African Americans - Monroe County History Center

The Racial Integration of Bloomington in the 1940s

Feb 8, 2021Monroe Historyevents, placesAfrican Americans, Gables, Herman B Wells, racial relations, Taliaferro

Blog post by Randi Richardson Several months ago I watched an Oscar-winning movie, Green Book, from the comfort of my home with ear phones and captions so I didn’t miss a word. The move is based on the true story of two men, an Italian-American named Anthony Vallelonga aka Tony Lip, and an African American, Don Shirley, a gifted

Early African Americans in Monroe County as Noted by Martha (Maxwell) Howard

Apr 15, 2019Monroe Historypeople, wehiaAfrican Americans, Baker, Howard, Howe, Maxwell, Slavery

Blog post by Randi Richardson On Reel 18 of the Local History Microfilm Collection at the Monroe County Public Library is a paper titled “An Early Sketch of Bloomington and the Family of David H. Maxwell” written by Martha (Maxwell) Howard, a resident of Terre Haute, Indiana, in July 1907. According to that paper, Martha

MONROE COUNTY PEOPLE OF COLOR: 1850

Aug 21, 2017Monroe History2 CommentswehiaAfrican Americans, Census, Monroe County

In 2016, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the population of Bloomington was estimated at 84,067; in 1850, the total population for all of Monroe County was only 11,357. Of that number 27, less than 1%, were people of color. According to the population census, of that number here were 23 blacks and 4