JEFFERSONVILLE —
A proposal to take history, and use it to generate tourism, was offered to Clark-Floyd Counties Convention and Tourism Bureau on Wednesday.
Indiana African American Heritage Trail organizers attended the tourism bureau board’s meeting to request $30,000, for two years, to help fund its establishment. Although the project has roots dating back to 2006, the nonprofit group is seeking funding to establish the actual trail.
“I think it gives us an opportunity to introduce something into this community that I’ve heard people talk about,” said Gary Leavell, chairman of Southern Indiana Minority Enterprise Initiative Inc., which is the nonprofit helping to launch the heritage trail.
But he said there hasn’t been an account of black history presented in the region.
Maxine F. Brown, who conceptualized the trail, said “this is a way of putting Jeffersonville and Clark County on the map, with respect to heritage tourism.”
The concept was born out of the Minority Enterprise Initiative, established in 1992 in Jeffersonville, as a way to encourage entrepreneurship among minorities and women. The idea for the trail developed over time and was viewed as a way to bring attention to the region and the role of blacks in the community.
“It’s going to add a dimension to the tourism efforts in our region, and particularly in our area, that have never existed before,” Brown said.
The Depot, which is adjacent to Jeffersonville City Hall, will serve as the starting point and a welcome center for the trail. Since the project was initiated, it has been supported through state grants, but the last designation from the state of $30,000 is set to be received this year. In order to further the project, organizers were seeking financing from the tourism bureau.
“We have a chance to build a segment of tourism that hasn’t been tried,” Brown said.
Clark County Historian Jeanne Burke has been working with Brown and Leavell to help develop and verify information that will be a part of the trail.
“We have a lot of African-American history here and they are certainly a segment of our population that is underrepresented,” she said.
Part of the effort will be to draw attention to the unique history of Southern Indiana, which was an important cog in the Underground Railroad, a trail by which slaves escaped Southern states into the North.
“We don’t promote ourselves like we need to do, we are unique,” Burke said. “[People] will travel to places to see where they came from and where they once belonged.”
Once the trail is started, the group hopes it will continue to grow.
“It’s not only a story about African-Americans, it’s a story about Indiana, about all Hoosiers,” Leavell said. “Our intent is to take this project and move it throughout Indiana.”
Tourism Bureau Board President Janet Huff said the proposal will be sent to committee, be reviewed and will likely be brought back to the board at its next regular meeting.
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