Unequal and Undaunted: Education and Community at Lincoln School for Colored Children

September 2023 – February 2024 | This annual explored the untold story of education at Montgomery County’s two Lincoln School buildings.

The path to equal educational opportunity has not been an easy one for Students of Color in the United States. Since an educated person could more fully participate in the workplace and in civic life, a fear of change led many in influential positions to discourage or to block learning to read and write in minority populations.

Unequal and Undaunted: Education and Community at Lincoln School for Colored Children explores the untold story of education at the two Lincoln School buildings, which are now demolished. The school’s operation from 1881 until 1947 served both as a place of elementary education and as a gathering place for the Black community in Crawfordsville.

Drawing on the research in the newly published in To Remember the Forgotten School: the Story of the Lincoln School for Colored Children by Shannon Sullivan Hudson and Vicke Hudson-Swisher, the exhibit documents the 65 year history of the school. During the school’s operation, local residents debated and disputed the school’s existence as Lincoln School staff members educated Black and Mulatto children with limited resources.

The project was underwritten by grants from the Indiana Humanities and the Eli Lilly Endowment Restoring Hope, Restoring Trust initiative. A special thank you to all of our collaborators including the authors, Bethel AME Church, Wabash College, and the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County.