Tuesday June 18, 2024; 4:23 PM EDT
- About thirty years ago, someone moved through our neighborhood, presumable after dark, and selected a concrete pillar on the railroad bridge, the pillar nearest the Progressive Missionary Baptist Church, about 175 steps away from its front door, and likely in the dimness of the closest streetlight painted in just a few thick black strokes a cartoonish image taken from the most well-known and most violent repertoire of American racist history, and in case anyone missed the point, which the church-goers in the AME congregation were not likely to do, the graffiti artist stayed on a moment longer to scrawl in bold black letters "GOOD OLD DAYS" just to the side of the brutal cartoon. If you've taken a guess at what the image portrayed and you know some southern and Indiana history, you've probably guessed correctly. For many years the image has slumbered beneath one coat and then another and another of the city's gray paint.#