J&C partners with historical association to shares stories of the county's black history
LAFAYETTE, Ind. — To celebrate Black History Month, the Journal & Courier partnered with the Tippecanoe County Historical Association to bring readers stories of figures and moments important to the county’s black history.
The J&C reached out to local historian Mary Anthrop, who’s spent the last three decades studying Tippecanoe County’s 19th-century and early 20th-century black history, and asked if she would be willing to provide the newspaper with smaller stories highlighting different aspects of the county’s history.
Over the next month, the J&C and Anthrop will share stories highlighting the county’s educational history, religious history, civil rights history, sports history, and economic history. On top of Anthrop’s stories, the J&C will publish a few longer stories delving into the county’s black history.
The J&C has already published the first story provided by Anthrop, which highlights the life of Abel Fields, one of Lafayette’s earliest black entrepreneurs, and the brother of John Fields, one of Lafayette’s important religious figures.
The newspaper will publish Anthrop’s stories online and in print throughout February.
"Should the plan to celebrate the centennial of the state be carried out here. I hope our people will take part in the demonstration... Indiana is a great state and we have helped to make it great, and I am sure we have enough ability to evolve something that will be a credit to us as a race and to Indiana as a state. We can do it and we should do it, and by so doing prove to our white friends that Lafayette means us too," said an anonymous Lafayette African American in a copy of the Lafayette Daily Courier on June 15, 1916.
Noe Padilla is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. Email him at Npadilla@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter at 1NoePadilla.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Stories of Tippecanoe County's black history
