Step to Acquire Property Taken

From The Indianapolis Times, Friday, March 4, 1921: Yesterday, the board of park commissioners took the first legal step in the program of acquiring property adjoining public school grounds for the establishment of playgrounds when it adopted a resolution condemning a plot 200 by 300 feet lying east of School No. 22, Kansas and Illinois Streets. The joint program by the park board and the school board contemplates the purchase of ground near eleven school buildings for public and school playgrounds. There are ten houses situated on the proposed playground site near School No. 22, and a public hearing will be held on the condemnation resolution. The board also heard a request from the Brightwood Civic Association that a tract on the east side of Stuart St between Roosevelt Av and 25th St be purchased for a park or playground.

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“Step to Acquire Property Taken,” The Indianapolis Times, 4 March 1921, Part Two, p. 7:2

Indianapolis is Book Poor

From The Indianapolis Star, Sunday, February 20, 1921: Indianapolis is book poor! The library is 100,000 volumes short of what a library for a city of this size should have, and with a 30% increase in the number of library patrons in the last three years the high schooler trying to get a book on the required reading list, the club woman trying to get material for her club paper, the child looking for a fairy tale, the “shutin” desiring a little fiction, and the mechanic seeking an engineering book often cannot find what they need on the shelves. At present the remedy cannot come through higher taxation nor through the financially burdened board of school commissioners. It must come from the generosity of citizens through wills, memorials, donations, and bequests as many of the Eastern libraries receive their support.

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“Indianapolis is Book Poor,” The Indianapolis Star, 20 February 1921, Part Two, p. 11:5

12 Negro Women Sit in Jury Box in Damage Suit

From The Indianapolis Star, Thursday, February 17, 1921: For the first time in the legal history of Indianapolis, and possibly the United States, a jury of twelve black women sat in a jury box yesterday hearing evidence in a damage suit brought by a black citizen. In the case before Justice of the Peace T. Ernest Maholm, Daniel Holt sought damages from Mr. and Mrs. Eugene M. Fife, alleging his coal wagon was rammed in the rear by the Fife automobile in “the gloom of the winter evening” while he was unloading coal. In the resulting chaos, coal was scattered, the wagon wrecked, and the horse “jammed up against a tree.” After hearing the testimony from both sides, the jurors deliberated for twelve minutes before deciding “the whole affair was an accident” and Holt was not entitled to any damages.

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“12 Negro Women Sit in Jury Box in Damage Suit,” The Indianapolis Star, 17 February 1921, p. 11:2