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Crown Hill
February 2022
Crown Hill

Black History Part II

Two weeks ago, as part of Black History Month, we highlighted three people buried on the slopes of Crown Hill itself.  In this newsletter we will highlight a few of the many notable African Americans buried all around the cemetery.

Mari Evans
(1923-2017)
Credit: Bookmark Indy
Raised in Toledo, Evans spent most of her long adult life in Indianapolis, which has honored her with a mural on Massachusetts Avenue. Through her poetry, especially her collection I Am a Black Woman (1970), she became a major figure in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
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James Baskett
(1904-1948)
Credit: Alchetron
Born in Indianapolis and trained as a pharmacist, Baskett turned his attention to acting and appeared in several movies in the 1930s and 1940s aimed at Black audiences, including Harlem is Heaven (1932), with the great tap dancer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, The Policy Man (1938), Gone Harlem (1939), Straight to Heaven (1938), Comes Midnight (1940), and others.
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Emma Christy Baker
(1865-1955)
Credit: Indianapolis Star
Born in Salem, Indiana, but growing up in Indianapolis, Baker’s laundry business had already made her well-known in the community when the local police department decided to hire some women, perhaps in part because so many men were away for World War I. On June 15, 1918, she became not only the first Black woman hired by the Indianapolis Police Department, she was the first woman, period.
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Cleo Blackburn
(1909-1978)
Credit: Indiana Historical Society
Having discussed the son, Walter Blackburn, in our last newsletter, we’ll highlight the equally noteworthy father, Cleo Blackburn, in this one. Born in Port Gibson, Mississippi, Blackburn came to Indianapolis in 1932 to study religion at Butler University. Ordained a minister upon his graduation, he continued studies in sociology at Fisk University and worked briefly at the Tuskegee Institute before returning to Indianapolis in 1936 to accept the post as Executive Director of Flanner House, a social welfare organization.
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Edna Mae Barnes Martin
(1897-1974)
Credit: Edna Martin Christian Center
After the death of her 14-year-old daughter Doris in 1939, Edna Martin began a journey. It took her into deep depression and grief until she received what she thought was a call from God to open a day care center in the Martindale part of town in 1941. She rented a room on Roosevelt Avenue for $14 a month and began her ministry to the neighborhood. By 1945, it had grown to the point that local white Baptist churches, looking for their own avenues of ministry, decided to support her ministry and the East Side Christian Center was born.
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William A. Crawford
(1936-2015)
Credit: WFYI
An Indianapolis native, William Crawford represented the 98th District in the Indiana House of Representatives from 1972-2012, following military service in the US Navy from 1954 to 1958 and employment with United States Postal Service. During his service in the Indiana House of Representatives, he also worked as the Manager of Outreach Programs at IV Tech from 1993-2011, where he was very successful in increasing minority enrollment.
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Lillian Sunshine Haydon Childress Hall
(1889-1958)
Credit: IUPUI
A native of Louisville, Mrs. Hall is the first Black known to have received a formal Library Science education in Indiana, receiving her certificate in 1915. Her first job as a librarian was in Evansville (1915-1921) before becoming the first branch manager at Indianapolis Public Library’s Paul Dunbar Branch (1921-1927) and the head librarian at the Crispus Attucks Branch from 1927-1956.
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William “Bill” G. Mays
(1945-2014)
Credit: Indianapolis Business Journal
Raised in Evansville, Mays was a 1963 graduate of its segregated Lincoln High School. He received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Chemistry (1970) and a Master of Business Administration Degree (1973) from Indiana University. After college, he went to work for Proctor and Gamble, Lilly, and Cummins Engine before becoming president of Specialty Chemicals in 1977, increasing its sales from $300,000 to $5 million in three years.
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