150 years ago, Black-White relations were not nearly as polarized as one might assume.“It was the Quaker influence,” says Lake, director of the college’s Malcolm X Institute of Black Studies (MXIBS). “Quakers were willing to sell land to Blacks. When Indiana law required Blacks to pay $500 in order to settle in the state, there were plenty of Quakers who paid for them.”
The finding is among many in a research project pegged to Indiana public markers identifying African-Americans. For five summers, Wabash student interns combed monuments, grave sites and churches to document the cultural influence of Blacks. The project is part of an ongoing effort to bring the MXIBS deeper into the college’s academic mission, says Lake, also an associate professor of English.
