Exhibit at Ball State University Libraries: Bringing the Dream to Middletown: Muncie’s Civil Rights Movement, 1955-1975

The Archives and Special Collections Research Center will celebrate Black History Month with an exhibit of photographs, documents, and other materials that tell the story of the Civil Rights Movement in Muncie, Indiana.

The exhibit, Bringing the Dream to Middletown: Muncie’s Civil Rights Movement, 1955-1975, will focus on the leaders and events of the struggle to make Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream of a just society a reality in Middletown USA.

The exhibit will highlight the contributions of key individuals in Muncie’s Civil Rights Movement. Those leaders include Roy Buley, Executive Director of the Madison Street YMCA and NAACP board member; Vivian Conley, community activist and officer of the Muncie Black Coalition; the Rev. J.C. Williams, pastor of Trinity Methodist Church and Poor People’s Party 1971 mayoral candidate; and Hurley Goodall, Muncie’s first African-American school board member and state representative.

The exhibit will also chart major local events, including the desegregation of the public swimming pool in Tuhey Park, the racial tensions at Southside High School, the struggles against discrimination in employment and housing, and the integration of the Muncie fire department and local government.

For a list of resources on African Americans in Muncie and Delaware County, go to the guide African-American Research Resources in the Archives and Special Collections Research Center by clicking on “Finding Aids and Guides” on the Archives and Special Collections home page at www.bsu.edu/library/collections/archives, or visit the Archives in Bracken Library, BL-210.

For more information, contact Jane E. Gastineau, Ball State University Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections Supervisor, JEGastineau@bsu.edu, (765) 285-5078.