{"id":62,"ordinal":0,"modified":"2026-04-17 19:48:41","content_modified":"2026-04-17 19:48:41","featured":0,"title":"Challenging the Myth of Midwestern Niceness","creator":"Discover Indiana","description":"<p>Have you heard of the idea of “Midwestern Nice”? It is the idea that Midwesterners are uniquely polite and gracious: greeting strangers on the street, overly apologizing for minor inconveniences, avoiding conflict. “Hoosier Hospitality” is a similar notion, specific to Indiana, and defined in 2020 by long-time late-night host and Indianapolis-native David Letterman as “the way people are supposed to be . . . a manifestation of the golden rule: Treat people the way you would like to be treated.”\r\nEvidence of the existence of \"Midwestern Niceness\" is mostly anecdotal, but there has been some research into the concept. A 2013 Cambridge University study found that certain personality traits, such as friendliness and agreeableness, are more common in Midwestern states. \r\nYet the Golden Rule has all too often been disregarded throughout Indiana's history. As scholars including Sujey Vega (Arizona State University) have proposed, this niceness sometimes serves as a cloak for aggression, racism, and acts of violence. \r\nThe stops on this tour challenge the notion of \"Midwestern Nice\" by exploring the ways in which white Hoosiers, who have been the majority group in Indiana since the early nineteenth century, have sought to control Native peoples, Black citizens, lower-class workers of many races and ethnicities, and members of the LGBTQ+ community through expulsion, intimidation, segregation, arrest, violence, and murder. \r\nOther Hoosiers have protested and resisted these injustices throughout the state's history and their stories can be learned about throughout Discover Indiana. On this tour, however, look closely for a little while at the ways in which the midwest can be anything but nice. </p>","postscript_text":"","tour_img":"https://discoverindianahistory.org.curatescape7.reclaim.hosting/files/fullsize/da4dd6eb040b6918456bfc8277436bd6.jpg","items":[{"id":590,"title":"Potawatomi Leader Onaxa  and the Removal of Native Peoples from Elkhart County","latitude":41.5168000000000034788172342814505100250244140625,"longitude":-85.81716000000000121872290037572383880615234375,"thumbnail":"https://discoverindianahistory.org.curatescape7.reclaim.hosting/files/square_thumbnails/da4dd6eb040b6918456bfc8277436bd6.jpg","fullsize":"https://discoverindianahistory.org.curatescape7.reclaim.hosting/files/fullsize/da4dd6eb040b6918456bfc8277436bd6.jpg","subtitle":null,"address":"67380 Co. Rd. 29, New Paris, IN 46553","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":558,"title":"Guinea Bottom: The Earliest Black Settlement in Jeffersonville Township","latitude":38.2870913000000001602529664523899555206298828125,"longitude":-85.7767989000000028454451239667832851409912109375,"thumbnail":"https://discoverindianahistory.org.curatescape7.reclaim.hosting/files/square_thumbnails/19cf8879eddb957c07d0d3a026369786.jpg","fullsize":"https://discoverindianahistory.org.curatescape7.reclaim.hosting/files/fullsize/19cf8879eddb957c07d0d3a026369786.jpg","subtitle":"The Earliest Black Settlement in Jeffersonville Township","address":"38.2870913,-85.7767989","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":561,"title":"The 1871 Lynching of Three Black Men in Clark County","latitude":38.4476662000000004582034307532012462615966796875,"longitude":-85.6631775000000033060132409445941448211669921875,"thumbnail":"https://discoverindianahistory.org.curatescape7.reclaim.hosting/files/square_thumbnails/ef65639107d232952a26d6aecfd4c7d0.jpg","fullsize":"https://discoverindianahistory.org.curatescape7.reclaim.hosting/files/fullsize/ef65639107d232952a26d6aecfd4c7d0.jpg","subtitle":null,"address":"38.4476662, -85.6631775","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":98,"title":"The Economic Panic of 1873 and Labor Relations in New Albany","latitude":38.295219000000003006789484061300754547119140625,"longitude":-85.830004000000002406522980891168117523193359375,"thumbnail":"https://discoverindianahistory.org.curatescape7.reclaim.hosting/files/square_thumbnails/7c2438107a22d864450ca719e6339ec7.jpg","fullsize":"https://discoverindianahistory.org.curatescape7.reclaim.hosting/files/fullsize/7c2438107a22d864450ca719e6339ec7.jpg","subtitle":null,"address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":603,"title":"The Steel Strike of 1919 in Gary","latitude":41.60855099999999850979293114505708217620849609375,"longitude":-87.337211999999993849996826611459255218505859375,"thumbnail":"https://discoverindianahistory.org.curatescape7.reclaim.hosting/files/square_thumbnails/6d928634fbfa8934b4907a4ccf9ed135.jpg","fullsize":"https://discoverindianahistory.org.curatescape7.reclaim.hosting/files/fullsize/6d928634fbfa8934b4907a4ccf9ed135.jpg","subtitle":null,"address":"1 Broadway, Gary, IN 46402","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":605,"title":"The Emerson School Strike of 1927 in Gary","latitude":41.59854059025617090128434938378632068634033203125,"longitude":-87.328023286688363668872625567018985748291015625,"thumbnail":"https://discoverindianahistory.org.curatescape7.reclaim.hosting/files/square_thumbnails/b8303bda74eb4e7c84a65f8f3bd53cef.jpg","fullsize":"https://discoverindianahistory.org.curatescape7.reclaim.hosting/files/fullsize/b8303bda74eb4e7c84a65f8f3bd53cef.jpg","subtitle":null,"address":"716 E 7th Ave, Gary, IN 46402","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":589,"title":"Twentieth-Century Sundown Towns: The Carter Road Subdivision in Elkhart County","latitude":41.55880135179639722764477482996881008148193359375,"longitude":-85.8283368478378179133869707584381103515625,"thumbnail":"https://discoverindianahistory.org.curatescape7.reclaim.hosting/files/square_thumbnails/a11866adf49d2c3ac4aa59b16ec92f38.jpg","fullsize":"https://discoverindianahistory.org.curatescape7.reclaim.hosting/files/fullsize/a11866adf49d2c3ac4aa59b16ec92f38.jpg","subtitle":null,"address":"100 Carter Road, Goshen Indiana, 46526","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":456,"title":"Anti-Gay Police Violence on Indianapolis' Monument Circle in the 1980s","latitude":39.76851479999999838810254004783928394317626953125,"longitude":-86.158029784843876086597447283565998077392578125,"thumbnail":"https://discoverindianahistory.org.curatescape7.reclaim.hosting/files/square_thumbnails/137ed60c77caea6087d8fd7804a2faaa.jpg","fullsize":"https://discoverindianahistory.org.curatescape7.reclaim.hosting/files/fullsize/137ed60c77caea6087d8fd7804a2faaa.jpg","subtitle":null,"address":"Monument Circle, Indianapolis, IN, 46204","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}}]}