South Bend's Own Words
58 episodes - English - Latest episode: 6 months ago - ★★★★★ - 6 ratingsPeople's stories recorded from the Oral History Collection of the Civil Rights Heritage Center at the Indiana University South Bend Archives. Telling the history of the civil rights movement and the experiences of Black, Latinx, LGBTQ, and other marginalized peoples in South Bend, Indiana. For more, visit crhc.iusb.edu.
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Episodes
Gail Brodie, west side community organizer
January 10, 2024 08:51 - 16 minutes - 15.3 MBGail Brodie lived her entire life in her beloved west side community. She even has an honorary street named after her. Her mother, Annette Brodie, was a long-time community activist during the late 1960s. Annette pushed city leaders to provide basic services, like paving their dusty, dirt streets. Gail took on her mother’s community work and became as trusted, and as vital a resource. As a generational homeowner, Gail had a privilege and a perspective of the west side of South Bend...
Andre Buchanan
December 13, 2023 09:46 - 17 minutes - 16.6 MBAndre Buchanan grew up in South Bend’s east side African American community in a house that, today, is threatened by the rampant construction of the Eddy Street shopping areas right by the Trader Joe’s. During the mid-1940s, when he was in the fourth grade, Andre was one of the first students of color to attend Saint Joseph Catholic grade school. Despite living and going to school on the east side of town, his family worshipped on the west side at the multi-racial Saint Augustine’s Church. A...
Listening to Pandemic Narratives 2
November 08, 2023 07:32 - 29 minutes - 27.2 MBOver the past two years, doctors Jamie Wagman and Julia Dauer from Saint Mary’s College collected local stories of those impacted by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, they gave a public presentation with clips from some of the narrators who graciously shared their stories. They did it again this past September at the Saint Joseph County Public Library with new narrators sharing a different set of stories. We shared the first presentation as a special on this feed last year, ...
Ruperto Guedea
September 20, 2023 05:04 - 19 minutes - 18.4 MBRuperto Guedea lived the majority of his life in the United States straddling multiple cultures. Born into a small mining community in northern Mexico during the late 1930s, his mother and father brought their family across the border just after World War II. His first school was openly hostile towards Spanish speakers yet did not teach him English. After moving to Chicago, he fit right in with the Polish and other European immigrant families who also knew no English. He met and married a wo...
Alma Powell
August 14, 2023 05:14 - 20 minutes - 12 MBAlma Powell left her hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, when she was two years old. Her father worked for Studebaker by day, and with his family, ran Nesbitt’s Club and Casino by night. Despite the name, it was a music and a social hall, holding local political rallies and community conversations as well as nationally known musicians. There were, as Alma said, few career paths for an educated young Black woman. Teaching was one of them, and Alma’s career as an educator and administrator is di...
African American Landmarks
July 12, 2023 07:27 - 36 minutes - 33.8 MBWe’re releasing a new book. Placing History: An African American Landmark Tour of South Bend, Indiana, features South Bend’s African American history as told through some of the many landmarks where that history was made. The book is available for free in print while supplies last, and always available as an e-book by visiting http://aalt.iusb.edu/. The oral histories we’ve archived deeply informed the writing. Today, we hear longer versions of the oral histories quoted in Placing Histor...
Rebecca Ruvalcaba
March 24, 2023 19:03 - 21 minutes - 20.3 MBThe daughter of migrant farmworkers, Rebecca Ruvalcaba witnessed the growth of the Latines community from a few originators, like her father, Benito Salizar. Rebecca’s parents instilled in her a desire to learn, and to serve. She adapted to a late-in-life diagnosis of dyslexia to earn degrees from Indiana University South Bend and the University of Notre Dame. She became a social worker, a director of La Casa de Amistad, and served in various leadership roles at the University of Notre Dame....
Renelda Robinson
February 12, 2023 07:00 - 17 minutes - 16.2 MBIn the 1940s, professional baseball segregated players both by race and by gender. The All-American Girls’ Professional Baseball League, and our home team, the South Bend Blue Sox, famously upset rigid gender discrimination and opened pro-ball to white women. But only white women. For a talented young athlete like Renelda Robinson, the opportunity to play ball came from a café owner on Birdsell Street in South Bend’s west side. Uncle Bill’s All-Colored Girls Softball team brought young play...
Abdul Nur
January 18, 2023 18:57 - 24 minutes - 22.7 MBNear the end of World War II, at age four or five years old, Abdul Nur moved from Elkhart, Indiana, to South Bend. Despite the short distance, Abdul experienced a huge cultural shock. For the first time, he was surrounded by children from multiple racial and cultural groups. Abdul went on to experience multi-ethnic spaces throughout his time at Central High School and into the Air Force. As early as middle school, Abdul began a deep education into Islam that eventually led him, as an adult,...
Listening to Pandemic Narratives
October 29, 2022 08:37 - 28 minutes - 16.6 MBAt two public events in October 2022, doctors Jamie Wagman and Julia Dauer from Saint Mary’s College presented the results of an oral history collection project they’d been working on. The idea was to collect stories of real people in our community deeply impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The full versions of these oral histories are preserved in the Civil Rights Heritage Center’s archives, but today we share audio from Drs. Wagman and Dauer’s public presentations. Narrators include Mark A...
Housing in South Bend
August 17, 2022 08:43 - 26 minutes - 15.9 MBOne of the most fundamental human needs is shelter. From the 1910s through the 1950s, many thousands of people of African descent fled the most brutal forms of economic, racial, and violent oppression in the U.S. South and sought refuge in South Bend, Indiana. Many white people did not warmly welcome them into their new homes. African American people were largely only allowed to live in the city’s west side. Quickly produced, low-quality factory homes were one of the few choices for most A...
100 Years of the Engman Public Natatorium
July 15, 2022 19:50 - 27 minutes - 15.3 MBOn June 29, 1922, several hundred people attended a special, two-hour evening opening of the new Engman Public Natatorium. By September, South Bend’s Parks Board estimated almost 10,000 people took advantage of the brand-new facility. It is unclear exactly when the white people in charge of the Natatorium first denied entry to African American people—but they did. And as a taxpayer funded, supposedly “public” facility, it became a focus of local civil rights action by a group of doctors, la...
Madeline Smothers
February 23, 2022 09:00 - 19 minutes - 10.7 MBMadeline Smothers was born in Rockville, Illinois, in 1917. By 1935, she joined members of her extended family living in South Bend’s east side, soon befriending people in power like lawyers J. Chester and Elizabeth Fletcher Allen. At this time, South Bend was rapidly evolving—but for African Americans who left the South to chase factory jobs up north, they were still confronting the entrenched racism they hoped they were fleeing when they left the South. As entrenched as racism was, many p...
Jack Reed
January 26, 2022 14:42 - 17 minutes - 10.6 MBJack Reed was about four or five years old when his mother moved him from Tennessee to South Bend. He absorbed a strong desire to work watching his mother clean other people’s homes. The job he desired most was as a state police officer. The Indiana State Police, however, did not hire African Americans. Jack eventually served as the first African American Battalion Chief in the South Bend Fire Department, and then later got an offer from Mayor Joe Kernan to serve on a greater scale in his a...
David Healey and Les Lamon
November 24, 2021 10:00 - 14 minutes - 13.4 MBDr. Les Lamon was a long-time history Professor at IU South Bend. In 2000, he started the Freedom Summer class that brought students on a bus tour through the civil rights movement in the U.S. South. David Healey was a student in that class. Inspired by his experience, he became an early founding member of the Civil Rights Heritage Center on campus and led the early Oral History program. His efforts preserved the life stories of dozens of local people— the very stories we’ve shared on this p...
Ricardo Parra
November 03, 2021 15:18 - 16 minutes - 15.3 MBIn the 1970s, Ricardo Parra helped organize and direct a new midwest chapter of the National Council of La Raza, a progressive Chicano political advocacy group. Over the following decades, both Ricardo and his wife, Olga Villa, became integrally involved in South Bend’s growing Latinx community. They allied themselves with almost every local organization, like La Raza, El Campito children’s center, the former El Centro migrant advocacy center, and of course, La Casa de Amistad. Olga was a s...
Ralph Miles
October 13, 2021 09:00 - 17 minutes - 16.2 MBIn 1952, three-year-old Ralph Miles moved with his family to South Bend after an uncle told Ralph's father that the Bendix company was hiring. Ralph’s special needs school gave him work well beyond his grade level. He left that school to attend Harrison and then Washington. The work was on grade level, and way too easy for him. Bored, and without appropriate emotional and learning spaces, he acted out. By the time he got to Washington High School, he turned to violence, particularly to com...
Lucille Sneed
September 24, 2021 19:25 - 13 minutes - 12.1 MBIn the 1920s, Lucille Sneed’s parents left Tennessee for South Bend to work at Studebaker. They were part of the first wave of African Americans migrating north chasing what they saw as opportunities in factory jobs. During World War II, Lucille’s brother was called into military service. Lucille took his place at the Studebaker factory. She stayed after her brother returned. Lucille learned how to sew with large, industrial machines to make upholstery and other fabric materials for thou...
Whose history should we record?
September 15, 2021 09:00 - 1 minute - 867 KBDo you know someone whose story about South Bend should be preserved? We're seeking nominations for new oral history recordings. Every year, we'll invite about six people with unique, compelling stories to share how they experienced South Bend's past. Nominate someone now: https://go.iu.edu/3WVo Learn more about the new oral history recording project: https://mailchi.mp/8d6594f2e6f8/know-someone-whose-south-bend-story-should-be-preserved
South Bend Schools
August 11, 2021 06:00 - 31 minutes - 18.5 MBIn 1867, the people inhabiting what we now call South Bend established a corporation to run community schools. Today, few things are as important, or as fought over, as our public schools. This episode shares stories from people who were children in South Bend schools from the early through late-mid 20th century, as well as stories from people who, as adults, fought for change. Narrators include Barbara Brandy, John Charles Bryant, Leroy and Margaret Cobb, Coleridge Dickinson, Glenda Rae ...
Dale Gibson
July 21, 2021 07:00 - 12 minutes - 7.72 MBDale Gibson was a long-time resident of South Bend, and a teacher at Adams and the former LaSalle High School. As a white man, he neither experienced nor recognized the segregation happening in South Bend. In college, an attempt to bring a Black friend to a local swimming pool sparked a life-long interest in the anti-war and racial justice movements. Dale was actively involved with South Bend’s First Unitarian Church. In the 1960s, they were vocal against the war in Vietnam and in favor ...
Marguerite Taylor and Charlie Howell
June 30, 2021 08:00 - 12 minutes - 26.1 MBMarguerite Taylor is a long time resident of South Bend’s north east side. She’s the daughter of Renelda Robinson, a neighborhood leader honored as the namesake of the Robinson Community Learning Center. As a girl, Renelda got to travel by playing softball for a local chapter of the The American Negro Girls Softball League. She did this when sports not only segregated women, but the few white women’s teams—like the All American Girls’ Professional Baseball League—refused to accept African Am...
Officer Jerome Perkins
June 09, 2021 09:00 - 15 minutes - 14.2 MBJerome Perkins was one of the first African Americans to serve as a police officer in South Bend, serving from 1952 to 1972. Back then, just like now, deep frustrations over African Americans’ treatment at the hands of police grew ever deeper. Jerome answered a call from the Mayor who hoped to improve community relationships by installing more Black officers. In 2003, David Healey sat down with Officer Perkins to discuss his life and his career. Officer Perkins did not loudly call out any p...
Savino Rivera, Sr.
May 19, 2021 06:00 - 22 minutes - 11.9 MBSavino Rivera, Sr. is a bilingual educator and coach with two decades of service to the South Bend Community School Corporation. He's the child of two migrant farm workers. When his father left the family, his mother continued farm work to support him and his nine brothers and sisters. With her working almost every hour almost every day, and with no history in the U.S. school system, Savino had to navigate high school, college, and his career on his own. Mr. Rivera built a career providing...
Jeanette Hughes
March 17, 2021 09:00 - 25 minutes - 23.2 MBJeannette Hughes' father taught church history. The job meant she and her family moved to many different college towns around the U.S. Being part of a fundamentalist faith group, Jeannette had little conception of a transgender identity. She had, as she called it, “a normal boyhood.” Still, she knew that she wanted her cousins to call her “Sandy,” and felt more herself sitting down to use the bathroom. As Jeannette became an adult and traveled the world, she began understanding more about ...
Willie Mae Butts
February 24, 2021 10:00 - 17 minutes - 16.5 MBWillie Mae Butts was born in West Virginia. She came to South Bend in 1952 when her husband decided to open a medical practice along West Washington. Willie Mae devoted so much of her time—to working with her husband’s medical practice, to raising her children, and to many local causes, including as the first African American woman elected to South Bend’s Human Rights Commission. In 2003, Willie Mae sat down with IU South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center’s David Healey. They talked abou...
Ben Johnson
February 03, 2021 10:00 - 16 minutes - 15.3 MBBen Johnson is best known as one of only thirty people who served all eight years in President Bill Clinton’s administration. His parents were sharecroppers from Arkansas who moved to South Bend when Ben was a young child. Ben spent many years here, and became a strong advocate in the fight for African American equality. That advocacy brought him into contact with people in power. It encouraged him to try and gain that power to use for his community. In 1971, he became the first African Am...
Representative John Lewis at IU South Bend
July 23, 2020 00:00 - 57 minutes - 52.7 MBThe late Rep. John Lewis speaks at Indiana University South Bend in 2001. In 2001, Charlotte Pfeifer was Director of Indiana University South Bend’s Office of Campus Diversity as well as a South Bend Common Council representative. That year she led the fifth in a series of events called “Conversations On Race.” The keynote speaker was Representative John Lewis. John Lewis passed away last Friday after a lifetime of fighting for justice. To honor his life, we present the speech he delivere...
South Bend Uprising
June 02, 2020 00:00 - 17 minutes - 16.1 MBNOTE: Work on this episode of South Bend’s Own Words started before the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. With respect to the uprisings in cities across the U.S. right now, we wanted to be sure their names were said. There are far too many other names to share, and our city is not immune to police violence. The murder of Eric Logan last year was only the latest in a long history. The “long, hot summer of 1967” described the many uprisings in cities across the U.S. ...
Jenell Kauffman
April 13, 2020 00:00 - 17 minutes - 15.9 MBJenell Kauffman learned to embrace dual identities. Born with the name John Danforth, Jenell knew as early as age six that "it would be nice" to be a woman. What Jenell lacked was the language of the transgender experience. As a young person, John knew there were people who were cross-dressers, or drag queens. But the world John lived in was strictly gendered: girls wore girls’ clothes, and boys wore boys’ clothes. But John also knew the feeling of wanting to be something more. Eventually, J...
Bishop Donald Alford
April 01, 2020 00:00 - 17 minutes - 15.8 MBBishop Donald L. Alford is a staple along South Bend’s Western Avenue. He’s the founder and pastor of Pentecostal Cathedral Church of God in Christ, and also the founder and owner of Alford’s Mortuary. A lifelong resident of South Bend, Bishop Alford graduated from Washington High School in 1957. In 2007, Bishop Alford sat down with Indiana University South Bend professor Les Lamon, and student Sara Lowe. They talked about Bishop Alford’s life and his work, and the changes he’s seen along ...
Federico "Chico" Rodriguez
August 13, 2019 00:00 - 21 minutes - 11.6 MBFederico served as the first Latino fire fighter in South Bend. While there, his white colleagues gave him the nickname “Chico.” It’s a name he’s grown to embrace. He was born near the Rio Grande Valley to migrant farm worker parents. Chico’s mother insisted that the family stay put somewhere, and through family they found permanent jobs at the Dodd Farm on South Bend’s west side. With a stable living arrangement, Chico learned English at school by day, and spent long hours in the fields unt...
Federico Chico Rodriguez
August 13, 2019 00:00 - 11.6 MBFederico Chico Rodriguez by IU South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center
Glenda Rae Hernandez
July 24, 2019 00:00 - 16 minutes - 9.78 MBGlenda Rae Hernandez embraced the movement for civil rights in the U.S. south. As a college student, she signed petitions not to eat at Woolworth’s until they integrated their lunch counters. She even attended a lecture by a young Reverend, Dr. Martin Luther King. In 1965, Glenda and her husband moved to South Bend. She soon began advocating for her south east neighborhood, became an early ally to the growing Latinx community, fought discrimination against African Americans in their housin...
Dr. Irving Allen
June 26, 2019 00:00 - 19 minutes - 11.6 MBDr. Irving Allen is the son of Elizabeth Fletcher and J. Chester Allen. They were lawyers who, among their many actions, helped integrate the Engman Public Natatorium. As black professionals though, the Allen’s faced aggressions—mostly from their South Bend neighbors and colleagues, but even from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. In August 2004, Dr. Allen sat down with Dr. Les Lamon, David Healey, and John Charles Bryant. He spoke about his parents’ perceptions of racism, their history of advo...
Episode 08. Barbara Brandy [REBROADCAST]
February 25, 2019 16:53When Barbara Brandy was nine years old, a group of her family and friends tried to come into the Engman Public Natatorium to swim. At the time, the city-owned pool was segregated by day. Monday was the only day African Americans could swim. Barbara and her friends came after church on Sunday. The white man behind the ticket booth told them, “No.” This day was just one in the 68 years she spent in South Bend. The racism she faced, the life she was able to lead, and the stories she told, have...
Episode 06. Leroy And Margaret Cobb [REBROADCAST]
February 18, 2019 19:52Leroy and Margaret Cobb were two of the 26 people who fought severe housing discrimination in order to build a safe, stable, and wonderful neighborhood. The organization was called the Better Homes of South Bend. Read more about Better Homes from Gabrielle Robinson’s book, _Better Homes of South Bend_. Check out a copy at any of the libraries listed below, or purchase your own copy here: https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467118651. CRHC Library: https://crhc.libib.com/#144287...
Episode 02. Helen Pope [REBROADCAST]
February 11, 2019 18:04In honor of 2019's Black History Month, we're rebroadcasting some of our favorite stories from people who made South Bend's history. Helen Pope grew up on the west side of South Bend, Indiana during the 1920s. She watched her city grow and change over the eighty years she lived here. She earned a nursing license from Ivy Tech and a degree in early childhood development from IU South Bend. She worked as a nurse at the old Northern Indiana Children’s hospital, back when they segregated their...
Episode 01. Dr. and Mrs. Bernard and Audrey Vagner [REBROADCAST]
February 04, 2019 17:15In this first episode of IU South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center's podcast, "South Bend's Own Words," Dr. Bernard and Audrey Vagner share their experience moving to South Bend, and their lives in this city over many decades. Dr. Bernard Vagner grew up near Shreveport, Louisiana, a place notorious for the frequency with which citizens used lynching as a method to terrorize and enforce racial segregation against people of color. He studied medicine at Xavier University with a goal of becom...
Andrea Petrass
June 18, 2018 19:00 - 17 minutes - 16.3 MBAndrea Petrass lived almost her whole life in South Bend. She was assigned male at birth, and though she was able to play the part of a boy, she knew she wanted to be one of the girls. Without any role models of people who had transitioned, she had no language to express that as an option. In 2015, before her transition, Andrea sat down with Dr. Jamie Wagman from St. Mary’s College. They talked about Andrea’s childhood in South Bend, the messages she received about gender, and how, for much ...
South Bend responds to the Assassination of MLK
April 02, 2018 00:00 - 10 minutes - 4.64 MBOn April 4, 1968, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by a white supremacist. The news echoed throughout the U.S. We hear from five people in South Bend who remember that day and the immediate aftermath: Charlotte Huddleston, Willie Mae Butts, Lynn Coleman, George Neagu, and Karen White. Want to learn more about South Bend’s history? View the photographs and documents that helped create it. Visit Michiana Memory at http://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/. Title music, “Hist...
Lois Clark
March 18, 2018 20:00 - 13 minutes - 12.5 MBLois Clark is a tireless advocate for peace and justice. For four decades she served with the local Head Start, educating scores of children. As Mayor Pete Buttigieg put it when he honored Lois in 2013,"She has made an incalculable impact." But many in South Bend recognize her as one of the people who stand, or in Lois’ case, sit, on a downtown street corner protesting war. She hold signs that say “honk for peace,” and patiently waits for passers-by to do so. When they do, Lois smiles and wa...
Anita Roberts
February 21, 2018 00:00 - 12 minutes - 11.9 MBAnita Roberts is descended from one of the first families of color in South Bend. Her grandfather worked as a foreman at the Studebaker wagon factory, and her grandmother as a domestic worker in the Studebaker family home. As an adult, Anita moved to New York to embark on a long career, first as a union activist and later as a representative for the International Council of Shopping Centers. She participated in one of the freedom rides, fighting against segregation in a Maryland lunch counte...
Willie Coats
January 16, 2018 00:00 - 15 minutes - 14.4 MBWillie Coats lived almost his entire lifetime in South Bend, mostly on West Washington Street. As a child, he lacked the historical framework to understand the racism he encountered. As an adult, and after he read The Autobiography of Malcolm X, he could put his experiences in context—like the racial slurs shouted at him by white neighbors, and witnessing a black man shot by police in 1967 and participating in the riots afterwards. Willie channeled his activism through groups like the Bla...
David Healey and Gladys Muhammad
December 21, 2017 20:00 - 12 minutes - 11.7 MBDavid Healey was a part of the first Indiana University South Bend Freedom Summer class in the summer of 2000. Fifteen students toured the southern U.S. to learn how the civil rights movement unfolded there. It changed the student's lives. Two of them decided to start a South Bend civil rights center, and they asked David to join. David got to work researching the history of the civil rights movement here. Among all the stories they uncovered, one of the most impactful was that of a once s...
Father Theodore Hesburgh
December 04, 2017 20:00 - 23 minutes - 22.1 MBFather Theodore Hesburgh is an author, educator, and advocate for justice who served the University of Notre Dame for over three decades. Among his many actions, he served under Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon on the U.S. Commission for Civil Rights. In 2009, the day before the inauguration of the first African American President, he shared stories from his life and his work with the University of Notre Dame’s Dr. Richard Pierce, and Indiana University South Bend Develop...
Oscar Jones, Jackie Ivory, and Bobby Stone
November 22, 2017 20:00 - 18 minutes - 17.5 MBOscar Jones, Jackie Ivory, and Bobby Stone were heavily inspired by the Mississippi Delta blues they heard growing up. As teenagers, they’d sing doo-bop music on street corners on the west side of South Bend. It led to lifelong careers in music for both Bobby Stone and Jackie Ivory, and a lifelong love of music for all three. They performed together in what was known then as the “chitlin’” circuit, a network of clubs that played black music to almost entirely black audiences. As the blues wa...
John Charles Bryant
November 06, 2017 23:00 - 12 minutes - 11.6 MBJohn Charles Bryant is descended from of one of the first African American families to call South Bend home. His ancestors moved here in 1858, seven years before the city officially incorporated. Every generation since has contributed things big and small to this city, and John Charles has detailed information about all of them. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of this city’s history—and he’s happy to share it. In 2001, he was the first person selected to be interviewed by the Civil Rights H...
Reynaldo Hernandez
October 26, 2017 19:00 - 17 minutes - 16 MBSouth Bend, Indiana residents have likely seen a group of people holding signs on a downtown street corner saying messages such as, “Honk for Peace." Reynaldo Hernandez is one of those people. He and his wife, Glenda Rae, have been active fighters for peace and social justice issues in this city for decades. Born in Texas to parents of Mexican heritage, Ray later pursued a life as a minister. When Glenda Rae told him that she did not want to be a preacher’s wife, he switched gears. He found ...
Don Willman
October 10, 2017 19:00 - 11 minutes - 10.9 MBDon Willman came to South Bend with his mother at a young age. He became involved in the theater program at Central High School under famed director James Lewis Cassady. Cassady helped open a love for theater that stuck with Don. As a teenager, Don met the love of his life. He and his partner Burt became both business partners, and life partners. They shared their lives for three decades until Burt’s death in 1998. Along the way, Don became a noted interior designer and artist. They also h...