History of black Hoosiers chronicled in IU Press book

The book is the posthumous work of Emma Lou Thornbrough, a long-time professor of history at Butler University who was the acknowledged dean of black history in Indiana before her death in 1994. She wrote The Negro in Indiana before 1900: A Study of a Minority, published in 1957.

Thornbrough depicted the effects of the migration of African Americans to the state during the world wars to work in war industries, linking the growth of the black community to the increased segregation of the 1920s and demonstrating how World War II marked a turning point in the movement in Indiana to expand the civil rights of African Americans.

The final chapter, written by Lana Ruegamer, explores ways that black identity was affected by new access to education, work and housing after 1970. .