HomeMy WebLinkAboutReparatory Justice Commission Report FILED2
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Resolution……………………………………………………………………………………6
Statement of Purpose……………………………………………………………………….10
Executive Summary……………………………………………………………………… 12
History of Racial Discrimination in South Bend, Indiana………………………………….13
I. Early History of the Region………………………………………………………13
II. World War I: the Beginning of the Great Migration North………………………16
A. Governmentally Sanctioned Housing Discrimination…………………...19yg
B. Rise of the Ku Klux Klan……………………………………………… 20
III. The 1930s and 1940s…………………………………………………………….21
A. Employment Discrimination…………………………………………… .21py
B. Segregated Housing and the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC)..23gggp()
C. Segregated Education…………………………………………………….27gg
D. The Fight for Affordable Housing………………………………………..33
IV. Discrimination in Medical Practice………………………………………………35
A. Medical Professionals…………………………………………………….35
B. The Medical Industry……………………………………………………...37
V. Post World War II………………………………………………………………….39
A. Returning Veterans……………………………………………………….. 39g
B. Discrimination in Public Accommodations………………………………..41
C. Personal Testimonies………………………………………………………44
D. Beck’s Lake………………………………………………………………..48
VI. The Fight for Civil Rights…………………………………………………….…..50
A. The Open Housing Movement……………………………………………..53pg
B. City’s Civil Rights Efforts………………………………………………….56yg
C. State Civil Rights Efforts…………………………………………………...58
VII. Urban Renewal…………………………………………………………………...60
VIII. Human Rights Commission……………………………………………………..64
IX. Beyond 1970s………………………………………………………………..........66
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A. Continued Overt Housing Discrimination…………………………….66g
B. Lack of Investment…………………………………………………… 67
C. Reverse Redlining……………………………………………………. 68g
D. Zoning…………………………………………………………………73
X. Hate Groups………………………………………………………………….,.74
Harms Caused by Pattern of Discrimination andy
Reparatory Justice Commission’s Recommendations……………………………76y
I. Employment/Economic Opportunity/Wealth Gap Subcommittee……………..77p y pp y p
The Racial Wealth Divide………………………………………………..77
Lower Income. Fewer Blacks in Higher-Paying Jobs……………………80gyg
Fewer Black-Owned Businesses…………………………………………83
II. Housing Subcommittee………………………………………………………..89g
Inequitable home ownership……………………………………………..89qp
Repairing a broken rental market………………………………………...92pg
Lack of Neighborhood Investment……………………………………….94g
III. Education Subcommittee……………………………………………………..95
Disparate Discipline………………………………………………………95pp
Disproportionate Academic Placement and Classification………………..97pp
Teacher Unawareness of and Insensitivity y
to Black Children’s Experience………………………………….100p
Need for Quality Preschool for Black Children…………….....................103Qy
IV. Health and Mental Health Subcommittee…………………………………….105
Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL)……………………………………,,106(),,
Infant Mortality and Birth Outcomes……………………….....................108y
Chronic Health Issues…………………………………………………….109
Mental Health……………………………………………………………..111
Continued Discrimination and Lack of Trust In the Medical Profession…111
Environmental Issues……………………………………………………...113
Lead contamination…………………………………......................113
Environmental Issues in LaSalle Park Neighborhood.....................115
Endnotes…………………………………………………………………………..122
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Statement of Purpose
The Reparatory Justice Commission was empaneled by the South Bend Common Council on
September 28, 2023, to study aspects of reparatory justice for the harms and injustices
experienced by African Americans and other Black people of African descent, as individuals and
as a group. These harms have been physical, economic, psychological, and emotional, and
continue to burden Black people in the present. They span generations and for some, represent
lost opportunities and potentials that can never be regained. We recognize that the federal and
state governments bear great responsibility and must be held to account. However, these harms
were also experienced locally, through local action and inaction, and these local entities must
also be held to account.
The Commission will focus its attention in the following areas:
x Economic Systems (employment/economic opportunity/wealth gap)
x Education
x Health and Mental Health
x Housing
x Policing and the Criminal Legal System
Through research, public testimonials, and input from scholars and other experts, the
Commission will work to identify as much as possible the root causes of harms to African
Americans and their effects in the present. It will make recommendations for the repair of those
harms and propose remedies to ensure the harms are not repeated in the future. These may be
harms or injustices perpetrated by explicit City policy or indirectly through structures or
institutions under municipal authority. Inevitably, these will also include harms and injustices
that were perpetrated by private and other non-governmental entities over which the municipality
may have no authority, but which nonetheless demand redress.
The Commission has set 18 months as a timeframe in which to carry out its duties. It will
hold public forums to gather stories and statements from those who have directly experienced
harms, as well as examine the historical record to trace the causes of current disparities rooted in
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past racial inequities. There will be regular assessments and ongoing feedback from community
participants. The Commission is committed to its work being transparent and inclusive. Public
input is not only desired but necessary for the legitimacy of its recommendations to have effect.
The public may reach the commission with comments, suggestions, or stories at this location:
https://www.sbreparations.org/
The commission’s work and report focused on the City’s Black residents. This was the
original intent of the call for the commission and it is where the most historical data can be
found. We acknowledge, however, that these discriminatory practices were wrong and likely
affected other marginalized groups. It is not the intent of this report to discount or diminish those
experiences.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In this report, the Commission documented the extensive history of discrimination against the
Black population of South Bend. Black residents were systematically denied equal access to
housing, jobs, education, and City facilities. This systematic discrimination caused poorer
economic and health outcomes for the Black residents of the City. It calls for reparatory justice to
remedy the damage and insure it is never repeated.
To reach this end, the Commission has made numerous recommendations aimed at repairing
the damage done by these discriminatory policies. While the Commission’s recommendations are
primarily addressed to the City, we understand that many of them cannot be accomplished by the
City alone. Therefore, we urge the City to work with public and private partners to effectuate the
following recommendations. Some of the Commission’s recommendations require immediate
implementation, while others will require more time to accomplish so we have also
recommended a timeline for implementation.
Each subcommittee crafted their recommendations based on their research into that specific
topic and are outlined in each subcommittee’s section of this report. The policing subcommittee
was unable to complete its work due to unforeseen circumstances affecting its members. A
committee should be created to complete a supplementary report to be submitted at another
date.
A few recommendations, however, cover the work of all the subcommittees and are presented
below by the entire Commission:
For immediate implementation:
(1) The City should formally acknowledge and apologize for a long history of racial discrimination.
(2) The City should preserve this report as a permanent, easily accessible, historical public
record and commit to creating a robust website where citizens can learn about this history.
Within three months:
(3) The Common Council should appoint a permanent reparatory justice committee that
includes experts, City officials, and citizens, the majority of whom should be Black.
Current Commission members should be given priority if they want to continue to serve.
The Committee should be charged with reviewing progress in implementing the
recommendation of the Commission, monitoring compliance with reparatory justice, and
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identifying further measures that might come to light to ensure reparatory justice. The
committee shall report to the Common Council the progress toward implementing the
Commission’s recommendations and suggestions for the adoption of any additional
measures needed for reparatory justice at least annually.
Within in the next three years:
(4) A Community Fund should be established through a non-governmental Entity as a
repository of donations from charitable foundations, local and national businesses,
individuals, and similar sources to provide monies for repairing past and preventing future
harms identified in this report.
HISTORY OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN SOUTH BEND, INDIANA
I. Early History of the Region
It is difficult to look at the history of discrimination in South Bend without placing it in the
historical context of both Indiana and the nation. In 1787, the Northwest Ordinance established
the Northwest Territory, some of which became the state of Indiana.1 Slavery was banned in
1816 by both the Ordinance and the Indiana’s first constitution.2 Despite being technically a free
state, Indiana was not actually free of slavery. Researchers have documented hundreds of slaves
and people held in forms of indentured servitude which at the time was the practical equivalent
of slavery.3
In 1823, when South Bend was established, Indiana was an unwelcoming environment for all
non-White residents.4 State laws banned Blacks from a wide variety of civic activities including
the right to vote, “serve on juries, hold office, serve in the militia, practice law, testify against
Whites, or even legally reside without proof of their freedom.”5 White children were guaranteed
a free education by statute.6 Black children were prohibited from attending public schools, even
if they paid tuition, if even a single White parent objected to their presence in the school.7 The
Indiana Supreme Court justified this prohibition by explaining that “black children were deemed
unfit associates of White, as school companions.”8 Black children could attend private schools
which at the time were mostly affiliated with Black churches and largely funded by the Quakers.9
Indiana was, as one scholar explained, “the most Negrophobic state in the North.” 10
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In 1851, Indiana’s constitution prohibited any “negro or mulatto” from coming into or
settling in the State.11 It also voided any contracts made with this prohibited class of people and
fined anyone who dared to employ them.12 Despite these legal prohibitions, Blacks did enter the
state. As early as 1840 census records for St. Joseph County record nine Negro residents.13 The
number of Black residents increased from 29 in 1850 to 340 by 1890. In 1890 a South Bend
specific census recorded 572 Black residents.14
Some link the influx of black settlers into South Bend to a famous slave fugitive case that
began in 1849.15 The case involved the Powell family who fled from Kentucky to Michigan.
John Norris, who claimed to own the family, traveled to Michigan with a band of men and
kidnapped the mother and three of her children. He had to travel through South Bend on her trip
back to Kentucky. A Michigan neighbor of the Powells sought legal intervention and obtained a
writ of habeas corpus, forcing the men to free the family. The men were stopped and a trial was
held in South Bend. In one of the brighter parts of the City’s racial history, the family was freed.
Unfortunately, other litigation followed and the Powells were eventually required to pay Mr.
Norris for the loss of his property, that property being Mrs. Powell and her children, Yet, the
Powell family remained free.16
The first permanent black resident of South Bend is believed to be Peter Coleman who
settled in the City in 1839.17 Ironically, another early and perhaps one of the most influential
Black residents of South Bend, was also named Powell, though he was no relation to the Powells
of this infamous case.18 The Powells moved to South Bend in the 1850s and, in 1858, purchased
a home on Main Street.19 The Garrett Smith family was the first Black family known to have
owned property in South Bend. In 1849 they owned the first brick home in the City.20 James
Washington, a barber and significant member of the underground railroad, was another
prominent citizen from that time period.21 While the presence of these and a few other early
residents have been verified; it is certain there were others whose stories have been lost.22
The number of Blacks in St. Joseph County grew slowly at first, but by 1890 there were more
than 500 Black families in the City.23 From the 1890s until 1960, South Bend’s Black population
grew from approximately 1.3 percent to 9 percent, increasing to approximately 13,000
residents.24Until 1863, public education was limited to White children. In 1863 a state law was
passed providing that all children could attend school, albeit segregated schools, but provided no
guarantees for Black children if there was no segregated school available to them.25 In 1890
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Linden School opened on the west side, largely to accommodate a growing White population.
Ironically, Linden school would became important for the history of Black children in South
Bend until it was closed in 1972.
An 1877 Indiana state law clarified the right of every Hoosier child to an education. If there
were not enough Black children in the area for a segregated school, Black children had the right
to attend an integrated school.26 The low percentage of Black children in South Bend in the early
years of the twentieth century meant Black children attended schools that were predominantly
White, including Linden School. Unfortunately, this also meant that Black children were often
exposed to prejudice. 27 In July 1921, an anonymous Black writer to the editorial page of the
South Bend Tribune explained what this meant to Black children.
Colored children who attend white schools have but few moments, if any,
in which they are not made to feel the white man’s prejudices, that they
belong to an inferior race and that to be black is a disgrace.”28
Much of what we know about the early years in South Bend comes from the work of
Reverand Buford Gordon. Rev. Gordon’s book gives us important insights into the living
conditions for Blacks in the early years of South Bend’s history.
Reverand Buford Gordon29
Reverand Gordon was born in Pulaski, Tennessee in 1893, the child of
a former slave. He graduated from Fisk University with a degree in
Chemistry and entered Yale Divinity School. W.W.I. intervened and he
left school to join the war effort. After returning from the war, he
entered the University of Chicago where he obtained a degree in
divinity. He moved to South Bend in 1920 to serve in the Taylor
A.M.E. Zion Church. In 1922, Reverand Buford Gordon wrote a
history of black residents of South Bend, The Negro in South Bend.
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According to Rev. Gordon, there was little racial tension in the area before the advent of
World War I. He believed this was largely due to the small number of black residents in the City
at that time.30 Early Black residents of South Bend were mostly employed in manual labor.
Census data shows that most Black residents reported working as farm laborers or general
laborers, with a small number who reported being self-employed.31 However, Rev. Buford also
mentions a number of Black barbers who served both black and White residents as early as the
1860s.32 Before World War I, most factories, stores, and service businesses in South Bend simply
did not hire African Americans. When this changed, racial tensions rose.
II. World War I: the Beginning of the Great Migration North
By 1920, Rev. Gordon placed South Bend’s population at 70,983 and the City’s Black
population at 1,269.33 He noted, however, that by 1922, the South Bend Tribune estimated the
Black population to be approximately 3,000.34
In 1913 Woodrow Wilson was elected President. He brought his segregationist attitudes with
him to the White House and the country.35 His first move was to segregate the federal workforce.
He ordered dividers be placed between Black and White workers, created racially segregated
cafeterias, and forbade any Black worker from supervising a White worker.36 He would soon
follow with policies to segregate housing. While these practices were common in his native
South, they were not consistently practiced across the country. As President, Wilson gave
credibility to segregation.
The first World War sparked a wave of Black migration to Northern factories, including those
in South Bend. The Selective Service Division issued a “work or fight” order requiring all able-
bodied men to either serve in the military or work in a “necessary” civilian occupation.37 Under
the Selective Service Act of 1917 three million men were drafted (and another two million
volunteered) before the end of the war.38 The need for Black laborers in the North was driven
both by a need for war materials and a decrease in immigration from Europe during the war.39
Prior to this surge, immigrants far outnumbered Blacks in Indiana.40
The South Bend factories of Studebaker, Singer, and Westinghouse are reported to have hired
Black laborers during these years.41 Other local factories such as the Wilson Brothers Shirt
Factory, Birdsell Manufacturing Company, F.P. Box Company, and the Oliver Chilled Plow
Works also began hiring Black workers at some point in the 1920s or 30s.42 At one time, the
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Studebaker Corporation employed 700 Black men and women, more than any other local
company. 43
Black employees during this era were not given equal wages or working conditions. These
were the early years of “The Segregation Era.”44 Most employers still refused to hire Black
employees. Those that did followed the President’s example by segregating Black workers from
their White counterparts and limiting them to menial work. Studebaker in South Bend is a case in
point. Although more willing to hire Black employees, those hired were relegated to the
foundry,45 which was the hottest, dirtiest, and most dangerous part of the factory. Work in the
foundry required lifting heavy loads, often in furnace-like heat.46
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These pictures, published in the Studebaker News (the official Company newspaper), show
the contrast between the foundry workers (above), many of whom were Black, and the sales
force at the time (below), all of whom were White.
The Herring House, erected in 1925 in the 700 block of Western Avenue as a Black culture
community center and place of support, became a resource for South Bend’s Black workers.48
The founders were Frank and Claribel Hering who signed a trust deed noting that the property
was “for the colored people of South Bend.”49 In addition to youth programs and recreational
activities, the Hering House provided employment and business help, including events aimed to
assist Black workers in finding jobs.50
Despite these challenges, Blacks continued to migrate to South Bend and other cities in the
North to take advantage of these wartime jobs.51 Many cities, including South Bend, did not have
the infrastructure to handle the influx, resulting in severe housing shortages, This influx of
workers also marked the beginning of overt housing discrimination. Blacks were systematically
denied the ability to purchase homes and instead forced to live in ghettos across the City.
Maggie’s Court, located off what is now Western Avenue (and the location of the soon to be
demolished Rabbi Shulman housing project), was one of the earliest such settlements.52 The
owner turned some warehouses into tenement housing and others built makeshift shacks on the
property.53 There was no plumbing or garbage collection. The streets were mud.54 As the 1916
pictures (below) from Maggie’s Court reflect, it was a terrible place to live.
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Other ghetto areas soon developed close to industry because these were the only places Black
workers were permitted to live. The lack of housing and the concerns that these new families
might move into better locations in South Bend was the initial pressure that brought on the
decades of housing discrimination to follow. These pressures were not just being felt in South
Bend. Housing shortages developed across the country as minority war workers and recent
Eastern European immigrants moved into communities seeking housing.
A. Governmentally Sanctioned Housing Discrimination
President Wilson’s discriminatory housing policies began in 1917 when the Department of
Labor created the “Own Your Own Home” program.56 This was an explicitly racist effort to
segregate housing in America. White citizens were told it was their patriotic duty to buy a home
and move away from Black residents.57 They were instructed to “consider the ‘general type of
people living in the neighborhood’” so as to avoid building homes in racially mixed
neighborhoods.58 To achieve the government’s goal of racially pure neighborhoods, builders and
developers were encouraged to put racial covenants into deeds that would prevent blacks and
other so-called undesirables, such as Jews, from building or buying homes in these new
developments.59 New housing, good housing, was for Whites only.
Developers in South Bend readily complied with these directives. Racial covenants appeared
across the City and county. The housing subcommittee located 68 plats for housing
developments in the county created from 1922 to 1953 that contain racially restrictive
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covenants.60 Most, but not all, were for developments located in the City limits. Every plat
represents multiple homes. We cannot claim these represent all the racial covenants that still exist
in deeds in South Bend properties; but they do illustrate the pervasive nature of the practice.61
Each plat that contained a racially discriminatory covenant in the City was approved by the
South Bend Board of Public Works.62
The language of these covenants is very similar. Below is the language from the covenant for
the 1923 plat for the Jefferson Park Addition.
In 1948 the United States Supreme Court declared the enforcement of racially restrictive
covenants unconstitutional.64 This meant that no court could enforce them, but it did not make
them illegal. That would not happen until the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968.65 Twelve
plats with racial covenants approved by governmental officials in both the county and the cities
of Mishawaka and South Bend after the 1948 U.S Supreme Court decision. The busiest year for
filing plats with racial covenants was 1947, likely in anticipation of the pending Supreme Court
decision. 1948, the year of the decision, marked the second busiest year for covenant filings. The
fact that these could not be enforced by a court did not make them any less powerful. They were
enforced by the industries that built, sold, and financed property well beyond 1948.
The actions of private actors, backed by the policies of local, state, and federal officials,
severally restricted where Blacks could settle in South Bend. Rev. Gordon describes two distinct
areas where black residents lived in the 1920s: the west side of South Bend in the ghettos of
Maggie’s Court and Beck’s Lake, and what was then the east side, the area near the A.M.E. Zion
Church.66 This division was somewhat class-based. The newer group of factory workers lived in
subpar rentals in the newly organized slum areas, while the more middle-class Black
homeowners concentrated in the eastern part of town near Notre Dame. These housing patterns
persist to this day. Urban Renewal and redevelopment, including very recent projects in the Eddy
Commons area, have pushed Black families west. The concentration of black families on the
west side of South Bend is evident to this day.
B. The Rise of the Ku Klux Klan
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The 1920s marked a period of rapid expansion by the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana, including in
South Bend. The Klan essentially governed Indiana at this time. 67 The governor and many
legislators and as many as one third of all White Protestant men in the state were members.68
While the Klan’s influence may not have been as strong in St. Joseph County, it still had
hundreds of members in powerful positions.69 The local chapter had an annual picnic and
baseball game at Lake Maxinkuckee in Culver.70 Members harassed and intimidated black
families throughout this period. Reverand Gordon led an effort to build a new A.M.E. church on
Eddy Street in the midst of this expansion. The Klan attempted to stop the project by tearing
down the building as it was being constructed. The congregation and students from the
University of Notre Dame guarded the building until the work was completed in 1925.71 While
the Klan’s influence may have diminished over time, as we will discuss later in this report, White
supremacist groups have not gone away.
III. The 1930s and 1940s
The outbreak of war in Europe in 1939 sparked an immediate need for more manufacturing
labor in the United States. Another wave of Black “defense workers” and their families moved
North, including to South Bend. Despite the need, many manufacturers still refused to hire Black
workers.72
A. Employment Discrimination
The employment crisis spurred Blacks to lobby for anti-discrimination legislation. In
response, South Bend’s J. Chester Allen Sr., a Black lawyer and representative in the Indiana
House of Representatives, introduced the Fair Employment Protection Act (H.B. 445).73 In
support of the bill, Allen stated that “Negro workers, skilled and semi-skilled, by the thousands
are walking the streets or working on WPA projects because they happen to have been endowed
with a dark skin by the Creator of all men.”74 The bill received broad support initially but was
defeated.
On June 1, 1941, Governor Schricker appointed J. Chester Allen as the Negro Activities
Coordinator to the Indiana Defense Council. As part of the Indiana Plan of Bi-Racial
Cooperation, Allen traveled throughout the state, appealing to groups like the A.F.L., C.I.O., and
the Indiana State Medical, Dental and Pharmaceutical Association, which all formally pledged to
employ African Americans.75
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In 1941, Allen helped persuade South Bend employer Bendix Aviation to hire its first six
Black workers, all men. His efforts were assisted by President Roosevelt’s executive order in
June 1941 prohibiting racial discrimination in employment at defense contractors. Later the same
year, the Director of Industrial Relations at Bendix—Marvin Heidt—wrote to Allen for his help
in modifying the Indiana Female Labor Law; this law limited the amount of time a woman could
work, a particular hindrance to women who chose to work overtime.76 Allen did not respond to
this request, perhaps because, like many, Allen perceived that Bendix was seeking to have White
women work longer hours rather than hire more Black men. By November 1941, Bendix had
only 19 Black employees in a workforce of seven thousand. 77
Black women in South Bend had a particularly hard time finding meaningful employment
outside of domestic work, particularly before World War II. For women, nursing and teaching
were popular jobs. However, in South Bend, securing a job without racial discrimination was
nearly impossible even in those fields. For example, no black teacher worked in a South Bend
school until 1950.78
South Bend resident Lucille Sneed was one of a handful of young Black women looking to
get training on industrial sewing machines. She explained the barriers she faced.
This teacher said, “There’s no need to teach you how to use these
machines because you’re not going to get a job.” She taught the white
ladies how to use the machines and, after a week or so, they were [hired
at] Studebaker’s, Singer’s, and I think other places. They hired them! But
for us there was nothing…
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We went to Hering House and [told the director] that we were not being
taught how to use these machines. And [the Hering House staff] went to
this teacher and talked to her, and we were [then] given an opportunity to
learn how to use them. And I’m happy that I was because, after getting to
Studebaker’s, having this knowledge gave me an opportunity to keep the
job.79
When the Kingsbury Ordinance Plant in LaPorte County began hiring Black women to work in
their factory during World War II, women from South Bend carpooled to work there, despite
dangerous conditions. Vera Lane, a former employee of Kingsbury who lived in South Bend,
described what happened:
“I was looking for work when I heard the news that Kingsbury was hiring
blacks, so I went over there and got a job. The news was passed by the
churches and word of mouth, so many black women packed their lunches
and headed to the factory.” 80
Kingsbury Ordinance Plant may have provided work for Black women, but it was not safe
work. Gail Brodie of South Bend reported that her mother, Annette Brodie, was seriously injured
working there. "My mom was hurt really bad there during one of the explosions," Gail explained.
"She lost some of her fingers, and it burned her all over." Most of the women were undeterred by
the danger and were simply glad to work. "I worked stuffing the shells with gunpowder," said
Margaret Morgan, of South Bend, a former employee. "But I would have rather stuffed
gunpowder than clean houses for a living. I remember moving to South Bend from Tennessee,
where I lived in a new house; when I got here I moved in a basement apartment. I was sitting out
in a field in my back yard when I heard that Kingsbury was hiring black women," she said. "I
went out and applied right away, and what that job did was give us (black women) a chance to
work in a factory and make good money."81
B. Segregated Housing and the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC)
Margaret Morgan’s story illustrates many of the housing issues people faced when moving
North for employment opportunities. Purchasing homes was nearly impossible for Blacks during
this period. Federal policy regarding home ownership moved slightly from the Wilson
administration’s “Whites only” policy to one favoring segregated housing. The Home Owners’
Loan Corporation was created in 1933 to stem the growing number of residential mortgage
foreclosures during the Great Depression. It was charged with buying existing mortgages from
banks and refinancing them to prevent foreclosure.
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In 1935 the Mortgage Rehabilitation Division of HOLC famously began a study of cities
with populations over 40,000. South Bend was one such City. With the help of local officials,
neighborhoods were rated and these rating sheets used to create maps. These documents were
meant to help banks understand which neighborhoods were considered desirable for mortgage
lending, and which were not.82
The maps rated neighborhoods from A to D. An “A” rating was given to properties that were
“new well planned sections of the City” where “good lenders with available funds are willing to
make their maximum loans.”83 “A” rated neighborhoods needed to be seen as “homogenous.”
Harter Heights, a South Bend neighborhood, obtained a top rating for its lack of Negros or other
infiltration.84 Its residents were safely “[n]ative white.”85 Jefferson Park, Coquillard Woods, and
Sunnymeade also got top ratings, both for their homogenous population but also because the
areas were “highly restricted,” each having racial covenants banning non-White residency.
Below is part of the rating sheet for the “A” rated Sunnymeade neighborhood. The comments
explained that the neighborhood was “[h]ighly restricted” and, therefore “[p]robably best section
of the city.”86
Several South Bend neighborhoods received a “B” rating, but the introduction of any foreign
born or non-White residents would cause a neighborhood to drop to a C.
“C” neighborhoods were “characterized by age, obsolescence, and change of style.”87 An
important factor in obtaining a “C” rating was a neighborhood with no or expiring racial
covenants and “infiltration of a lower grade populations.” This was code for residents who were
non-White or recent immigrants, especially Eastern Europeans and Jews.88 According to the
ratings system, these neighborhoods were “lacking homogeneity.”A segregated neighborhood
was a failing neighborhood. Asection of the City identified only as “Olive, from Western to
Huron” was given a “C” rating. The comments indicate it was “the best of the foreign sections,”
close to industry, whose residents were “95% Polish” with 3 black families.
89 A neighborhood
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with this kind of “infiltration” could not be given a “B” rating. The problem was evident. These
were probably the best neighborhoods families of color could hope to live in because of the lack
of covenants. However, once non-White families moved in, the areas were considered to be
failing and the ratings dropped. This made it even more difficult for prospective Black buyers to
get mortgages to move into these neighborhoods; but it also made it difficult for existing
residents to obtain loans to maintain or improve their properties. Selling to move to a better
neighborhood was also difficult because the ratings caused property values to fall while at the
same time restricting prospective buyers.
“D” neighborhoods were “characterized by detrimental influences in a pronounced degree,
undesirable population, or an infiltration of it.”90 There are not a lot of homeowners in these
areas because banks did not lend in these areas. One “D” neighborhood is only identified as
“[h]ighly undesirable settlement of Negroes with only outlet on Prairie Ave.”91 Beck’s Lake, an
area that is particularly significant in housing discrimination in the City, also received a negative,
“D-5” rating. It is characterized as “[n]egro [l]aboring class” with 10 percent foreign born.92
Linden Place, another neighborhood where Blacks could find housing received a “D-6” rating, a
step below Beck’s Lake. It was characterized as “Negro and foreign-born.” There was an
“[i]nfiltration of Negro” and 22 percent of the residents were Polish. 93
The HOLC ratings were prepared with the assistance of local real estate professionals,
including people like A. C. Colpaert.94 Derick Webb describes Colpaert as an “ardent
segregationist.”95 He was one of the most vocal opponents of integrated housing in the City at
the time. In one of his many attempts to preventing housing developments for blacks, he stood
up and declared, “There will be no niggers west of here.”96 Yet, he was one of the men the
federal government relied on to complete the Home Loan Corporation map for South Bend, a
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version of which can be seen below:
In 1934, the federal government thought to increase home ownership through the Housing
Act.97 The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) was created to encourage mortgage lending
by guaranteeing certain mortgage loans, thereby shielding lenders against risks in the mortgage
market. Again, communities were encouraged to use racial covenants and exclusionary zoning
to create racially pure neighborhoods.98 According to paragraph 284(2) of the 1936 FHA
Underwriting Manual:
Carefully compiled zoning regulations are the most effective [way of
maintaining segregated neighborhoods] because they not only exercise
control over the subject property but also over the surrounding area.
However, they are seldom complete enough to assure a homogeneous and
harmonious neighborhood”99
Covenants that prohibited “the occupancy of properties except by the race for which they are
intended” were also recommended.100 The manual also points out that the “infiltration of
inharmonious racial groups” will lower home values and deteriorate neighborhoods.101
Inharmonious racial groups was coded language for Blacks, Jews, and recent Eastern European
immigrants, all of whom faced housing discrimination at the time.
27
What is more significant and much less known about the FHA is that they also created rating
systems and maps.102 These maps were more influential and ultimately more damaging than the
HOLC maps.103 HOLC was only in business for three years, while the FHA used their maps for
decades.104 The FHA bought new mortgages from banks while HOLC only bought existing
mortgages. As a result, the FHA likely had more influence on lenders in the long term. We do not
have copies of most of the FHA maps. When litigation on these issues began in the 1960s, the
government destroyed most of the FHA maps.105 In recent years, however, scholars have
discovered isolated copies of these maps and been able to compare them to HOLC maps. What
they learned is that FHA maps were even more racially restrictive than the HOLC maps. 106
C. Segregated Education
As South Bend’s Black population increased so did racially segregated housing and with it
actual (de facto) racial segregation in South Bend schools.107 The unwritten “neighborhood
school” policy through the 1950s enforced this segregation without the need to draw racially
explicit boundaries. As explained:
“Children are expected to attend schools serving their respective areas of residence.”108
This may have been practical for child safety and parental convenience. However, it
eventually led to the creation of majority Black schools in South Bend. Such schools were
“separate and inherently unequal” as the U.S. Supreme Court declared in its 1954 case, Brown v.
Board of Education.109
Although not requiring segregated schools, Indiana law supported their creation.110 Like
South Bend, a few communities provided integrated schools until they viewed the population of
Black students sufficiently large to establish Black only schools.111 In the 1896 case, Plessy v.
Ferguson, the United States Supreme Court explicitly gave segregated schools a seal of
approval.112 According to the court, the equal protection promised in the fourteenth amendment
of the U.S. constitution “could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color,”
specifically endorsing “separate schools for white and colored children.”113This was the law of
the land until 1954 when Plessy was finally overturned by Brown v. Board of Education.114
Indiana had started down the path to outlaw segregated schools four years earlier in 1949
with the passage of a law that made it illegal to build segregated schools after 1954 and allowed
students to attend White schools in their neighborhood.115 This had little impact on segregation.
In 1954, neighborhoods were heavily segregated by race, including South Bend neighborhoods.
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White children lived in White neighborhoods and Black children lived in Black neighborhoods.
There were no buses at the time. Children walked to school and, as a result, attended schools
“serving their respective areas of residence.”116 When neighborhoods became too integrated, the
school system changed the school boundaries to limit the number of Black children in
predominately White schools.117 While there was never a strict segregation policy, in reality
Black students were steered to Black schools and White students to White schools. By the late
1960s and early 1970s, when the Great Migration came to an end, several South Bend schools
had Black student enrollment well in excess of 50 percent.
Linden School was one South Bend primary school attended by mostly Black children.118
Linden School was located in the 1500 block of Linden Ave. in the present site of the Dr.
Martin Luther King Dream Center. Ironically, this school was built in 1890 to accommodate
South Bend’s growing White ethnic population on the City’s west side. Linden’s student
enrollment was overwhelmingly White for nearly four decades while the surrounding
neighborhood’s Black population steadily increased.119 The area became mostly Black at the
end of the 1940s.
When I started Linden school in the kindergarten in September of 1938, it
was like, about ninety percent, eighty-five percent, you know, white – ten,
fifteen percent black. By the time I graduated from Linden Junior High
School in June of ’48, it was about the reverse.120
Barbara Brandy, who attended Linden School in 1948, explained the reason for the swift change
in the school’s racial makeup.
The school was predominantly black in ‘48-’49. It was getting that way
because they were starting to have what you call ‘white flight’ in most of
the neighborhoods….121
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By the end of the 1940s, 82 percent of Linden’s 369 students were Black.122 At the time Barbara
Brandy attended Linden School in 1948 there were no Black teachers.123 The first Black teacher
in South Bend was hired in 1950 and placed at Linden School.124
Although the students who attended majority Black schools have some positive memories of
forming lasting friendships and participating in extra-curricular activities, they also recall being
ill-served by guidance counselors, receiving poor quality and out of date materials, being
discouraged from taking college preparatory classes or funneled into vocational classes
regardless of whether they had an interest in a vocational career.125 These students also recalled
being harshly and unfairly disciplined as compared to their White counterparts, and that their
school buildings were overcrowded and often poorly maintained. Black parents expressed this
frustration in the early days of the growing school system.
Ruby Paige attended Oliver School and then Washington High School in the 1940s. In an
oral history interview conducted by the Civil Rights Heritage Center, she explained that some of
her White teachers and classmates made her Oliver experience hard.126
The teachers were not nice. The students were not nice. There were no
Black teachers and the students were very ugly.”127
George McCullough was a student at Harrison School and Washington High School who went
on to become principal at Riley and Washington high schools. He also gave an oral history to the
Civil Rights Heritage Center, explaining the problem with outdated books during his time at
Harrison.128
You’d open up the inside of the book and it would be 10, 15, 20 years old, and we knew
Perley was getting new books because our teachers told us129
Mr. McCullough’s recollection was confirmed by former SBCSC Director of School
Learning, Howard Edwards. He told the education subcommittee that he personally recalled that
during the late 1960s Linden School received no new textbooks. If he wanted them, Linden’s
principal was required to personally pick up new textbooks at another SBCSC school. Mr.
McCullough also recounted the lack of support given to Black students by White teachers and
counselors.
The counselors did not help or support or advise Black students. They did
not service African Americans. My counselor told me I was not college
30
material. He said I would be better off working in one of the factories on
the west side.130
Other Black South Bend School pupils had similar experiences. In her oral history, Lucille
Sneed gave her impressions:
I felt that [counselors] didn’t have the right attitude because they said,
“you know there is no need to prepare for college because, after all, you’re
not college material,” or “you’re not going to go.” And so, that was just
about it.131
Abdul Nur, another Black student who attended Oliver school in the 1940s told Civil Rights
Heritage Center interviewers that he encountered hostility from teachers during his time at
Oliver.132 According to Nur, his homeroom teacher did not want to admit him into class when he
was late, nor did the teacher attempt to learn the reasons for Nur’s tardiness. Nur, fearing his
teacher’s hostile reaction, sometimes remained in the hall where he was confronted by the
principal. “That got me in a lot of trouble.”133
He also told interviewers that Black students at Oliver were disciplined more harshly than
their White counterparts. For example, he said the school’s shop teacher often used corporal
punishment by paddling students who misbehaved. Black boys at the school described being told
to bend over and described the shape of the paddle. He did not believe White children were so
disciplined. “I never heard the White kids talk about that”…When we talked to the White kids
who were there, they never talked about getting paddled.”134
Predominately Black schools were often under-resourced and Linden School was no
exception. By the end of the 1950s, Linden was overcrowded, in disrepair, and one of the school
district’s oldest buildings. Its student body was predominantly Black. In the 1950’s and 1960’s,
parents and community activists applied pressure to the school district to make needed repairs to
Linden. Discussions focused on whether to close Linden School and build a modern building in
the neighborhood (which happened when Kennedy School opened in 1972) or to renovate it. No
thought was ever given to alleviating the overcrowding by simply changing attendance
boundaries.
In 1965 to 1966 Linden School’s student body was approximately 99 percent Black. This,
combined with its old age and dilapidated condition, led parents and Black community leaders to
cry out for relief.135 School Superintendent Alex Jardine stated that integrating South Bend
Schools by busing was not a solution because “mixing children of different backgrounds reduces
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the achievement of all of them and hinders the effectiveness of their instruction.”136 The subtext
of this public statement reflected a commonly held racial stereotype that Black children were not
as cognitively educable as White children.
According to a 1965 editorial by Attorney Chester Allen,
The ‘neighborhood school’ in the South Bend community has too long
been used to perpetuate segregation... . Boundaries have been ‘adjusted’
over the years to hold down the spread of Negro enrollment, and schools
are quickly built for the new white neighborhoods where heretofore
Negroes have been excluded.137
In December 1966 a Linden third grade teacher in a basement classroom heard the sound of
the ceiling buckling and managed to evacuate her children seconds before the ceiling gave
way.138 The ceiling collapse at Linden confirmed the Linden parents’ belief that the school had
suffered years of neglect since becoming a majority Black school. A group of Linden parents
sued the SBCSC for violation of the Brown v. Board requirement of non-segregated, equal
schools, which in South Bend was evidenced by the “inferior and increasingly dangerous
[school] facilities.”139 The lawsuit was settled and eventually led to Linden’s closure, and the
opening of Kennedy School in 1972. Linden was demolished that same November.140
On February 8, 1980, a consent decree was signed between the United States Department of
Justice and the South Bend Community School Corporation (SBCSC) (“the Consent Decree”) in
which the School Corporation agreed to adjust its policies to insure that education and
extracurricular programs would be equal for each school serving similar grade levels and similar
student needs. The Consent Decree was later amended by an agreement between SBCSC and the
Department of Justice. That amended version was fully approved by Federal District Court Judge
Allen Sharp on April 17, 1981.141 It had been the product of extensive negotiations between the
SBCSC and the U.S. Department of Justice since then. The SBCSC neither admitted nor denied
that it had intentionally engaged in racial or ethnic origin discrimination against students.142 The
Consent Decree avoided litigation between SBCSC and the United States Department of Justice
and the court pointed out that “at least since the latter part of 1979, the Board of Trustees of the
South Bend Community School Corporation was moving toward voluntary integration of its
schools.”143
The Consent Decree requires each South Bend school to have a Black student population that
is no more than 15 percent higher, nor 15 percent lower than the proportion of Black students in
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the entire district.144 In 1970, seven South Bend schools had a Black student enrollment of more
than 50 percent. This included Linden School where 97.3 percent of the students were Black,
according to SBCSC data. 145Although the 15 percent requirement was at the heart of the
Consent Decree, its ultimate objective was full educational racial equality in SBCSC schools.
Other conditions were included in the Consent Decree to assure that outcome.
In 2002 the Consent Decree was revisited by Judge Allen Sharp when he was asked to
determine whether the SBCSC’s “Plan Z” conformed to the amended Consent Decree of 1980.146
Plan Z was SBCSC Superintendent Joan Raymond’s remedial response to state budget cuts,
reduced student population within the SBCSC boundaries, under-utilized buildings, and
increased costs. The SBCSC Board of Trustees approved Plan Z after intense public debate. Plan
Z was a reorganization of SBCSC schools by grades and the introduction of magnet programs
within certain schools intended to attract students of all races.
The court noted strong opposition to Plan Z by the NAACP and a community organization
known as the “LaSalle Group” composed of former LaSalle students. Their criticism included
concerns that more Black students would be transported to school under Plan Z than White
students, that the controlled choice and magnet programs would not work to achieve the goal of
integration under the Consent Decree, and would result in too many primary schools being out of
compliance with the racial requirements set out in the Consent Decree. Additionally, the group
objected to the high cost of implementation and claimed a racial motivation for closing LaSalle
High School. The Consent Decree compliance range of 15 percent was to remain in all high
schools and intermediate centers.
The court considered these community concerns. It agreed that Plan Z might not be the best
or the wisest solution to comply with the Consent Decree in the face of a reduced number of
students and budget shortfalls. Yet, the court found Plan Z met the legal standards for conformity
with the Consent Decree.147 The DOJ expert concluded that Plan Z’s transportation plan would
not be a greater burden to Black children. Judge Sharp found no evidence of racial prejudice in
closing LaSalle High School.148
The Consent Decree’s promise of educational equality for Black students in South Bend
remains elusive. Statistical information compiled by the SBCSC as required by the U.S. District
Court’s approval of Plan Z, as well as other information, shows that there is persistent racial
disparity in the disciplining of Black students, in the percentage of Black children who are over-
33
identified as being in need of special education, and the percentage of Black students who are not
referred to honors, magnet or advanced placement programs (except at Washington High
School). Lower graduation rates and loss of economic opportunity for young Black persons are
the by-products of these disparities.149
On November 15, 2017, U.S. Department of Justice Attorney Veronica Percia attended a
public forum in South Bend to assess SBCSC’s compliance with the Consent Decree and
consideration of a revised form of Plan Z, titled “Focus 2018.”150 These educational concerns
were publicly discussed and examples provided.
In April 2021, the SBCSC Board of Trustees adopted “A Vision Statement on Racial Equity
and Antiracist Policies in SBCSC” written by Board member Stuart Greene. Its central message
relevant to reparatory justice was that “[r]acial equity has to be at the forefront of any efforts to
make things right and begin healing from past harms.”151 It also stated that changes to address
racial injustice must be reviewed and evaluated “at regular intervals” to assess their “impact and
effectiveness,” a recommendation that this Commission endorses.152
The SBCSC’s Black enrollment as of October 2025 was at 37.25 percent, meaning that per
the Consent Decree each school can have an enrollment that is no lower than 22.25 percent
Black, and no more than 52.25 percent Black.153 Yet, in October 2025, Black enrollment was
higher than 52.25 percent at Dickinson Academy Middle School and Coquillard Elementary
School. The Black student population at Muessel Elementary School was 62.34 percent. One
elementary school, Swanson Traditional School, has a Black enrollment that is lower than 22.25
per cent.154
On December 23, 2025, the SBCSC Board announced the formation of a committee “to
examine data about the Consent Decree that the district has been under for four decades.”155 The
Corporation faces challenges meeting the provisions of the decree, partially due to a declining
number of White students in the system. While some recent improvements have occurred, full
equity requires correction of historical harms.
D. The Fight for Affordable Housing
The federal government’s role in racial segregation continued beyond the creation of the
HOLC and FHA maps. In 1937, the federal government began providing money for local
governments to create housing authorities to facilitate the building of low-income housing.156 A
1936 Works Progress Administration’s (WPA) property survey of South Bend sponsored by the
34
South Bend City Planning Commission documented the need for this additional housing in the
City.157 In 1939, South Bend’s mayor urged the Common Council to create a housing authority.
They declined, claiming there was no need for additional housing in the City.158 Unfortunately,
many in the City equated low-income housing with housing for minorities. Local realtors and
builders opposed the housing authority because they wanted to be able to build any new housing
and, in doing so, maintain the racial segregation in the City. With no City action, the housing
shortage grew and the community voices concerned about the shortages grew as well. 159
World War II brought even more defense workers into the community, further exacerbating
the housing shortage. In 1941, the Common Council finally relented and voted to create a
housing authority, but not because the Council supported low-income housing. The housing
authority was only created to support defense worker housing.160The first two housing authority
projects were restricted to defense workers. 250 housing units were designated for White
workers and 150 units for Black workers.161 In compliance with federal policy, these projects
would be segregated by race and location. Federal policy encouraged the use of vacant land for
these developments. The White housing project was built on vacant land in the River Park area
as recommended. However, there was no vacant land in the existing Black neighborhoods and
the City refused to locate Black housing in areas that were currently considered White.162
Instead, the City proposed locating the rental units in an area around Birdsell street which would
have resulted in tearing down existing Black homes and businesses as well as the St. John
Baptist Church.163
According the Chester Allen, a prominent African American lawyer in South Bend at the
time, the development would cause “46 Negro families” to “be left without homes.”164 The
dislocated families would be unable to live in the newly built rental units because they were
reserved for war workers. In addition, they could not move to most other areas in the City
because of the racial segregation.165 The Polish-American Central Civic committee opposed the
project and any other “housing project for Negroes anywhere on the west side.”166 The current
Black residents of the area who were to see their homes, businesses, and church demolished for
the housing project also objected and urged the City to find vacant land as recommended by the
federal government. As an alternative, they suggested opening up the existing defense housing to
Black families, a proposition that got no consideration.167 Instead, the City chose to build the
35
development in Beck’s Lake and Maggie’s Court, two neighborhoods where Blacks were already
-living, both of which had some of the worst housing conditions in the City.
IV. Discrimination in Medical Practice
A. Medical Professionals
The rapid growth in the Black population after World War I also included Black doctors and
nurses. According to Dr. Roland Chamblee, who moved to South Bend in 1953, William Smith
was one of the first Black doctors in South Bend, Dr. Mott the second, Milton Butts the third,
Bernard Vagner the fourth, Lawrence Bell the fifth, and he was the sixth.168 Dr. Hickman and Dr.
Fears were two other Black doctors who moved to South Bend in the early years.169
These medical pioneers faced discrimination in both their professional and personal lives. In
an oral history given to the Civil Rights Heritage Center, Dr. Vagner explained that the medical
establishment tried to keep the number of Black physicians low. Most medical schools would not
accept Black or Jewish students. He explained that up until 1938 the medical schools that did
allow Black students to enroll would accept twice as many students in the freshman class as there
was room for in the sophomore class. Half were dismissed at the end of their freshman year,
regardless of their grades. Those dismissed would never become doctors because, as he
explained, “once you were dismissed from a class A medical school, you could not apply to any
other class A medical school[s] in the United States.”170
Dr. Vagner was the City’s first Black surgeon. He set up a practice on Washington Street in
1949 with several other doctors. Dr. Mott and Dr. Foreman, two other Black medical
professionals, also had offices near his. 171 Although a surgeon by training, Vagner needed
referrals from white doctors to maintain a full-time surgical practice. Therefore, he opened a
family practice, noting that “all the surgery I got came from my practice.”172 He was on the
surgical staff at St. Joseph Hospital. Memorial would not allow him on the surgical staff, but he
was on the medical staff there.173His medical practice was integrated, with most of his patients
being Black, Hungarian or Polish. It is significant that these were the same ethnic groups
restricted to live on the west side of South Bend due to housing discrimination.
Dr. Vagner noted that he never lacked for patients.174 Some White doctors in town refused to
accept Black patients. Vagner also acknowledged that there were several doctors who liked to tell
racially insensitive jokes, including in the surgical dressing room when he was present.175
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Despite these challenges, Dr. Vagner acknowledged that things were better in South Bend
than they had been in the South. He felt respected at the hospital, despite the attitudes of some of
the doctors. He was able to join the county medical association, something barred in the South.
At the time, a doctor were required to be a member of the county medical association before they
could join the American Medical Association.176 For years the AMA successfully barred any
Black membership by requiring membership in state medical societies that they knew excluded
Black members. In this way the AMA could claim it did not discriminate, while at the same time
restricting Black membership.177
Dr. Vagner and his wife experienced what many of their Black colleagues experienced when
attempting to purchase a home in their new community. Their efforts were thwarted at every turn
by racial discrimination. Real estate agents steered them away from White neighborhoods. When
Mrs. Vagner found a house that would soon be ready for occupancy, she approached the bank.
She were told “that the house, even once available could not be sold to her.”178
The Vagners next attempted to buy property to build a home. The owner of the lot “met us at
the door with the deed in her hand” but quickly withdrew the offer to sell. As the Vagners
explained, “she was only contemplating selling, but someone got wind of it and the ‘For Sales’
(sic) signs started going up.” The Vagners eventually gave up and rented a home.179
Dr. Vagner experienced similar hurdles when he tried to build an office. He had to use a
white intermediary to buy the property. The selling price was inflated and the intermediary
received the $1000 price difference. This was a considerable amount of money when you
consider that $1000 in 1950 is the equivalent of over $13,000 in 2025.180 He had to get financing
in Chicago because no local financial institution would loan him money.181
When Dr. Chamblee arrived in South Bend in 1953, both local hospitals were segregated.182
St. Joseph Hospital desegregated its patients first and Memorial followed two years later.183 It
was another five years before Memorial Hospital had a Black intern. St. Joseph Hospital had
only one, Lawrence Bell.
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Charlotte Huddleston, one of the City’s first LPNs,184 described the environment at
Memorial Hospital:
“Well, I had patients that used the “n” word, didn’t want me to take care of
them, these kinds of things. ..Then I had staff that would treat me…uh,
very, you know like I wasn’t…185
Ms. Huddleston worked at Memorial, but at the time St. Joseph
Hospital had more Black patients and staff. Black patients were
uncomfortable at Memorial (called Epworth at the time) “because
they knew the reputation.”186 Blacks just “wouldn’t go there. I
mean they just felt very uncomfortable.”187
Like Charlotte Huddleston, Bobbie Durant also pursued a
career in nursing. Durant was originally rejected from both St.
Joseph and Memorial Hospital. When Durant got her degree and
first applied to Memorial Hospital, she was rejected because the
director of the hospital “didn’t know how it would be to work at a
hospital with black nurses.”188 Helen Pope also worked as a nurse
and made it her mission to continue working at these hospitals,
despite their discriminatory hurdles, because she believed that she
was getting her foot in the door for other Blacks who wanted to
work in similar jobs.189 Helen Pope’s husband, James Pope,
worked for the postal service and later owned a barbershop on
Linden Avenue.190
B. The Medical Industry
One cannot fully understand the history of discrimination in the medical profession simply
by looking at what happened in South Bend. Medical care is intrinsically linked to the history of
medical science and the training of medical personnel. Therefore, an adequate history must
briefly explore this larger history. The story begins with the slave trade and the important role
doctors played not just in providing the medical care that allowed slaves to be enslaved, but also
in how they used slaves for medical experiments.
191
Multiple examples of this abuse have been documented, a few of which are recounted here.
Dr. J. Miron Sims experimented on three enslaved persons in Alabama in the 1840s: Anarcha,
Image 8. Picture of Bobbie
Durant. Taken from Katherine
O’Dell. Our Day: Race Relations
and Public Accommodations in
South Bend (Wolfson Press
38
Lucy, and Betsey. The women endured multiple gynecological experiments without anesthesia or
consent and, as a result, Dr. Sims was named the “father of modern gynecology.”192 In 1793, Dr.
Benjamin Rush sent only Black healthcare workers into Philadelphia to deal with the yellow
fever outbreak, which is why “it was mostly Black volunteers, rather than White nurses and
doctors, who died caring for victims of yellow fever.”193
The use of Blacks as subjects of research did not end when slavery ended. The most famous,
or perhaps infamous, example is that of the Tuskegee Syphilis study conducted by the U.S.
Public Health service beginning in 1932 and lasting over forty years. Six hundred Black men,
half of whom had latent syphilis, enrolled under the pretense of being given free medical care. In
fact, they were given placebos even after a cure was available. 128 of the men died.194
Another important story is that of Henrietta Lacks. She received treatment at Johns Hopkins
University in 1951 for a malignant tumor in her cervix. Tissue was taken from that tumor without
her knowledge or consent. The tissue was then patented, generating millions of dollars in profit
for researchers that neither Ms. Lacks nor her family ever benefited from. Her tissues have been
used in research for decades without compensation.195 These are only a few of many examples of
Black patients being used for medical experimentation. It is not surprising that the Black
community does not trust the medical community.
Unfortunately, racism is also deeply embedded in the history of medical training in the
United States. The American Medical Association commissioned the Flexner Report in 1910 in
order to review AMA accredited medical schools. The report is explicitly racist. In the chapter
titled “The Medical Education of the Negro,” the report points out that “medical care of Negros
will never be wholly left to negro physicians.” But, “[T]he practice of the negro doctor will be
limited to his own race.” It then goes on to explain how “the negro must be educated” because as
“a potential source of infection and contagion” he must be taught “to practice fundamental
hygienic principles,” so as not to contaminate Whites with disease. It then stresses the
importance of training Black doctors in hygiene as opposed to other areas of medicine so they
could help keep the White population safe from the perceived unhygienic Black population.
According to the report, “[a] well-trained negro sanitarian will be immensely useful; an
essentially untrained negro wearing an M.D. degree is dangerous.”196 It then recommended the
closing of all but two medical schools that accepted Black students, a recommendation that was
soon adopted.197
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This, however, was not the medical profession’s most damaging contribution to racism.
British and American scientists founded eugenics, a field that advocated for selective breeding to
promote White, racial superiority.198 These ideas of racial superiority and racial purity were not
fringe ideas. On the contrary, they were “widely held and taught in Universities.”199 Experts
argue that these beliefs led to scientific racism, “an organized system of misusing science to
promote false scientific beliefs in which dominant racial and ethnic groups are perceived as
being superior.”200
The false conclusions of eugenics have endured in scientific racism. They influence how the
medical profession reacts to and treats patients today. For example, research tells us that medical
professionals routinely discount the symptoms of Black patients, especially how they experience
pain.201 One study showed that doctors underestimate the pain of Black patients nearly half the
time.202 Several people who attended the Commission’s public forums mentioned personal
experience with this bias. This difference in treatment is rooted in the false beliefs and
stereotypes of eugenics.203 A survey of 418 medical students showed as many as half had false
beliefs about biological differences between black and white patients that caused them to
inadequately treat the pain of Black patients.
It is also reinforced by training. A 2014 textbook used to train nurses explains that different
ethnic groups react to pain differently. Black patients, according to this book, “report higher pain
intensity than other patients.”204 This combination of bias training and false prejudicial beliefs
inevitably leads medical professionals to discount the pain complaints of Black patients. An
example of this was seen recently in Indiana. A young Black mother went to a hospital in labor
and “writhing in pain.”205She was examined by a nurse, told she was not really in labor, and sent
home. She gave birth in her car eight minutes after being discharged.206 She was sent home
because the nurse did not believe her patient’s description of labor pains.
V. Post World War II
When World War II ended Black soldiers returned home to a country that did not always
welcome them.
A. Returning Veterans
Dr. Chamblee landed on the beaches of Normandy as a medic. He returned to South Bend
after the World War II with a medical degree.207 He described his first home in South Bend as
being in the ghetto. He had rented it sight unseen for several months to make sure it was
40
available when it was time to relocate to South Bend. When he arrived in 1953 in very bad
condition, with wallpaper hanging off the walls and uneven floors.208 Dr. Chamblee knew he did
not want to stay there and began looking for new housing. He first approached the hospital he
worked in, but they were unable to help. He made several attempts to view houses but was
consistently steered away from the homes he was interested in and encouraged to look in
segregated, Black neighborhoods. 209
He continued to look for a house to buy without the assistance of a real estate agent and
became interested in a property located on Twyckenham and Corby. Things seemed to be going
well until the seller’s agent called to ask if he was an associate of Dr. Vagner, another Black
physician in town. The question was clearly meant to determine if Dr. Chamblee was also Black.
Once he knew, the real estate agent told Dr. Chamblee that the family would not sell to him.210
He moved on, this time identifying a home on Ironwood. He decided to avoid the real estate
profession and instead simply examined the home from the outside. He was unable to view the
inside of the property. Dr. Chamblee mentioned the home to his friend Conrad Kellenberg, a
White law professor at Notre Dame Law School, and expressed the frustration he felt being
unable to actually view and purchase the property. Professor Kellenberg bought the home and
sold it back to Dr. Chamble for a dollar.211
That, as Dr. Chamblee explained, was when
“everybody got upset. Somebody shot my house up, the first month I was
there. Through my kids’ bedroom, the dining room, the bathroom, my
bedroom. And I called the state police and came out and told me the guy
probably shot from the road. There were 8 shells laying right there, 20 feet
from my house. Now where would you think that came from? He said,
“are you familiar with guns?” I said, “yeah I served 4 and a half years in
the service…Never did find out who did it. 212
The end of the war also created problems for many of the Black war industry employees who
had to surrender their high-paying industrial jobs to returning White veterans, whether willingly
or not.213 In March of 1945, Indiana Governor Gates signed the Fair Employment Practices Act
“to discourage, (sic) the practice, when and where found, of denying employment by
discriminating against employees on account of race, creed, color, national origin or ancestry.”214
The law, however, was only “advisory” and had no enforcement mechanism, making it an empty
promise to those experiencing discrimination.
41
This decree did not prevent Blacks from being excluded entirely from certain professions.
Jack Reed was born in 1939 and moved with his mom from Tennessee to South Bend.215 He
started working at the age of twelve, cutting grass and pulling weeds. While cutting the grass at
neighbors’ houses, people would sometimes direct racial slurs at him. Jack Reed really wanted to
be a police officer; but, at that time, the Indiana State Police did not hire Black officers.216 The
police force, while noting that he made a great candidate, explained they were not ready for a
Black officer. Instead, Reed got a job with the South Bend Fire Department and later became the
first Black Battalion Chief in South Bend. His position in the fire department did not end the
discrimination he experienced. For example, at one point, Reed was denied insurance because of
his race.
Reed went on to work for the city of South Bend, including as Deputy Mayor, under Mayors
Joe Kernan and Steve Leucke. Reed believed that taking this position would make it easier for
other Blacks to reach higher positions in the City. Unfortunately, some White people he spoke
with instead saw his position as proof that all racial issues in South Bend had been solved. They
had not.
B. Discrimination in Public Accommodations
While in the south, Mr. Reed remembered seeing signs that said, “Whites Only.” But he
noted that in South Bend the segregation was implied and warned about. You learned where you
were not welcome, even if there was no sign on the door announcing it. Many families like the
Reeds fled from Jim Crow laws in the South, only to find Jim Crow more subtly enforced in the
North through practices, policies, and traditions.
Martha Ann (Suggs) Spencer, a resident of South Bend, moved North with her family as a
young child. In her book, Suggs Black Backtrack, she recounts family stories of the hope for a
more prosperous future for her family, while still encountering segregation’s effects.217 An
unfortunate number of South Bend businesses adopted these Jim-Crow era practices, withholding
service from people of color. Many oral histories from local Black citizens include testimony that
the South Bend businesses denying service to them did not always do so explicitly. Much of it
came from word-of-mouth and people warning others.218 Some noted that they just felt that they
were being excluded, even describing that feeling as “osmosis.”219
[T]here was kind of like…probably an unwritten, unspoken code and you
knew….kind of where you can go and where you can’t go, where you
should go and where you shouldn’t go. And I don’t remember anybody just
42
telling me, “You can’t go there.”…or someone stopping me and saying,
“You can’t come in.” I just didn’t.220
For many years, Jim Crow in South Bend—both implicit and explicit—deterred many Blacks
from using pubic, business, and recreational spaces available to Whites.221
South Bend resident Elizabeth Fletcher Allen was an attorney and member of the NAACP.222
Along with her husband, J. Chester Allen, she formed a group of lawyers that tried the case State
of Indiana v. Clarence Kale to test Indiana’s Civil Rights Law.223 Clarence Kale managed Hook’s
Drug Stores, which denied service at the lunch counter to two Black women.224 In 1941, Kale
was found guilty in the City Court of having violated this law. After appeal, the case was re-tried
in Superior Court and ended in a mistrial. Years later, Elizabeth Fletcher Allen served as a
Superior Court Judge pro tem (substitute), the first African American woman to do so in South
Bend.225 Despite her efforts, businesses continued to discriminate against Blacks.
The following businesses—including restaurants, taverns, and stores—had reported incidents
of either discrimination or segregation on the basis of race:
x Club Oliver226
Refused to serve Blacks
x Colfax Theater227
Blacks had a designated seating area
and could not sit in the same spaces as whites.
x F.W. Woolworth228
Refused counter service to Blacks
x Giuseppe’s Pizza229
Refused service to Black patrons.
The waiter who refused such service
was later held accountable under state
anti-discrimination laws.
x Kreamo Bakery230
Would not hire Black drivers for a time
x LaSalle Hotel231
43
A singular account noted that LaSalle served Black patrons separately from Whites. No
elaboration provided as to how this was done.
x S.S. Kresge’s232
Would not let Blacks sit on lunch counters.
Reported that cups used for Black
were painted black at the bottom.233
x The Philadelphia
White-only space.234
African American janitor that worked here was not allowed to eat at the restaurant.235
x Thilman’s Tap236
Would not serve Blacks
x W.T. Grant237
Refused service to Blacks.
The Natatorium, the large “public” swimming pool on West
Washington Street opened in 1922 and became the focal point of
segregation controversy, rallying many Black residents to petition
for relief. For the first 14 years of its existence, Blacks were not
allowed in the doors.238
In 1936, after J. Chester Allen and others led a campaign to
allow Blacks to use the pool. The City relented and permitted
Blacks to swim one night a week, on Mondays.239 It was not until
1950, and further public action led by J. Chester Allen, that the City of South Bend finally ended
official segregation at the pool.240 Many Black citizens reported instances of either official or
unofficial discrimination continuing at the pool in the 1960s and early 1970s. The Natatorium
44
remained open until 1978, when the City chose to close it rather than invest substantially to
repair the then-crumbling structure.241
C. Personal Testimonies
The Commission interviewed several people who had grown up in
South Bend and experienced discrimination based on their race. Some
of those interviews are recounted below.
Elijah Anderson, Ph.D. was raised in South Bend, after his family
moved to town from Mississippi as part of the great migration. His
father worked in the foundry at Studebaker242 while his mother
worked as a domestic in White homes. He attended Linden Elementary School and graduated
from Central High School in 1962 before attending Indiana University (BA), the University of
Chicago (MA) and Northwestern (Ph.D.). Today he is the Sterling Professor of Sociology and
African American Studies at Yale University. He is a preeminent scholar of racism, racial
discrimination, and their effects upon individuals and communities, and he has written movingly
about his own personal experiences (and those of his family) in South Bend.
In 1972, Dr. Anderson published an article titled “Black Shadow Politics in Midwestville:
The Insiders, The Outsiders, and The Militant Young.”243 Although purportedly about a fictional
town, Dr. Anderson later revealed that it was about South Bend. In his interview, Dr. Anderson
spoke of other examples from South Bend woven into his other works, including his most recent
book, Black in White Space, in which Dr. Anderson described his childhood in South Bend. His
experience working for a White-owned typewriter company gave him access to many White-
owned businesses. Among them, he recounted the following interaction.
“Once when changing a typewriter ribbon at a large real estate company, I
asked the elderly founder why there were no Black people working in his
business. He said candidly that his current employees would quit if he
hired Black people.”244
Dr. Anderson also recounted his mother’s personal encounter with racial discrimination in the
workplace in South Bend in the 1950s:
This was around 1957. My mother, Carrie Hull, worked at a well-known
store on the south side of town that sold furniture and appliances. She was
a cleaning lady there. All the rest of the employees were White, including
all the salespeople and secretaries. She’d dust the furniture, clean the
bathrooms and floors, empty the trash and make the coffee. Along the way,
45
she made friends with the white secretaries and would share stories and
jokes with them.
She had worked there for a year or so when, one day, she went to one of
the bosses, John, who had been friendly with her and whom she knew on a
first-name basis. She said, “John, I have an idea. I never see Black people
in this store. I know they like to buy furniture and televisions and washing
machines. The store is open late – until 8 or 9 most evenings. What if,
after I put in my full day’s work, I stick around and help sell furniture and
appliances to these people? What do you think?” John responded warmly.
He told her that he liked the idea and wanted to try it.
My mother came home that evening very excited and told my father and
us all that she was going to be a sales lady – a step up from her cleaning
position. We were all excited for her. The next day or so she had some
cards made up with her name and the name and address of the store. She
was an usher at St. John’s, and that Sunday she gave cards to all her
friends and told them to come and see her there in the evenings, between 5
and 8, and she would help them get a fair deal on some great furniture and
appliances.
The next week, she brought some Sunday clothes with her to work and, at
5 p.m. she would “jump sharp,” as she called it – change out of her
cleaning uniform into nice clothes to be a sales lady. Her friends and their
friends started showing up and sure enough she helped them select TVs,
furniture, and washing machines. Things went very well, and she was
doing quite a bit of business.
After about 2 or 3 weeks, John called her into his office. He said, “Listen.
I’m afraid we must revisit this thing with you selling in the evenings.” My
mother was crestfallen. She was very direct and said to him, “John, I
didn’t know you were like that.” “Like what?” he asked. “Prejudiced,” she
said. “Oh, I’m not. I like you, Carrie, and I like having Black customers.
It’s the salesmen. They are just not comfortable with all of this. I can’t
afford to lose them.” So that was it; she had to stop.
I never saw my mother so deflated as when she came home that evening.
It had meant a lot to her, with her friends at church and all, and it took
quite a toll. She had believed that all these nice White people at the store
were her friends. She continued to work there for several weeks, but she
soon found that she couldn’t fully participate in the joking and
camaraderie she had experienced before. Something had changed and, a
few weeks later, she quit.245
46
Mrs. Hull went back to domestic work for a while but did, in later years, run her own store on the
South side, the old Fishers’ grocery store, near the intersection of Chapin and Monroe Streets.
Elmer Joseph came from a relatively wealthy Black family.246 After serving his country in
World War II, he returned to South Bend to find a job. He worked in the Studebaker factory for a
year, later deciding to start his own tavern on the West side. Joseph remarked that the Black
police officers all worked in that area because Black officers could not arrest Whites. Joseph was
a member of the All-American Democrats Club, an organization that supported candidates for
office that pledged to help Blacks. Joseph also started an organization called the Mutual Self-
Help Association, which taught Blacks how to save and spend their money, and also helped
Blacks who had trouble getting employment. For example, Mutual Self-Help raised money to
buy cheap cars for people who had no transportation to work. Joseph reported that the West side
where he lived and worked was changed dramatically in 1968 when the City’s “urban renewal,”
relocated or dramatically limited the successes of businesses there.
Alma Nesbitt Powell’s family moved to South Bend from Memphis when she was two years
old.247 Her father took a job at the Studebaker factory, one of the places already mentioned as
willing to hire Black employees. Her parents also started a café on the corner of Kenmore and
Jefferson Streets, which later expanded and evolved into a dance hall and event center.
She grew up helping in the family business. She loved school and, in particular, she loved to
read. Her mother told her that she would have to work harder and do better because of her race.
She followed that advice and did very well in school, graduating from Washington High School
in 1961. She then studied at Indiana University, both in South Bend and in Bloomington, and
graduated with her bachelor’s degree. At the time, career options were very limited for women,
but particularly so for Black women. Alma decided to become a teacher and went straight to
work teaching fourth grade, while at the same time starting work on her master’s degree, which
she soon completed.
Powell encountered discrimination at several points along the way. While completing her
student teaching, Powell was assigned to serve in an elementary school class for gifted and
talented students, most of whom were White. She went up and knocked on the door of the
teacher and said, “Hi! I’m Alma Powell and I’ve been assigned to you to do student teaching.”
The next day, she got home and there was a call saying that that teacher had “decided not to have
a student teacher this year.”
47
Powell persevered and later served as Assistant Principal at Central Middle School at a time
– in the later 1960s – when public schools were beginning to integrate. Her role as a leader led to
Powell serving on committees and as leader in the South Bend School Corporation’s
desegregation efforts. She became the first Black woman to serve as Principal of a South Bend
School when she was appointed Principal at Studebaker School. She later served in other
administrative roles in South Bend before becoming the Assistant Director and later the Director
of Curriculum instruction for Elkhart Schools.
Gail Brodie lived on Lake Street, in the neighborhood known then as “The Lake.” 248 Her
family moved to South Bend in 1952. At the time, the Lake was comprised mostly of
marginalized communities including Black and Polish immigrants. All were families of lower
socio-economic status. Brodie recalls the area as safe and enjoyable, but the streets in her
neighborhood were unpaved which made the area very dusty. Initially, finding employment was
hard. Coming out of Washington High School in 1961, Brodie wanted to work as a secretary and
ultimately management of an office. When Brodie went to Studebaker to interview for a clerical
position, the hiring manager told her that her fingers were too nimble and that they worried she
would break her fingers on the typewriter.249 A friend of hers, another Black girl, was told the
same thing.
Brodie persevered and later worked her way up to become an executive director for
Honeywell. She worked hard to advocate for change in South Bend and, in particular for the
LaSalle Park Neighborhood, including serving as President of the community organization.
Because of her activism and leadership, the City of South Bend later named a street after her.
Rev. Hardie Blake, who now serves as Pastor of Ardmore LaSalle Church of Christ in South
Bend, is also a business owner, business leader, and mentor. Pastor Blake also grew up in the
LaSalle Park area of South Bend, “The Lake.” In the 1950s, there were clear distinctions in how
Black and White citizens were treated. Pastor Blake grew up in public housing projects before
serving in the U.S. Air Force and then returning to start a family and work in business. After
several years with IBM, Pastor Blake left and started Bethel Business Machines, which later
evolved into a group of related businesses including Bethel Design. When he first started his
business, he went to a South Bend bank to obtain financing and was told that his business was
too small to get an SBA loan. Five years later, after he had considerable success, the same
48
banker told him that his business was too big to get an SBA loan. Pastor Blake was direct with
the banker, saying:
Well, you know, you guys, pull the same old baloney, you know. I come in
here, and right away, I can tell by what you say, whether you want to do
business with me, and you're gonna look for a way to make that make it
happen, or you don't want to do business with me, and you're gonna look
for ways to keep it from me.250
Having faced and overcome such obstacles in the growth of his businesses, Pastor Blake has
been a leader and business mentor, including in the South Bend’s Black community through
Project Impact, which provides training, education and mentorship to small business owners and
entrepreneurs together with other young people and families.251 Pastor Blake has also advocated
for community-based redevelopment through co-operative businesses, through which neighbors
would also be co-owners of their neighborhood stores and thus have the incentive to shop,
support, and help them grow.
D. Beck’s Lake252
Alma Powell, Pastor Blake, and Gail Brodie, along with many other members of South
Bend’s Black community, grew up at “The Lake.” For much of the City’s history, Beck’s Lake
was one of the few places Blacks could live. It is also the only one of the original ghetto areas
that is still a cohesive neighborhood. It holds a very important place in the history of Blacks in
South Bend and, as such, requires special mention.
The Lake, as it is known locally, is more of a pond than a lake, but that was not always the
case. In fact, a 1919 article described it as an “inexhaustible reservoir of water.”253 During the
early 1900s it was also a very significant source of ice for the region.254 It has had several names
over the years, including Stanfield Lake, because it was situated next to property owned by
Judge Stanfield and Beck’s Lake, due to the icehouse George Beck built along the lake.255 To
locals, however, it is simply known as “the Lake.”
In the 1920s, the City decided to drain the lake with the intention of building a large sewage
project. They drained the lake, but the sewer project was never completed. This area, once a
vibrant wetland full of wildlife, became a large marshy bog. The soil was too wet and unstable to
support the weight of the proposed sewer pipes. The project was eventually discontinued and the
lake was reduced to a pond.256 In the1930s, Bendix and other neighboring factories began
dumping toxic waste in the area. It soon became a dumping ground for anyone in the City.
49
When City officials were looking for a location for housing for the Black war workers in the
1940s, they settled on this LaSalle neighborhood. The neighborhood grew as people moved from
the South for jobs at Studebaker, Bendix, and several other South Bend factories willing to hire
Black workers. Despite this growing residential community, the area continued to be a legal
dump for people in the City.
Lynn Coleman, a prominent South Bend resident who grew up at the Lake, explained the
dumping activity.257 There was no City trash service at the time. Families had large containers
where they would burn their trash and then dump the remains. Wednesday and Saturday were
designated dumping days and people would bring their containers, often still smoldering, and
dump them at the Lake. As a result, the dump was often on fire. Numerous newspaper articles in
the 1950s discuss the problem of the continuous fires, some of which burned for weeks. Coleman
describes summer days where the ground was so hot it would melt your sneakers, causing burns
on your feet. The smoke and smells were so bad that people could not hang their clothes out to
dry.258 It is important to remember that much of what was burning was the toxic waste dumped
by neighboring factories. Legal dumping ended in the 1950s, but people continued to dump
garbage illegally long afterwards.259
Along with the fires, the neighborhood was plagued with rats, large rats. Mr. Coleman
described foot-long rats “and that did not include their tail” that would attack and kill dogs. The
City embarked on a rat extermination program in 1953, but in 1967 newspaper articles indicate
that the problem had not been solved.260 Infrastructure in the neighborhood was largely
nonexistent. The streets were not paved.261 Western Ave, the southern border of the
neighborhood was technically paved, but Mr. Coleman described the street as having so many
potholes it took fifteen minutes to drive even a short distance.262
In 1963 the City purchased the area and began to turn the dump into a park, but progress was
slow.263 According to Lynn Coleman, it was the shooting of Melvin Phillips, a local high school
sport’s star, by South Bend police officers in 1967 that finally prompted action in the area. The
dump was turned into a park and, in 1968, The Charles Black Recreation Center opened.264
In 1984, Bendix reported its involvement in toxic chemical dumping at the Lake. The EPA
became involved and throughout the 1980s did several assessments and some minor cleanup
operations. It was not until 2013 that the area was added to the Superfund sites and prioritized for
50
cleanup.265 Yet, according to the EPA webpage for this site, the cleanup has yet to be completed.
People have been living in this toxic environment for more than eighty years.266
VI. The Fight for Civil Rights
Discriminatory practices continued to make it very difficult for Black families to find
housing in South Bend outside of the three slum areas: Maggie’s Court, Beck’s Lake (now
LaSalle Park), and an area around Colfax Street. All three areas had subpar housing, unpaved
streets, and lack of the infrastructure other areas of the City enjoyed.
William Morris, the first black real estate agent in South Bend, established the Williams
Morris Agency in 1948.267 His goal was to assist
black families become homeowners. The real
estate professionals in South Bend refused to allow
him to join, effectively blocking him from the
multi-state listings. The South Bend Mishawaka
Board of Realtors denied his application to join
three times between 1954 and 1964.268 In 1964, he
filed a lawsuit in St. Joseph County Superior Court
alleging that he had been denied access to the
Board of Realtors and the Multiple Listing
Services because of his race.
On March 10, 1967, Judge Dempsey ruled that
the Board of Realtors had acted improperly, but not
because of racial discrimination. Instead, the judge
found that denying Mr. Morris’s admission to the
organization had violated Indiana’s Anti-Monopoly
Act of 1907 because the Board had not given a
reason for the denial.269 While the decision was
technically in Mr. Morris’s favor, it failed to
address the real issue: racial discrimination. It also
did not gain Mr. Morris membership in the South
Bend Mishawaka Board of Realtors. It denied his
fourth application on September 15, 1967, citing a number
William Morris was another
important figure in the history of
racial discrimination in South Bend.
Morris grew up in South Bend. He
graduated from Central High School
in 1939. After graduating, he joined
the Army Air Corp, served during
World War . He returned to South
Bend and founded the William R.
Morris Real Estate Agency. In 1969
he became the national director of
the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People.
He served in that roll until 1977. He
would subsequently work at the
Federal National Mortgage
Association as a Special Advisor to
the President on Urban Affairs as
well as the director of the National
Association of Real Estate Brokers.
He died in 1999 at the age of 77.1
WILLIAM MORRIS
51
of unconvincing reasons for its decision. Morris published a rebuttal in November of that year.270
He never joined the group.
Despite the setbacks, Morris remained committed to providing homes for Black residents of
South Bend. Housing developments during this time were not open to Black families. He decided
to take matters into his own hands and purchased property on the east side of South Bend. He
created Chalfant Heights, a housing development where Black families could live.271
The federal government’s discriminatory policies were substantial, but it took actions at the
local level to fully implement this segregationist ideology. The real estate industry was all too
eager to assist. Racial segregation was the official policy of the National Association of Real
Estate Boards whose code of ethics stated: “[a] Realtor should never be instrumental in
introducing into a neighborhood a character of property or occupancy, members of any race or
nationality, or any individuals whose presence will clearly be detrimental to property values in
that neighborhood.” This so-called ethical duty could not be overruled by either “instructions nor
inducements” by their client.272 It was an ethical violation for a real estate professional to sell a
property to “someone whose race or ethnicity might disturb the neighborhood or its property
values.” 273 Although these rules were removed from the official code in the 1950s, they
remained an unwritten gentleman’s agreement in the industry for decades afterwards.
It was not until 1960 that the South Bend and Mishawaka Board of Realtors published a
“statement of position and principles,” somewhat acknowledging its role in racial segregation.274
The statement recognized that realtors have “no right or responsibility to determine the racial,
creedal or ethnic composition of any area or neighborhood.”275 At the same, it also claimed that
real estate professionals must abide by the wishes of their clients who may or may not want to
sell homes to nonwhites in White neighborhoods.276 In practice, their influence in preserving
White neighborhoods for White residents persisted well beyond 1960 and, according to the
stories told to Commissioners at our public meeting, remain to this day.
Mrs. Carol Dillon testified at Public Hearing Concerning Discrimination in the Sale, Rental,
and Financing of Private Housing in South Bend on March 19, 1963, about her parents’ attempt
to sell their home. Her parents contacted a real estate agent in the City and told him they “would
be willing to sell to anyone, Negro or white.”277 The agent refused to list the property with these
conditions because the house was in a White neighborhood. “White families find out if our
52
agency does that sort of thing and it hurts our reputation and our business.”278 This was many
years after the Board of Realty claims it changed its policy.
Real estate agents were not alone in supporting discriminatory practices. Lending institutions
worked hand in hand to restrict housing for Blacks. In 1957, Professor Adam Arnold jr. was
offered a job as the first Black professor at the University of Notre Dame’s Business School.279
He hoped to purchase a home near Perley School and the University. Each time he and his wife
approached a real estate agent about an advertised property, that property was taken off the
market to avoid selling it to a Black family. They, like many others, decided to build their own
home and purchased property on the west side of Twyckenham Drive, an informal racial dividing
line at the time. The banks had a policy of refusing to lend more than $15,000 for any property
on that side of the street, so the project fell through.280
They located a home they liked in the 500 block of Corby, but the real estate agent refused to
show it to them. By chance, they found the owner in the front yard one day and asked him about
the property. He was upset that his real estate agent had refused to show them the property, so he
gave them a tour himself. They made an offer, which he accepted. When notified of the
transaction, the real estate agent took down his signs and refused the commission because he did
not want the other members of the Board of Realtors to know he sold a home to a Black family
in this predominantly White neighborhood.281 Recall that this was seven years after the Board of
Realtors removed their rules enforcing segregation.
Some Black families in South Bend were unwilling to give up on their dream of home
ownership. They turned to creative methods to obtain housing by hiding their racial identity to
circumvent the discriminatory practices of the time. In the 1950s, a group of Black Studebaker
employees created a secret co-op, Better Homes of South Bend.282Working through a White
lawyer, George Sands, they were able to obtain deeds to 18 lots.283 Buying the lots was the first
step, but building the homes proved more difficult.
The group had managed to purchase the land through this subterfuge but needed contractors
to build the homes. The most prominent in town was Colpaert, the same Colpaert known for his
racist views and partially responsible for the HOLC classifications that had shut most African-
Americans out of the housing market. Mr. Colpaert did not have a good reputation in the Black
community. He was known for building nice homes for Whites, but shoddy homes for Blacks.284
One resident whose home he had built in LaSalle Park referred to the homes he built for Black
53
families as “plaster board box” homes.285 Unfortunately, other contractors used the same
practices. Place and Co, for instance, “was known to use two-by-four wood construction for
white and only one-by-four for black homes.”286 Better Homes persevered and, in what probably
felt like a miracle, eventually succeeded in building twenty-two homes in the 1700-1800 block of
North Elmer Street, creating a vibrant and stable community for Black families. 287
A. The Open Housing Movement
Organized efforts for anti-discrimination legislation began in South Bend in 1955 when
William Morris launched the Institute for Minority Housing.288 It was a loose collection of
people that were advocating for open housing policies. In 1961 a more formal organization, the
South Bend Mishawaka Citizens for Fair Housing Committee, formed and embarked on a full-
scale campaign for fair housing.289In 1962, the related South Bend-Mishawaka Citizens for Fair
Housing Committee formed with the explicit aim of enacting open housing legislation in South
Bend.290
According to the group:
Most of the 14,000 Negroes live in five areas of South Bend, These areas
lie north of Western Avenue; west of Olive Street; along West Washington
Avenue; between Western Avenue and Sample Street west of Prairie
Avenue; in the neighborhood of Ohio and Keasey Streets; and in northeast
South Bend along South Bend Avenue.291
These “are the only areas…in which Negroes can live.”292 The committee sponsored hearings on
March 19, 1963, at the Notre Dame Law School. Residents of South Bend appeared and testified
about the discrimination they faced in the South Bend housing market. The witnesses at those
hearings as well as the citizens who appeared at this Commission’s public forums told very
consistent stories about the housing discrimination they experienced in South Bend. Many of
these testimonies are recounted throughout this report and all corroborate the pattern of
discrimination that existed across the City.
Bernard Street gave one such testimonial. After graduating from Central High School, Mr.
Street attended Indiana University, followed by graduate school at the University of Michigan.
He completed an enlistment in the military and returned to South Bend in 1960 to work as a
microbiologist.293 At first, he sought to rent a place to live. He replied to an advertisement for a
house. After identifying his family as “Negroes” the landlord “said she couldn’t rent it to us
54
because ‘her neighbors would tear her hair out.’ And she hung up.”294 Despite repeated effort, the
Street family was consistently turned away from rental units because they were Black.295
Mr. Street decided to purchase a home instead, something that proved an even bigger
challenge. He went to look at the Engendoerfer residence on Ironwood, a home for sale by a
White family in a White neighborhood.296 The Engendoerfers hired William Morris to sell their
home, not knowing or caring that he was Black.297 Soon after showing the home to the Streets,
bricks were thrown through the windows of the house.298
After the incident, the Engendoerfer family was visited by a City official:
“Yes. The city councilman came out. He showed me some kind of a badge.
I don’t recall now just what it was. I don’t think I paid so much attention to
it when he came because I was expecting things like this to happen. I let
him in the house. The first thing he said was that it was a disgrace that the
hillbilly people had to move in to South Bend. I said that I had been here
since I was eleven, so I don’t think I’d be counted as a hillbilly anymore.
Even if I am, I’m still pretty proud of it. And I said my husband was born
right here in your city, so I don’t think you could call him a hillbilly. He
went on to tell me that there would be trouble, he knew, because the
neighbors has called him. He said we could expect no protection from the
police now when this all gets going good.”299
Soon afterwards, the Engendoerfers’ seven-year-old son was attacked by seven neighborhood
teenagers. He was dragged into an alley and beaten until he began hemorrhaging. They dumped
him back in his yard. He spent two weeks in the hospital. As predicted, the police were of no
help. Mr. Engendoerfer’s employer also received telephone calls urging him to pressure the
Engendoerfers not to sell their home to a Black family and not to use a Black real estate agent.300
Mr. Street finally gave up, obtained land, and built a home in Michigan.301
The Streets were far from alone in their struggle to find suitable housing in South Bend. In
her oral history, Barbara Brandy recounted her two-year struggle to buy a home.302 She spoke of
finding numerous homes she was interested in, only to be told each time that “there is a bid on
the house.”303 Her husband would question why the for-sale sign remained if there was a sale
pending, but his questions were never answered, nor were the homes taken off the market. She
was finally able to purchase a home on Huey Avenue with the help of a real estate agent, Peter
Gillis. She commented that the reason she was successful may have been because the family was
facing foreclosure and perhaps a bit desperate.304
55
Mrs. Brandy also described what typically happened when a Black family moved into a
previously all-White neighborhood. As soon as that occurred “the signs went up” as White
families fled the neighborhood.305 Soon, she said, the neighborhood was all Black.
What Mrs. Brandy described could well be an example of a common practice at the time:
blockbusting.306 Blockbusting was the practice of real estate agents creating panic in
neighborhoods, encouraging people to sell quickly for low prices. The properties were then
resold to Black homebuyers for inflated prices. 307 In 1965, Indiana’s Housing Advisory
Committee started an information campaign to try to discourage blockbusting in the state.308
While the Commission did not find any direct evidence of blockbusting practices in South Bend,
it was certainly a practice in our region and contemporary testimonies suggest it was operating
here as well.309
Even socially prominent families like the Dickinsons experienced racial discrimination.
Senator Dickinson’s daughter Pat would recount her own struggles with housing discrimination
in South Bend in hearings held at the Notre Dame Law School.310 In 1961 she and her husband
attempted to purchase a home in Riverside Manor. They answered an advertisement that
specifically mentioned the availability of V.A. loans. Pat’s husband was a veteran, having been
wounded serving in the Korean War, and would likely have qualified for the loan.311 She was left
sitting in the waiting room for nearly three hours before being told that the homes would not be
sold to Blacks. 312
They, like so many others, did not pursue the issue. Few people complained about this
pervasive discrimination because, even if they did, they received little assistance. Another family
that had been turned away from Riverside Manor, however, did register a complaint with the
Federal Commission on Civil Rights in Washington, D.C.. On August 29, 1961, they received the
following response: “I am informed by the Veterans’ Administration that its investigation reveals
that the builder involved does pursue a discriminatory sales policy. The V.A. says, however, that
it does not have authority at the present time to take any action against the builder.”313
The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 was intended to provide returning W.W.II
veterans a range of benefits to help them reintegrate into society. Among them was the promise
of a low-cost mortgage.314 While the act was responsible for one of the largest economic booms
in American history for White families, the same could not be said for the families of Black
veterans.315 Researchers have shown that racist housing policies locked Black veterans out of the
56
promised V.A. loans.316 Between 1930 and 1960 fewer “than 1 percent of all mortgages went to
African Americans.”317 While statistics for WWI and Korea were not found, Black soldiers made
up roughly 11 percent of the soldiers in WWII.318 The number of African Americans who served
in subsequent wars was equally substantial, especially with the lifting of racial segregation
policies in the military. Many of the individuals who testified at the 1963 Hearing Concerning
Discrimination in the Sale, Rental, and Financing of Private Housing in South Bend were
veterans. None was able to access a mortgage loan, let alone a V.A. loan, because no one would
sell them a home.319
B. City’s Civil Rights Efforts
The City of South Bend’s first non-discrimination ordinance was passed by the South Bend
Common Council on May 14, 1956 with strong support from Mayor Edward F. Voorde. It
created the South Bend Fair Employment Practice Commission which covered employment
discrimination, but this ordinance’s primary purpose was educational and aspirational--
eliminating “interracial friction” and promoting “interracial and cross-cultural relationships.”320
It did nothing to address housing discrimination.
William Morris is reported to have presented several complaints of employment
discrimination to the Fair Employment Practices Commission.321 Morris reported that, in 1954,
St. Joseph County did not have a single Black person working as a sales representative.322 This
changed in 1957 when one Black woman—Lucille Thomas—began working the sales floor at
Newmode Hosiery Shop. Occasionally, white customers asked for another representative to work
with them instead of her. Thomas noted the shock of White patrons entering the store and seeing
her there. Notwithstanding, some African Americans began to shop at Newmode because
Thomas worked there.323
In the 1963 election, control of South Bend government flipped from the Democrats to the
Republicans in part because of Mayor Bruggner’s support for open housing legislation. In a last-
ditch effort to pass the legislation before the government changed hands, the Common Council
introduced the act on November 12, 1963.324 The Board of Realtors immediately announced their
opposition, offering instead a “Citizen Bill of Rights” that would guarantee that any property
owner could sell or not sell their property to whomever they wished to.325 Groups opposing fair
57
housing efforts would continuously frame their opposition not as discrimination, but as a defense
of property rights. They still do.
In 1964, the U.S. Congress passed and President Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act
of 1964. Title VII of the Act (since referred to as simply “Title VII”) prohibited racial
discrimination in employment. The following year, the South Bend Common Council reinforced
its earlier non-discrimination ordinance by passing
Ordinance No. 4820-65, which became effective
January 1, 1966. The power to impose penalties in
cases of employment discrimination was added and
the City created a new Department to assist and
support the work of the newly designated “Human
Relations and Fair Employment Practices
Commission.” Its first director was hired in April
1966.326 Even with penalty power, the Commission’s
authority was limited. Although the Commission was
working towards economic prosperity for Blacks, it
was said that the failure to stop employment
discrimination came from weak civil rights laws.327
In March of 1964, the Common Council defeated
the open housing legislation again. However, faced
with mounting demonstrations, newly elected Mayor
Allen capitulated to some degree. He set up an
informal committee where citizens could file
complaints about housing discrimination, putting
local attorney Thomas Signer in charge. The
committee received more complaints than they were
able to keep up with.328 Mayor Lloyd Allen was urged, but refused, to create a more permanent
commission. Instead, he created a small committee on Human Relations, again chaired by
Thomas Signer.329
In 1965 the City finally created a City department, the South Bend Human Relation and Fair
Employment Practices Commission, but it lacked any real enforcement authority.330The
Senator Dickinson was born in
Oklahoma in 1906. He moved
to Kansas as an infant and was
raised by a grandmother.
Dickinson excelled in music.
He was a tenor and, while in
high school, won a gold medal
as the best tenor in the state.
In 1924 Dickinson married
Helen Bledsoe and they had
four children. He attended
numerous colleges before
joining the Redpath
Chautauquaas a soloist. His
travels with the group brought
him to South Bend in 1927. A
year later, he settled in South
Bend as a permanent resident.
Jesse L. Dickinson Collection 1911-
1986, Indiana Historical Society,
https//indianahistory.org
SENATOR DICKINSON
58
commission focused on changing attitudes and launched “Operation Open Neighborhoods”
whose two-pronged mission was to dispel racial myths and change attitudes about integrated
neighborhoods.331
In 1968, a Republican member of the Common Council surprised many by introducing fair
housing legislation and putting it on the February agenda. The mayor and others jumped in to
support the legislation. Eugene Pajakowski, the Democratic candidate for mayor, opposed it on
the grounds of preserving homeowners’ rights.332 Mayor Bruggner, a Republican, was elected in
1968. Opposition to the proposed legislation came largely from the Board of Realtors, who
throughout the process opposed the idea that homes should be available to whoever wanted to
purchase them. A March 25 Common Council meeting saw an overflow crowd of citizens, many
of whom came to support the legislation.333 On March 26, 1968, the City voted in favor of an
ordinance that would prohibit “discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of real estate.”334
Nine days later Reverand Martin Luther King was assassinated. A week after that, President
Johnson signed the Fair Housing Act into law.335 Open housing, or as we refer to it now, Fair
Housing, was now the law of the land. Enforcement of that law was an entirely different matter.
C. State Civil Rights Efforts
Jesse Dickinson is another important figure in the
struggle for housing rights in Indiana. In 1943 he was
elected to the Indiana House of Representatives
where he served six terms. He followed with two
terms in the Indiana Senate. He worked tirelessly
both in the local community and the Indiana State
Assembly to establish civil rights, and specifically,
housing rights for Indiana residents. He served on numerous boards and commissions and was
awarded the “Sagamore of the Wabash” award by Governor Walsh, one of the state’s highest
honors.336
The efforts to address civil rights in Indiana began shortly after Representative Dickinson
joined the Indiana House of Representatives. In 1945 the legislature created the Fair
Employment and Labor Act, but it would be another sixteen years before fair housing was
addressed.337 The Fair Employment Act of 1945 empowered the Department of Labor to address
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discrimination in employment.338 This eventually became the Indiana Civil Rights
Commission.339In the meantime, efforts for “open housing,” the popular term for integrated
housing at the time, continued in South Bend.
For more than a decade after WWII policymakers had tried and failed to pass civil rights
legislation in Indiana. In 1961, in a much-watered down version of the original, the state of
Indiana created a Civil Rights Commission with no real enforcement powers but charged to
investigate and report on discrimination.340 In one of its earliest reports, the Civil Rights
Commission reported on minority housing in South Bend, Fort Wayne, Anderson and
Indianapolis. 341 The report found:
1. 50% to 98% of the non-whites in the four cities occupy substandard
housing.
2. Non-whites are almost exclusively confined to undesirable neighborhoods.
3. Minority groups fail to receive the proportional share of new housing.
4. All housing is constructed on a segregated basis.
5. No mortgages can be obtained for non-segregated housing.
6. Real estate boards do not admit members”342
Numerous efforts were made over the next several years to enact broad civil rights
protection. Acts addressing public accommodation, employment, and education passed but
efforts to ban discrimination in housing stalled.343 In 1963 Governor Welsh organized a housing
discrimination conference in an effort to jump-start the legislative effort. He encouraged
voluntary action, telling housing professionals that “[i]f as private businesses you fail to remove
the intolerable and un-American racial barriers to some citizens in obtaining the housing they are
able to pay for, then you will have laid the groundwork for laws that will force what should have
been voluntary, because it is right.”344 No action was taken, nor again in 1964 when a second
plea was made.345
Finally, in 1965, over the objections of the Indiana Real Estate Association, a housing bill
was signed by newly elected Governor Branigin.346 The bill had limited enforcement provisions
but did allow for some cease-and-desist orders for publicly owned housing, federal housing, and
apartment buildings of more than four units. While not nothing, it was not much. It would not
assist the South Bend residents attempting to buy a home. It would be nearly thirty years before
Indiana finally adopted enforcement provisions. It did so with the Indiana Fair Housing Act of
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1991.347 Laws with no enforcement mechanisms offered little respite from the discrimination
experienced in South Bend.
VII. Urban Renewal
Racist housing policies and the hasty creation of shoddy war worker housing was a problem
across America. Federal officials decided that urban renewal was the solution to this crisis.
Federal funding for urban renewal began with passage of the Housing Act of 1949 and continued
with successive versions of the act.348 South Bend was one of the cities eligible for this funding.
Unfortunately, what was called development or renewal actually resulted in the systematic
destruction of minority communities. “By the late 1960s, an estimated 606 South Bend families
had been displaced by urban renewal projects in South Bend.”349 Nearly three quarter of these
were families of color.350
A breakdown of this displacement can be seen in the chart below:351
Project # of
Families
Families
Of color
White
Families
Chapin
Street
116
104
12
LaSalle
Park
335
149
6
Sample
Street
335
190
145
At some point the federal government stopped requiring displacement numbers, so we have no
numbers for those displaced by the Linden School redevelopment or the six downtown urban
development grants the City obtained.352 However, these areas were two of the very few sections
of the City where families of color could reside, so it is clear that many of those displaced were
Black. As a local attorney noted at the time:
This urban renewal and urban redevelopment is, in the final analysis, the
destruction of homes. The people offended by the Linden area project
have spent years toiling and struggling to pay for their homes. They are
upset. Talking about building low rent housing projects to place these
homeowners in and renting the projects to them instead of allowing them
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to remain in their homes that they have paid for seems unjust and
unreasonable.”353
When redevelopment occurred, families had to be relocated. This was particularly difficult
for families of color, as the testimony of Mrs. G.L. Ivory reflects. Mrs. Ivory was a social worker
for the South Bend Renewal Authority from 1960-1962. She testified about efforts to try to find
housing for families who were displaced by the City’s urban renewal programs. Mrs. Ivory made
“an average of 75 calls every week” trying to find housing for black families.
90 percent of the people she called replied as follows:
“Oh no, it’s for white only”
“I’m sorry, we don’t rent to your people.
“Just for white only”
“Oh no, honey, not to your people.”354
Families who had endured the incredible struggle to find housing found themselves evicted
by the City and homeless once more. Dorothy Smith experienced this first-hand. Her family was
displaced by the Maggie’s Court development. They were given a small amount of money in
compensation which she used to try to buy a property by land contract in one of the few areas
she could, an area near Sample Street. They were displaced from that location by another urban
renewal project and moved to LaSalle Park. Here she was forced to buy what she referred to as a
“plaster board box” from Colpaert Realty.355 In each step of the way the family lost their home
and had few options for relocation.
Subsequent Federal Housing Acts linked urban renewal to the building of affordable
housing.356 As early as 1942, the City committed to clearing the Maggie’s Court area, one of the
worst slums in town, and building affordable housing. Community members raised funds and
advocated for the projects, but other community members and City officials stalled the projects.
In 1950, the federal government threatened a lawsuit if the project did not proceed. Community
opposition increased.357 On February 27, 1950, the South Bend Common Council met to vote on
a resolution on whether to continue the public housing projects on Maggie’s Court and K Ave.
Thousands attended. The vote was a tie, with all Republican members opposing the project and
all Democrats supporting it. The tie effectively ended the project that year.358
Throughout the 1950s, the South Bend City Council blocked efforts to build affordable
housing. In February of 1950 they turned down a $11 million federal grant because it was
perceived to be for minority housing.359 In April, another $3 million dollar grant was rejected for
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similar reasons.360The Citizens Committee against Public Housing objected that public housing
was socialist and U.S. servicemen had fought and died “so that democracy and the American
way of life might live.”361 This ignored the fact that many of the people needing the proposed
housing had also fought in those wars, but had been prevented from obtaining housing because
of racially discriminatory policies.
The Republican members of the City Council continued to block housing projects late into
the 1950s. The Prairie Homes and B.G. Smith Homes projects were the next attempt by the
housing authority to redevelop war housing. Local builders wanted the properties sold to
developers instead. Again, in a 4-4 tie, the project was defeated. The housing authority was
required to either sell the property or give it to the tenants. Residents of Beacon Heights and
Southmore Heights organized and were able to take over the properties. The result, however, was
to displace many African American families for years as projects came online slowly, if at all.362
This was a recurring story throughout this period. Families were displaced with the promise of
housing, but that new housing was never built. The housing shortage grew. It took another 6
years to break the deadlock.363
Before the 1970s, segregation and refusal of service (let alone employment) at most
businesses in South Bend fostered the growth and expansion of a “Black business district” in
South Bend.364 Looking back, residents today dispute the exact parameters of this district, but
most agree it was centered around Liston and Birdsell Streets.365 Fueled in part by the Second
Great Migration of the 1940s, the business district offered many services within walking distance
for the Black families in this tight-knit area.366 The National Urban League reported that
approximately 81 businesses in South Bend were Black-owned in 1958.367 The Urban League
survey reported:
25 hotels, restaurants and taverns, 17 barber, beauty and dry-cleaning shops,
16 professional services (dentists, doctors, lawyers, undertakers), 9 retail
stores (food market, liquor stores, and one drug store), 8 amusement centers
(pool rooms), 5 garage and service stations, and 1 real estate and finance
concern.368
According to historians and oral testimonies, many of these businesses catered to the Black
community and were seen as “safe alternates” to white-only spaces.369 A restaurant known as
“Big House,” located on Birdsell Street, had great success in the community.370 Mama Hodges,
another restaurant, served customers on Main Street.371 For many years, the South Bend
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Mishawaka Area Chamber of Commerce published a pamphlet The Directory of Negroes in
Business in St. Joseph County (later called Directory of Blacks in Business), which listed a
variety of Black-owned businesses in South Bend.372
In Placing History, George Garner highlights four particular Black-owned businesses and
their history, including Uncle Bill Harris’s Café, Liston Hotel, St. Peter’s Masonic Lodge, and
Higgins/Haynes Funeral Home.373 Each of these businesses was located either on Linden or
Birdsell street. Frankie’s BBQ, located at 1621 W. Washington St., was founded in 1968 and is
still operated by the same family. It stands today as one of the last remaining Black-owned
businesses from that era. 374
The “Black business district” in South Bend no longer exists, and there is no single reason
why. Some point to governmental pressure, others to discriminatory bank financing, others to the
“urban renewal” demolition projects in South Bend in the 1950s and 60s.375 Still others suggest
that once businesses and neighborhoods started to become integrated (or less segregated)
following the civil rights laws passed in the 1960s, Black businesses and customers naturally
became less concentrated in that area of the City.
With respect to bank financing, Black business owners reported suffering the effects of
redlining. For the same reasons that banks would not issue a mortgage loan with respect to
homes and real estate in areas of the City where Blacks lived, banks would not issue business
loans to businesses located in those areas, or even to businesses located elsewhere but whose
64
owners (whose homes would otherwise be collateral for a business loan, either directly or
through a personal guaranty) lived in redlined areas of the City.
VIII. Human Rights Commission
The Reformer, started in 1967, served as a newspaper that catered to the Black community as
well as other marginalized groups.376 The Reformer published a section titled “Free Legal Help”
which noted “employment discrimination” as one reason people should contact the law firm of J.
Chester Allen and Elizabeth Chester Allen.377 In 1967, the newspaper also highlighted
community demands that included more vocational training opportunities.378 It referenced the
Urban League as an organization that promoted jobs for Black South Bend citizens, adopting the
slogan, “Not alms but opportunities.”379
On December 17, 1973, a new ordinance (5619-73) was passed which changed the
Commission’s name to the South Bend Human Rights Commission – the name by which it is still
known today.380 The 1973 Ordinance granted the Commission subpoena power and added sex to
the list of unlawful bases for discrimination (race, religious creed, color, etc.) protected under
this law. It also expanded discrimination protection to include education and public
accommodation. The new ordinance also added “general compensatory damages,” to the existing
actual damages of back pay and lost benefits.381 Emotional distress is an example of general non-
pecuniary compensatory damage.
The 1973 ordinance granted the director of the Human Rights Commission power to initiate
complaints on behalf of a person or class of persons.382 There is no record of this power being
exercised, however, perhaps because federal agencies such as the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity
(FHEO) of the Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD) had the same power with
far greater resources.
In reporting examples of significant cases without name identification, the Human Rights
Commission’s 1974 Report includes one (non-racial) sex discrimination case and one housing
race discrimination case. In the latter case, a male Black person phoned a landlord in response to
a news ad about an apartment. The Landlord replied that the unit was available and could be seen
by the caller. When the caller arrived, the Landlord said that if he had known the caller was
Black, he would have told the caller he would not be willing to rent to him, and that he had
enough minorities in his rental units.383 The case was conciliated in writing by the Landlord
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promising not to discriminate thereafter, to post equal opportunity posters inside and outside the
rental unit development, and to report quarterly as to the name and race of all new tenants and
the name and race of all minority applicants.
In South Bend, overt discrimination in the workplace (such as openly refusing to hire or
promote Black workers, finding nooses in the workplace, hearing the “N-word” or other racial
slurs or stereotyped statements such as “all you lazy people”) began to lessen around 1970 with
more lawsuits and vigorous enforcement of the federal workplace anti-discrimination law (Title
VII). The landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, McDonnell Douglas v. Green (1973) set the
framework for proving workplace discrimination. Under that case, an inference of workplace
discrimination exists if a Black employee can prove that in matters of wages, promotion,
discharge decisions, or other material terms of employment, that employee was treated more
adversely than a similarly situated non-minority employee. An employer can rebut the inference
of discrimination by showing there was a non-discriminatory reason for treating the Black
employee differently. Still, the employee can prevail by showing the employer’s reason is
pretextual or not credible.
The South Bend Human Rights Commission was empowered to enforce Title VII. It
partnered with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and continues
to enforce this law. Although overt workplace racial discrimination became less frequent
beginning in the early 1970s, workplace discrimination was not eliminated altogether. Instead, it
continued more subtly.
Through the 1990’s and, to a lesser extent currently, the Human Rights Commission heard
evidence that White direct supervisors continued to show favoritism to White employees, either
because these supervisors held stereotypical, negative, but inaccurate beliefs about Black
workers, or because the White supervisors were more congenial with their White workers. The
prejudice of direct supervisors which adversely affected terms of employment for Black workers
was often unknown to upper management or simply tolerated. That has gradually changed,
especially among large or national employers, as upper management in more recent years has
trained supervisory staff and established strong anti-discrimination policies and reporting
practices.
66
Yet, statistical information furnished to the Human Rights Commission shows that while
Black workers have fared somewhat better in the general workforce in the last fifty years, their
numbers remain significantly lower in management, especially upper management positions.
Black worker membership in South Bend unions through the 20th Century was statistically
lower than White membership based on population percentages. In the mid 1990’s, young male
Black trades workers (electrical and other trades) complained to the Human Rights Commission
that they were regularly denied membership in local union apprenticeship programs.
Membership in these programs was based on test results and personal interviews. Black workers
were often denied membership at the interview level where the interviewers were White and
longtime members of all-White local unions who had little past interaction with Black workers.
The subjectivity of the interviews made intentional discrimination hard to prove, but the numbers
showed a clear gap between Black applicants and actual Black union apprentices. Black worker
membership in local unions has increased in more recent years, but the harmful effect of earlier
discriminatory practices persists because of the time lost by Black workers in advancing to the
highest union skill levels with the highest hourly pay rates.
IX. Beyond 1970s
A. Continued Overt Housing Discrimination
Unfortunately, we also heard evidence from several people that steering is still a practice in
the South Bend real estate market. Several people who either moved to or relocating within
South Bend came to meetings or contacted Commissioners to recount their search for housing.
According to their testimonies, many real estate professionals in our area continue to steer White
families to predominantly White neighborhoods and Black families to the west side of South
Bend.
At our forums, several people also recounted how they were denied loans from traditional
banks for loans because of their race long after such denials were clearly illegal.384 Below is just
one of those stories, but one that stood out for a number of reasons. It was our first forum. Two
men arrived together, one White and one Black, very eager to tell their story. It was a story they
had clearly wanted someone to listen to for decades.385 The story took place in 1982, fourteen
years after the passage of the Fair Housing Act.
The Black man had been a tenant at a home on Napier street for many years. The White man
had been his landlord. After collecting rent for all those years, the landlord approached his tenant
67
and asked if he would be interested in buying the rental property. He even offered to apply all the
previous rent payments to the purchase price. He offered to sell the home to his tenant for $12,
500. Thrilled by the offer, the tenant approached a local bank for financing. After taking all his
information, the loan officer denied the loan, telling the tenant that the bank could not approve
the loan because “that area is redlined.” Furious with the result, the landlord went to the same
bank, this time pretending to be his tenant. He used his tenant’s employment information and
income to apply for a mortgage. The bank approved the mortgage loan for the White landlord,
the same loan it had denied for the Black tenant. The landlord decided to finance the sale of the
property himself. The story has a happy ending. The tenant was able to purchase the property
which he now rents out. The income and equity allowed him to purchase a second home where
he now lives. While the result in the end was positive, it was clear listening to these men that
more than forty years later, the injustice of this experience still haunted them.
Commission members heard similar stories from other people who tried to approach
traditional banks only to be turned away because of their race. There is ample evidence that,
despite the Fair Housing Act, discrimination in mortgage lending continued.386 These shared
experiences created a lack of trust in traditional banking institutions in the Black community.
Conversations with local bankers confirmed they are still trying to overcome this hurdle within
the Black community. This mistrust was a contributing factor in the subprime mortgage crisis of
the early 2000s, a crisis that devastated minority home ownership across South Bend.
B. Lack of Investment
The lack of City investment in traditionally redlined neighborhoods was raised at nearly
every forum. A simple drive through the City verifies the problem. Streets are in worse shape,
vacant city-owned properties lack sidewalks, and lighting is absent in many of the formally
redlined areas of the City. The current system for evaluating roads to be paved focuses on
individual streets and councilmember recommendations. This ad hoc system has left many
neighborhoods with no repairs for years. When it was suggested that some streets appear to have
gone unpaved for twenty years, one City official replied, “it’s been longer than that.” The lack of
concern for certain neighborhoods has left residents feeling neglected and disconnected from the
City.
Concerns were specifically raised about the lack of sidewalk maintenance along City owned
properties while, at the same time, requiring residents to maintain the sidewalks bordering their
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properties. This lack of maintenance causes hazards in the neighborhoods that have been the
focus of this report. People attempting to traverse those neighborhoods have to deal with broken,
uneven or absent sidewalks. This makes it difficult, if not dangerous, to walk to the bus stop, the
grocery store, or even your neighbor’s house for coffee. Similarly, residents of these
neighborhoods complained of inadequate lighting which also makes such walks more difficult.
The pattern of building, but failing to maintain, low-income housing persists. Lack of
maintenance across all the South Bend Housing Authority properties has exacerbated the housing
crisis in South Bend.387The Rabbi Shulman Apartments was a housing development built in the
former Maggie’s Court area. The apartments were not properly maintained and finally, in 2020,
the housing authority announced it was closing the building and displacing 100 residents.388 The
official reason was a gas leak,389 but Commission member Judith Fox had been working with
tenants in the building prior to the announcement. The conditions in the building were
deplorable.
In one visit to a resident’s apartment, the water problems were so pervasive that mushrooms
were seen visibly growing from the rug. The apartment building was so dilapidated that a Notre
Dame law student accompanying Attorney Fox to another unit ran from the building to vomit on
the sidewalk at the sight of it. These conditions existed for years with no action taken to resolve
them. The residents were finally informed in late 2020 that they must begin making plans to
move.390Although the City and Housing Authority has committed to tearing down the building
and offering apartments to those originally relocated, such projects require a lot of time and
money. Five years later the project has barely begun and the families yet to return home.391
C. Reverse Redlining
Over the years, people of color learned not to try to get a mortgage from traditional banks.
Instead, many turned to nonbank lenders and mortgage brokers in hopes of a better outcome.
Unfortunately, in the mid-1990s many nonbank lenders and traditional banks began a practice of
reverse redlining. Reverse redlining is when financial institutions offer mortgage loan products in
those previously underserved, redlined areas, but the products they offer are abusive. The
products of the 1990s and early 2000s were characterized by low teaser rates and then exploding,
higher variable rates. Homeowners needed to continually refinance to keep their mortgage
affordable. Each refinance stripped more equity from the home. These loans were aggressively
targeted to minority communities, including in South Bend.392
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The Notre Dame Clinical Law Center’s Economic Justice Project saw an explosion of
requests for assistance from South Bend residents who had become victims of subprime loans
during this period. According to residents, mortgage brokers were even going door to door in the
neighborhoods immediately surrounding Muessel School, at times threatening homeowners who
declined to take out a loan or refinance their mortgage. There is ample evidence that the loans
being offered were bad loans.393
In 2007, Notre Dame Professors Judith Fox and Richard Williams were asked by the City to
investigate the alarming rise of mortgage foreclosures in the City.394 The City attributed the rise
to changes in property tax395 and initially rebuked efforts to address the predatory lending
issue.396 The research found a high correlation between living in a minority neighborhood and
mortgage foreclosure. At the time of their research, the most affected neighborhood was in and
around Muessel school, but the pain soon spread. From 2001-2007 there were 6,777 foreclosures
in South Bend, This number reflects roughly 15 percent of all the homes in the City at the
time.397
The map above shows the concentration of foreclosures in largely minority neighborhoods.398 It
was, in fact, even worse than the statistics reveal. The numbers above reflect those foreclosures
that were filed and proceeded to sale.
However, what was unknown at the time was that in many minority neighborhoods, banks
were simply walking away from foreclosures, often after informing families they needed to
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leave.399 Sometimes the lender filed the foreclosure in court and dismissed the case before
completion; in other cases, they obtained a judgment but never proceeded to sheriff’s sale, and
sometimes they did neither. Instead, they informed the family they had to vacate the property and
then the bank did nothing to take ownership or possession.400 These properties became
abandoned properties. For its size, South Bend had a significant number of these bank
walkaways, especially during the early years of the foreclosure crisis.401
The crisis hit low-income, minority communities early. Signs of the stress began to appear in
South Bend in 2000. The crisis was not officially recognized as a crisis until 2008. Governmental
assistance for homeowners facing foreclosure did not become available until 2009 and the
cooperation from the industry was very slow, not really coming online until all the major lending
institutions were sued by the Department of Justice and forty-nine state Attorneys General
(including Indiana’s) in 2012.402 By then, homeowners in many minority communities,
including in South Bend, had already lost their homes.
The Reparatory Justice Commission found no evidence that the City was involved in the
discriminatory action that caused the subprime loan crisis or its aftermath, except perhaps in their
refusal to acknowledge it. In fact, the City actively assisted in mitigating the crisis through its
housing counselor program. At the height of the foreclosure crisis, Hedy Robinson, a housing
counselor employed by the City, was widely recognized as the best housing counselor in Indiana.
She and her staff saved hundreds of homes. Unfortunately, the ability to re-write mortgages and
save homes was not available until thousands had already lost their properties.403
Following the crisis, the City created the Vacant and Abandoned Task Force to look into the
problem of abandoned properties left in its wake.404 The result of that project was the 1,000
homes in 1,000 days initiative. A few citizens who reached out to the commission expressed the
concern that this initiative deprived or displaced families of color from their homes.405 It is likely
true that more homes were demolished in minority neighborhoods because, as stated previous,
more homes were left abandoned in those neighborhoods. However, a review of the list of houses
demolished through this program and the criteria used to determine which homes to be
demolished does not support a finding of intentional discrimination on the part of the City.
The blame for the large number of abandoned properties falls squarely on the financial
services industry. The City provided the list of properties set for demolition under the 1,000 in
1,000 days initiative. A plurality of the properties were owned by corporations, banks or limited
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liability corporations when they were slated for demolition. None was inhabited. A sample of 250
of the properties reveal that 46 percent of the properties had been foreclosed upon at some point
during the subprime crisis. Of those 7 were bank walkaways, but that number is likely larger. It
does not capture those situations where the bank never initiated a foreclosure at all. The number
of foreclosures is also likely somewhat higher because, of the 250, eleven of the homeowners
had multiple foreclosures in the public record but, due to the age of the cases, no address is
reflected on the publicly available court record. It is reasonable to assume that when a property
owner had six, eight, or even ten ongoing foreclosures, as some did, that one of those was a
property they owned that appeared on the 1,000 homes list. Many of the properties were located
in minority neighborhoods because, as mentioned previously, the subprime mortgage lenders
targeted those neighborhoods for their predatory products.
It is also true that some of the homes were involved in code enforcement actions which
resulted in the demolition orders. This is a more nuanced story. A study of code enforcement
action at the time does show a concentration of code enforcement actions in majority minority
neighborhoods, but the list of code violators does not match the properties slated for demolition.
Some in the community still feel that code enforcement was directly targeting their
neighborhood for racial reasons. Others acknowledge that many of the code enforcement actions
were prompted by complaints from neighbors seeking to preserve the quality of their
surroundings. Both, or neither, may be true. The analysis above examined civil penalties issued
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due to code violations from 2008 to 2015, a time when many homes in that area were being
abandoned due to foreclosure. Approximately one quarter of these properties had out of state
owners and a similar number were corporate owned. Many of those ostensibly owned by
individuals were landlords with multiple properties. There is insufficient evidence to claim
intentional discrimination.
The Vacant and Abandoned property report sought to address these concerns by discouraging
the City from pursuing aggressive repair orders against people unable to afford repairs. 406 It is
not clear whether the City ever adopted this recommendation, so we repeat it here. It is also
important to note that the City does not set code enforcement fines. Instead, these are set by an
independent hearing officer who, while taking recommendations from the City, is not required to
adopt them. Hearing officers could, and during certain periods often did, set fines higher than
those recommended by the City.
The foreclosure crisis and Great Recession that followed had a profound effect on housing
overall. Thousands of people lost their homes, flooding the rental market and driving up rents.
Building all but stopped during the crisis and when it resumed, companies focused on high-end
houses and apartments. Hedge funds and venture capitalists bought up foreclosed single-family
homes across the country, including in South Bend, making them unavailable for homeowners
and expensive for renters.
We have been left with a severe housing crisis in South Bend. Rents are unaffordable and
rental housing is often poorly maintained, especially by the many out of state landlords that now
own so many of our local properties. The Rental Safety Verification Program was a positive step
in making sure that rental properties are habitable. However, some of the issues that plagued
code enforcement in the early years of the foreclosure crisis are reoccurring here. The City takes
numerous landlords to court for small fines while tolerating the noncompliance of apartment
buildings who owe thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars to the City. These leave
small landlords who are more likely to be small businesses subsisting on their rental income at a
clear market disadvantage. The worst offenders can get ignore the civil penalties and essentially
get away with ongoing building code violations knowing the City will not pursue them for
collection, while small landlords find themselves in court, struggling to stay afloat.
Prior to the passage of the Fair Housing Act, landlords were unafraid of turning people away
due to their race as many of the stories in this report document. Since, however, discrimination
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became more subtle and harder to detect. People rarely report when they have been discriminated
against because they often cannot tell why they were turned down for a rental unit. Reports of
phone calls not returned and rental applications rejected might be evidence of discrimination,
but they also might not. Some landlords refuse to accept section 8 vouchers as a pretext for not
accepting racial minorities, while others simply do not want to deal with the paperwork. More
complicated matters such as discriminatory algorithms are much harder to detect.
Unfortunately, record keeping policies at the South Bend Human Rights Commission
hampered our ability to determine the extent to which rental discrimination continues in our area.
A newspaper report from 1988 references two housing discrimination studies, one from 1984 and
one from 1988, that documented continued discrimination in the rental marketplace. The reports
were not retained, nor does it appear that any more recent studies have been done. Testing is the
only way to discover the extent of rental housing discrimination. While requests were made for
data, it was either unavailable or retained in a way that made any analysis impossible.
The Human Rights Commission makes periodic reports to HUD, but not to the City or the
public. As a result, we are unable to determine the extent to which discrimination is negatively
affecting our local rental markets. People are generally unaware of their rights under the Fair
Housing Act or their ability to report discrimination. Recent federal government actions cutting
funding to civil rights efforts will make it even more difficult for the Human Rights Commission
to do its job.
D. Zoning
It was difficult to obtain some City records due to Indiana’s record retention laws. As a result,
we were unable to track the history of zoning ordinances in the City. Yet, we know that
exclusionary zoning was meant to restrict certain people from living in certain neighborhoods.
As mentioned previously, a 1936 FHA Underwriting Manual recommended the use of
exclusionary zoning regulations to maintain the homogenous nature of a neighborhood.407 It is
therefore likely that such means were used in South Bend at some point in its history.
Some zoning decisions, though not intentionally discriminatory, have had a discriminatory
effect. According to the Urban Institute, “[E]xclusionary zoning policies—such as large lot-size
requirements and large square-footage-per-dwelling-unit mandates—make it difficult for low-
and even moderate-income households to live in many well-resourced communities.”408 The City
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did have many such regulations, though some recent changes to lot size, for example, are
positive developments. Other zoning decisions continue to have discriminatory effect. In its
2020-2024 Impediments to Fair Housing Report the City mentions that zoning practices meant to
restrict student housing have “negatively affected protected classes.”409
X. Hate Groups
The City is clearly not responsible for the existence of hate groups in our area. At the same
time, there were times in the City’s history that policies embraced by such groups had an
oversized influence on where certain groups of people should live in the City.
Intimidation by such groups has negatively impacted where minority families are
comfortable living. As previously mentioned, in the 1920s, Indiana was the center of the Ku
Klux Klan.410 The influence of the Klan diminished, but never entirely went away. In 2024, the
Southern Poverty Law Center reported twenty-seven active hate groups in Indiana, most of
which operate state-wide.411 Several of these, such as the Nordic Order of the Ku Klux Klan, the
Aryan Freedom Network, and the Proud Boys specifically espouse White supremacy
ideologies.412 As recently as November of 2024, the Ku Klux Klan blanketed the area, including
South Bend, with racist fliers.413
Unfortunately, many of our citizens have encountered these groups or people who hold their
racist views. We heard several stories of attempts to frighten people of color from White
neighborhoods. Below is one such story that was emailed to the Commission. It occurred in
1989.
We decided we needed a larger home that would be suitable for our family
as I was pregnant with our second child. We looked at three homes and
fell in love with a house located on the far west side of South Bend off
Crumstown highway. I was 7 months pregnant at the time.
We made an offer on the house, and it was accepted. Within weeks of the
offer being accepted we learned that the house had been vandalized. "No
N----gers" was spray painted in black letters across the front of the white
tri-level home. There was subsequent damage done to the home with
windows being broken out, etc.
We soon learned that we were going to be the first black family in the Pam
Drive neighborhood. The initial investigation which was completed by the
county police revealed no information but the incident was reported to the
US Marshall's office in Washington DC and the FBI proceeded
to investigate. We were told that when the FBI came to the neighborhood
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and started going door to door neighbors of the main three men involved
started to give names of the men who were charged with committing the
crime.
During the trial it was revealed that the three men, which included a
teacher from Kennedy School, had planned to firebomb the home by
throwing the bomb through a picture window that was located at the front
of the home.”
Imagine for a moment being a Black child in that teacher’s class.
Unfortunately, racial hate group activity in our area has never completely gone away. Adam
Driver was famously criticized for saying he frequently saw Klan rallies growing up in our
area.414His memories were correct. The Church of National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan led by
Railton Loy regularly held rallies in St. Joseph County.415 In 2001, there was a large Klan rally in
Mishawaka, seen below. 416
Everyone in our community should forcibly and loudly oppose these hate groups and their
supporters. While the first amendment gives these groups the right to their reprehensible
opinions, the City should condemn the message and vigorously pursue any racial intimidation or
harassment directed toward residents of the City.
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Harms Caused by the Pattern of Discrimination
and
Reparatory Justice Commission’s Recommendations
After reviewing the history of discrimination, each of the subcommittees evaluated the harms
this history caused in the community. Those harms and the recommendations for reparatory
actions to address them are outlined below. Before addressing those, and as an initial matter, the
Commission has three reparatory justice recommendations that span all subcommittees:
Recommendations:
(1). The City should formally acknowledge and apologize for a long history of racial
discrimination.
(2). The City should preserve this report as a permanent, easily accessible historical public
record and commit to creating a robust website where citizens can learn about this history.
Within three months:
(3). The Common Council should appoint a permanent reparatory justice committee that
includes experts, City officials, and citizens, the majority of whom should be Black.
Current Commission members should be given priority if they want to continue to serve.
The Committee should be charged with reviewing progress in implementing the
recommendation of the Commission, monitoring compliance with reparatory justice, and
identifying further measures that might come to light to ensure reparatory justice. The
committee shall report to the Common Council the progress toward implementing the
Commission’s recommendations and suggestions for the adoption of any additional
measures needed for reparatory justice at least annually.
Within the next three years:
Because government revenues cannot be relied upon as a source for correcting harms, and
because the harms identified in this Report were caused by multiple actors in concert, including
businesses and individuals, it is necessary to create an ongoing, permanent funding source if
governmental resources are inadequate.
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(4)A community Fund should be established through a non-governmental entity as a
repository for donations from charitable foundations, local and national businesses,
individuals, and similar sources to provide monies for repairing past and preventing future
harms as identified in this report.
I. Employment / Economic Opportunity / Wealth Gap Subcommittee
This Employment/ Economic Opportunity/ Wealth Gap Subcommittee researched the history
of racial discrimination in South Bend, particularly in the period between 1920, when the number
of African American employees in South Bend began to rise, and the late 1960s, when the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 began to take effect in our community. We also studied the history of Black
businesses and professionals in South Bend, including the era of the “black business district” on
the west side of South Bend and the reasons why there are so few Black-owned businesses today.
Finally, we studied how this history has resulted in a racial wealth gap and studied the most
recent census data to see the effects of social programs in the years since the publication of The
Racial Wealth Gap in 2017.
Racial discrimination in employment and economic opportunities in South Bend caused a
number of harms to the Black community and individual members. Among them are:
x The racial wealth divide;
x Lower income; fewer Blacks in higher-paying jobs; and
x Fewer Black-owned businesses.
These harms have never been resolved and they have real-world effect today upon Black
children and families in South Bend. In addition to the evidence set forth above, the following
studies further document the extent of these harms and provide the factual basis to justify the
remedies suggested below.
A. The Racial Wealth Divide
In 2016, the City of South Bend commissioned a study of the “racial wealth gap” – the
disparity in wealth accumulation between racial groups in South Bend. The City contracted with
Prosperity Now, a non-profit organization based in Washington DC, to gather data and produce a
report on the current status of the racial wealth gap in South Bend.417 The Racial Wealth Divide
in South Bend was published in September 2017.418 Overall, the study found that Racial
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economic inequality between African American and White households is worse in South Bend
than it is nationwide.
At the time of the study, census data showed that South Bend was 54 percent White, 27
percent Black, 13 percent Hispanic, and 1.4 percentAsian American.
419For almost all measures,
Black residents fall significantly behind White residents in the City. The measure of “liquid asset
poverty” – defined as “a measure of the liquid savings households hold to cover basic expenses
for three months if they experienced a sudden job loss, a medical emergency or another financial
crisis leading to a loss of stable income” – showed that Blacks had twice the poverty rate of
Whites.420
While only 16 percent of White households reported “zero net worth” (meaning their
liabilities exceed their assets or, put simply, the amount they owe is more than the amount they
own), that measure was 37 percent for Black households. While 68 percent of White families
owned their home, only 35 percent of Black families owned their home. And with respect to
educational attainment, the data show that while 17.8 percent of Whites held a bachelor’s degree
or higher, that number was only 7.3 percent for Black residents.
421These numbers echo similar
figures published by the United Way in the 2025 State of Alice report, which states that 22
percent of Black households in St. Joseph County live below the poverty threshold as compared
with 7 percent of White households.
422
These conclusions are also supported by John R. Hagan, Ph.D.’s draft paper entitled “Some
Economic Issues of the Black Population of St. Joseph County and its Major Metropolitan
Area.”423 Similar to conclusions in The Racial Wealth Divide, Hagan also noted a stark
difference in home ownership rates in St. Joseph County: nearly 79 percent (78.5percent) of
Whites were homeowners compared with Blacks at roughly 38 percent (38.3percent). The trend
is also discouraging; as a result of the subprime mortgage crisis and foreclosures that resulted in
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families losing their homes (2007-2010), homeownership for Black families has decreased in the
past two decades:
The logical corollary is also true: in 2021, three out of five households that rented were Black
compared with one out of five being White.424
This deep racial wealth divide – more stark in South Bend than nationally – is a lingering
harm from decades of discrimination in South Bend that limited Blacks access to an equal
education, equal wages, and mortgage loan or business loan on equal terms.
Recommendations :
Within six months:
(5)Adult Financial Counseling: To assist South Bend families in building net worth and
generational wealth, the City, through its Financial Empowerment Center and in
partnership with area banks, financial institutions and others organizations, should
provide financial counseling and education to low- and moderate-income households in
South Bend. The Commission encourages the City to endow and expand the work it has
already begun at the Financial Empowerment Center by partnering with other
neighborhood organizations.
Within a year:
(6) Youth Wealth Building Educational Tool: To empower South Bend’s Black youth to save
money and grow wealth, the City through its Financial Empowerment Center, and with
partners including the South Bend Community School Corporation (SBCSC), IUSB, Ivy
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Tech, and others, should create or acquire a Financial Basics video program for use in
schools, after school programs within schools, or off site (e.g., Boys & Girls Club),
Neighborhood Centers, public libraries, etc. Topics should include home purchasing and
financing, credit use and risks, the value of a high credit score and how to achieve it,
budgeting, the home mortgage process, retirement planning, and basic income tax rules.
The program should be actively promoted and directed toward middle school/early high
school students. The program should be presented through live participation of Black
leaders in business or finance who can personally inspire and encourage the youth
participants.
B. Lower Income. Fewer Blacks In Higher-Paying Jobs
Workplace discrimination against South Bend’s Black population through the 20th Century
prevented or delayed the ability of many Black workers to bridge the wealth gap through higher
paid employment. The Racial Wealth Divide in South Bend revealed that Black residents of
South Bend report lower income than other racial groups. For example, the median household
income for Blacks in South Bend is $14,000 lower than the national average. As such, 40.2
percent of Black residents in the City fall below the income poverty line, a number which is
almost twice the national poverty rate for Black households.
The median household income numbers show that White families bring home earnings nearly
twice that of Black families.
These conclusions are also supported by Dr. Hagan’s Economic Issues research paper.425 The
paper contains an analysis of publicly-available data from 2021 and 2022 regarding economic
disparities when comparing Black and White employment data from St. Joseph County,
Indiana.426 Among Hagan’s findings are that White employees earned nearly 50 percent more
than Black employees during the 2021-22 period, as illustrated in the following table.
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In 2022, the City’s Department of Community Investment formed a Financial Empowerment
Team which worked to research, analyze data and historical trends in South Bend, and suggest a
blueprint for financial empowerment programs. Working from historical data as well as
interviews and group discussions, the Team found that workers living in predominantly Black
neighborhoods receive significantly lower wages and experience significantly higher
unemployment rates during economic downturns.
The Team focused on two predominantly Black neighborhoods: LaSalle Park and Kennedy
Park, statistically observable areas as Census Tracts 21 and 23. These neighborhoods show
significantly lower economic progress when compared with the City as a whole.
Median family income in 2020 in Kennedy and LaSalle Park was 66 percent and 43 percent of
income respectively in these neighborhoods in 1960. 31.3 percent of Black households had
income below the federal poverty threshold, while only 10.4 percent of White households had
income below that threshold.
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Recommendations:
Trade Union Youth Engagement Through School Career Day Programs & Job Fairs in
Middle Schools
Middle School is considered the ideal time to introduce young persons to the employment
and economic opportunity of industrial and other skilled trades. Apparently, because of recent
emphasis on STEM education, the South Bend Public Schools did not promote trade vocations
despite the need for alternatives to a college career path for many students.
Within a year:
(7) To better acquaint Black youth with opportunities for higher paid jobs within the
industrial and other skilled trades, the SBCSC should hold a career day program or job
fair annually in all its middle and high schools where industrial and other professional
trade groups participate. It should also furnish students with written information in
advance about skilled trade opportunities as provided by local unions and employers.
Limitations On Criminal History And Credit Checks For Employment
The criminal conviction rate for Black males is disproportionately higher than for White
males due to factors unrelated to criminal propensity, and unrelated to work skills and ability.
With Black males already earning less than comparable White males in South Bend ( Wealth Gap
Report 2016), black males with criminal convictions are at greater risk of long-term
unemployability.
Criminal background checks in the State of Indiana are required in certain jobs and
professional licensing where the type of job or profession requires more stringent measures of
risk avoidance or public safety. Examples include public safety officers, bank personnel with
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access to cash or customer accounts, and persons who work with children. Yet, the City and
another employers ask this information of all job applicants, regardless of the job in question.
This unfairly excludes many Black persons from employment due to unrelated or stale criminal
convictions. Questions about arrests or pending criminal cases with no finding of guilt are
improper under current employment discrimination law.
Within three months:
(8)The City of South Bend, its agencies, contractors, and partners, and large employers
within the City should eliminate the box or question about past criminal convictions on
their initial job application forms unless the posted job clearly falls within the scope of a
state law. In these cases, the question should be limited to specific convictions that actually
relate to the job opening.
Within six months:
(9) Credit checks as a pre-requisite for initial employment consideration unfairly disqualify
Black persons in South Bend whose financial conditions are generally not the product of
any personal fault, but rather the result of a conflux of social conditions affecting
employment and wealth building. Therefore, credit checks for initial employment
screening should be eliminated.
Within a year:
(10) On-the-job Management Training and Education: The City should commit to fund
and staff a new program designed to provide on-the-job (or while employed) training and
education for Black employees (both in public and private sector) to enhance or accelerate
their ability to qualify for promotion to management and C-suite positions. This should
include:
a. Gathering information from employers re what is missing among
Black candidates for promotion
b. Sourcing materials and teachers
c. Sourcing facilities (which may be virtual)
d. Sourcing resources (e.g. tablet computers)
e. Culturally-competent marketing to recruit eligible employees
An example of such a program could be a Mini-MBA program in connection with IU South
Bend, culminating in an Executive Education Certificate.
C. Fewer Black-Owned Businesses
The Racial Wealth Divide in South Bend also included data supporting the conclusion that
there are fewer Black-owned businesses in South Bend than one would expect based upon
population data. Specifically, the report showed that the value of businesses owned by White
residents was nearly ten times that of the value of Black-owned businesses in South Bend.427
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This matches the estimates from local business consultants that, while approximately 25 percent
of South Bend residents are Black,428 of all the local businesses in South Bend, only 5 percent to
10 percent are Black-owned.429
Many small business owners rely upon their home equity to support their business, either
directly through home equity-based loans used to support the business or indirectly by
supporting the value of their personal guarantee.430 The lack of home ownership by Blacks in
South Bend, as demonstrated both in The Racial Wealth Divide and by Dr. Hagan in his
Economic Issues paper, means a lack of collateral for Black families to finance a small business.
This conclusion is further supported by a report known as “The Disparity Study.” In 2020,
the City of South Bend contracted with Colette Holt & Associates (CHA), a national law and
consulting firm, to conduct a careful study of discrimination in City contracting that might justify
programs aimed to help minority and women-owned businesses.431 CHA conducted interviews
with a number of minority and women business owners in South Bend. They reported that they
continue to encounter discriminatory attitudes, stereotypes, and negative perceptions of their
professional qualifications and capabilities. Among the quotes published in the report:
[One] Black business owner said, “Our problem is that people are trained
to believe that black folks, poor people, or minorities can’t deliver. There’s
a whole lot of Black people in here that wanna do something, and
somebody needs to see that.”
Another said, “There are black-owned construction companies, but one
reason a lot of them that I talk to went out of business is because they
can’t get contracts with the City. So they can’t get any big contracts, then
they have to try to build their business with only small ones, and it’s hard
to maintain a cash flow with the other issues that you deal with.” 432
As for information about contract opportunities based upon these interviews, CHA concluded
that, “there is said to be clear exclusion, especially to Black-owned and African-American
companies, to get access to information [about contracting opportunities with the City].”433
In addition to interviews, CHA analyzed hard data and statistics from a number of sources.
First, CHA studied contracts awarded by the City of South Bend for the calendar years 2015
through 2017, including 278 prime contracts and 327 subcontracts. When broken down by race
and gender, they found that Black-owned firms received zero of the $78.8 million contracted for.
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This is evident in Table 4.7:434
CHA noted the importance of looking at the availability of minority-owned contractors in the
South Bend market to evaluate whether or not there was a disparity. In other words, if there were
zero Black contractors in the market, then there would be no disparity to find that zero work had
been awarded to Black contractors.
CHA found that only 1.2 percent of the contractors available (and qualified) to work on these
projects were Black-owned businesses. See Table 4-11.435 Nevertheless, there is a stark disparity
between the 1.2 percent of eligible Black-owned contractors and the 0 percent of contracts
awarded to Black-owned businesses. CHA concluded that this disparity, along with similar
disparities for other minority and women-owned businesses, justified implementation of race-
based remedies.
436
CHA also looked at data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners. This
survey showed that Black-owned firms constituted approximately 7% of all firms reporting, but
that their sales and receipts amounted to only .53 percent and their annual payroll amounted to
only .58 percent of the respective totals. CHA summarized this thus:
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[T]he Black share of sales and receipts for all firms is 0.5 percent; the
Black share of total number of all firms is 7.0 percent. With 0.5 percent in
the numerator and 7.0 percent in the denominator, the ratio is 7.67. If
Black-owned firms earned a share of sales equal to their share of total
firms, the disparity would have been 100 percent. An index less than 100
percent indicates that a given group is being utilized less than would be
expected based on its availability. Courts have adopted the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission’s “80 percent rule” that a ratio less
than 80 percent presents a prima facie case of discrimination.437
CHA also looked at data from the American Community Survey for 2012 through 2016 to
determine the rate at which different demographic groups form new businesses. The data showed
that Blacks, Latinos, and White women are less likely to form businesses compared to similarly
situated White men. It showed that Blacks formed businesses at a rate far lower than Whites. It
also showed that the wage differential for Blacks is 33 percent less compared with Whites, and
business earnings (income from owning a business) for Blacks is 54 percent less than that for
White men.438
Such data led CHA to research further into each group’s access to business capital – money
to expand and operate a business. Here, CHA found that Black, Hispanic, and Asian business
owners are more likely to be denied credit than Whites, even after controlling for characteristics
like credit history, credit score, and wealth. Blacks and Hispanics were also likely to pay higher
interest rates on the loans they did receive.439 The research by CHA showed:
x Minority-owned firms are less likely to receive loans than non-
minority owned firms regardless of firm size. According to an analysis
of data from the Survey of Small Business Finances, for firms with
gross receipts over $500,000, 52 percent of non-minority-owned firms
received loans compared to 41 percent of minority-owned firms.
x When minority-owned firms do receive financing, it is for less money
and at a higher interest rate than non-minority-owned firms regardless
of the size of the firm. Minority-owned firms paid an average of 7.8
percent in interest rates for loans compared to 6.4 percent for non-
minority-owned firms. Among firms with gross receipts under
$500,000, minority-owned firms paid an average of 9.1 percent in
interest rates compared to 6.9 percent for non-minority-owned firms.
x Minority owned firms are more likely to be denied loans. Among firms
with gross receipts under $500,000, loan denial rates for minority
firms were about three times higher, at 42 percent, compared to those
of nonminority-owned firms, at 16 percent. For high sales firms, the
rates of loan denial were almost twice as high for MBEs as for non-
MBEs.440
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CHA also reported a strong inter-generational correlation with business ownership. The
probability of self-employment (business ownership) is significantly higher among children of
self-employed people.441 CHA’s research found:
There is evidence that current racial patterns of self-employment are in
part determined by racial patterns of self-employment in the previous
generation. Black men have been found to face a “triple disadvantage”:
they are less likely than White men to: 1. Have self-employed fathers; 2.
Become self-employed if their fathers were not self-employed; and 3. To
follow their fathers into self-employment.
Intergenerational links are also critical to the success of the businesses that
do form. Working in a family business leads to more successful firms by
new owners. One study found that only 12.6 percent of Black business
owners had prior work experiences in a family business as compared to
23.3 percent of White business owners. This creates a cycle of low rates of
minority ownership and worse outcomes being passed from one
generation to the next, with the corresponding perpetuation of advantages
to White-owned firms.442
Based upon this research and analysis, CHA recommended that the City of South Bend
implement race and gender-conscious measures to remedy the harms from historic
discrimination.443
Another measure of Black-owned businesses is the number of Minority Business Enterprises
(MBE) based in South Bend that are Black-owned and certified as MBE. Most recent records
show that only twenty-one (21) businesses based in South Bend are Black-owned, certified
MBEs.444
Finally, there are also relatively low numbers of Black professionals (doctors, lawyers,
engineers, accountants, etc.) in South Bend.
With respect to the legal profession, the St.
Joseph County Bar Association currently
(2025) includes approximately 525 members.
Of those members, approximately 10 are Black.
While the annual photograph of the Bar
Association does not include all the lawyers
(only those who make time to stop in and have
their picture taken), it still gives a sense for the relative lack of diversity among bar members in
our County.
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Recommendations:
The City should expand efforts to support Black-owned businesses as a means to remedy
historical exclusion and discrimination, including:
For Immediate Implementation:
(11) Increase preferential contracting and purchasing from local Black-owned businesses,
including everyday materials and services purchases such as office supplies, cleaning
supplies, and food and beverage services.
Within six months:
(12) Expand Contract Compliance and Enforcement. The City should expand and
strengthen its enforcement of existing requirements that companies who receive City funds
either through TIF grants or Tax Abatements utilize minority contractors and create
minority jobs.
This might involve a re-deployment of the efforts of the Contract Compliance Manager to
research more closely and report to the public the extent to which each beneficiary of City
dollars is actually creating new jobs for minorities and/or using minority-owned
subcontractors.
The City should enlarge both the carrot and the stick in these programs so that
participants are motivated to succeed (i.e. create more jobs or more business opportunity
for Black-owned businesses) and punished if they do not (e.g. forced to repay public funds).
Within one year:
(13) Fund and publicize business start-up and expansion grants targeted to Black
entrepreneurs, either through the existing South Bend Opportunity Fund program or a
new, separate program;
(14) Guarantee small business loans to Black-owned businesses, either through the
Revolving Loan Fund or a new, separate program;
(15) Increase funding and expand involvement of Black entrepreneurs in the Small
Business Assistance Suite, where they can access resources in accounting, legal support, and
other professional services;
(16) Host and promote quarterly educational programs for Black entrepreneurs and
professionals including presentations by local thought-leaders in areas such as finance,
banking, accounting, law, artificial intelligence, and robotics;
(17) Provide scholarships and grants to cover membership costs for Black entrepreneurs in
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business-support organizations such as the Momentum Entrepreneurship Hub.
II. Housing Subcommittee
Housing discrimination impacts many of the other areas investigated by the Commission.
Homeownership is a significant factor in wealth accumulation. Home equity accounts for “nearly
80 percent” of most American’s wealth.445 While homeownership is mostly wealth building,
holding such a large percentage of your wealth in one asset can be negative in times of economic
downturn. This is what happened during the foreclosure crisis. People lost their homes and most,
if not all, of their wealth.
Housing can also have positive and negative implications for educational attainment. Where
you live often affects where you go to school and the kind of education you receive. This will
affect whether you can continue your education beyond high school. South Bend has very limited
mass transit, so your home’s location also has a significant impact on what job many can take. It
also impacts whether you can change jobs by moving to a new location.
Finally, housing is an important social determinant of health.446 Simply put, improving
housing improves health. 447 Unfortunately, race-based housing discrimination “continues to
shape health equities today.”448 In addition, “[a] large body of evidence” has found that
unaffordable housing has a negative effect on mental health449 and “insecure housing, including
the threat or experience of eviction” has a negative effect on mental health, maternal health,
health-care access, mortality and food insecurity, among other things.450
The harms outlined below are those identified by the housing subcommittee, but some
intersect with the work of other subcommittees.
A. Inequitable home ownership
Data from 2020 “shows that the homeownership gap between Black and White Americans is
currently the widest it’s been in 100 years.” 451 75.7 percent of White residents in South Bend
own their home compared to 41 percent of Black residents.452Decades of discriminatory policies
and practices have left homeownership out of reach for many marginalized residents of the City.
The St. Joseph County Housing Consortium periodically outlines issues that are negatively
impacting fair housing in the area. Its maps shown below illustrate the disproportionately low
home ownership rates in South Bend’s minority communities. 453
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The 2020-2024 report also acknowledges that “[a]ffordable housing units are concentrated in
neighborhoods that are segregated by race or ethnicity in addition to income.”454 This prevents
people from moving to areas where they may find more economic opportunity.” While there are
plenty of vacant lots available for infill development, there is little financial incentive to develop
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this land. Likewise, there is little financial support for buying existing properties.455 This is
especially acute for the elderly, disabled, and those with special needs.456
Homeownership includes both purchasing and maintaining a home. Because so many factors
have contributed to the homeownership gap, it will take substantial action to solve it.
Recommendations:
Immediate Implementation:
(18) Review and amend all current zoning regulations that are adversely impacting the
development of affordable housing.
(19) Maintain the city-based housing counselor.
(20) Maintain the financial empowerment center, but add a component specifically
designed to support home ownership.
(21) Support programs for downpayment assistance.
(22) Discontinue aggressive repair orders against people unable to afford repairs and
establish a fine forgiveness program for homeowners who incur code enforcement fines but
are constructively working with the City on the issues.
Within three months:
(23) Work with CDFIs and other not-for-profits to create more affordable housing.
(24) Support and expand the current grant program for home maintenance, streamlining
the process when possible.
Within one year:
(25) Robustly review all new developments to be sure they are not displacing low-income
families in favor of gentrification and guaranteeing the inclusion of affordable housing in
all further development.
B. Repairing a broken rental market
When people cannot buy, they turn to rentals. Renters in South Bend are severely cost
burdened.457 22 percent of the residents of South Bend live in poverty.458 It is especially difficult
for them to find safe, affordable housing. This is especially difficult for low-income residents of
the City. An analysis by Prosperity Indiana estimates that South Bend has a shortage of over
5,000 units for renters whose income falls below 30 percent of the area mean income. Yet, all
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current efforts to provide new housing is designed for those making 80 percent of the area mean
income or above.
Indiana generally, and South Bend specifically, have very high eviction rates. In 2023, a
study was done of 655 eviction cases filed in Saint Joseph County. The map below shows that
most of those filings fall in the same heavily redlined area of the City.
459
Figure 2: Distribution of Eviction Filings Observed, by Zip Code460
The analysis found that Black and Hispanic residents, especially women with children, were
most likely to face eviction in South Bend.461The massive number of evictions puts pressure on
the social safety net and all too often increases the homeless population in the City.
There is an extreme shortage of affordable, safe housing in South Bend. Persistent lack of
maintenance and oversight at the South Bend Housing Authority has resulted in appalling
conditions in many of their units and an unacceptably high vacancy rate.462The rental safety
verification program is important in its efforts to hold landlords responsible for their units.
However, such efforts are lost because of the City’s policy of letting large landlords accumulate
large fines, while aggressively pursuing small landlords and small fines. Corporate landlords
who house large numbers of tenants have no incentive to comply with repair orders because they
know they can simply let the fines pile up indefinitely. This lack of enforcement is in danger of
weakening what is otherwise a strong City program.
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Recommendations:
Immediate Implementation:
(26) Human Rights Commission should make annual reports to the City and the general
public relating to incidents of housing discrimination in the City.
Within three months:
(27) Continue and strengthen the Rental Safety Verification Program by aggressively
collecting against those entities who are either repeat offenders or have large outstanding
balances to the City.
(28) Create a public facing website where tenants can determine if their landlord is
registered and whether they have outstanding civil penalties and unpaid fines.
Within six months:
(29) Educate the community on the rights and responsibilities of the Fair Housing Act.
Within one year:
(30) Support the construction of housing for those below 80 percent of area mean income,
especially those below 30 percent of area mean income.
(31) Embark on a program of testing to determine the nature and extent of housing
discrimination in the City.
C. Lack of Neighborhood investment
The lack of investment in the west side of South Bend was a common topic at the public
forums. A simple drive through the area is all that is needed to confirm this. Roads are in terrible
shape. There are few sidewalks, partially because the City has a policy of not maintaining
sidewalks on City-owned properties. Instead, it waits for a buyer to do repairs. The result is an
uneven landscape that makes it difficult for people, especially the elderly, to walk to the bus stop
or a neighborhood business. Entire neighborhoods and the people in those neighborhoods feel
forgotten by the City and, as a result, disconnected from it.
Current policies on how to prioritize road repair have the effect of maintaining certain roads
and neglecting others, especially on the west side of South Bend. Many people are generally
unaware of the practice of having council members recommend road repairs and, therefore, do
not make requests. Those who are better connected have the advantage of having their particular
street cared for. This result is an inconsistent road maintenance policy.
Recommendations:
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Immediate Implementation:
(32) Maintain sidewalks on City owned properties, especially vacant lots.
Within Six months:
(33) Maintain the infrastructure equally in all neighborhoods of the City.
Within one year:
(34) Create a more equitable road repair program that focuses on neighborhoods, not
scattered streets across the City.
III. Education Subcommittee
As noted in the reports of the other Reparatory Justice Subcommittees, South Bend’s history
of racial discrimination in housing, employment, and general economic opportunity has resulted
in a higher percentage of Black children growing up in severe poverty. This causes children to
have less access to quality preschool programs, and consequently less exposure to reading and
learning skills.
The result is a greater percentage of Black children than White children being referred to
special education and remedial programs in primary school. Remedial and special education
students are less likely to complete high school, receive high school diplomas, or continue with
other forms of education. This perpetuates the pattern of low-level pay, regular periods of
unemployment, and poverty for them and their children. On the other hand, Black students are
less likely to be referred to advance placement or honors programs. This also results in fewer
high school diplomas or advanced educational gains. Again, these children are more likely to be
employed in low paying jobs and, as a result, more likely to live in poverty.
Black children are also more likely to be disciplined more harshly than White children for
similar offenses. The consequence of this discipline also increases the likelihood of school drop-
out. This increased risk of disproportionate discipline for Black students makes them more likely
to receive prison terms than comparable White students.
A. Disparate Discipline
School discipline and full school opportunity for Black students remains disparate compared
to White students. The most recent report that the SBCSC submitted to the federal court
updating the SBCSC’s compliance with the Consent Decree463 shows that for school year 2024-
2025, Black students received 63.9 percent of the 2,335 in-school suspensions, and 3,593 of the
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5,728 out-of-school suspensions (62.7 percent).464 SBCSC discipline records from 1980 to 1999
show that the total out-of-school suspensions in those years averaged about 2,882, with over 50
percent of these being Black students. The highest rate of suspensions for Black students was
55.7 percent in 1999. Expulsions were lower during the years 1980 to 1990, where the average
was 43 per year. Expulsions from 1995 to 1999 increased to an average of 160 per year. In all
years, the number of Black student expulsions exceeded 56 percent, with the worst percentage in
1995 with 70.2 percent of the expulsions being for Black students. In 2024-2025, there were 174
expulsions, of which 113 were Black students (64.9 percent).465
Former SBCSC School Board member and education chair of the NAACP, Oletha Jones, told
the Education Subcommittee that during the late 1990s there was increased focus on discipline in
schools and more rigid discipline through suspensions. She stated that Black children were often
targeted and consequently suffered loss of self-esteem. Her experiences support the statistics.
A program initiated by SBCSC schools through their resource officers between 2010-2014
illustrates the harm to Black students when discipline is inequitably applied. South Bend Tribune
journalist Kim Kilbride reported on August 24, 2014, that from 2010-2014 tickets were issued to
students for behavior code violations, in most cases for involvement in fighting.466 The tickets
were not criminal in nature, but they were punitive. Students who received a ticket were required
to pay fines and court costs as high as $140.00. Other sanctions applied if the ticket was ignored.
Sanctions for ignoring a ticket included placement in a student’s permanent record and the
student resource officer’s recommendation to the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) that
the student’s driving privilege be suspended.467
This program, attributed by one school board member to the “zero-tolerance era,” was
problematic for many reasons. There were errors in the citations and, in half the cases, the
student’s driving privileges were suspended because the student failed to respond.468
Significantly, 74 percent of the tickets went to Black students who constituted 30 percent of
student enrollment at that time.469 This may also have impacted student employment
opportunities. Names remained in the State database and former students may still be unable to
obtain driving permits or licenses.
This is consistent with nationwide findings. National, peer-reviewed scientific studies have
shown that neither socioeconomic status nor higher rates of disruptive behavior by Black
students accounts for the disproportionate level of discipline meted out to Black students. In their
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study “African American Disproportionality in School Discipline: The Divide Between Best
Evidence and Legal Remedy,” authors Russell Skiba, Suzanne Eckes and Kevin Brown cite
studies showing that a “disproportionate number of students suspended and/or expelled from
school are from low-income families or students of color.”470 A 2002 study by M. S. Donovan
and C. T. Cross confirms that Black children are disproportionately poor, and that poverty brings
high risk of exposure to toxins such as lead, alcohol, and tobacco. Poor children are more likely
to have low birth weight and less adequate nutrition, all of which can affect cognitive and
emotional development.471
The researchers cited a study by Donald Stone (1993) in which he surveyed 35 school
systems with a student population of more than 1.3 million seeking data on school suspensions.
The study showed that although the student population was nearly evenly split between Black
and White students, 71 percent of the suspended students were Black. The Skiba article notes
that research on racially disaggregated discipline rates “yielded no evidence that African
American over-representation in school suspensions is due to higher rates of misbehavior,
regardless of whether the data are self-reported, or based on analysis of disciplinary records.”472
In fact, they cited studies which show that Black students are punished more severely for less
serious and subjective infractions.
These nationwide studies support the accounts of discriminatory and disproportionate
discipline that Black students in South Bend received from White teachers and administrators in
past years. These national studies also underscore the importance of reviewing the data that
shows Black students in the SBCSC system continue to be disciplined disproportionately despite
SBCSC the 1981 Consent Decree that was intended to address the issue.
Recommendation:
Immediate Implementation:
(35) The SBCSC should track and study expulsions and behavior related discipline and
engage professionals from the mental health services and behavioral sciences to advise and
help address and reduce the racial disparities that have historically existed.
B. Disproportionate Academic Placement and Classification
In South Bend, Black children have been disproportionately labeled learning disabled and
disproportionately placed in special education. Conversely, Black children are rarely
recommended for honor programs.
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One White educator whose teaching skills were highly regarded worked in the SBCSC
during the 1980s and 1990s stated that Black children were not capable of advanced placement
work. This perception was likely shared by other White SBCSC educators. One of the Education
Subcommittee members, himself a former educator for decades in the SBCSC, observed that few
Black students were recommended for honors classes which he attributed to the lack of Black
school counselors at that time.473
Ms. Oletha Jones informed the Education Subcommittee that “mild cognitive impairment”
was the label most often used to place Black children in special education when there was no
specific diagnosis but the child was performing suboptimally. Ms. Jones also noted that in
addition to stigma, this placement also resulted in students receiving a “watered down
curriculum,” one below their actual learning potential.
Members of the Education Subcommittee reviewed the SBCSC’s data on classroom
placement. They observed a consistent pattern of disproportionality, with a higher percentage of
Black students being placed in special education classes. In 2013, the disparate referral of Black
students to special education programs was the topic of a South Bend Tribune article “Are black
students singled out?” by reporter Kim Kilbride.474 Ms. Kilbride stated that “The state [of
Indiana] has cited the South Bend Community School Corp. for overidentifying black students
with both cognitive and emotional disabilities.”475 She also said that the State’s Department of
Education “found that between 2010 and 2012, legally required procedures weren’t followed for
identifying those students.” The procedural deficit meant that the evaluation process may have
been inaccurate. Statistics included with this news article showed that for 2011-2012, 2.2 percent
of all SBCSC students were identified as having an emotional disability, and 2.5 percent as
having a cognitive disability. For Black students, the percentage were 3.4 and 3.6 respectively.476
There is also a consistent history of reverse disproportionality, with fewer Black students
enrolled in higher level courses such as AP, Level IV and V, and high-level math, English, and
foreign languages.
During the implementation of the Consent Decree, efforts were made to change this pattern
by having Black students team-up to enroll in these classes together to address issues of
isolation. It was also noted that some Black students were feeling “inadequate” and feared the
course level work would be above their capabilities. In some instances, encouragements were
made to increase their enrollment.477
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Research on reasons for this disproportionality are puzzling. The student assignment process
through teacher referral could be an issue. Even with high standardized test scores, Black
students are less likely to be assigned to high-level courses. South Bend’s statistics are affirmed
by data from the U.S. Department of Education and the College Board which show Black
students are significantly underrepresented in Advanced Placement (AP), International
Baccalaureate (IB), dual enrollment, and gifted/talented programs compared to their total high
school enrollment share.”478A Study released by the American Educational Research Association
(“AERA Study”479) in 2021 found that Black students are often overlooked by gifted and
talented programs. Its authors, Jason A. Grissom and Christopher Redding stated that:
1. “Consistent with prior research, “Black and Hispanic students are
underrepresented in gifted programs.”480
2. Black and low-income students do not see the same academic gain that
their peers experience when receiving gifted services.481 “[T]he benefits of
gifted services may not be equally distributed.”482
Christopher Redding questions whether the offerings of gifted programs “are adequate for serving
the needs of high ability students from historically marginalized groups.”483
Data from the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Education reveal that
as of 2009, Black students constituted 16.7 percent of student population but just 9 percent of
students in gifted programs. Participation in gifted and talented programs can improve
motivation, self-sufficiency, and the love of learning. A lower percentage of Black students
attend a school where gifted and talented programs exist making a placement in these programs
impossible. Even when they match the gifted and talented criteria, Black students are less likely
to be referred to a gifted program.
Research has shown that teacher discretion in referrals is an “important contributor to this
inequity.” 484 Teachers refer a majority of students to gifted and special education programs, and
if a teacher is biased, their bias will be reflected in the referral.485 The AERA Study found that
Black teachers were three times more likely to assign Black students to advanced programs, and
that when universal testing for advanced programs rather than teacher assignment was used in
Florida to determine advanced program placement, 80 percent more Black students were placed
in advanced programs.486
High school graduation and college attendance has been historically lower for South Bend's
Black public-school students perhaps due to factors such as racially disparate discipline and
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higher placement in special ed programs. The cost of college education is also more onerous for
Black students due to higher poverty, lower home ownership, and other recognized racial wealth
gap disparities.
Recommendations:
Immediate Implementation:
(36) Free GED preparation programs should be provided by the SBCSC to any Black
former SBCSC student who now desires to obtain their GED and who quit school within
the last 20 years before achieving high school graduation.
(37) After-school tutoring for Black students should be available in schools or in after
school care agencies. Academic support must be made available as needed to Black
students participating in honors or advance placement classes to ensure equitable success
of these students.
(38) Wrap around services within the SBCSC should be implemented or made available
within the SBCSC system to provide personalized support to South Bend's Black students
and their families which address urgent or persistent issues in housing, healthcare, hunger,
transportation, and similar matters.
Within one year:
(39) The SBCSC should partner with IUSB, Ivy Tech, or other local higher education
programs to provide all high school students with the opportunity for two years college
credit and an Associate's degree. This program must be given special promotion and
outreach to Black students and should engage parents of those students.
Within three years:
Leader mentorship programs such as "100 Black Men" have had a positive impact on Black
youth achievement. South Bend community Black leaders like Lynn Coleman and George
McCullough credit Charles Martin with recognizing their potential and encouraging their self-
development.
(40) SBCSC will partner with and work affirmatively to incorporate within the entire
SBCSC system Black youth mentorship programs such as 100 Black Men and will
designate a specific SBCSC administrator to coordinate and promote the
program activities within the SBCSC schools. The SBCSC will also provide staff presence
in after school events or sessions of such program.
C. Teacher Unawareness of and Insensitivity to Black Children’s Experience
Teachers have not been properly trained in the knowledge and understanding of Black life
and culture, which differs from their own. Fewer Black teachers and counselors result in Black
students with fewer role models with whom they can identify.
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Culturally responsive sustaining education is not a set of teaching
strategies and it is not simply sprinkling student culture into the
classroom; it is an education philosophy that calls for deliberatively
embedding students’ cultures into the very processes, inputs and outputs of
school.487
As described more particularly in the Donovan and Cross study:
More specifically, teachers should be familiar with the beliefs, values,
cultural practices, discourse styles, and other features of students’ lives
that may have an impact on classroom participation and success and be
prepared to use this information in designing instruction.”488
At the time Barbara Brandy attended Linden School in 1948, when it was a majority Black
student body, there were no Black teachers.489 The first Black teacher in South Bend was hired in
1950 and placed at Linden School.490It was not from a lack of qualified Black teachers that
Black students have no racial role models. Alma Powell, Education Subcommittee chair,
distinguished South Bend K-12 educator, and first Black woman principal within the SBCSC,
stated that in the late 1970s her education program at Indiana University assigned her to do her
student teaching in one of SBCSC’s gifted student classrooms. After meeting Alma, the SBCSC
teacher called IU to tell them she would “not be able to take a student teacher this year.” Yet, the
same teacher continued to take student teachers in following years.
A mother who attended one of the Reparations Commission’s public forums recounted that
her Black son’s South Bend school recommended that he be placed in a special education
program. She refused and withdrew him from public school. She enrolled him in a Catholic
school where he did much better. In fact, he graduated from college and currently has a Master’s
degree.
Alma Powell recalls vividly what her mother was told by Alma’s counselor at Washington
High School in the 1960s. “Mrs. Nesbitt, your daughter is very bright, and excellent choices for
her would be to go to Michiana College of Commerce or a beauty school.” With effective teacher
culture training, the SBCSC guidance counselors’ suggestions that Alma Powell go to commerce
or beauty school, that George McCullough work in a factory, and that a student who now holds a
Master’s degree instead be referred to special education may not have occurred. Teacher culture
training reduces teacher misperceptions and stereotypes about a student’s race and contributes
meaningfully to students’ sense of dignity in supporting them to achieve academically.
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Ms. Powell may have the motivation to succeed and overcome prejudice, but not all students
can do this. Not all students have a strong family support base or neighborhood mentors. Ms.
Powell reported the importance of one of her mentors, Ms. Ruby Joyce-Jarrett, a neighbor and
one of SBCSC’s first Black hired teachers.
Oliver Logan, chair of the program 100 Black Men of South Bend, spoke to the Education
Subcommittee in February 2025. He emphasized the benefits of mentorship for Black male
students to provide middle and high school students with 1) a sense of belonging, 2) improved
academic performance and increased high school graduation rates, and 3) a reduction of risky
behavior. Mr. Logan also said that maximum success of the 100 Black Men program occurred
when strong support came from both the school administration and the assigned faculty
coordinator at the participating school. An effective guidance counselor knows best those
students who would benefit from the self-esteem and leadership cultivation that the program
provides. Mr. Logan cited the example of Edison School’s successful program due to the
enthusiasm and work of a specific guidance counselor.
Because the schools do not have enough Black teachers to be mentors and role models,
SBCSC’s official promotion and encouragement of Black student participation in such programs
would benefit participating students.
Recommendations:
Within six months:
South Bend's history and national studies show that Black students benefit from Black
teachers, and that there are too few Black teachers in the SBCSC in relation to the Black student
population. There are also a significant number of non-certified teachers in the SBCSC system.
(41) To increase the number of Black teachers in the SBCSC system, the SBCSC should
implement a vigorous recruitment program for Black teachers from the Teacher Education
Departments of local, State, and neighboring state colleges and universities. They should
intentionally seek out students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
(42) The most highly trained, effective Black teachers should be placed in South Bend
schools where the Black student population is at or above 35.58 percent and in
those schools with the historically lowest graduation and highest school suspension rates.
Within one year:
South Bend's history shows that White teacher unfamiliarity with the physical and
emotional effects discrimination has on Black children. These students experience the racial
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wealth divide, scarcity of affordable housing, non-reliable transportation, and disparate
healthcare, to name just a few hurdles they face. The result may well be a higher rate of Black
student’s facing discipline, a disparate referral to remedial or special education classes, and a
lower rate of placement in honors and advance placement programs in South Bend schools.
Increased teacher knowledge and understanding should help improve these past negative
outcomes.
(43) Until cultural competency programs become a mandatory component of teacher
certification, the South Bend Community School Corporation (SBCSC) should develop or
obtain and sponsor an effective annual training on Black racial cultural competency and
sensitivity, classroom management, behavior strategy, child brain development, and should
require that every teacher, including substitutes, attend this program upon hire and once
every three years thereafter.
(44) Certification by all teachers employed in all SBCSC schools should be effectuated,
and teacher certification must be required to teach the Core K-12 curriculum and social
studies classes.
D. Need for Quality Preschool for Black Children
[S]tudents who attend high-quality pre-school programs reap benefits that
can last through school and their lives.”491
This summary of a 2019 National Research Review by the Learning Policy Institute affirms
the importance of early childhood education,492 and why the learning outcome of Black children
in South Bend would be enhanced with increased, quality preschool programs.
National data indicates that children who attend quality preschool programs are less likely to
be tracked into special needs programs,493 In the SBCSC a high percentage of Black children are
enrolled in special education than would be expected. Preschool attendance also impacts the rate
of grade repetition. Children attending quality preschool are “less likely to be…retained a grade
in school.”494
Even when students are only followed into elementary schools, studies
find significant benefits in lower rates of grade retention and special
education that offer partial return on the investment. High quality pre-
school programs can also help close the gap in school and life outcomes
between those raised in low-income families and their wealthier peers.
Stephen Barnett495
The St. Joseph/Elkhart County Head Start Program needs increased funding. Presently, 400
children are on the wait list. 90 percent of the existing slots are filled with 3- to 5-year-olds
getting a quality preschool experience. Early Head Start, which enrolls children from 0-3 years
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old also has a huge wait-list. It is important for Head Start and other qualified programs to have
qualified teachers and adequate resources to allow all eligible children the chance for quality
preschool. While the SBCSC is implementing an assertive effort to enhance preschool offerings,
it only enrolls those students who are age appropriate for entering kindergarten the next year.496
Educational professionals know that the foundation for educational achievement is well set in
the early years of a child’s life. Teachers can tell which children have been read-to, used a pencil,
or even taught to sit still and listen. However, it is also obvious when there has been assertive
action to erase these deficits. Mentoring, preschool and tutoring can erase some of these short-
comings.497
Disparities in educational achievement are established early in the life
course, and once these gaps are established, children’s prospects of
upward mobility are diminished.” (Kalil, 2015) Journal of Educational
Psychology 2018, March 8.
Quality preschool education can benefit middle-class children as well as
disadvantaged children: typically developing children as well as children
with special needs; and dual language learners as well as native speakers.”
(Investing in our Future: The Evidence Base on Preschool Education-
http://fed-us.org/resources/evidence/ base-preschool)
Recommendations:
Within six months:
(45) Reading programs should be required in all South Bend daycare centers; and free
training or materials on effective preschool reading techniques should be provided
to day care owners and staff.
Within one year:
Preschool child education focused on reading, language arts, math, and general intellectual
curiosity prepares and promotes confidence in children before they enter mandatory primary
school. This has not been available to most South Bend Black children due to greater levels of
poverty, housing instability and other related factors. This lack can lead to early academic
underachievement and disinterest in school, accompanied by challenging behavior.
(46) The City of South Bend, SBCSC, social agencies, and employers in South Bend should
unite to promote and provide early, free, or minimal cost, effective early childhood
education programs to be located within South Bend's high poverty geographic areas and
should monitor the results of this education upon the participants through their primary
school years.
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(47) The South Bend Community Foundation should partner with the South Bend Branch
of the St. Joseph County Library to assure that every preschool child living in a designated
low-income area of South Bend (the former redlined geographic areas) has received a Dolly
Parton free book, and create a program to distribute another book to every such Black
child at ages three and four with opportunities for "book readings" at the closest Library
branches.
IV. Health and Mental Health Subcommittee
Systemic racism in South Bend has been historically embedded in policies and practices that
shaped where Black residents could live and the resources available to them. These
discriminatory practices concentrated Black communities in neighborhoods with long-term
disinvestment, environmental hazards, and limited access to healthcare, healthy food, and
economic opportunity. As a result, many Black neighborhoods continue to experience higher
social vulnerability, including poverty, housing insecurity, and exposure to environmental
stressors. In 2020, the St. Joseph County Health Department declared “racism to be a public
health crisis that affects all members of our community and deserves action from all levels of
government and civil society.”498 The longstanding history of discrimination has been well
documented in this report and does not need repeating. However, it is also important to
understand that a person’s health outcome is affected by many non-medical factors such as
illustrated below. 499
Crucially, research also shows that supportive relationships, community connection, and
environments that promote safety and stability can help buffer stress-related and epigenetic
harms. By addressing the root causes of systemic injustice and centering community voice,
106
reparatory justice efforts have the potential not only to improve present-day conditions but also
to interrupt the biological and social transmission of harm—supporting healing, resilience, and
long-term wellbeing for Black residents in South Bend.
A. Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL)
Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL)
500 is a measurement of premature death that estimates
“the average time a person would have lived had he or she not died prematurely.”501 YPLL is
recognized as a measure of preventable deaths.502
107
Indiana residents had a YPLL of about 8,600 and St. Joseph County’s YPLL was 9,800. The
YPLL for the county’s Black residents for the same period was 17,600. What this means is that
Black residents of the county have lost twice the number of years of potential life than other
Indiana residents, and only slightly less than twice as many as other residents of St. Joseph
county. In fact, “[b]lack life expectancy in St. Joseph County is 5 years less than White life
expectancy.”503 A 1985 report by the US Department of Health and Human Services confirmed
that there are “no intrinsic biological reason” for there to be disparities such as these. Instead,
they “are driven by the burden of acquired risk factors, influence of social determinants of
health, limitations in access to care, and structural barriers indicative of bias (ie. structural
racism.)”504 The findings of the commission are consistent with this conclusion.
According to a 2020 report, The Chartbook On Healthcare for Blacks in St. Joseph County,
“the overall mortality rate (deaths per 100,000) for blacks is prematurely 71.2 percent larger than
whites.” These premature deaths result in economic and social losses to the community.505 The
reasons for these lost years are not consistent over demographic groups. For example, Black
youth are disproportionately affected by assaults and particularly firearm assaults and, therefore,
have a much higher rate of death related to violence. In fact, death by homicide was the leading
cause of death for Black males ages 15-24 and 25-34 years of age.506 Diseases such as cancer
and heart disease are more relevant for other age groups.
108
B. Infant Mortality and Birth Outcomes
Infant mortality is a specific area of concern. According to the Indiana Department of
Health’s 2021 report on Infant Mortality and Birth Outcomes, “infant mortality is the number
one indicator of health status in the world.”507 Black infant mortality “is more than three times
higher than white infant mortality.”508St. Joseph County residents fares poorly on this metric and
Blacks in the county fare even worse. The county’s infant mortality rate from 2017-21 was 8.4
per 1,000 live births, while the Black infant mortality rate for that same period was 15.2 per
1,000 live births.509 In its 2020 Health Equity Report, the health department reported that infant
mortality rates for Black children were three times higher than those of White children.510 The
graph below illustrates the problem:
511
Low birth weights can make a child more susceptible to sudden infant death as well as
“delayed motor and social and learning skills.”512 The percentage of Black low-birth-weight
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infants was 92 percent higher than that of White infants.513 Below is a graph which shows the
Perinatal Periods of Risk (PPOR) action areas by race and ethnicity, accounting for population
size and total births. The graph displays the disparity in PPOR categories with the Black Non-
Hispanic (NH) being 2-2.5 times the White and Hispanic rates. The PPOR category for Maternal
and Infant health are the most common areas for action to prevent loss. As with other
preventable deaths, the SJC FIMR annual report also points out that 59 percent of the infant
losses for Black Non-Hispanics had a chance for prevention.
C. Chronic Health Issues
Research demonstrates that chronic exposure to racism and social disadvantage affects
health not only through lived experience but also through biological mechanisms, including
epigenetics. Prolonged stress can influence how genes are expressed—without changing DNA
itself—by altering stress-response systems in the brain and body. These epigenetic changes can
increase vulnerability to chronic disease, mental health challenges, and impaired stress
regulation, particularly when exposure begins in childhood or occurs across generations.
514
Persistent activation of the body’s stress-response systems due to discrimination and unsafe
environments has been linked to higher rates of hypertension, diabetes, asthma, and adverse
mental health outcomes. Adverse childhood experiences associated with systemic oppression can
further compound these effects, disrupting emotional regulation and increasing health risks
across the lifespan. Importantly, emerging evidence suggests that the biological impacts of
systemic stress may be transmitted intergenerationally, reinforcing inequities over time.515
For older residents, it is chronic disease that robs Black residents of potential years of life.
Blacks living in the St. Joseph county “die at twice the rate as Whites from heart disease, stroke,
110
and diabetes in their later years.” 516 The vast majority of these Black residents live in the City of
South Bend. Unfortunately, Blacks also fail to “seek or receive prevention-related services at the
same rate as Whites, are less likely to be diagnosed with these chronic conditions,(sic) and so
suffer higher emergency room visits and hospital stays for conditions that are ‘preventable.’”517
Additionally, Blacks in St. Joseph County are more likely to be uninsured that the county’s White
residents.518 The result is that Black residents are less likely to see medical professionals or
receive preventative care and, when they do, medical professionals are less likely to believe
Black patients who do report symptoms.
Black residents of the county suffer many illnesses in disproportionately high numbers.
Black men were diagnosed with cancer at a level 1.2 times higher than their White counterparts.
Once diagnosed, mortality rates for Black men were “notably higher” than for Black women or
White men and women.519 Black men were more likely to die from colon, rectum, and prostate
cancers. The rate of new cancer incidents was not significantly higher for Black men, but the
mortality rate was 28 percent higher. This may also be because, as previously mentioned, Blacks
may be less likely to seek medical attention early. An example can be seen in mammogram
utilization, with White women being more likely than Black women to receive mammograms.520
There are also disproportionate deaths related to heart disease for Black residents of the
County.521 According to the health department, from 2017-19, elderly Blacks had a 26 percent
higher cardiovascular disease death rates than their White counterparts.522 Blacks were also more
likely to be hospitalized for cardiovascular disease than Whites from 2010-18.523 Blacks were
also 50 percent more likely to have a stroke as compared to their White counterparts, and Black
men 35 and older were 63 percent more likely to die from stroke than White men. Stroke hospital
admissions are 41 to 44 percent higher in St. Joseph county than the rates in Indiana or the
nation.
The rate of diabetes and death from diabetes was also much higher for Blacks in the County.
In the years for which we have data (2011-19), the average death rates for Blacks was 62.5 and
23.9 for Whites – a ratio of 2.6:1.524
Recommendations:
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Because economic well-being, housing, and education are such important determinants of
health, adopting the recommendation in those areas will also benefit the health of all
communities in South Bend.
Immediate Implementation:
(48) Fund programs that provide prenatal care, doula services, and postpartum support for
Black mothers. Partner with local hospitals to reduce Black infant mortality and low birth
weight disparities
Within one year:
(49) Increase the number of community health workers, health navigators, and peer
support specialists. Hire and train these positions with people from the Black communities
to assist residents in access insurance, scheduling appointments, access mental health
services, and understanding treatment options.
(50) Mandate an annual public report on health disparities, progress on reparatory
initiatives, and community feedback sessions.
(51) Ensure access to healthy and affordable foods, especially on the west side.
Within three years:
(52) Establish a Black Health Equity Fund dedicated to supporting health initiatives for
Black residents, including preventative care, chronic disease management, and maternal
health programs.
D. Mental Health
From 2015-2019, Black county residents were “42 percent more likely to die from ‘mental,
behavioral and neurodevelopmental disorders’ than whites.”525Derrick Perry, a social worker at
Oaklawn Treatment Center, told members of the healthcare subcommittee that 21 percent of
Black people experience mental health concerns, but fewer than four in ten of those individuals
seek mental health services. Black people are less likely to receive counseling or treatment and
are more likely to be arrested when they experience a mental health breakdown. Mr. Perrry noted
that the stressors Black people face make their symptoms more acute. Perry said that Blacks
experience mental health crises at the same rate as the general population, but Blacks report
having higher levels of distress.
Dr. LaRissa Buggs, a psychiatrist in South Bend, spoke to the Commission on a number of
occasions. Among other issues, she expressed concerns that a distrust of the mental health system
and a disconnection from those mental health services causes harm to the entire healthcare
112
system. “If you feel that you have access, you feel like you have the ability to comment. If you
don’t have access you are less inclined to ask questions.” This prevents people from engaging
with mental health services. In addition, some potential patients are uncomfortable sharing their
mental health issues with counselors and physicians that do not share cultural values and
experiences. There are very few counselors of color in the South Bend area leaving those with
mental health issues with few treatment options.
While peer counseling cannot fill the role of physicians and trained counselors, they can
assist with front line interventions and assistance. This can be especially important in moments
of crisis. From 2015-19, Blacks were 42 percent more likely to die from mental, behavioral and
neurodevelopmental disorders. That might account for the high rates of suicide among Blacks,
and particularly young Black men. Suicide is the third highest cause of death for Blacks between
the ages of 10-24.526
Recommendation:
Immediate Implementation:
(53) Support efforts in the community to increase the number of peer counselors.
Within six months:
(54) Establish community-based mental health centers.
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E. Continued Discrimination and Lack of Trust the Medical Profession
The history of medical experimentation on Black patients and the continued misinformation
regarding their care, has created a mistrust of the medical community. This mistrust is rooted not
only in historical events but also in contemporary experiences within healthcare systems.
Historic examples such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and other unethical medical practices
involving Black Americans have contributed to long-standing skepticism toward medical
institutions. Research has shown that these historical injustices continue to shape perceptions of
the healthcare system today and influence whether individuals seek care, participate in research,
or trust medical guidance. 527
Modern research further demonstrates that disparities in care persist even when controlling
for factors such as income, insurance status, and severity of illness. The National Academies
report concluded that racial and ethnic minorities frequently receive lower-quality healthcare
than White patients across a range of services, including preventive care, diagnostic testing, and
treatment recommendations.528
Testimony shared with the Commission illustrates how experiences within the healthcare
system continue to reinforce this mistrust. Residents described situations in which their
symptoms were minimized, their concerns were dismissed, or they felt labeled negatively when
advocating for their own care. As one community member shared with a member of the
Reparatory Justice Commission:
“Staff documented that I was a rambler and combative about my health
instead of taking me seriously.”
In this instance, the individual reported needing to seek care from multiple providers before
receiving a clear explanation of their condition. Experiences such as these can leave individuals
feeling isolated when trying to navigate complex medical systems. The individual reported that
behaviors used to self-regulate during the evaluation were interpreted as anxiety rather than
considered within the context of neurodivergence, and that requests for a second evaluator were
denied.
“Answering questions, I was fearful of being misrepresented as a woman
of color. I feel alone walking through this process.”
114
Research suggests that language used in medical records can influence clinical decision-
making and the way future providers perceive a patient’s credibility or behavior. A 2022 study
found that stigmatizing language appeared more frequently in medical records of Black patients
compared with White patients, potentially shaping how future clinicians approach care.529
Beyond documentation practices, racial bias has also been identified in pain management and
treatment decisions. Studies have shown that Black patients are less likely than White patients to
receive adequate pain medication in emergency settings, even when presenting with similar
symptoms and diagnoses.530When individuals repeatedly encounter situations in which their
symptoms are minimized, misinterpreted, or inadequately addressed, it can discourage them from
seeking care in the future or delay treatment until conditions become more severe. Rebuilding
trust therefore requires intentional efforts to ensure transparency, accountability, and culturally
responsive care.
Recommendations:
Immediate Implementation:
(55) Establish a comprehensive directory showcasing Black therapists, doctors, and nurse
practitioners
Within six months:
(56) Develop culturally competent healthcare teams
Within one year:
(57) Create scholarships and mentorship programs for Black students pursuing careers in
healthcare. Partner with local universities and hospitals to increase representation in
medical fields.
E. Environmental Issues
1. Lead contamination:
Lead occurs naturally in the soil, but it has also been added to several household products.
Lead in gasoline was phased out beginning in the 1970s but not finally banned until 1996.531
Lead was a component of both interior and exterior house paint until 1978. 70 percent of the
homes in South Bend were built before 1978 and, therefore, most of the homes in the City
115
contain lead paint.532 Finally, high lead levels can be caused by industrial pollution, which will
be discussed below. Low-income residents, especially Black residents, are more likely to be
exposed to these hazards because they are more likely to live in neighborhoods and houses where
the hazards are more prevalent.
“Lead can cause a variety of severe and irreversible health problems, including decreased
muscle and bone growth, speech and language problems, learning disabilities, attention deficit
disorder, and decreased intelligence.”533Lead targets the nervous system. Prolonged exposure can
increase blood pressure, anemia, and decreased neurological functions. Higher levels can cause
brain damage, liver damage, and death.534Lead exposure is especially dangerous for children and
pregnant women and no level is considered safe.535
536
Children can be exposed to lead by inhaling lead dust or ingesting paint chips, or the dust that
is on their hands or toys. Data collected from 2005-2015 showed the problem of childhood lead
poisoning is highest in two of South Bend’s westside neighborhoods, both of which have high
46628
290 Tests with
Elevated Levels
1835 Tests
Completed
46619
248 Tests with
Elevated Levels
1764 Tests
Completed 46614
150Tests with
Elevated Levels
1467Tests
Completed
116
minority populations.537 Unfortunately, few children are tested and fewer homes are remediated
for lead contamination.538
Recommendation:
Immediate Implementation:
(58) Enhance the City lead removal program supporting the homes in the zip codes with
the highest risk to lead exposure (46613, 46619, and 46628).
B. Environmental Issues in LaSalle Park Neighborhood
As stated earlier, South Bend’s Black residents are more likely to live in neighborhoods
where the houses have elevated lead levels, or in areas where abandoned factories left large
brownfields and hazardous environmental waste in their wake. Many residents believe these
factors play a role in myriad of health issues confronting South Bend’s Black residents. Several
people raised the concerns that many older people have died and continue to die from cancer and
other diseases in the LaSalle Park/Beck’s Lake neighborhood. There is a persistent belief in the
community that industrial contamination connected with the dumping of toxins in the lake and
what became the nearby park played a role in the higher rate of disease in the area.
The census tracts located in the LaSalle Park/Beck’s Lake neighborhood have the lowest life
expectancy in the county – in some cases five to seven years lower than the county average of
77.4. Additionally, the history of racial discrimination, mistreatment and exploitation of Black
residents by the medical establishment nationally and local has created a culture of distrust. That
distrust means that Black people often delay seeking medical treatment until their symptoms
become too serious to ignore.
This report establishes the long history of discriminatory housing policy that forced many
families to move into the LaSalle Park neighborhood, adjacent to a toxic waste dump. While the
dumping ended in the 1950s, the first environmental assessment of the property did not occur
until April 20, 1988. 539 Information from the Bendix Corporation “indicates that paint wastes,
hydroxide sludge, soluble oil and water mixtures, chromic acid, wastewater treatment sludge,
nickel waste, stoddard solvents or naptha, foundry sand, and cyanide waste may have been
disposed of at the 17 Bendix sites.”540
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During the decades that people lived next to this constant dump, we have extensive first-hand
accounts of the dust arising from the unpaved roads, children playing in the sludge and mud of
the dump, rats running free, and fires burning almost constantly. While some corporations have
informed the City of the chemicals dumped in the area, there is no information about exactly
what else might have been dumped at the site during the decades it remained a public dump.
The chart, reproduced below, indicates the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA)’s
progress and plans for cleaning up the site.541
Milestone Date(s)
Initial Assessment Completed 06/28/1985
Proposed to the National Priorities
List
05/24/2013
Finalized on the National
Priorities List
12/12/2013
Remedy Selected 10/02/2015
Remedial Action Started Not Yet
Achieved
Construction Completed Not Yet
Achieved
Deleted from National Priorities
List
Not Yet
Achieved
Most Recent Five-Year Review Not Yet
Achieved
Achieved Sitewide Ready for
Anticipated Reuse
Not Yet
Achieved
The specific area for the proposed cleanup is indicated below:
118
542
In the initial screening site report, the EPA identified approximately 15,689 people who lived
within a mile of the dump as being at risk for “direct contact with TCL compounds543 and TAL
analytes.”544 The report also identified a risk for these hazardous chemicals “to migrate from the
site to groundwater”545 with possible 128,072 people living within a 3 mile radius of the site
being affected.546 100,317 people who lived within a 4 mile radius of the side may have been
affected by air contamination.547 Remarkably, the report claims “no documentation exists of an
incident of fire or explosion at the Beck’s Lake site.”548 Clearly, they did not look too carefully
for such documentation. A review of newspaper records or conversations with even a single
person who lived near the site in the 1950s and 1960s would have verify the numerous fires that
plagued the dumpsite. Because no analysis was done at the time, the is no information about any
chemical exposure these fires may have caused.
From 1984 to 2009 the EPA continued to do limited inspections and sampling of the site. In
2013, they did a more targeted sample of the LaSalle Park play area.549 The site was added to the
National Priorities List in December of 2013, but it was not until October of 2015 that
Honeywell and the City agreed to formally investigate the site.550 It was not until 2022 that a
formal clean-up and consent order was finally signed.551
119
The consent order goes through a number of different samples taken from the lack from 2001
onwards:
October 2001 lead, arsenic, and Benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) were found to be
above safe, acceptable levels
June 16, 2003: “Arsenic was identified in residential areas at levels
between 1.9 ppm and 32.9 ppm. Arsenic was detected at 3.5 ppm in the
background sample. The benchmark used for comparison of other samples
was 10.5 ppm (three times the background level). Seven samples exceeded
10.5 ppm, ranging from 10.7 ppm to 32.9 ppm. • Lead was detected in all
22 samples at levels between 20.7 ppm and 306 ppm. Three samples were
detected at concentrations three times higher than the highest background
sample level (181.5 ppm). • Chromium was detected in all 22 samples at
levels ranging from 5.3 ppm to 152 ppm. Two samples were detected at
concentrations exceeding three times the highest background sample level
(64.8 ppm).”
October 5 and 6, 2009 and December 20, 2009 “further documented the
presence of hazardous substances. Arsenic was detected in concentrations
ranging from 2.7 ppm to 32.6 ppm, and six surface soil samples contained
arsenic above three times the highest background level (23.7 ppm).
Subsurface soil samples collected from borings where historical dumping
occurred revealed 8 arsenic levels ranging from 7 ppm to 24.5 ppm. Four
subsurface soil samples contained lead in excess of 1,000 ppm. Lead
levels above three times the highest background level were detected in one
surface sample (665 ppm). Other constituents detected at levels three
times above background levels include: zinc, barium, chromium,
cadmium, copper, and silver.
July 29, 2013, sampling report measured against the IDEM Remediation
Closure Guide (RCG) 2015 Screening Levels; “arsenic levels in 18 surface
soil triplicate samples (ranging from 14 mg/kg to 24 mg/kg) that were
analyzed using XRF technology and seven of the samples (ranging from
9.4 mg/kg to 14.9 mg/kg) that were analyzed using fixed lab analytical
methods were above 2015 IDEM RCG Screening Levels for Residential
Soil Exposure (9.4 mg/kg).”
2016: “Honeywell and the City of South Bend took soil samples of the
LPA under EPA oversight. Results from the Remedial
Investigation/Feasibility Study indicated that seven TAL metals (iron,
arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, lead, manganese, and mercury) were detected in
surface soils at concentrations at or above direct contact screening levels.
Furthermore, four semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs)
(benzo(a)anthracene, benz(a)pyrene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, and
dibenz(a,h)-anthracene) were also detected in surface soils at or above
direct contact screening levels. In addition to the surface soil exceedances,
nine TAL metals (iron, antimony, arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, copper, lead,
120
manganese, and mercury) as well as seven SVOCs (benzo(a)anthracene,
benz(a)pyrene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, benzo(k)fluoranthene,
dibenz(a,h)anthracene, indeno(1,2,3-c,d)pyrene, and naphthalene) were
detected in subsurface soils at concentrations at or above direct contact
screening levels.”
“Results from the soil sampling indicated that 9 samples from the 0- to
0.5-foot interval had lead levels greater than the EPA RML for residential
soil (400 mg/kg) with a maximum concentration of 2,300 mg/kg. Results
from the soil sampling also indicated that 14 samples from the 0.5- to 1-
foot interval had lead levels greater than the EPA RML for residential soil
with a maximum concentration of 6,800 mg/kg”
Stepping back, it is very important to remember that it was intentional discrimination that
caused people to live next to this toxic waste dump for the last 100 years. While Bendix and
others used this as a dump beginning in the 1930s, it was the City that continued to use the area
as a dump knowing people were living next to and nearly on top of this polluted area. While
officially closing the dump in 1950, dumping continued until 1967. The City forced people to
live here and actually moved people to this site during redevelopment projects.
It was not until 2001 that anyone stopped to ask what the people in this community had been
exposed to for decades. One story has been consistent throughout our forums, discussions with
community members, and other outreach efforts across the City: the people living in and around
Beck’s Lake claim to have higher concentrations of cancer, heart disease, and other chronic
illness. These claims have not been investigated.
The E.P.A. report mentions many dangerous substances identified on this site but focuses
particularly on lead and arsenic. Here is what the consent decree says about lead:
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) states
that exposure to lead can lead to negative health effects. The main
exposure pathways for lead are through inhalation or ingestion. People can
be exposed by swallowing or breathing lead into the body. The target
system that lead affects in the body is the nervous system. Exposure to
lead over long periods of time can lead to a small increase in blood
pressure, anemia, and decreased neurological function. Exposure to high
levels of lead can lead to brain and kidney damage and ultimately death.
Pregnant women and children are populations of special concern for lead
exposure. Lead exposure during pregnancy can cause miscarriage or
developmental problems in the unborn fetus. No safe level of lead
exposure has been found for children since they are more sensitive to lead
than adults are. Health effects from lead exposure in children include
anemia, kidney damage, colic, muscle weakness, and brain damage.
121
Children can also experience mental and physical development growth
effects.552
An E.P.A. pamphlet on arsenic exposure links exposure to a range of health issues from “nausea
and vomiting” to “decreased production of red and white blood cells, abnormal heart rhythm,
damage to blood vessels” and cancer.553 In children, long-term exposure can result in “lower IQ
scores” and “increased mortality in young adults.”
But these are only some of the chemicals found at the site in recent years. Again, no one ever
determined what was on the site before the dump was closed and, at least according to local lore,
turned into a hill. Some of the other chemicals mentioned in above acceptable levels include:
Benzo(a)pyrene (BaP): “This substance is very toxic, and it is a group I
carcinogen.554 A group I carcinogen is known to cause cancer in
humans.555
benzo(a)anthracene, , and dibenz(a,h)-anthracene is classified as a Group
2A carcinogen, “probably carcinogenic to humans” and
benzo(b)fluoranthene which is Group 2B and only” possibly carcinogenic
to human beings.”556
The E.P.A. concluded that “the nature of the known and suspected hazardous substances
within the boundaries of the Site, and the potential exposure pathways described in Sections II
and III above, actual or threatened releases of hazardous substances from the Site, if not
addressed by implementing the response actions selected in this Action Memorandum, may
present an imminent and substantial endangerment to public health, welfare, or the
environment.”
It defies logic to suggest that when these same chemicals were regularly burning and filling
the area with smoke, children were playing in the mud of this toxic heap, and dust from the
unpaved streets was blowing around, people were not exposed and poisoned. Even if the site has
been partially mitigated, nothing has been done to address the decades of unmitigated exposure.
An investigation into the adverse health effects of these exposures cannot be delayed any longer.
If such epidemiological study verifies the adverse health effects for people forced to move and
live next to a toxic dump, reparations should be paid.
Recommendations:
Immediate Implementation:
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(59) The City should embark on a comprehensive education program in the LaSalle Park
regarding safe urban gardening practices, including distribution of the information
provided by the EPA on the superfund site.
(60) The City should support efforts by the LaSalle Park Neighborhood Association to do
comprehensive health study of the historical LaSalle Park residents and their families as
well as increased testing of the area.
(61) The City should embark on an aggressive lead testing program for the children who
have lived or are currently living in the Beck’s Lake region.
(62) Accelerate cleanup of toxic sites like Beck’s Lake and surrounding neighborhoods.
Conduct long-term health impact studies and provide free health screenings for residents
exposed to industrial pollutants.
123
ENDNOTES
1 Northwest Ordinance of 1787, Indiana Historical Bureau, https://www.in.gov/history/about-indiana-history-and-
trivia/explore-indiana-history-by-topic/timelines/northwest-ordinance-of-1787/.
2 Paul Finkelman, Almost a Free State: The Indiana Constitution of 1816 and the Problem of Slavery, 111 Indiana Magazine
of History 64, 64 (2015).
3 Finkelman, supra note 2 at 64-65. The 1810 census showed 237 slaves in a state where slavery was prohibited. Id. at 74.
The 1830 census claimed there were only 3 slaves in the state. However, a census of the town of Vincennes that same year
registered 32 slaves. Id at 75. Clearly, the “slave free state” was not free for all. While we can assume that most of these
slaves were Black, it is impossible to know their exact ethnic background for certain. Native people were the first American
slaves and prior to 1840, when they were recorded in census documents at all, they were often labeled as “colored.” Census
of American Indians, https://www.census.gov/about/history/census-records-family-history/census-records/censuses-of-
american-indians.html; In 1838 most members of the Potawatomi nation were forcibly marched to Kansas in what is known
as the Potawatomi trail of tears, severely decreasing the native population in the area.3 Those that remained did not announce
their ethnicity. Trail of Death, CPN Cultural Heritage Center, https://www.potawatomiheritage.com; It is also theoretically
possible, though even less likely, that some of these slaves were Mexican. The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hildago banned the
enslavement of Mexicans, or former Mexican citizens, but it only applied if you could prove you were pure White. (Treaty of
Hidalgo Guadalupe, February 2, 1948). Some evidence exists that Hispanics faced difficulties proving they were White and,
as a result, some were legally enslaved.( PAUL ORTIZ, AN AFRICAN AMERICAN AND LATINX HISTORY OF THE UNITED
STATES, 68 (2018).) In addition, Hispanic immigration to South Bend in any significant numbers is very recent. (Latino
Immigration in South Bend, Institute for Latino Studies, University of Notre Dame,
https://latinostudies.nd.edu/assets/95336/original/student_brief_1.1_latino_immigrants.pdf).
4 History of South Bend, City of South Bend, https://www.sjcindiana.gov/1638/City-of-South-Bend.
5 Finkelman, supra note 2 at 66.
6 Id. at 66.
7 Lewis v. Henley, 2 Ind 332 (1850).
8 Lewis v. Henley, 2 Ind 332, 333 (1850).
9 John Taylor, African-American Education in Indiana, https://www.in.gov/history/files/African
American_Education_in_Indiana.pdf; GEORGE GARNER,PLACING HISTORY: AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN LANDMARK TOUR OF
SOUTH BEND 91 (2025), available at
https://aalt.iusb.edu/?_gl=1*xwv3bb*_gcl_au*OTA3Mjg1NjgzLjE3NjY5Njk1OTg.*_ga*MTA3NDUwNjgwMy4xNzYzNTA5
OTQy*_ga_61CH0D2DQW*czE3NjY5Njk1OTckbzEkZzAkdDE3NjY5Njk1OTkkajU4JGwwJGgw.
10 Finkelman, supra note 2 at 65.
11 Indiana Constitution 1851.
12 Indiana Constitution 1851.
13 REVERAND BUFORD F. GORDON, THE NEGRO IN SOUTH BEND: A SOCIAL STUDY 22 (1922, reprinted in 2009).
14 Id. at 33.
15 Johnny Vann, The Black Americans of the South Bend-Mishawka Area, Ethnic Heritage Studies Program. Indiana
University at South Bend (1975) at 9, https://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/digital/collection/p16827coll4/id/1677/rec/3r.
16 Id. at 8-9, Gordon, supra note 13 at 11-20.
17 Id. at 9
18Gorden, supra note 13 at 22.
19 DEREK WEBB, DIVIDING LINES IN SOUTH BEND, INDIANA: RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION AND OPEN HOUSING IN AN ALL-
AMERICAN CITY, 6 Wolfson Press (forthcoming)
20 Id. at 5.
21 Elizabeth Dales and Katherine Edsall, A Brief History of South Bend, Indiana1820-1969 13, 14, History and Travel
Department South Bend Public Library (1970).
22 Gordon, supra note 13 at 22; There was an African-American settlement south of South Bend established in 1834 which
included approximately twenty-eight families. It is believed these families all eventually did move to South Bend. Webb,
supra note 18 at 7.
23 Initially, all the available census data was for the county and not South Bend in particular; Gordon, supra note 13 at 33.
24 A Review of the Economic and Cultural Problems of South Bend as they Relate to Minority People (conducted for the South
Bend Urban League and Hering House Community Center Inc. Warren M. Banner Assoc. Director (March 1958), Accessible
at St. Joseph County Public Library, Local and Family History Services; Garner, supra note 9 at 93, 107.
25 Taylor, supra note 9.
124
26 Id.
27 Garner, supra note 9 at 92.
28 Id. at 97.
29 Kevin Tidmarsh, The Forgotten Legacy of Buford Gordon, BELT magazine, (March 3, 2016); https://beltmag.com/the-
forgotten-legacy-of-buford-gordon/.
30 Gordon, supra note 13 at 33.
31 United States Bureau of the Census, Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910, Volume IV – Occupational Statistics,
Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office, 1914, pp.456-459; available at
https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1914/dec/vol-4-occupations.html Accessed December 17, 2025. See also Being
Black in Indiana, INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, https://www.in.gov/history/for-educators/download-issues-of-the-indiana-
historian/indiana-emigrants-to-liberia/being-black-in-indiana/ Accessed December 17, 2025.
32 Id. at 32.
33 Gordon, supra note 13 at 56
34 Id,
35 TIMOTHY EAGAN, FEVER IN THE HEARTLAND:THE KU KLUX KLAN’S PLOT TO TAKE OVER AMERICA AND THE WOMAN
WHO STOPPED THEM 20-21 (2023).
36 Judith Fox, The American Dream: A Historic Perspective, 61 Washburn L. J. 441, 462 (2022).
37 Work or Fight 1918, NATIONAL ARCHIVES, https://recordsofrights.org/events/127/work-or-fight Accessed December 17,
2025.
38 Mobilizing for War: The Selective Service Act in World War I, NATIONAL ARCHIVES FOUNDATION,
https://archivesfoundation.org/documents/mobilizing-war-selective-service-act-world-war/ Accessed December 17, 2025.
39 Drew Keeling, August 1914 And The End Of Unrestricted Mass Migration, https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/august-1914-
and-end-unrestricted-mass-migration. Accessed December 17, 2025.
40 TODD TUCKER, NOTRE DAME V. THE KLAN: HOW THE FIGHTING IRISH DEFIED THE KKK 40 (2018).
41 Gordon, supra note 13 at 6.
42 LOCAL AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY, THE HISTORY MUSEUM, “African Americans in the Workplace,”
,https://www.historymuseumsb.org/local-african-american-history/ Accessed December 12, 2025.
43 Gordon, supra note 13 at 45-46.
44 The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A long Struggle for Freedom, THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS,
https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-rights-act/segregation-era.html Accessed December 17, 2025.
45 GABRIELLE ROBINSON, BETTER HOMES OF SOUTH BEND: AN AMERICAN STORY OF COURAGE 14-15 ( 2015).
46 Id. at 16.
47 Photographs courtesy of Studebaker National Museum Archives.
48 LISA SWEDARSKY, A PLACE WITH PURPOSE: HERING HOUSE 1925-1963 (2009).
49Id. at 1.
50Id. At 18.
51 While the residents of these areas were predominately black, recent migrants, especially those from Eastern European
countries, also resided there.
52 Webb, supra note 19 at 18.
53 Id. at 18.
54Id. at 19.
55Elmer Wolf, Some Salient Features of South Bend’s Housing Problem that Demand Attention, SOUTH BEND TRIB., April 9,
1916.
56 Fox, supra note 36 at 463.
57 Id. at 463.
58 RICHARD ROTHSTEIN, THE COLOR OF LAW: A FORGOTTEN HISTORY OF HOW OUR GOVERNMENT SEGREGATED AMERICA
43 (2017).
59 Fox, supra note 36 at 463.
60 The plats were collected with the assistance of two student, J.D. Sniegocki and Veronica Bofard, as part of their fellowship
at Notre Dame’s Klau Institute for Civil and Human rights.
61 The covenants we uncovered were for a very specific period of time but research from other cities suggest there may be
more. In addition, they do not include covenants an individual homeowner may have placed on their property before selling.
We have been told anecdotally that covenants continued to appear on deeds in South Bend well past the time they were no
longer enforceable but time prevented us from looking further.
62 Developments not located in the city were approved by the relevant municipality or the equivalent county officer.
125
63 Jefferson Park Addition, June 7, 1923, record P1923028. The covenant appears in cursive print to illustrate that these were
almost all handwritten, making some very difficult to read.
64 Shelly v. Kraemer, 68 S. Ct. 836, 842(1948).
65 Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S. 3601 et. seq.
66 Gordon, supra note 13 at 57; Webb, supra note 19 at 20.
67 See JAMES H. MADISON, THE KU KLUX KLAN IN THE HEARTLAND Introduction 156-57 (2020).
68 Id.
69 Webb, supra note 19 at 30.
70 Madison, supra note 67; chapter 1, paragraph 11.
71 Webb, supra note 19 at 23, 30.
72 Nicole Poletika, How South Bend Attorneys Elizabeth and J. Chester Allen Lifted the “Heel of Oppression,” INDIANA
HISTORICAL BUREAU; https://blog.history.in.gov/tag/indiana-history/page/4/ Accessed December 17, 2025.
73 EMMA LOU THORNBROUGH, SINCE EMANCIPATION: A SHORT HISTORY OF INDIANA NEGROES, 1863-1963 40-41(1965).
74 Poletika, supra note 72 at 15 (referencing J. Chester Allen’s “The Story of House Bill No. 445”, p.15).
75 Id.
76 Letter, Marvin Heidt to J. Chester Allen, re: Indiana Female Labor Law; February 4, 1941. MICHIANA MEMORIES, ST.
JOSEPH COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY, https://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/digital/collection/p16827coll4/id/480/rec/13,Accessed
July 9, 2024.
77 Robinson, supra note 45 at 43.
78 Thornbrough, supra note 73 at 66.
79 Lucille Sneed, interview with David Healey and Amy Selner, July 9, 2002, Oral
History collection, CIVIL RIGHTS HERITAGE CENTER COLLECTIONS, IND. U. SOUTH
BEND ARCHIVES, https://archive.org/details/OH-Sneed-Lucille-2002-07-09.
80 World War II opened doors for Black women, THE HERALD-TIMES, March 20, 2005.
https://www.heraldtimesonline.com/story/news/2005/03/20/world-war-ii-opened-doors-for-black-wome/117996018/.
Accessed December 17, 2025.
81 Id.
82 Price Fishback, Jonathan Rose, Kenneth A Snowden, & Thomas Storrs, New Evidence on Redlining by Federal Housing
Programs in the 1930s, 141 J. of Urban Economics 1, 3 (2024).
83 Explanation, South Bend, Indiana, NATIONAL ARCHIVE records for the City of South Bend, Prepared by Division of
Research and Statistics, Jul 24, 1937, p1.
84 Id.
85 Id.
86 Id.
87 Id.
88 Id.
89 Id.
90 Id.
91 Id.
92 Id.
93 Id.
94 Id. at 2.
95Webb, supra note 19 at 148.
96 Id. at 157.
97 National Housing Act of 1934, H.R. 9620, Pub.L. 73-479, 48 Stat. 1246 (1934).
98 Underwriting Manual: Underwriting and Valuation Procedure under Title II of the National Housing Act, FEDERAL
HOUSING ADMIN., revisions to April 1, 1936.
99 Id. at paragraph 283(4)(g).
100 Id.
101 Id. at paragraph 323.
102 Fishback, supra note 82 at 4.
103 See Fishback, supra note 82.
104 Id. HOLC did share its maps with FHA. Recent scholarship suggests they did not have much influence over FHA
behavior.
105 Id. at 4-5.
106 Id. at 92.
126
107 Garner, supra note 9 at 92.
108 A Review of the Economic and Cultural Problems of South Bend as they Relate to Minority People, 69 SOUTH BEND URBAN
LEAGUE (1958).
109 “We conclude that in the field of education, the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational
facilities are inherently unequal.” 347 U.S. 483, 495 (1954).
110 Taylor, supra note 20.
111 Id.
112 163 U.S.537 (1896)
113 Id at 544.
114 347 U.S. 483, 495 (1954) (“We conclude that in the field of education, the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place.
Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”)
115 Taylor, supra note 20.
116 A Review, supra note 108 at 69.
117 Garner, supra note 9 at 99.
118 Others included Colfax, Swanson, and Eggleston. The majority Black primary schools were located in neighborhoods that
had long established Black populations. Id.
119 Id.at 99.
120 Id. at 99-100; Bernard Streets, Jr. Interview (April 26, 2010) Oral History Collection, Civil Rights Heritage Center,
Indiana University Archives, https://archive.org/details/OH-STREETS-BERNARD-2010-04-26
121 Garner, supra note 9 at 100; Barbara Brandy Interview (April 2, 2002). Oral His
tory Collection, Civil Rights Heritage Center, South Bend.
122 Garner, supra note 9 at 100
123 Id. at 120.
124 Id. at 102.
125 Id.
126 George McCullough, Oral History Collection, Civil Rights Heritage Center. Indiana University South Bend.
127 Id.
128 South Bend’s Own Words, Civil Rights Heritage Center. Indiana University South Bend, podcast audio
129 Id.
130 Id.
131 Lucille Sneed, interviews with David Healey and Amy Selner, July 9, 2002, Oral History collection, Civil Rights Heritage
Center Collections, Indiana University South Bend Archives, https://archive.org/details/OH-Sneed-Lucille-2002-07-09
132 South Bend’s Own Words, supra note 128.
133 Id.
134.Id¡
135 Garner, supra note 9 at108-109.
136 Id. at 110, citing an article in the South Bend Tribune of June 2, 1966 “Peil Lists Linden School Proposals.”
137 Garner, supra note 9 at 107.
138 Id. at 110.
139 Id. at 111.
140 Id. at 116.
141 U.S. v. South Bend Community School Corp., 511 F.Supp. 1352 (N.D. Ind. 1981).
142 Id.
143.U.S. v. South Bend Community School Corp., 511 F.Supp. 1352 at 1356 (N.D. Ind. 1981).
144 Id.
145 On file with commission.
146 U.S. v. South Bend Community School Corp., Memorandum and Order dated August 2002, Case 3:80-CV-00035, Factual
Background 4.
147 Id. at 15-16.
148 Id¡
149 Statistical information compiled by SBCSC per the Consent Decree is on file with commission..
150 Christian Sheckler, Parents, residents fear schools plan could worsen segregation, SOUTH BEND TRIB., November 16,
2017.
151 Stuart Green, A Vision Statement on Racial Equity and Antiracist policies in SBCSC,
https://go.boarddocs.com/in/sbcsc/Board.nsf/files/C5ZPYP65D611/$file/Equity%20Statement%20.pdf
127
152 Id.
153 SBCSC 2025 Annual Report on the Status of Consent Decree Implementation filed November 24, 2025 in the U.S. District
Court, N.D. Ind., Case 3:80-cv-00035.
154 Id. at 5.
155 Raleigh Deaton, South Bend board forming committee about consent decree, SOUTH BEND TRIB., December 23, 2025.
156 Public Law 75-896 (1937).
157 Final Report, A Comprehensive Real Property Survey of South Bend, Indiana, WORKS PROGRESS ADMIN., January 1936.
158 Webb, supra note 19 at 50-51.
159 Langel Asks City to Help in New Crisis, SOUTH BEND TRIB., August 9. 1940.(Portage Township Trustee urging help from
the city for the “indigent house shortage crisis”); Council Faces Parking Lot Measure and Housing Plea, SOUTH BEND TRIB,
December 8, 1940 ( several unions join to urge Common Council to establish a housing authority to ease the housing
shortage); Home Shortage Acute: Canvass Shows, SOUTH BEND TRIB, March 23, 1941; Plea to Study Rents in City Put up to
U.S., SOUTH BEND TRIB, May 22, 1941 (complaint to federal government about rent gouging in South Bend due to extreme
housing shortage).
160 Webb, supra note 19 at 55-6.
161 Expert Studies Housing Needs, SOUTH BEND TRIB., September 2, 1941.
162 Webb, supra note 19 at 59.
163 Other Sites are Proposed for Housing, SOUTH BEND TRIB., February 20, 1942.
164 Webb, supra note 19 at 60.
165 Housing Fight May Go to Court, SOUTH BEND TRIB, March 6, 1942.
166 Other Sites are Proposed for Housing, SOUTH BEND TRIB, February 20, 1942
167 Id.
168 Oral History of Dr. Roland Chamblee, Civil Rights Heritage Center, Tape 2, Side A; https://archive.org/stream/OH-Roland-Chamblee-2005-
0622/Chamblee%2C%20Roland%20%28Dr.%29%20%E2%80%93%C2%A0June%2022%2C%202005.%20Tape%201.%20Side%20A.%20%
5BTranscript%5D_djvu.txtId.
169 Local African American History, THE HISTORY MUSEUM, https://www.historymuseumsb.org/local-african-american-
history/
170 Oral History, Dr. Bernard and Audrey Vagner, CIVIL RIGHTS HERITAGE CTR, March 9, 2003,
https://archive.org/stream/OH-Vagner-BernardAudrey-2003-03-
10/Vagner%2C%20Audrey%20and%20Dr.%20Bernard%20%E2%80%93%C2%A0March%2010%2C%202003.%20Side%2
0A.%20%5BTranscription%5D_djvu.txt.
171 Id at, side A.
172 Id.
173 Oral History of Dr. Roland Chamblee, supra note 168, Tape 2, Side A;
174 Oral History, Dr. Bernard and Audrey Vagner, supra note 170 at side A,
175 Id.
176 Id.
177 Nientara Anderson, Mytien Nguyen, Kayla Marcotte, Marco Ramos, Larry D. Gruppen, & Dowin Boatright, The Long
Shadow: A Historical Perspective on Racism in Medical Education, 98 Acad. Med. 2023 Aug (supplement)at 5.
178 Robinson, supra note 45 p 50.
179 Id. at 50-51.
180 CPI inflation calculator, https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1950?amount=1000
181 Oral History, Dr. Bernard and Audrey Vagner,, supra note 170, side B,
182 Oral History of Dr. Roland Chamblee, supra note 168 Tape 2, Side A.
183Id.
184 Oral History of Charlotte Huddleston, CIVIL RIGHTS HERITAGE CTR, September 12, 2002, https://archive.org/stream/OH-
Huddleston-Charlotte-2002-09-
12/Huddleston%2C%20Charlotte%20%E2%80%93%C2%A0September%2012%2C%202002.%20Side%20A.%20%5BTran
script%5D_djvu.txt
185 Id.
186 Id.
187 Id.
188 KATHERINE O’DELL, OUR DAY: RACE RELATIONS AND PUBLIC ACCOMMODATIONS IN SOUTH BEND 47 (2010).
189 Id.
190 Certificate of Barbershop, CIVIL RIGHTS HERITAGE CTR. Print. Accessed July 8, 2024.
191 Anderson, supra note 177.
128
192 The History of Racism in Health Care: Confronting the historical foundations of racism in health care, National Coalition
of STD Directors, https://ncsddc.org/the-history-of-racism-in-health-care/.
193 Anderson, supra note 177 at 4.
194 The History of Racism, supra note 192.
195 Id.
196 Abraham Flexner, Medical Education in the United States and Canada: A Report to the Carnegie Foundation for the
Advancement of Teaching,198, (1910)
http://archive.carnegiefoundation.org/publications/pdfs/elibrary/Carnegie_Flexner_Report.pdf
197 Id.
198 Anderson, supra note 177; see also JAMES Q. WHITMAN, HITLER’S AMERICAN MODEL: THE UNITED STATES AND THE
MAKING OF NAZI RACE LAW, 8 (2017); Steven A. Farber, U.S. Scientists’ Role in the Eugenics Movement (1907-1939): A
Contemporary Biologist’s Perspective, ZEBRAFISH, 243-45, 2008 Dec 5, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2757926/
199 Farber, supra note 198.
200 Amy J. Reese, Addressing Scientific Racism and Eugenics in the Classroom, AMERICAN SOC, FOR MICROBIOLOGY, May
10, 2023, https://asm.org/articles/2023/may/addressing-scientific-racism-and-eugenics-in-the-c
201 Kelly M. Hoffman, Sophie Trawalter, Jordan R Axt, & M. Norman Oliver, Racial bias in pain assessment and treatment
recommendations, and false beliefs about biological differences between blacks and whites, 11 PNAS 4296, 4296 April 4,
2016, https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1516047113
202 Id.
203 Id.
204 Nursing: A Concept-Based Approach to Learning 161 (2014).
205 Zinhle Essamauh, She gave birth in her car minutes after a hospital sent her away. A new bill seeks to stop that. NBC
News, Nov. 25, 2025, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/viral-video-prompts-federal-bill-requiring-hospitals-give-
women-labor-rcna245844.
206 Id.
207 Transcript of Public Hearing Concerning Discrimination in the Sale, Rental, and Financing of Private Housing in South
Bend, March 19, 1963, Testimony of Roland Chamblee, P.21
208 Oral History of Dr. Roland Chamblee, supra note 168, Tape one side B, p.22
209 Id. at Tape one side B,
210 Id, at Tape one, side B, p. 15
211 Id. Tape one, side B, p. 16
212 Id. at tape 1, side B, p.15-16.
213Indiana and Another World War, The History Museum, https://www.historymuseumsb.org/indiana-and-another-world-war/
Accessed December 17, 2025;Ralph F. Gates, Indiana Historical Bureau, https://www.in.gov/history/state-historical-
markers/find-a-marker/ralph-f-
gates/#:~:text=%E2%80%9D%20Gates'%20main%20goal%20was,more%20often%20than%20white%20workers, Accessed
December 27, 2025.
214 Ralph F. Gates, Indiana Historical Bureau, https://www.in.gov/history/state-historical-markers/find-a-marker/ralph-f-
gates/#:~:text=%E2%80%9D%20Gates'%20main%20goal%20was,more%20often%20than%20white%20workers, Accessed
December 27, 2025.
215 “Jack Reed.” South Bend’s Own Words. Civil Rights Heritage Center. Indiana University South Bend. Jan. 22, 2022.
Podcast. https://pod.link/1207874365/episode/a44a5c5c07662fcaed706202a609b659 (Accessed June 28, 2024).
216 Id.
217 MARTHA ANN SUGGS. SUGGS: BLACK BACKTRACKS (1995); see also, Cal Lindahl, J.D. Suggs, Tales with Introduction
and Commentary by Carl Lindahl,
https://www.academia.edu/111071602/J_D_Suggs_15_Tales_with_Introduction_and_Commentary_by_Carl_Lindahl.
(Accessed December 27, 2025).
218 Charlotte Huddleston, supra note 184.
219 Id.
220 Id.
221 The subtleties of discrimination are well described by Yale University professor Elijah Anderson (from South Bend) in his
book Black in White Space: The Enduring Impact of Color in Everyday Life, Univ. of Chicago Press, 2022.
222 Mrs. Elizabeth Allen - N.A.A.C.P. Membership Card; 1944. Michiana Memories.
https://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/digital/collection/p16827coll4/id/454/rec/2 (Accessed July 9, 2024).
223 Correspondence, State of Indiana v. Clarence Kale, 1942. Michiana Memories– St. Joseph County Public Library.
https://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/digital/collection/p16827coll4/id/361/rec/7 (Accessed July 9, 2024).
129
224 Id,
225 House of J. Chester Allen and Elizabeth Fletcher Allen., African American Landmark Tour. Indiana University South
Bend. https://aalt.iusb.edu/map/home-of-jchester.html (Accessed July 9, 2024).
226 O’Dell, supra note 188 at 66.
227 Id. at 21-22.
228 Id. at 84.
229 Id. at 67.
230 SJCPL Librarian Cheryl Ashe, Pt. 2., Interviewed by David Healey. Michiana Memory, audio recording, 6 March 2003.
https://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/digital/collection/p16827coll13/id/260/rec/2 (Accessed July 8, 2024).
231 O’Dell, supra note 188 at 61-62.
232 “Charlotte Huddleston on African Americans in nursing.” South Bend’s Own Words. Civil Rights Heritage Center. Indiana
University South Bend, podcast audio, 12 June 2024.
https://pod.link/1207874365/episode/6ee2f110f98e52ec181315fdf66cc5e7. (Accessed July 1, 2024).
233 O’Dell, supra note 188 at 44.
234 “Jack Reed.” South Bend’s Own Words. Civil Rights Heritage Center. Indiana University South Bend, podcast audio, 26
January 2022. https://pod.link/1207874365/episode/a44a5c5c07662fcaed706202a609b659 (Accessed July 1, 2024).
235 O’Dell, supra note 188 at 45.
236 Id. at 63-64.
237 Id. at 84.
238 See, Garner, supra note 9, at 5-14 for full story of the Natatorium
239 Jack Reed supra note 229.
240 O’Dell, supra note 188 at 9; see also Garner. supra note 9, 5-14.
241 Garner, supra note 9 at 16-17.
242 “And at age seventy-one, after breathing soot and metallic dust over decades, my father died of lung cancer, though he’d
never smoked.” Id. at prologue. The Prologue to Black in White Space is reprinted with permission by the Berkeley Journal of
Sociology and available online at https://berkeleyjournal.org/2023/07/17/prologue-black-in-white-space/
243 Elijah Anderson, Black Shadow Politics in Midwestville: The Insiders, the Outsiders, and The Militant Young,
Sociological Inquiry 42(1): 19-27.
244 Id.
245 Anderson, Elijah. Personal interview. 12 December 2025. Dr. Anderson also recounted this story during a public lecture at
the St. Joseph County Library Main Branch on October 12, 2023.
246 Elmer Joseph, on west side owned Black businesses. South Bend’s Own Words. Civil Rights Heritage Center. Indiana
University South Bend, podcast audio, 10 April 2024.
https://pod.link/1207874365/episode/25fc7dc1e1f91de62807eb20fb059660, (Accessed June 28, 2024).
247 Alma Powell, South Bend’s Own Words. Civil Rights Heritage Center. Indiana University South Bend, podcast audio, 14
August 2023. https://pod.link/1207874365/episode/3dc55aa6a4f11c4c33a6d120243e9530 (Accessed July 1, 2024).
248 Gail Brodie, west side community organizer, South Bend’s Own Words. Civil Rights Heritage Center. Indiana University
South Bend, podcast audio, 10 January 2024. https://pod.link/1207874365/episode/928bc09b184d6c55563d18e1505e3025
( Accessed July 2, 2024).
249 Id.
250 Interview with Rev. Hardie Blake, June 19, 2024 at The Nexus Center.
251 Project Impact South Bend, https://www.projectimpactsouthbend.org/ (Accessed December 17, 2025).
252 African American Landmark Tour, “THE LAKE, Indiana University South Bend, https://aalt.iusb.edu/map/the-lake.html
253 Matt Emery, “The Lake,” Podcast. Round the Bend Now and Then, October 1, 2023; https://round-the-bend-now-and-
then.captivate.fm/episode/the-lake
254 Id.
255 Id.,
256 Id.
257Id.
258 Id.
259 Erin Blasko, A History of Beck’s Lake, SOUTH BEND TRIB., May 26, 2013.
260 Emery, supra note 253.
261 See also, In the Matter of Beck’s Lake Site, US Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5, cERCLA Docket NO V-W-
22-C-002 Administrative Settlement Agreement and Order on Consent for Removal Action signed 11/12/2020; paragraph 15
indicates unpaved streets possible as late as mid 1960s
262 Emery, supra note 253.
130
263 Blasko, supra note 259.
264 Id.
265 Id.
266 Beck’s Lake South Bend, In, Cleanup Progress, Site Milestones, last viewed November 18.. 2025;
https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.schedule&id=0501954
267 Webb, supra note 19 at 79.
268 Id. at 97.
269 Thomas Jewell, Group Must Give Reason of Rejection, SOUTH BEND TRIB., July 20, 1966
270 William Morris, Morris Answers Board Charges, THE REFORMER, November 26, 1967
271 Webb, supra note 19 at 80.
272 Code of Ethics, National Association of Real Estate Board, June 6, 1924. https://www.scribd.com/document/86952803/1924-Code-of-
Ethics-of-the-National-Association-of-REALTORS#download.
273 Dmitri Mehlhorn, A Requiem for Blockbusting: Law, Economics, and Race-Based Real Estate Speculation, 67 Fordham L. Rev. 1145, 1149
(1998)
274 South Bend-Mishawaka Board of Realtors, statement of position and principles, Civil Rights and African American History, Michiana
Memory, https://michianamemory.jcpl.org/digital/collection/p16827.coll4/id/966/rec/22
275 Id.
276 Id.
277 Testimony of Carol Dillon, Transcript of Public Hearing Concerning Discrimination in the Sale, Rental, and Financing of
Private Housing in South Bend, 26 March 19, 1963,https://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/digital/collection/p16827coll4/id/69/.
278Id.
279 Webb, supra note 19 at 217.
280Id. at 220.
281 Id.
282 Robinson, supra note 45.
283 Id. at 69.
284 Unfortunately, this discriminatory attitude that some people are worth better results because of where they live and who
they are did not end in the 1950s. Commission member Judith Fox litigated a case on behalf of a senior citizen in South Bend
in 2015. The contractor did substandard work on the woman’s home including putting multicolored gutters across the house.
He defended his action by saying “she lives in the ghetto, what does she want.” see Done Right Roofing & General
Construction, LLC. v. Jacqueline Ford. 71D07-1506-MI-000255.
285 Webb, supra note 19 at 133-34, 150.
286 Id. at 72.
287 Robinson, supra note 45 at 55.
288 Webb, supra note 19 at 207.
289 Id. at 208.
290 Id. at 215.
291 Transcript of Public Hearing, supra note 276 at 3.
292 Id.
293 Id. at 14
294 Id.
295 Id. Testimony of James Herring , 9-12 (The landlord for a home on Bader Ave was willing to rent to him but then
withdrew the offer when her neighbors objected to having Negro neighbors; They were living in a hotel at the time of the
hearing, unable to find a landlord willing to rent to them due to their race); Testimony of Bernard Streets p 13- (responded to
ad for a house to rent and when told the family was black, the landlord told them she couldn’t rent to them because “her
neighbors would tear her hair out. “ And then she hund up on them.) at 14; Testimony of William J. Brown, Brown 27-28
(lived at the YMCA for 7 months because no one would rent to him due to his race) ; Testimony of G.L. Ivory, p. 35
(estimated she called 75 landlords a week and 90% refused to rent to blacks.”)
296 Id. at 13.
297 Id. at 15.
298 Id.
299 Id.
300 Id. at 16.
301 Id. at 14.
302 Oral history, Barbara (Vance) Brandy, supra note 121.
303 Id.
131
304 Id.
305 Id.
306 See Dmitri Mehlhorn, A Requiem for Blockbusting: Law, Economics, and Race-Based Real Estate Speculation, 67
Fordham L. Rev. 1145 (1998).
307 Id. at 1151-53.
308 David Sobol, Indiana’s Civil Rights Commission: A History of the First Five Years, Digital Commons @ Butler
University, Graduate Scholarship, 86-87 April 28, 1994.
309 See, ie. Dimitri, supra note 305 at 1153 (over 100 operators in Chicago); Clark v. Universal Builders, Inc. , 501 F.2d 324
(7th Cir. 1974, cert denied 197495 S Ct 657) (lawsuit involving blockbusting practices in Chicago); Barrick Realty, Inc. v.
City of Gary, 354 F, Supp 126 (US Dist. Ct ND Ind 1973) (unsuccessful challenge to anti-blockbusting ordinance in Gary,
Indiana).
310 Dillon Testimony, supra note 277.
311 Id. at 18.
312 Id. at 19.
313 Statement by Conrad Kellenberg, Transcript of Public Hearing Concerning Discrimination in the Sale, Rental, and
Financing of Private Housing in South Bend, 20, 26 March 19,
1963,https://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/digital/collection/p16827coll4/id/69/.
314 Fox, supra note 36 at 466.
315 Erin Blakemore, How the GI Bill’s Promis Was Denied to a Million Black WWII Veterans, HISTORY, last updated February
18, 2025, https://www.history.com/articles/gi-bill-black-wwii-veterans-benefits.
316 Mitria Wilson-Spotser, Honoring America’s Promise: How Passing Unused VA Loan Benefits Down to Veteran’s
Descendants Could Narrow the African-American Homeownership Gap, 12-13, March 2022, https://consumerfed.org/wp-
content/uploads/2022/03/Housing-African-American-VA-Home-Loan-Benefits-Report.pdf
317 MEIZHU LUI, BARBARA ROBLES, BETSY LEONDAR-WRIGHT, ROSE BREWER & REBECCA ADAMSON, THE COLOR OF
WEALTH: THE STORY BEHIND THE U.S. WEALTH DIVIDE 98 (2006).
318 Selective Service and Victory: The 4th Report of the Director of Selective Service 187-90 1948;
https://web.archive.org/web/20100723024807/http://www.history.army.mil/documents/wwii/minst
Approximately 370,000 African Americans served in WWI, Matthew Margis, A Brief Look at African American Soldiers in
the Great War, National Archive, Feb 13, 2017, https://unwritten-record.blogs.archives.gov/2017/02/13/a-brief-look-at-
african-american-soldiers-in-the-great-war/; More than a million black soldiers served in WWI. African Americans Fought
for Freedom at Home and Abroad during World War II, February 1, 2020, The National WWII Museum,
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/african-americans-fought-freedom-home-and-abroad-during-world-war-ii;
319 Transcript of Public Hearing Concerning Discrimination in the Sale, Rental, and Financing of Private Housing in South
Bend, 26 March 19, 1963,https://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/digital/collection/p16827coll4/id/69/.
320 The South Bend Human Rights Commission Annual Report 1975 (“1975 HRC Report”), Introduction p. 1, St. Joseph
County Public Library, Main Library, Local and Family History Services Department.
321 O’Dell, supra note 188 at 69-70.
322 Id. at 70.
323 Id. at 70-71.
324 Webb, supra note 19 at 227-28.
325 Id. at 230.
326 The South Bend Human Rights Commission Annual Report, supra note 320 at 3.
327 “Happening in Human Relations.” News and Views. South Bend Human Relations and Fair Employment Practices
Commission. Michiana Memories. April 1969.
https://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/digital/collection/p16827coll4/id/2706/rec/18. (Accessed July 9, 2024).
328 Webb, supra note 19 at 231-32
329 Id. at 234.
330Id. at 235-36
331 Id. at 238.
332 Id. at 240.
333 Id. at 241.
334Id. at 242.
335 Civil Rights Act of 1968, Pub. L. 90-284, 82 Stat. 73, April 11, 1968.
336 Id. at 132.
337 Sobol, supra note 308 at 3.
338 Id. at 3.
132
339 Id. at 4.
340 Id. at 11-12.
341 Id. at 21.
342 Id.
343 Id. at 41-42.
344 Id. at 53.
345 Id. at 60.
346 Id. at 80-83.
347 1990 Pub. Law. 66-1990.
348 Housing Act of 1949, Pub. Law 81-171, July 15, 1949
349Family displacements through Urban Renewal. South Bend, Ind.
https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/renewal/#view=0/0/1&viz=cartogram&city=southbendIN&loc=13/41.6710/-86.2680
350 A map of the city’s redevelopment efforts can be located at
https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/renewal/#view=0/0/1&viz=cartogram&city=southbendIN&loc=13/41.6710/-86.2680
352Renewing Inequality: Urban Renewal, Displacements, and Race 1950-1966,
https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/renewal/#view=0/0/1&viz=cartogram&city=southbendIN&loc=13/41.6710/-
86.2680&cityview=holc
353 African American Landmark Tour, Linden School, https://aalt.iusb.edu/map/linden-school.html
354 Transcript of Public Hearing, Testimony of G.L. Ivory, supra note 276 at 35.
355 Webb, supra note 19 at 133.
356 Id. at 112; See also pages 107-156 for a more complete picture of the struggle to build public housing.
357 Id. at 116-17.
358 Id. at 117-18.
359 Robinson, supra note 45 at 51.
360 Id.
361Id.
362 Webb, supra note 19 at 119.
363 Webb, supra note 19 at 123.
364 “Alma Powell.” South Bend’s Own Words. Civil Rights Heritage Center. Indiana University South Bend, podcast audio, 14
August 2023. https://pod.link/1207874365/episode/3dc55aa6a4f11c4c33a6d120243e9530 (Accessed July 1, 2024)
365 Garner supra note 9 at 82.
366 Garner, George and Howard Dukes. African American Business District (Birdsell and Liston Streets)." Clio: Your Guide to
History. August 1, 2018, https://theclio.com/entry/57892 (Accessed November 1, 2025).
367 O’Dell, supra note 188 at 72.
368 Id.
369 Id. at 51.
370 Id.
371 Id.
372 The Directory of Negroes in Business in St. Joseph County. St. Joseph Center for Economic Development. April 1967.
https://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/digital/collection/p16827coll4/id/2664/rec/2 ( Accessed July 8, 2024); Directory of Blacks
in Business, South Bend-Mishawaka Area Chamber of Commerce; December 1970; see also 1939-40 Indiana Negro
Directory. Michiana Memory;
https://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/digital/collection/p16827coll4/search/searchterm/directory/field/descri/mode/all/conn/and/
order/date/ad/asc (Accessed July 8, 2024).
373 Garner supra note 9 at 85-87.
374 Family owned Black business serving the community for more than 50 years, ABC57 (Feb 26, 2022)
https://www.abc57.com/news/local-black-owned-business-serving-community-for-more-than-50-years
375 See, e.g., interview with Elmer Joseph discussed below.
376 The Reformer. Michiana Memory– St. Joseph County Public Library.
https://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/digital/collection/p16827coll8/id/129/rec/1 (Accessed July 8, 2024). Collection of
newspaper available online at michianamemory.sjcpl.org.
377 Free Legal Aid Available in South Bend, THE REPORTER, 3 (Newspaper Advertisement) 10 August 1967, Michiana
Memory. https://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/digital/collection/p16827coll8/id/129/rec/1 (Accessed July 8, 2024).
378 Priority List to Lessen Racial Tension, THE REPORTER. 17 August 1967. Newspaper article, page 3. Michiana Memory.
https://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/digital/collection/p16827coll8/id/149/rec/2 (Accessed July 8, 2024).
133
379 Urban League’s Youth, THE REPORTER 17 August 1967. Newspaper article, page 3. Michiana Memory.
https://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/digital/collection/p16827coll8/id/149/rec/2 (Accessed July 8, 2024).
380 The South Bend Human Rights Commission Annual Report 1975 (“1974 HRC Report”) 3 St. Joseph County Public
Library, Main Library, Local and Family History Services Department.
381 1975 HRC Report, supra note 320 at 1.
382 Id. at 1-2.
383 1974 HRC Report, supra note 380 at 16-17.
384 Commission members also spoke to some in the banking industry who sadly confirmed the attitudes at that time and the
likelihood that these stories were true.
385 We have withheld names unless we had explicit permission or request to use them. This particular story came from our
first public meeting at the Charles Black Center.
386 See Alicia H. Munnell, Lynn Elaine Browne, James McEneaney, & Geoffrey M.B. Tootell, Mortgage Lending in Boston:
Interpreting HMDA Data, 86 AM. ECON. REV.. 25 (1996) (finding Black borrowers more likely to be denied than white
borrowers with the same credentials); Margery Austin Turner & Felicity Skidmore, Mortgage Lending Discrimination : A
Review of Existing Evidence, URBAN INST. (June 1, 1999), http://urban.org/research/publication/mortgage-lending-
discrimination (minorities get unequal treatment from the lending industry); I & Race Disparities in Subprime Lending in
America, US Dep’T Hous & Urban Dev, https://wwwwhuduser.gov/publications/pdf/unequal_full.pdf (finding a
disproportionate number of subprime loans in high income African American neighborhoods.)
387 Jordan Smith, New South Bend Housing Authority director’s challenge: poor maintenance causes 37% vacancy, SOUTH
BEND TRIB., Jan. 19, 2024.
388 Ibrahim Samra, City officials ‘appalled’ by Housing Authority decision to shut down Rabbi Shulman Apartments during
pandemic, WNDU, November 16, 2020, https://www.wndu.com/2020/11/16/city-officials-appalled-by-housing-authority-
decision-to-shut-down-rabbi-shulman-apartments-during-pandemic/
389 Jeff Parrott, South Bend Housing Authority tenants have more time than thought to move out, SOUTH BEND TRIB.,
November 18, 2020.
390 Id.
391 South Bend Officials Outline Plans for Redevelopment of Rabbi Shulman, Monroe Circle Housing, Housing Authority of
South Bend, posted August 20, 2025, https://www.hasbonline.com/news/south-bend-officials-outline-plans-for-
redevelopment-of-rabbi-shulman-monroe-circle-housing
392 LINDA FISHER & JUDITH FOX, FORECLOSURE ECHO: HOW THE HARDEST HIT HAVE BEEN LEFT OUR OF THE ECONOMIC
RECOVERY 33-34 (2019).
393 Id.
394 Judith Fox, Richard Williams & Brian miller, Foreclosures in St.
Joseph county, Indiana from 2001-2007 (2008) (finding a correlation between living in a minority neighborhood and
foreclosure); see also John Nagy, Sunshine on South Bend’s foreclosure file, NOTRE DAME MAGAZINE winter 2008-09.
395 This is not to say that property taxes paid no role. The state was undergoing a change in how it assessed property taxes in
the early 2000s. Implementation of the changes caused the annual property tax bills, traditionally charged in two equal
payments, to be charged in one payment in some instances. Mortgage escrow accounts are computerized so, for example,
when the bank pays a homeowners’ fall taxes, the computer assumed this was half the tax bills. Some servicers incorrectly
doubled the amount of total taxes due as a result. When this happened, it often took many months to correct.
396 John Nagy, supra note 394. Professor Fox raised the concern about predatory lending with Gibney at a public meeting
held by the city. He dismissed the concern because the city had “good banks like Chase and Bank of America.” It should be
noted that both these banks were subsequently part of the multi-state settlement for their role in predatory lending and
violations of federal and state law.$25 Billion Mortgage Servicing Agreement Filed in Federal Court, Archives U.S.
Department of Justice https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/25-billion-mortgage-servicing-agreement-filed-federal-court.
397Joel Molnar, More People: The Worst Decade in South Bend History, WEST.SP, August 27, 2020.
https://westsb.com/features/morepeople-three.
398 Vacant and Abandoned Properties Task Force Report 13 Feb 2013 https://southbendin.gov/wp-
content/uploads/2018/05/Code_FinalVATF_Report_2_red.pdf.
399 Judith Fox, How to Kill a Zombie: Strategies in the Aftermath of the Foreclosure Crisis, 1519 NOTRE DAME LEGAL
STUDIES PAPER (2015)
400 See Judith Fox, The Foreclosure Echo: How Abandoned Foreclosures are Re-Entering the Market through Debt Buyers,
26 Loy. Consumer L. Rev 25 (2013); see also Fox & Fisher, supra note 391 at 77-98.
401 U.S. Gov't Accountability Office, GAO-11-93, Mortgage Servicer Actions Could Help Reduce The Frequency and Impact
of Abandoned Foreclosures 22 (2010) .
134
402 .$25 Billion Mortgage Servicing Agreement Filed in Federal Court, Archives U.S. Department of Justice
https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/25-billion-mortgage-servicing-agreement-filed-federal-court.
403 The Home Affordable Motification Program was not created until 2009.
404 Task Force Report, supra note 398.
405 Henry J. Gomez, What Happened when Pete Buttigieg Tore Down Houses in Black and Latino South Bend, BUZZFEED
NEWS April 9, 2019, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/henrygomez/mayor-pete-buttigieg-south-bend-gentrification;
Digging deeper into 1,000 homes in 1,000 days initiative, ABC57 March 12 2015, 12:21 am est, updated March 12, 2015
12:36 am esthttps://www.abc57.com/news/digging-deeper-into-the-1-000-homes-in-1-000-days-initiative
406 Task Force Report, supra note 398.
407 Underwriting Manual: Underwriting and Valuation Procedure under Title II of the National Housing Act, Federal Housing
Administration, revisions to April 1, 1936, paragraph 283(4)(g).
408 Margery Austin Turner & Solomon Greene, Causes and Consequences of Separate and Unequal Neighborhoods, URBAN
INSTITUTE, https://www.urban.org/racial-equity-analytics-lab/structural-racism-explainer-collection/causes-and-
consequences-separate-and-unequal-neighborhoods
409 Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing choice for St. Joseph County (2020-2024), St. Joseph County Housing
Consortium 8 https://southbendin.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/FINAL-Analysis-of-Impediments-Dec-2019.pdf. The
protected classes under the Fair Housing are race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, sex, religion, and familial status.
410 See Madison, supra note 67; Eagan, supra note 35.
411Hate Map, Southern Poverty Law Center, https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map/?hm_year=2024&hm_state=IN.
412Id.
413 Sean English, Ku Klux Klan flyers found throughout norther Indiana, WSBT Nov 18, 2024,
https://wsbt.com/news/local/ku-klux-klan-flyers-found-michiana-trinity-white-knights-kkk-mass-deportation-immigrants-
neighborhoods-communities-goshen-south-bend-michiana-indiana.
414 Actor Adam Driver says he had KKK neighbors in Indiana, August 21, 2018, AP, https://apnews.com/celebrity-
f6445151e68e463f82378cbfa36195c9.
415 Ins. Farm Becomes A Haven for the Klan: Guns and Cross-Burning Rile Neighbor WASH POST July 29, 2001.
416 Joshua Short, 100 Years Late: Fallout from ND v. KKK, ABC57 May 17, 2024, https://www.wndu.com/2024/05/17/100-
years-later-fallout-nd-vs-kkk/
417 Primary data sources were from the U.S. Census Bureau, including the 2011-2015 American Community Survey.
418 The Racial Wealth Divide in South Bend, Prosperity Now, September 2017,
https://www.tuftsobserver.org/sites/default/files/resources/Racial%20Wealth%20Divide%20in%20South%20Bend_Prosperity
Now_Final_Rev.pdf (Accessed December 17, 2025).
419 Id. at 3.
420 Id. at 5.
421 Id. at 5-6.
422 ALICE in St. Joseph County, Indiana United Ways (2025), available at https://iuw.org/alice-2025/ (Accessed December 17,
2025).
423 J. Hagan, Some Economic Issues of the Black Population of St. Joseph County and its Major Metropolitan Area, Health
Strategies, Inc. (forthcoming; draft obtained from the author).
424 American Community 5-Year Survey for 2021 (2017-2021), available through U.S. Census.
https://www.census.gov/data/developers/data-sets/acs-5year.2021.html#list-tab-1806015614
425 Hagan, Economics, supra note 423 at x.
426 Public-use employment data in Hagan’s report comes by way of the Local Employment Dynamics (LED) extraction tool,
an application of the U.S. Census Bureau.
427 The Racial Wealth Divide, supra note 418 at 10.
428 2020 Census summary information available at CensusDots: https://www.censusdots.com/race/south-bend-in-
demographics
429 Personal interviews with area business consultants including Kay Farlow, Deacon James Summers, and Pastor Hardie
Blake.
430 See, e.g., “What is a business HELOC?” Elevations Credit Union (“A business home equity line of credit (HELOC) is a
revolving line of credit in your business’s name secured by the equity in your personal home. It allows business owners to
borrow against the equity they have built up in their property to fund business expenses.);
https://blog.elevationscu.com/business-heloc/ accessed November 9, 2025.
431 City of South Bend Disparity Study, Collete Holt & Associates (2020).
432 Id. at 45.
433 Id. at 46.
135
434 Id. at 59.
435 Id. at 66.
436 Id. at 66-68.
437 Id. at 75.
438 Id. at 80-81.
439 Id. at.82.
440 Id. at 83.
441 Id. at 91.
442 Id. at 92.
443 Id. at 99-102.
444 Records obtained by the Commission through Ronalda Minnis, Minnis Consulting, Indianapolis IN, dated 12.15.2025.
445 Daniel Carroll & Ross Cohen-Kristiansen, Evaluating Homeownership as the Solution to Wealth Inequality, Economic
Commentary No 2021-22, FED. RESERVE OF CLEVELAND, https://www.clevelandfed.org/publications/economic-
commentary/2021/ec-202122-evaluating-homeownership-as-the-solution-to-wealth-inequality.
446 Prof Rebecca Bently Phd, Kate Mason PhD, Prof David Jacobs PhD, Prof Tony Blakely PhD, Prof Philippa Howden-
Chapman PhD, And LiPhD, Gary Adamkiewicz PhD, Prof Aaron Reeves, Housing as a social determinant of health: a
contemporary framework, 10 THE LANCET PUB. HEALTH e855, Oct 2025.
447Id. at e856
448 Id. at e857.
449 Id. at e858.
450 Id. at e859.
451 The Black Homeownership gap in South Bend, STACKER, March 22, 2022, https://stacker.com/stories/indiana/south-
bend/black-homeownereship-gap-south-bend.
452 Id.
453 Impediments, supra note 408.
454 Id. at 8.
455 Id.
456 Id.
457 Id. at 10 (estimates 41.8% of renters are cost burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income in rent. An
October 2025 story by ABC 57 reports that rents are nearly $1300 per month); John Paul, 22 Investigates: Renters priced out
as housing costs outpace pay. https://wsbt.com/news/local/22-investigates-priced-out-rising-rents-affordable-housing-
poverty-crisis-experts-apartment-place-to-live-state-hoosiers-workers-household-income-south-bend-st-joseph-county-
indiana.
458South Bend, Indiana Census Place Data USA, https://datausa.io/profile/geo/south-bend-in/
459 Fox, Judith L. and Wines, Katherine, Coding Evictions: St Joseph County Court Watch Eviction Program (February 20,
2024). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4733317 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4733317
460Id. at 11.
461Id. at 11-12.
462Smith, supra note 387.
463 SBCSC 2025 Annual Report on the Status of Consent Decree Implementation filed November 24, 2025 in the U.S. District
Court, N.D. Ind., Case 3:80-cv-00035, p.
464 Id. at 29, Table 24.
465 Id. at 29.
466 Kim Kilbride, Ticketing Data in South Bend Schools to be Reviewed, August 26, 2014,
https://www.southbendtribune.com/story/news/local/2014/08/26/icketing-data-in-south-bend-schools-to-be-
reviewed/46548433/
467 Id.
468 Id.
469 Id.
470 Russell J. Skiba, Suzanne Eckes and Kevin Brown, African American Disproportionality in School Discipline: The Divide
Between Best Evidence and Legal Remedy, 54 N.Y.L. SCH. L. REV. 1071 (2009-2010).
471 DONOVAN, M.S. & CROSS, C.T. (Eds.) (2002), MINORITY STUDENTS IN A SPECIAL AND GIFTED EDUCATION 4 (2002),
https:www.nationalacademies.org/read/10128.
472 Skiba, supra note 470.
473 Conrad Damian
136
474 Kim Kilbride, Are Black Students singled out? SOUTH BEND TRIB. April 2, 2013,
https://www.southbendtribune.com/story/news/2013/04/02/are-black-students-singled-ou/45843417/
475Id.
476 Id.
477 Observations from Education Subcommittee Members Conrad Damian and Alma Powell
478 The Racial Gap in Participation in High School, AP, IB, and Dual Enrollment Programs, J. OF BLACKS IN HIGHER EDUCATION, August 12,
2019.
479 Christopher Redding and Jason A. Grissom, Do Students in Gifted Programs Perform Better? Linking Gifted Program
Participants to Achievement and Nonachievement Outcomes,43 EDUCATIONAL EVALUATION AND POLICY ANALYSIS, 520-
524.
480 Id. at 527.
481 Id. at 530, 539.
482 Id. at 539.
483 Id. at 540.
484 Jason A. Grisson & Chrisopher Redding, Discretion and Disproportionality: Explaining the Underrepresentation of High Achieving Students
of Color in Gifted Programs, 2 AERA OPEN 1, 1 (2016)
485 Donovan, supra note 471 at 5.
486 Redding, supra note 479 at 520-524.
487 Id. at 520-524.
488 Donovan, supra note 471 at 10.
489 Garner, supra note 9 at 120.
490 Id.
491Press Release, What does the Research Really say about Preschool Effectiveness, LEARNING POL’Y INST., Jan. 31, 2019,
https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/press-release/what-does-research-really-say-about-preschool-effectiveness
492 See, B, Melroy, M. Gardner, & L. Darling-Hammond, Untangling the evidence on preschool effectiveness: Insights for policymaker,
LEARNING POL’Y INST., 2019.
493 Stephen Barnett and Andrea Kent, Early Childhood Education, NAT. INST. FOR EARLY EDUCATION RES.,
https://docs.steinhardt.nyu.edu/pdfs/metrocenter/atn293/ejroc/01222020_ECE.pdf
494 Id.
495 Stephen Barnett-Founder and Senior co-director of the National Institute of Early Education Research (NIEER) at Rutgers
University.
496 2025 Head Start Data on file with authors.
497 Alma Powell – Educator, South Bend Community School Corporation, observations and personal experience
498 Resolution #1-2020, St. Joseph County Health Department.
499 Social Determinates of Health, Center for Disease Control, Public Health Professionals Gateway, May 15, 2024,
https://www.cdc.gov/public-health-gateway/php/about/social-determinants-of-health.html
500 John W. Gardner & Jill S. Sanborn, Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL)—What Does it Matter? 1 EPIDEMIOLOGY 322,
322-29 (July 1990)
501 Id.DW <3// VXP >GHDWKVDWDJLYHQDJH
ZHLJKWIRUWKDWDJH @ گ G1)(w1) where d1 is the number of deaths at each
age and w1 is the weight of that age).
502 The Health Equity Report 2022, St. Joseph County Health Department,
https://www.in.gov/localhealth/stjosephcounty/community-access-resources-and-education/data-and-reports/
503 Resolution, supra note 498.
504 César Caraballo, MD; Daisy S. Massey, BA; Chima D. Ndumele, PhD; Trent Haywood, MD, JD; Shayaan Kaleem; Terris
King, BS, MS, ScD; Yuntian Liu, MPH; Yuan Lu, ScD; Marcella Nunez-Smith, MD, MHS; Herman A. Taylor, MD, MPH;
Karol E. Watson, MD, PhD; Jeph Herrin, PhD; Clyde W. Yancy, MD, MSc; Jeremy Samuel Faust, MD, MS; Harlan M.
Krumholz, MD, SM, Excess Mortality and Years of Potential Life Lost Among the Black Population in the US, 1999-2020,
329 JAMA 1662, 1663 (2023).
505 John Hagen, Chartbook on Healthcare for Black Population 28 (January 2020).
506 Id. at 62.
507 Indiana Infant Mortality and Birth Outcomes 2021, Indiana Health Department,
https://www.in.gov/health/mch/files/2021-Infant-Mortality-and-Morbidity.pdf
508 Resolution, supra note 498.
509 Infant Mortality, supra note 507 at 15-17.
510 Health Equity, supra note 502 at 41.
137
511 Sally Dixon, Olivia Morris, & Cassy White, St. Joseph County Fetal Infant Mortality Review 2025, Annual Report,
Beacon Health Systems, https://impact.beaconhealthsystem.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Final-3_17_2025-SJC-FIMR-
Annual-Report.BCI_SDixon.pdf
512 Infant Mortality, supra note 507. at 52.
513 Hagan, Chartbook, supra note 505 at 59.
514 See David R. Williams PhD, MPH, Jourdyn A. Lawrence MPH, Brigette A. Davis MPH, & Cecilia VuMPH,
Understanding how discrimination can affect health, 54 (Suppl 2) HEALTH SERV RES.1374 (2019); Livea Domela Godoy,
Matheus Teixeira Rossignoli, Polianna Delfino-Pereira, Norberto Garcia-Cairasco & Eduardo Henrique de Lina Umeoka, A
Comprehensive Overview on Stress Neurobiology: Basic Concepts and Clinical Implications, 12 FRONT. BEHAV. NEUROSCI.
127 (2018)
515 Id.
516Hagan, supra note 505 at 85.
517 Id..
514 Id. at 27.
519 Hagen, supra note 505 at 7; Health Equity, supra note 502 at 36.
520 Id. at 8.
521 Health Equity, supra note 502 at 70.
522Hagen, supra note 505 at 46.
523 Id. at 44.
524 Id. at 53.
525 Id. at 56
526 Alaina Doklovic, Understanding the Rising Suicide Risk Among Black Youth, PEDIATRICS NATIONWIDE, Feb. 23, 2026.,
https://pediatricsnationwide.org/2026/02/23/understanding-the-rising-suicide-risk-among-black-youth/
527 Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care, National Academies of Sciences. 2003.
528 National Academies of Sciences, Institute of Medicine, 2003.
529 M. Sun, T. Oliwa, M.E. Peek, & E.L. Tung, Negative patient descriptors: Documenting racial bias in the electronic health record. HEALTH
AFFAIRS, 41(2), 203–211. (2022) https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2021.01423.
530 K.M. Hoffman, S. Trawalter, J.R. Axt, & M.N. Oliver (2016). Racial bias in pain assessment and treatment recommendations, and false
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531 Gasoline explained, History of Lead, U.S. ENERGY & INFO. ADMIN.,
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/gasoline/history-of-gasoline.php
532 Lead, St. Joseph County Health Department, https://www.in.gov/localhealth/stjosephcounty/environmental-health/lead/
533 Id.
534 In the Matter of Beck’s Lake Site, US Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5, cERCLA Docket NO V-W-22-C-002
Administrative Settlement Agreement and Order on Consent for Removal Action,
https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.schedule&id=0501954
535 Id¡.
536 Lead, supra note 532.
537 Jordan Smith, St. Joseph County struggles to boost lead testing, even as it adds resources, SOUTH BEND TRIB. Oct. 20, 2023.
https://www.southbendtribune.com/story/news/local/2023/10/20/st-joseph-county-lead-testing-low-amid-national-lead-awareness-
week/71237993007/
538 Id.
539 Screening Site Inspection Report for The Beck’s Lake Site, South Bend, Indiana, U.S. EPA ID: IND980904379, 7, June 7,
1989.
540 Id. at 11.
541 Beck’s Lake South Bend, In, Cleanup Progress, Site Milestones, last viewed November 18.. 2025;
https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.schedule&id=0501954
542 Screening, supra note 539 at 14.
543 A TCL is a hazardous compound found on EPAs Targeted Compound List
544 Screening, supra note 539 at 27.
545 Id. at 25
546 Id. at 26
547 Id. at 27.
548 Id. at 27
138
549 Beck’s Lake Superfund Site South Bend Common Council Meeting: Focused Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study
(LaSalle Park Area) May 23, 2016 Environmental Protection Agency, slide 7, https://sbvpa.org/wp-content/uploads/Becks-
Lake-superfund-council-meeting-5.23.2016.pdf
550 Id. at slide 9
551 In the Matter of Beck’s Lake Site, US Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5, cERCLA Docket NO V-W-22-C-002
Administrative Settlement Agreement and Order on Consent for Removal Action,
https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.schedule&id=0501954
552 Id.
553 Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Arsenic cas #7440-38-2, https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp2.pdf
554 %RĨHQD%XNRZVND.DWDUV\QD0RNUD -DURPLU0LFKDORZLF] Benxo[a]pyrene—Environmental Occurrence, Human
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555 HEI Air Toxics Review Panel. 2007. Mobile-Source Air Toxics: A Critical Review of the Literature on Exposure and
Health Effects. HEI Special Report 16. 126 Health Effects Institute, Boston, MA.
https://www.healtheffects.org/system/files/SR16-Polycyclic_Organic_Matter.pdf
556 Id.