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All We Had Was Each Other: The Black Community of Madison, Indiana
In All We Had Was Each Other, twenty Black residents of a small Ohio River town tell the stories of their lives. Madison, though in the North, had its cultural roots in the South, and for most of the twentieth century the town was strictly segregated. In their own words, Black men and women of Madison describe the deprivations of discrimination in their hometown: what it meant, personally and culturally, to be denied opportunities for participation in the educational, economic, political, and social life of the white community. And they describe how they created a community of their own, strong and viable, self-sustaining and mutually supportive of its members.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 29, 2022
Highly recommend for people who have lived or currently live in my hometown of Madison, Indiana.
February 6, 2015
The Madison, Indiana chapter of American Association of University Women (AAUW) selected All We Had Was Each Other: The Black Community of Madison, Indiana as their featured book for the month of February (2015) and invited Elsie Perry Payne to speak at their meeting (2/5/15) to honor Black History Month. Ms. Perry Payne is one of the twenty Black residents of Madison, Indiana that was featured in the book.
I've lived in the Madison area since 1988, when I moved here with my parents from San Diego, CA at the age of 9. Many of the locations & family names discussed in the book are therefore quite familiar to me.
Madison is a small river-front community on the Ohio River. Though Indiana fought for the North, culturally speaking, Madison is Southern. The state officially banned school segregation in 1877, & granted equal access to public facilities in 1885, but like many communities in Indiana, Madison unofficially, but strictly, enforced Jim Crow policies. Black residents were not permitted to sit & eat in restaurants, nor even enter through the front door. They couldn't try on clothing at stores. There was a separate school, the Broadway School. They weren't even allowed to swim in the public pool; rather, were banished to a contaminated & unsafe swimming hole. Even after racial integration at Madison High School, black students were not allowed to participate in any activities for many years-- no sports, no clubs, no choir. There was even an unspoken rule that against going above Third St., except for work or shopping. The library was the *only* place in town that wasn't segregated. (I'm left wondering whether that was an official state mandated policy, or whether the library director was progressive for the time, relative to everyone else in town.)
One of the truly inspiring things about the book was the love, respect, & dedication to education that this tight-knit community fostered. Despite obvious hardships & barriers, nearly all of the people coming of age in the community during the Civil Rights era went on to college, some even to medical school & graduate school. So many of the residents spoke so favorably about the Broadway school. . . even though it was segregated & had very limited resources & equipment, the teachers were fantastic, because they cared so very much about all of the students & knew that the only way for the children to overcome prejudice was through quality education.
Some really good quotes from the book:
"When I was a child I used to love to go to the library because it was the one place in town where we were treated like everyone else. And Mrs. Dixon, the librarian, helped me greatly. She noticed that I was reading beyond my age level. I was in the second grade and I was reading fourth grade books. So she placed me in a group of advanced readers and gave me some really good books to read. That was a great opening for me. Books have been an important & wonderful part of my life, and I am grateful to that woman, who cared enough to notice & encourage me." ~Carole Cosby Guess
"I am retired as a teacher, but I'm still teaching-- I teach other teachers now, as a consultant to multicultural education. I teach diversity. I teach Black history. And when I do, I teach the same things that were taught to me when I was a child at the Broadway School in Madison. We were taught history with Black history included." ~Carole Cosby Guess
"But Madison hasn't always been a good town for Blacks. No, no, no. I remember one night, when I was just a boy, seeing the burning of a cross by the Ku Klux Klan up on the hill. From down here in town, we could see the flames. It upset everybody. It was the Klan and you know what they might do to you. You saw the white robes and the masks and it made you afraid. Yes, that happened here in Madison, maybe seventy, seventy-five years ago." ~Charles O'Banion
Here's the truly sad, horrible thing, though. . . this book, released in 1998, isn't used in ANY of the local school systems as a teaching tool. WHY??? Apparently Madison Consolidated High School did purchase roughly 60 copies of the book to be used in classes. After one teacher used the book for only one semester, the school board &/or superintendent decided not to allow any further instruction on Black History Month. The books were then allegedly BURNED by the school system, despite the fact that they could have been donated to the local library, or given to any of the residents featured in the book who still live in Madison (of which there are several, I might add), or donated to charity. I realize as a bibliophile I might have a stronger visceral reaction to this than some, but dammit, *YOU DON'T BURN BOOKS*. Nazis burn books. Dictatorships burn books. Oppressive regimes burn books. Apparently, but unsurprisingly, racism is still alive & well in Madison, Indiana.
I've lived in the Madison area since 1988, when I moved here with my parents from San Diego, CA at the age of 9. Many of the locations & family names discussed in the book are therefore quite familiar to me.
Madison is a small river-front community on the Ohio River. Though Indiana fought for the North, culturally speaking, Madison is Southern. The state officially banned school segregation in 1877, & granted equal access to public facilities in 1885, but like many communities in Indiana, Madison unofficially, but strictly, enforced Jim Crow policies. Black residents were not permitted to sit & eat in restaurants, nor even enter through the front door. They couldn't try on clothing at stores. There was a separate school, the Broadway School. They weren't even allowed to swim in the public pool; rather, were banished to a contaminated & unsafe swimming hole. Even after racial integration at Madison High School, black students were not allowed to participate in any activities for many years-- no sports, no clubs, no choir. There was even an unspoken rule that against going above Third St., except for work or shopping. The library was the *only* place in town that wasn't segregated. (I'm left wondering whether that was an official state mandated policy, or whether the library director was progressive for the time, relative to everyone else in town.)
One of the truly inspiring things about the book was the love, respect, & dedication to education that this tight-knit community fostered. Despite obvious hardships & barriers, nearly all of the people coming of age in the community during the Civil Rights era went on to college, some even to medical school & graduate school. So many of the residents spoke so favorably about the Broadway school. . . even though it was segregated & had very limited resources & equipment, the teachers were fantastic, because they cared so very much about all of the students & knew that the only way for the children to overcome prejudice was through quality education.
Some really good quotes from the book:
"When I was a child I used to love to go to the library because it was the one place in town where we were treated like everyone else. And Mrs. Dixon, the librarian, helped me greatly. She noticed that I was reading beyond my age level. I was in the second grade and I was reading fourth grade books. So she placed me in a group of advanced readers and gave me some really good books to read. That was a great opening for me. Books have been an important & wonderful part of my life, and I am grateful to that woman, who cared enough to notice & encourage me." ~Carole Cosby Guess
"I am retired as a teacher, but I'm still teaching-- I teach other teachers now, as a consultant to multicultural education. I teach diversity. I teach Black history. And when I do, I teach the same things that were taught to me when I was a child at the Broadway School in Madison. We were taught history with Black history included." ~Carole Cosby Guess
"But Madison hasn't always been a good town for Blacks. No, no, no. I remember one night, when I was just a boy, seeing the burning of a cross by the Ku Klux Klan up on the hill. From down here in town, we could see the flames. It upset everybody. It was the Klan and you know what they might do to you. You saw the white robes and the masks and it made you afraid. Yes, that happened here in Madison, maybe seventy, seventy-five years ago." ~Charles O'Banion
Here's the truly sad, horrible thing, though. . . this book, released in 1998, isn't used in ANY of the local school systems as a teaching tool. WHY??? Apparently Madison Consolidated High School did purchase roughly 60 copies of the book to be used in classes. After one teacher used the book for only one semester, the school board &/or superintendent decided not to allow any further instruction on Black History Month. The books were then allegedly BURNED by the school system, despite the fact that they could have been donated to the local library, or given to any of the residents featured in the book who still live in Madison (of which there are several, I might add), or donated to charity. I realize as a bibliophile I might have a stronger visceral reaction to this than some, but dammit, *YOU DON'T BURN BOOKS*. Nazis burn books. Dictatorships burn books. Oppressive regimes burn books. Apparently, but unsurprisingly, racism is still alive & well in Madison, Indiana.
July 28, 2014
The stories were repetitive at times, but the book is epic and contains stories that I've never heard before. Coming from an aging black population of Madison, IN, the stories are a great account and will be a great addition to the stories that may have otherwise faded. I love all of the families in this book. I'm a white male who grew up in Madison, IN, but moved to Cincinnati in 1991. I admired all of these families and never knew of the issues surrounding that community. I'm glad my parents raised me to not know the differences. Yes, I wish I would have been able to help.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews