By Deb McKee
TERRE HAUTE — When the idea for a month-long project on Black History Month was suggested, I was excited and a bit apprehensive.
Being a history buff, the idea of rooting around in archives and yearbooks, and talking to members of older generations really appealed to me.
But I was concerned, too. As a white woman, I was afraid of making some unforgivable error in wording or otherwise revealing some subtle prejudice through the way I presented a story. Also, I had heard rumblings from different people about the wisdom of celebrating “only” one month of black history, or the wisdom of celebrating black history at all. The reasons differed from person to person and across color lines.
I wanted to address such issues at the beginning of the month, and in doing so I learned a lot about the reasons for exploring black history, including the need to provide young black men and women role models and the hope of erasing prejudice through shared knowledge.
Throughout the project, we heard many stories, many more than could be covered in one month. We hoped to enlighten readers about some of the lesser-known local figures and places significant to Terre Haute’s black history.
We ran into numerous roadblocks when exploring those lesser-known characters. For instance, I wanted to tell the story of Frank Tichenor, a local violinist and violin-maker. But with nothing more than a faded photo, an obituary and an unsubstantiated claim that he was a builder of violins, I had to do some digging. I tried to contact both of Tichenor’s children, named in the obituary, without success.
It was not until after the bare-bones story ran that I received a call from Flossie Davis, who still lives in town, and is one of Tichenor’s stepchildren. She added depth the story lacked, including the detail that Tichenor was a stickler for fine sound quality from his instruments.
“If he didn’t like the way it sounded, he would tear it down and start over,” Flossie said.
When asked how many violins he made, Flossie answered, “Oh, my stars above, Lord, he made so many!”
In a similar vein, after publishing the story about the black fire station, No. 10, we received an e-mail from Dee Reed, the wife of Bill Reed Jr. Her husband became the first black fire chief in Terre Haute in 1996, Dee wrote.
“As a boy he slept in the firehouse with his father. So he literally grew up in the fire department,” she added.
Despite our efforts, there are hundreds of other details and pieces of history that may never be captured.
The project taught me to embrace the history of our community while those who know it are still living. It is dangerous to assume that if something is “significant,” it will be recorded somewhere by someone.
As we learned, some of the most significant individuals are never recognized, and many of the best stories may never be told.
Deb McKee can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or deb.mckee@
tribstar.com.
