Vowing to overcome the sin of seriousness, Indiana-born humorist Don Herold lived up to his promise. Gifted with a droll sense of humor and a vivid imagination, he was one of the most widely read, if least remembered, Hoosiers. In Forgotten Hoosiers, journalist Fred D. Cavinder presents a collection of biographical sketches charting the lives of noteworthy Hoosiers who have been overlooked, as well as acclaimed figures whose Hoosier origins have been obscured. From Harland David Sanders, the pioneering Kentucky colonel who developed the world-famous chicken franchise, to Samuel G. Woodfill, whom many have called the greatest hero of World War I, Hoosiers- both known and unknown- have continued to make their marks across the country and the world.

This enlightening study employs the tools of archaeology to uncover a new historical perspective on the Underground Railroad. Unlike previous histories of the Underground Railroad, which have focused on frightened fugitive slaves and their benevolent abolitionist accomplices, Cheryl LaRoche focuses instead on free African American communities, the crucial help they provided to individuals fleeing slavery, and the terrain where those flights to freedom occurred. This study foregrounds several small, rural hamlets on the treacherous southern edge of the free North in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. LaRoche demonstrates how landscape features such as waterways, iron forges, and caves played a key role in the conduct and effectiveness of the Underground Railroad. Rich in oral histories, maps, memoirs, and archaeological investigations, this examination of the "geography of resistance" tells the new powerful and inspiring story of African Americans ensuring their own liberation in the midst of oppression.

In January of 1861, on the eve of both the Civil War and the rebirth of the African Methodist Episcopal Church's Christian Recorder, John Mifflin Brown wrote to the paper praising its editor Elisha Weaver: "It takes our Western boys to lead off. I am proud of your paper." Weaver's story, though, like many of the contributions of early black literature outside of the urban Northeast, has almost vanished. Unexpected Places: Relocating Nineteenth-Century African American Literature recovers the work of early African American authors and editors such as Weaver who have been left off maps drawn by historians and literary critics. Individual chapters restore to consideration black literary locations in antebellum St. Louis, antebellum Indiana, Reconstruction-era San Francisco, and several sites tied to the Philadelphia-based Recorder during and after the Civil War. In conversation with both archival sources and contemporary scholarship, Unexpected Places calls for a large-scale rethinking of the nineteenth-century African American literary landscape. In addition to revisiting such better-known writers as William Wells Brown, Maria Stewart, and Hannah Crafts, Unexpected Places offers the first critical considerations of important figures including William Jay Greenly, Jennie Carter, Polly Wash, and Lizzie Hart. The book's discussion of physical locations leads naturally to careful study of how region is tied to genre, authorship, publication circumstances, the black press, domestic and nascent black nationalist ideologies, and black mobility in the nineteenth century.

Named by The New York Times as "a knowing, respectful and caring look at heartland America" and containing a new foreword by legendary player Bob Plump, this is a book every basketball lover should own. The best of Phillip Hoose's classic writings are included here with a fresh look on Indiana's favorite and most beloved sport. A new edition of a well-known Indiana classic, Hoosiers profiles some of the world's most famous basketball players and coaches—Larry Bird, Bobby Plump, Damon Bailey, Steve Alford, Stephanie White, and Bob Knight among them—along with Indiana towns, schools, and programs. The ultimate book for the diehard fan, Hoosiers: The Fabulous Basketball Life of Indiana explores Hoosier hysteria in all its glory.

A supplemental textbook for middle and high school students, Hoosiers and the American Story provides intimate views of individuals and places in Indiana set within themes from American history. During the frontier days when Americans battled with and exiled native peoples from the East, Indiana was on the leading edge of America’s westward expansion. As waves of immigrants swept across the Appalachians and eastern waterways, Indiana became established as both a crossroads and as a vital part of Middle America. Indiana’s stories illuminate the history of American agriculture, wars, industrialization, ethnic conflicts, technological improvements, political battles, transportation networks, economic shifts, social welfare initiatives, and more. In so doing, they elucidate large national issues so that students can relate personally to the ideas and events that comprise American history. At the same time, the stories shed light on what it means to be a Hoosier, today and in the past.

In Integrated, James W. Miller explores an often ignored aspect of America's struggle for racial equality. He relates the story of the Lincoln Institute -- an all-black high school in Shelby County, Kentucky, where students prospered both in the classroom and on the court. In 1960, the Lincoln Tigers men's basketball team defeated three all-white schools to win the regional tournament and advance to one of Kentucky's most popular events, the state high school basketball tournament. This proud tradition of African American schools -- a celebration of their athletic achievements -- was ironically destroyed by integration. This evocative book is enriched by tales of individual courage from men who defied comfort and custom. Miller describes how one coach at a white high school convinced his administrators and fans that playing the black schools was not only the right thing to do, but that it was also necessary. He discusses John Norman "Slam Bam" Cunningham, the former Lincoln Institute standout who became an Armed Forces All-Star and later impressed University of Kentucky Coach Adolph Rupp on the Wildcats' home floor. Miller also tells the story of a young tennis prodigy whose dreams were denied because he could not play at the white country club, but who became the first African American to start for an integrated Kentucky high school basketball championship team. Featuring accounts from former Lincoln Institute players, students, and teachers, Integrated not only documents the story of a fractured sports tradition but also addresses the far-reaching impact of the civil rights movement in the South.

The true story behind Crispus Attucks High School and the all-Black basketball team loosely depicted as the championship opponent in the beloved classic sports movie Hoosiers. For far too long the mythology of Indiana basketball has been dominated by Hoosiers. Framed as the ultimate underdog, feel-good story, there has also long been a cultural debate surrounding the film. The Real Hoosiers sets out to illuminate the narrative that the film omits, the story of the unheralded Crispus Attucks Tigers, playing the game at the highest level in the 1950s in a racially divided Indiana. After a crushing loss to Milan High School in the 1954 semifinal, which was the game that the final scenes in Hoosiers are based on, Attucks went on to win back-to-back Indiana state championships. That team was led by a young Oscar Robertson and coached by Ray Crowe, who fully recognized the seemingly insurmountable challenges of playing basketball in a state that was a bastion for not only the game but also the Ku Klux Klan. Veteran sportswriter and the bestselling author of Dream Team, Jack McCallum, pulls back the curtain on that history, which is rich, far beyond the basketball court. The Real Hoosiers replaces a lacuna in the history of Indiana while dissecting the myths and lore of Hoosier hoops; placing the game in the context of migration, segregation, and integration; and enhancing our understanding of this country’s struggle for civil rights.

A collection of previously unheard-of, incredible tales from the Indiana University Athletics program. For over 125 years, Hoosier athletes and coaches have grabbed headlines with their accomplishments and accolades. Legendary performers and larger-than-life figures have called Bloomington home, and their stories have been passed down through generations. But for every classic tale about a Hoosier athlete, coach, or program, there’s another that’s been forgotten. Until now. After gaining unprecedented access to IU archives and longtime employees, authors John Decker, Pete DiPrimio, and Doug Wilson reveal events and images that were lost for decades. Filled with new and entertaining stories of the people who have made IU Athletics legendary, Unknown, Untold, and Unbelievable Stories of IU Sports is a must-have for any fan. Discover behind-the-scenes stories of: the Olympic Trials featuring Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, and Steve Alford the infamous 1997 black football jerseys Ernie Pyle’s outlandish automobile polo match to raise funds for the IU marching band J. Moye’s notorious block against Duke the time Sam Bell won the bid for an NCAA track meet—without a facility or even bleachers and many more incredible stories from the renowned IU Athletics program “Unknown, Untold, and Unbelievable Stories of IU Sports is packed with enough rare information that, after reading it, anyone—from the casual fan to the dyed-in-the-wool fanatic—can be a Hoosier sports expert on trivia night.” —Bloom Magazine

A history of American sports told through one hundred iconic objects

Now a Netflix series starring Octavia Spencer, Self Made (formerly titled On Her Own Ground) is the first full-scale biography of “one of the great success stories of American history” (The Philadelphia Inquirer), Madam C.J. Walker—the legendary African American entrepreneur and philanthropist—by her great-great-granddaughter, A’Lelia Bundles. The daughter of formerly enslaved parents, Sarah Breedlove—who would become known as Madam C. J. Walker—was orphaned at seven, married at fourteen, and widowed at twenty. She spent the better part of the next two decades laboring as a washerwoman for $1.50 a week. Then—with the discovery of a revolutionary hair care formula for black women—everything changed. By her death in 1919, Walker managed to overcome astonishing odds: building a storied beauty empire from the ground up, amassing wealth unprecedented among black women, and devoting her life to philanthropy and social activism. Along the way, she formed friendships with great early-twentieth-century political figures such as Ida B. Wells, Mary McLeod Bethune, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Booker T. Washington.