The house on Dunn Street is one of several homes where the Carmichael family lived during Hoagy’s childhood. Born in Bloomington on November 22, 1899, Howard Hoagland was the first child and only son of Howard Clyde (“Cyclone”) and Mary Lida Robison Carmichael. Three girls were to follow. The youngest of them, Joanne, died when she was three, much to her brother’s distress. He blamed her death on the family’s poverty and wrote on the back of a photo of her that her loss made him vow, “I would never be broke again in my lifetime.”
Cyclone Carmichael held a number of jobs, none of which seemed to last long or pay well. He periodically uprooted the family in pursuit of better opportunities. In 1904 they moved to Indianapolis but were back in Bloomington two years later. A more dramatic move came in 1910 when Cyclone transported the family to Missoula, Montana. It was a vast, cold, and sparsely populated area that ten-year-old Hoagy found bleak and forbidding. As his eldest son Hoagy Bix later recounted, however, the boy discovered that Black musicians played hot ragtime on pianos in local brothels. Hoagy would steal there to listen to them, without his mother’s knowledge. By spring 1911, much to Hoagy’s relief, his father’s Montana dream had ended. The family was back in Bloomington, first at the Dunn Street house again and then at 325 South Fess Avenue, just two blocks away.
Hoagy’s mother Lida was a skilled pianist. She supplemented the family income by playing at silent movie theaters as well as fraternity and sorority parties on the IU campus, frequently accompanied by her son. Hoagy didn’t reveal a special interest in music, however, until he was eleven years old. He claims he became fascinated with the song “Little Boy Blue” and asked his mother to teach him to sing it. She later taught him to play the piano as well. Their mutual love of music became a lifelong bond between Hoagy and Lida.
In 1916 Cyclone Carmichael once again moved the family to Indianapolis. This disrupted the social and musical life Hoagy, now in high school, had begun to enjoy. He dropped out of Manual High School in Indianapolis when he was sixteen. He then worked a series of jobs on a construction crew, assembly line, and, most grimly, in a slaughterhouse. In early 1919, at the age of eighteen, Hoagy returned to Bloomington. He lived with his Robison grandparents at 907 Atwater St., and re-entered high school, from which he finally graduated in 1920.
]]>In August 1860, at a site beside the Charlestown Road on the northeast side of New Albany, Black Americans gathered to celebrate the emancipation of enslaved people in the West Indies a quarter-century before. Speaking before the group, a Reverend Kelly declared, “I say that you have a duty to perform, if you want freedom you must battle for it, I do not counsel you to open rebellion, but to use every lawful means to abolish slavery from our land.” He added: “All we ask for is our just rights, for the privilege . . . to vote.” On the eve of the Civil War, Black Americans expressed their yearnings for freedom and demonstrated the strength of anti-slavery sentiment in New Albany. Today, the site where they gathered is part of Hedden’s Grove, a residential neighborhood named for an early landowner, David Hedden.
A native of New Jersey, Hedden arrived in Floyd County about 1820 at the age of eighteen. He clerked in a store for about a year and in 1829 formed a partnership with the store’s owner, with Elias Ayres, “one of the early merchants of New Albany.” Later he opened the Hedden Dry Goods Company at the corner of State and Market streets. In 1867 he built a house at a cost of $10,000 across from the Floyd County Fair Grounds. He and his wife had at least eight children, with eight surviving into the 1880s. Given that Hedden allowed the 1860 gathering on his property, he almost surely held antislavery sentiments. After the Civil War, blacks continued to hold emancipation celebrations in the area. In September 1886, for example, Black Americans gathered near Hedden’s residence to celebrate the cause of freedom and the struggles of their people.
In the early twentieth century, several of Hedden’s children subdivided portions of the property he had amassed for residential development. Improvements to Charlestown Road, the advent of the automobile, and construction of an interurban railway that reached Silver Street by 1924 created demand for houses on the outskirts of the city. In 1905, lots between what is today Hedden Park and Silver Street were laid out and others followed in the 1920s. In 1925-26, Arthur Shoo, a developer, built five Craftsman-style bungalows on Charlestown Road. In 1928, the founding of the David Hedden Realty Company signaled the beginning of efforts to promote house sales in the area. The company created a model home on Hedden Court and began selling handsome residences to eager buyers, many of them prominent figures in New Albany business circles.
Most of the houses in the Hedden’s Grove neighborhood date from the 1920-1950 era. Tudor Revival, Colonial Revival, and other eclectic styles predominate. These proved popular with buyers seeking respectability and good taste. The neighborhood encompasses about fifteen acres on two parallel cul-de-sacs, Hedden Court and Hedden Park. Landscape features include mature trees, deep setbacks, and low retaining walls. The neighborhood was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.
]]>From the 1850s until the early twentieth century, Freedomland Cemetery served as the main burial ground for Black Americans in New Albany. Originally called the “Colored People’s Burial Grounds” and the “Colored People’s Graveyard,” it lies in a wooded area off Paoli Pike on the northwest outskirts of town. Like many cemeteries of its kind, Freedomland fell into disuse over time and was eventually abandoned. In the late 1980s, Robert Harrison, a local historian, rediscovered the cemetery and called attention to its role in New Albany’s heritage. Since 1999, students at S. Ellen Jones Elementary School have carried out a series of cleanup and improvement projects that have rehabilitated the four-acre site and made it accessible to visitors. Today, Freedomland is well known. It offers a powerful reminder of the role that racial segregation played in the history of southern Indiana.
Segregated burial practices existed throughout America before the Civil War. Some cemeteries placed Black American graves in a designated area separate from White burials. Others prohibited Black Americans. Many communities established Black-only cemeteries, as New Albany did. The earliest known burials at Freedomland date from 1854, but the cemetery likely entered use earlier. Conservative estimates put the total number of burials around 300. The last internment is believed to have taken place in 1917.
Today, a marker stands at the entrance to Freedomland Cemetery. Groomed pathways allow visitors to move through the grounds. Third, fourth, and fifth-grade students from S. Ellen Jones Elementary restored the cemetery by removing trash from the site, cleaning headstones, and arranging for installation of a fence, benches, and a flagpole. Students gave careful consideration to the design of the main sign, which displays quotations and symbols from the Black American freedom struggle. They also installed 300 limestone grave markers.
Freedomland serves as a fitting memorial to the men, women, and children buried within it. Burials included former slaves, members of New Albany’s free-black community, and of United States Colored Troops veterans.
]]>Lucy Higgs lived an extraordinary life. Born enslaved in North Carolina, she gained her freedom during the Civil War, became a nurse to the 23rd Regiment of Indiana Volunteers, and lived out her days in New Albany. In 1898, a special act of Congress awarded her a pension for her services during the war. The Lucy Higgs Nichols Historical Marker at Veterans Plaza, at the intersection of East Market and East 10th streets, honors her life and role in the struggle for racial equality.
Nichols is believed to have been born in 1838. In 1862, she gained her freedom by fleeing to the 23rd Regiment while it camped near Bolivar, Tennessee. According to one account, the men of the 23rd protected Nichols and her baby daughter when their former enslaver came after them. Nichols became a nurse with the 23rd Regiment and remained with them throughout the war. She participated in at least 28 battles, including the siege of Vicksburg; the capture of Jackson, Mississippi; and the pursuit of Confederate General John Bell Hood in Alabama and Georgia. In addition to serving as a nurse, Nichols also worked for the 23rd Regiment as a cook. Her daughter died in Vicksburg. Nichols was with the regiment when it mustered out in Washington, D.C. She accompanied the men back to Indiana and settled in New Albany. She was the only woman who served with the 23rd Regiment.
In 1870, Higgs married John Nichols, a Civil War veteran who had served with the 8th U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery. The couple lived in the Fifth Ward of New Albany with John’s father, Leander. In 1892, Nichols applied for a pension from the United States government after Congress passed an act allowing compensation to Civil War nurses. She was denied the pension but continued to fight for it. She and 55 veterans of the 23rd Regiment petitioned Congress again in 1895. In 1898, Nichols received her pension through a special act of Congress. For the rest of her life she received $12 a month in recognition of her valor during the “War of the Rebellion.”
Nichols became an honorary member of the Sanderson Post of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.), the major Union veterans’ organization. She was one of a handful of women to receive such status. Higgs participated in 23rd Regiment reunions, state encampments, and Decoration Day programs, and she marched with the regiment in parades. Her participation in these activities suggests that she considered her wartime service significant.Nichols spent her last years at the county poor house on Grant Line Road because she had no one to care for her. She died January 29, 1915. Her final resting place is believed to be in West Haven Cemetery.
The best overview of Higgs’s life is “Remembered: The Life of Lucy Higgs Nichols,” an exhibit at the Carnegie Center for Art and History. The Carnegie Center is located at 201 E. Spring Street and is open Tuesday-Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
]]>In the early 1830s, Andrew and Mary Israel arrived in New Albany, Indiana, from Ohio. Andrew, a native of Kentucky, earned his living as a cobbler. Mary, originally from Virginia, helped her husband finish shoes. Most of her time, however, went into managing a boarding house and hotel on Main Street.
During the 1840s and 1850s, steamboat captains, pilots, and engineers routinely stayed at the Israel House. Its popularity and refined accommodations led it to be called “the most aristocratic boarding house in the city.” Following Andrew Israel’s death on November 4, 1855, Mary continued to operate the Israel House.
Andrew and Mary willingly lent assistance to neighbors, White and Black. Although the historical record contains no direct statements concerning the Israels’ views on race, evidence indicates they favored greater tolerance. In October 1851, for example, Andrew testified in the Floyd County Court on behalf of a free Black woman, Sarah Ann Lucas. In August, Indiana voters had overwhelmingly approved the Exclusion Act, a law stating, "No negro or mulatto shall come into, or settle in the State, after the adoption of this Constitution". The law subsequently became Article Thirteen of the Indiana Constitution of 1851. Free Black Americans who had previously settled in Indiana had to obtain “Proof of Freedom” documents showing their status as legal residents. Andrew Israel’s testimony helped Lucas secure her documents. A short while later, Louisville police arrested Lucas for assisting a Black freedom seeker cross the Ohio River into Indiana.
When violence broke out on July 22, 1862, Mary acted valiantly, at great risk to herself, to protect Black Americans. As tensions escalated during the early stages of the Civil War, some saw Black Americans as the cause of the struggle underway. On July 21, 1862, a fight between two Black men and two White men left one of the White men dead and the other injured. The following day, White men and boys marched through New Albany, beating Black residents, starting fires, and destroying property. The incident is today recalled as the Race Riot of 1862.
During the riot, a Black man who lived at the Israel house was attacked by a group of White men. He escaped and sought refuge at the Israel House, where Mary Israel drew him inside and boarded up all the doors, making it impossible for the pursuers to enter. Andrew and Mary Israel risked both their lives and their reputations to help Black Americans. An Indiana historical marker at the site of the former Israel House recalls the racial unrest of 1862 but says little about the Israels’ bravery and activism.
The Israel House remained in business for more than forty years, although it moved several times and also changed ownership. From the mid-1840s into the 1870s, the Israel House stood at 228 Main Street. Mary Israel either died or left New Albany by 1873. By the mid-1880s, J. B. Kelley reopened the Israel House at 40 and 42 West Main Street. In 1886 Frank Losson, a baker, bought the Israel House, turned it into his place of business, and created a residence upstairs. A recent restoration returned the building to its late nineteenth-century appearance.
To learn more about Israels and the racial tensions of the Civil War era, visit the Carnegie Center for Art and History at 201 East Spring Street. The award-winning exhibit, "Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage: Men and Women of the Underground Railroad," is available for viewing Tuesday-Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
]]>Tucked away at the intersection of West Vermont Street and Toledo Street, the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Indianapolis is a beautiful brick structure overlooking the canal. The building was home to a congregation that has been very active in the pursuit of equality for over 150 years.
Free Africans and African Americans in Philadelaphia founded the denomination in the late 1700s, with the goal of promoting racial equality through moral uplift and social justice. Previously, if Black people wanted to participate in church services, they were often discriminated against by white congregations.
The Indianapolis parishioners formed their church in 1836, building on Georgia Street in 1840. Most Northern cities experienced an explosion in the growth of their respective black communities. Indiana’s position on the border of the slaveholding South made it a popular destination for freedom seekers. Bethel AME assisted people on their journeys further north, but a white majority in the state did not appreciate this influx of Black people. In 1830, the Indiana state legislature passed a law that banned the immigration of Black and mixed race people and forced those that did settle here to pay a $500 fine. However, this did not deter the Bethel’s congregation activities with the Underground Railroad. Bethel AME’s activities did not go unnoticed by the white community. Although the church had many supporters, including local white clergyman Calvin Fletcher; the pro-equality actions of the church angered many people, prompting a mysterious fire that burned down the original church in 1864 . At the time, Reverend Willis Revel was actively recruiting Black citizens to serve in the Indiana Colored Infantry during the Civil War . The church was unfazed by this act of terrorism, rebuilding their church at this location (1864-1870) and continuing their quest for racial equality.
Bethel AME Church of Indianapolis not only promoted its own causes, but served as a foundational meeting place for many African American groups fighting for civil rights, including the National Association for the Advance of Colored People (NAACP) and the Indiana Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs. The church’s leaders also believed that the hope for the future of Black equality in general was its youth. In 1858, the church started its own boarding school, where students studied “spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, geography, history, anatomy, physiology, and hygiene” among other subjects . Bethel AME was very active in the lives of the African American children of Indianapolis, both in religion and education.
The tradition of social justice and civil rights remains a cornerstone of the Bethel AME Church in Indianapolis today, which is now called Bethel Cathedral and located on Zionsville Road in Pike Township. A virtual tour of the Bethel AME Church building on Vermont street can be accessed here!
]]>In 2010, a team of professors and students from Ball State University used digital mapping technologies to identify the exact location of Washington Ball Park. Decades of development and change, including the construction of the Indianapolis Zoo, had nearly erased this important part of the city’s past.
Opened in 1905, the park was home to the Indianapolis Indians until 1931, when they moved to Perry (later renamed Bush) Stadium. But Washington Ball Park was home to another important Indianapolis and American story. From around 1917 to 1931, when the Indians traveled for games, they leased the ball park to the city’s independent African American baseball team, the ABCs. During the 1910s, the ABCs (named for their sponsor, the American Brewing Company), rose to prominence and won the 1916 Negro World Series.
In February 1920, the ABCs’ manager, Charles I. Taylor, co-founded and became vice president of the Negro National League. The NNL was a baseball league for African American players during the era of segregation when they were not allowed to play alongside whites. The NNL consisted mainly of Midwestern and some Southern baseball teams, including the ABCs, the Detroit Stars, the Kansas City Monarchs, the Birmingham Black Barons, and many others. Washington Baseball Park was the site of the NNL’s first game on May 2, 1920, where the ABCs defeated the Chicago Giants twice in a doubleheader. By developing star players like Oscar Charleston, posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and insisting that players wear “collars, ties, and shined shoes,” Taylor created a very successful black baseball team whose players became role models for young African Americans.
After Taylor’s death in 1922, however, the team began to struggle, first facing player raids from the Eastern Colored League and also having financial difficulties due to the economy. Disbanding in 1924 and reforming in multiple variants throughout the late1920s, the ABCs made a comeback in 1931. The National Negro League, however, was not able to recover from financial problems and dissolved in 1932--the same year that the Indianapolis Indians abandoned Washington Ball Park for the new Perry (Bush) Stadium.
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