Black Market firebombing
Open-knowledge reference entry
On December 26, 1968, Indiana University's Black Market, a student run shopping center for Black made items and clothing, was firebombed by two Ku Klux Klan members just three months after its opening. The market's founder, student Clarence "Rollo" Turner, spearheaded protests against racial discrimination at the university, including the ones that followed the market's firebombing.
Background
The Black Market was started on the IU Bloomington campus at the corner of Dunn Street and Kirkwood Avenue in September 1968 by graduate student Clarence "Rollo" Turner. At the time, the student population at IU Bloomington only included about 2% Black students, of which Turner was one of the few to lead protests for change in the community. In the 1968 Little 500, Turner was a part of a sit-in which protested against discrimination in campus fraternity covenants. Turner also co-founded the Afro-Afro-American Student Association at IU Bloomington the spring before the Black Market opened in 1968.
The market was made possible through students and faculty who invested in the new business. Goods sold at the market included clothing, jewelry, literature, artwork, and music records that were associated with Black culture. Along with providing the local community with a center for Black made items, the Black Market was also considered to be a hub for culture and the exchange of ideas. Ted Najam, the president of the Student Body at the time, was quoted in an article by the Indiana Daily Student stating that the Black Market was a contributor to the campus community's intellectual and social life.
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This entry incorporates text from “Black Market firebombing” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.