Encroachment - 1702 N Elmer Street

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V: Better Homes struggled for over three years. Banks refused mortgages, contractors changed prices and did not build to code, and the city moved slowly on sewer installation. Led by Attorney J. Chester Allen and their president Lureatha Allen (no relation), they persevered. Sources and where found: Minutes Jan. 5, 1952, Minutes Jan. 5, 1952, Minutes June 20, 1952, Leroy Cobb's private papers. People involved are more outspoken. Nola, daughter of Pres. Lureatha Allen and then a law student, said in 2015: "Nobody wanted them to build on that land." Phone conversation with Gabrielle Robinson quoted in Better Hontes of South Bend, p. 71. VI: Attorney Allen was all too familiar with defeats. It took 19 years to get the Natatorium opened to African Americans. As State Senator, Allen introduced House Bill 445 in 1941 against racial discrimination in employment in factories with war contracts. The bill was defeated. Sources and where found: Natatorium, website of Civil Rights Heritage Center. The Story of House Bill 445: A Bill that Failed to Pass, Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce 1941. VII: In the end Better Homes succeeded in building 22 homes on the 1700 and 1800 block of N. Elmer Street, in a sparsely populated but all white neighborhood. And they made history. As DeHart Hubbard from the Cleveland FHA told them: "We would go down in History as the first coop in Indiana to sponsor such a successful adventure." Sources and where found: Minutes of March 10, 1951, Leroy Cobb's private papers. The first African American building coop in Chicago started 10 years later in 1961, email from the Newberry Library Chicago.. VIIl: Their achievement is even greater since they created a vibrant and peaceful community and raised a successful next generation of engaged citizens. Half the children of Better Homes earned college degrees, becoming teachers, principals, a dentist, librarian, lawyer and more. Many other professional African Americans moved into their neighborhood. Testimonies from children of Better Homes, June -July 2016: Brenda Williams Wright, Nola Allen, Kathy Bingham. Leroy Cobb on meaning of Better Homes, July 12, 2016. IX: Better Homes shows African Americans not merely as victims of white oppression, but as courageous, resilient, and resourceful actors in their own right. They stuck to their mission through all setbacks and held together "like family." Their example teaches us that social change is possible through organization and democratic cooperation. Leroy Cobb says repeatedly: "We were just like family." See also Better Homes of South Bend, pp. 128-132.