Thread by @Dupreezine

Hi everyone, I’ll be live-tweeting the "We All Just Did Life Together:" The Forgotten Story of the Black Southside of Indianapolis event presented by
@IndianaLandmark
at 6:00 p.m. for #IndyDocumenters. Media Partners:
@indydocumenters
@mirrorindy

@IndianaLandmark @indydocumenters @mirrorindy 🏙️ Tonight in Indianapolis

Freetown Village presents:

“We All Just Did Life Together”: The Forgotten Story of the Black Southside

📍 Indiana Landmarks Center
🕕 6 PM EDT
💻 Online option
🎟️ Free with RSVP
#MirrorIndy #Documenters #IndyHistory

@IndianaLandmark @indydocumenters @mirrorindy Gayle Spicer, Interim Executive Director of Freetown Village Museum, is giving the opening remarks and introducing tonight's presenters, Susan B. Hyatt and Beverle Miller Kane.

@IndianaLandmark @indydocumenters @mirrorindy 18 years ago in August 2008, Hyatt, Professor Emerita of Anthropology at IU-Indianapolis, began her work on this project and the history of a southside neighborhood torn apart by I-70.

@IndianaLandmark @indydocumenters @mirrorindy 📚 From the early 1900s through the 1960s, Indianapolis’s near Southside was home to African American residents, Jewish immigrants, and neighbors who built community together.

Tonight’s conversation explores that history and why it still matters.

@IndianaLandmark @indydocumenters @mirrorindy 🎦We are watching this video from @WTHRcom

@IndianaLandmark @indydocumenters @mirrorindy @WTHRcom Spicer mentioned a summer camp that is currently underway at Freetown Village. Here's a link to more info:
freetownvillage.org/2026-summer-ca…

@IndianaLandmark @indydocumenters @mirrorindy @WTHRcom The cast members:

@IndianaLandmark @indydocumenters @mirrorindy @WTHRcom 🧭 Some neighborhoods are more than streets and buildings.

They are memory, movement, family, culture, and survival.

Tonight’s Freetown Village conversation remembers Indianapolis’s near Southside and the people who made it home.

@IndianaLandmark @indydocumenters @mirrorindy @WTHRcom 🫂Jewish and Black families called the Near Southside home bonding over finding Indiana as their new homes.

@IndianaLandmark @indydocumenters @mirrorindy @WTHRcom I-70, while connecting the city, broke up a neighborhood that had long been established and divided neighbors and friends. Many families were displaced while seeing a high school close that families enjoyed together.

@IndianaLandmark @indydocumenters @mirrorindy @WTHRcom 🫱🏾‍🫲🏻The picnic is the first Saturday in August every year and never forget that!

@IndianaLandmark @indydocumenters @mirrorindy @WTHRcom School 12, officially known as the Robert Dale Owen School No. 12, was an Indianapolis Public School originally located at the corner of S. West Street and W. McCarty Street. School 22, officially known as the Nebraska Cropsey School, opened in 1921 at 1230 S. Illinois Street.

@IndianaLandmark @indydocumenters @mirrorindy @WTHRcom This neighborhood experienced both segregation and integration of schools after the construction of I-70.

@IndianaLandmark @indydocumenters @mirrorindy @WTHRcom 🛣️Migration and interstate highway construction both had major impacts on the Southside community. The first built it while the second one virtually destroyed it.

@IndianaLandmark @indydocumenters @mirrorindy @WTHRcom 🖊️While petitions were signed to fight construction, eminent domain is an undeniable government force.

@IndianaLandmark @indydocumenters @mirrorindy @WTHRcom Not only did homes get sold and destroyed, many local business hours had to move or close.

@IndianaLandmark @indydocumenters @mirrorindy @WTHRcom 🏞️50 years of The Picnic took place August 2025. Here you can see the special resolution honoring this milestone.

@IndianaLandmark @indydocumenters @mirrorindy @WTHRcom 👷🏾Bade Denny Park is undergoing a transformation under the Parks Department's park renovations. The hope is that all upgrades will be complete by this August.

@IndianaLandmark @indydocumenters @mirrorindy @WTHRcom The cast members are speaking their truths on how being part of the project has impacted them and their thanks to Susan.

@IndianaLandmark @indydocumenters @mirrorindy @WTHRcom Sharon Cannon, audience member, is sharing her memories of The Picnic and visiting her family on the Southside.

@IndianaLandmark @indydocumenters @mirrorindy @WTHRcom "Ms. Pete" (Beatrice), Southsider since 1938, tells the tales of togetherness and working families that felt the impact of I-70 and the redlining that followed. Banks wouldn't give folks a dime South of 70.

@IndianaLandmark @indydocumenters @mirrorindy @WTHRcom Miss Norma Joe from the Southside and her husband Cleo are proud to represent the community and still is a church member in the area. Her grandparents owned their home on Capitol before being displaced.

@IndianaLandmark @indydocumenters @mirrorindy @WTHRcom Brian Shapiro is in the building. He's future focused. He's worried Rethink 65/70 Plan leaves this neighborhood out and that the people need to vote carefully.

@IndianaLandmark @indydocumenters @mirrorindy @WTHRcom Beverle echoes the sentiment that residents need to be aware of this 50-year plan affecting their neighborhood. Educate yourself and vote informed.

@IndianaLandmark @indydocumenters @mirrorindy @WTHRcom There are still spots available for students in the Freetown Village summer program if you want to get your kid out of the house and doing something positive with their time.

@IndianaLandmark @indydocumenters @mirrorindy @WTHRcom ✊🏾Indiana’s Black history is not distant history. It lives in neighborhoods, families, churches, schools, businesses, and stories passed down through generations. Tonight’s presentation on the Black Southside is one of those stories.

@IndianaLandmark @indydocumenters @mirrorindy @WTHRcom Tonight's conversation ended at 7:25 p.m. The next event is July 16, 2026 @ 6 p.m. EDT (Doors open at 5:30 p.m.) Indiana Landmarks Center, 1201 Central Ave., Indianapolis and Online. "The History and Legacy of Roberts Settlement"

@IndianaLandmark @indydocumenters @mirrorindy @WTHRcom For more meeting coverage, check out . Have questions? Think we got something wrong? Send any questions on the meeting or this thread to @indydocumenters. Or email us at [e-mail]