( MIRROR INDY ) — Decades ago, Indiana Avenue was the center of Black cultural and economic life in the city. Known as Indianapolis’ Black Wall Street, the bustling corridor was surrounded by a predominantly Black neighborhood and bolstered by the Madam Walker Theatre and jazz clubs.
Today, though, the area surrounding the Avenue is largely a collection of sprawling lawns, concrete plazas and gargantuan buildings for what’s now IU Indianapolis and Purdue in Indianapolis . The only reminders of the once thriving Black neighborhood on the campuses are a few historical markers.
As IU and Purdue move away from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and spend millions to forge their own identities as separate campuses, it’s bringing renewed focus to the university’s complicated beginnings. From the 1960s to the 1980s, Indiana University systematically acquired around 300 acres of land to form the campus that would become IUPUI in 1969.
