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Reviving a Forgotten Freetown

Reviving a Forgotten Freetown: The Lives and Legacies of the US Colored Troops in Southeast Indianapolis Presenter: Kaila Austin, Executive Director, Rogue Preservation Services, LLC October 8, 2024 at 6 PM

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Tuesday - 10/8/24

6:00pm - Reviving a Forgotten Freetown (sale period expired)

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Founded officially in 1872, Norwood is a Reconstruction Era settlement outside the boundaries of Indianapolis. Norwood’s founders were African American veterans from Kentucky because of their service beside the Indiana 28th Regiment during the last years of the Civil War. Norwood and its partner community Barrington sat as stable, independent Freetowns until they were annexed into Indianapolis in 1912. Using these oral histories and family archives, we have reconstructed the story of the Southeast side of Indianapolis from the perspective of the USCT that first called it home. These stories have been left out of the dominant narratives of our culture and have only been revived through the voices of their descendants. 
 
Kaila Austin (she/her) is an artist, public historian and community activist from Indianapolis, Indiana. In 2019, she began Rogue Preservation Services, a historic consulting firm, to work with underserved communities to help them mobilize their histories to protect their ancestral spaces. Since 2021, she has been working with six Reconstruction Era communities on the Southeast side of Indianapolis founded by the US Colored Troops: Norwood, Barrington, Hosbrook, Babe Denny, Bean Creek and Zuniville.
 
Conner Prairie is one of nearly forty nonprofit organizations across the state selected by Indiana Humanities to host a speaker through the Advancing Racial Equity Speakers Bureau. From legacies of incarceration to conversations about the documentation of Black Hoosier history, the speakers provide a variety of points of entry to join the statewide conversation. Advancing Racial Equity is an ongoing initiative from Indiana Humanities that encourages Hoosiers to engage in humanities-based learning about the history of race and racism, the Black experience in Indiana and efforts toward racial equity. Other related programming includes a Collection Development Grant to assist libraries in diversifying their collections, as well as a statewide read exploring how we understand histories of American slavery.
About Indiana Humanities
 
Indiana Humanities connects people, opens minds and enriches lives by creating and facilitating programs that encourage Hoosiers to think, read and talk. Indiana Humanities is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Learn more at www.indianahumanities.org.