Trotter: Indiana Black Expo through the years – Indianapolis Recorder

When Recorder President and CEO Robert Shegog known as final week asking that I write a narrative about Indiana Black Expo, a thousand approaches to telling the Expo story went by my thoughts.

I struggled with deciding the place I might begin and the way I might inform the historical past in 600 phrases. There’s a lot to inform.

I attended the primary Indiana Black Expo in 1971 and a number of other after that one. Within the Eighties, I used to be Expo’s media relations contact with a staff of volunteers serving to me. I additionally led Expo protection whereas working for the IndyStar and was there through the Mike Tyson occasion to protect Expo’s public fame within the media. So, I had a variety of Expo experiences. I settled on the main focus being how Expo started and the way the muse was laid.

This was the interval: It was the late Sixties and into the ‘70s when Black individuals had been on the transfer in Indianapolis. There was race satisfaction. Afros and greetings of brotherhood had been frequent. We had a radio station owned by a Black man, Dr. Frank Lloyd. We had two Black-owned newspapers, the Recorder and the Herald. Indiana Avenue was nonetheless alive with main entertainers. Black companies had been plentiful and visual. Strain was being utilized in each space to incorporate African Individuals within the C suites and on boards. “Black flight” was occurring together with white flight, as these with means moved north.

The yr of the primary Indiana Black Expo, federal choose S. Hugh Dillin had ordered desegregation of some Indianapolis Public Colleges and workers after a lawsuit filed by the native NAACP. UniGov, the consolidation of metropolis and county authorities, was being carried out, and metropolis fathers had been centered on reviving downtown, which was a ghost city within the Seventies.

Permitting and even supporting Indiana Black Expo could have been a solution to distract our consideration away from what was occurring on account of UniGov.  However I digress. Expo was the time to have an excellent time.

Phyllis Carr, Helen Perkins and Barbara Wilson, three associates affiliated with Rev. Andrew J. Brown and the native chapter of the Southern Christian Management Convention, went to Chicago to the Chicago SCLC Black Expo and returned with concepts for a Black Expo right here.

Rev. Brown, a Republican, embraced the concept and introduced in James C. Cummings, additionally a Republican and former Indianapolis Recorder reporter. Others wished to help the hassle. Republicans and Democrats labored collectively.

They included Willard B. Ransom, a lawyer and normal supervisor for the Madame C. J. Walker Manufacturing Co., group activists William Crawford, as native coordinator and Glenn Howard, who labored statewide to start out chapters. Bobby Bernard stepped in to ebook and promote the live shows; Doris Woods organized the primary Miss Black Expo Contest. Billie Sanders chaired the primary artwork exhibit. Mary Mumford got here on to coordinate the artwork exhibit. No one was paid — not less than not above board.

Simply to drop a number of different names, founding volunteers additionally included individuals like Hoyt Diamond, Emma O. Johnson, George VanSickle, Fred McCoy, Darlene Ricketts, Ed O’Rea, Sam Jones, Leo Madden, Vernice Williams, Johnny Florence and George P. Stewart, son of Recorder writer Marcus C. Stewart, additionally a Republican.

Dianna Durham McLoud, a member of Expo’s first board of administrators representing Northwest Indiana, remembers the challenges of organizing. Everybody had their concepts of what IBE must be. Writing a mission assertion was grueling, she stated.

There was even debate over whether or not the occasion could be known as “Black Expo,” since “coloured” and “Negro” had been phrases sometimes used then.

“It was very tough getting individuals to construct consensus,” McLoud stated. “Everybody had robust opinions about what Expo must be.”

Lastly, consensus was reached however cash was wanted. With St. John Baptist Church as headquarters, Cummings labored with Ransom, who was finance chairman of Expo and a member of the board of Retailers Financial institution, to land a $20,000 mortgage from Retailers Financial institution.

Expo was held in June a number of weeks after I graduated from Arsenal Technical Excessive College in 1971. Gary Mayor Richard Hatcher gave the opening message. There have been reveals exhibiting the historical past of African Individuals in Indiana. Massive companies and Black-owned companies had been distributors. About 50,000 attended, and the occasion grossed about $70,000.

I bear in mind leaving the Indianapolis Fairground Exposition Corridor with baggage of samples of every kind of issues, together with cigarettes. Liquor and cigarette companies had been Expo’s largest early sponsors.

Revenue from the primary Expo, about $20,000, went to Indianapolis Operation Breadbasket, headed by Rev. Brown, and the Martin Luther King Basis in Atlanta. The inspiration obtained cash as a result of it owned the MLK Basketball Event held throughout Expo, which made greater than half of the revenue for the occasion. Basketball nice Jerry Harkness chaired the event.

The next yr, Expo moved to the Indiana Conference and Exposition Heart. By 1973, with Cummings nonetheless president, Expo attracted greater than 115,000. The assistance of dozens of volunteers, together with Carol Calvin and Jocelyn Tandy, helped Expo keep within the black.

Luther Hicks grew to become president after Cummings. A golf event was added and it grew to become the largest golf event ever sponsored by Blacks wherever in america with a $25,000 purse. Marilyn Brown grew to become the primary lady chair of Black Expo. William Crawford adopted Hicks as president. By then, Crawford was a state consultant.

Within the following years, Expo continued to develop, including a enterprise discussion board centered on constructing Black companies and serving to them land authorities contracts, a soul picnic which was held at Frederick Douglass Park, an ecumenical service, a well being truthful and extra. Within the early days of Expo, Black venues had been used for Expo occasions. For instance, Foster Resort and Motor Lodge, which was positioned close to Illinois Avenue and owned by businessman and civic chief Andrew Foster, hosted the Miss Black Expo contest. Occasions had been additionally held on the Madame Walker Theatre.

The African Symposium was a robust occasion throughout Expo. It grew out of scholar activism at Indiana College-Purdue College Black Pupil Union (IUPUI) within the mid-Seventies, supporting the struggles in South Africa in opposition to apartheid. Kwame T. Mumina was president of the scholar union.

Mumina grew to become a legislative assist to each Crawford (who was elected in 1972) and then-Sen. Julia M. Carson. From that relationship, discussions quickly turned to what Indiana Black Expo must be doing in reference to the Southern African wrestle.

“The end result of these dialogue was the primary Black Expo African Symposium in 1976, then known as the Southern African Symposium,” stated Mumina, who’s now an legal professional in Oklahoma.

“It was a hard-hitting two-day alternative as part of the Indiana Black Expo confab to digest the numerous issues dealing with Africa and African American, which regularly included well-recognized, but controversial panelists, journalists, audio system and writers with nationwide and worldwide stature,” Mumina stated.

Delegations of Africans of their native clothes would usually be seen strolling across the exhibit space together with different native and nationwide celebrities.

In 1980, Mmoja Ajabu took over management of the symposium and continued with the identical goals and dedication of holding African and African American points on the minds of Indiana Black Expo contributors, Mumina stated.

By 1980, a nationwide recession triggered a lower within the variety of cubicles offered for Expo. Small Black companies had been among the many hardest hit by inflation, making it tough for them to spend $500 for a sales space. Expo debt started to mount.

By 1983, when Charles Williams grew to become president, Expo was $160,000 within the purple. Charles was initially “loaned” to Expo with the blessings of Indianapolis Mayor William Hudnut, however funding allowed him to later be employed as the primary paid Expo president. Charles, who was additionally a Republican, was an assistant to Mayor Hudnut earlier than becoming a member of Expo.

It was throughout this era that younger Black company professionals got here to assist Expo. Professionals from IBM, Indiana Bell and Lilly Endowment got here onboard. Lilly Endowment staffers Jacqueline Burton and Charles Blair helped Expo land Lilly Endowment funding. Yolande McGhee Savoy took a go away of absence from her job at Xerox Corp. and was introduced on as program director. She introduced together with her great gross sales and advertising expertise. Others joined, as properly, together with Al Hobbs, George Pillow, Colleen Heeter, Marcia Bennett, Charlotte Campbell, Gary Holland and too many others to checklist right here.

“It was an thrilling time,” stated McGhee. “It was all about change and transformation.”

Circle Metropolis Basic was added to IBE’s lineup of occasions in 1984 and I additionally dealt with publicity for the primary Basic.

After Williams’ dying in 2004, Joyce Rogers grew to become president, adopted by Tanya McKinzie and shortly Alice Watson.

Underneath Rogers’ management, Expo noticed income and financial affect on Indianapolis enhance by hundreds of thousands of {dollars}.

Underneath McKinzie’s management, the group noticed 14 years of unpolluted monetary audits whereas remaining debt free with adequate funds in reserve.

Over time, Expo remodeled from a grassroots motion to a statewide group working year-round and attracting attendance from all through the nation. It has 12 chapters and greater than 3,000 members. The workers has grown to 25 with a volunteer board. Scholarships given to minority youth prime $4.6 million during the last 35 years.

As we speak, Expo is making all efforts to extend attendance and participation after years of decline. This yr, participation is anticipated to extend with the easing of the pandemic. As one among Expo’s themes stated, Expo has proven that “Working Collectively Works.”

Eunice Trotter is a former proprietor, editor and writer of the Recorder.