The Madam Walker Legacy Center has a newly renovated building and a new partnership with IUPUI, but the organization lacks a president.
Judith Thomas, hired to lead the Walker in November 2018, left her role this spring to pursue opportunities to amplify awareness of Black history in Indianapolis.
“These stories have not been told, which is part of the reason we’re having the problems we’re having now,” said Thomas, referring to a national uprising sparked by the May 25 police-involved killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. “Folks don’t know we have this rich history all over the city and the state and the country.”
More than $15 million in renovations at the Madam Walker Legacy Center, 617 Indiana Ave., are nearing completion, and the historic building's theater reopened to host a pair of high-profile January events before the coronavirus pandemic: a Martin Luther King Jr. Day commemoration and a local tourism promotion featuring special guest David Letterman.
A grand reopening celebration for the Walker, originally scheduled for June, is postponed to 2021. Joyce Rogers, chair of the Madam Walker Legacy Center's board of directors, said the organization presently is focused on online summer camps for students ages 6 to 14.
From July 7-30, the Madam Walker Summer Institute will devote individual weeks to the topics of social justice and philanthropy, art, entrepreneurship and science and technology.
"Everything we're planning will be virtual," Rogers said, noting the organization's pandemic concerns. "If it looks like things will change for the rest of 2020, then we'll do that. The building's capacity for social distancing is certainly something we all need to think about."
Most of the physical improvements at the building have been behind the scenes, with Lilly Endowment paying for new heating, cooling, plumbing and roofing.
The Madam Walker Legacy Center is partnering with Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis to schedule events. The breakdown, Rogers said, is one-third scheduled by the Walker, one-third scheduled by IUPUI and one-third scheduled as third-party rentals.
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Dating to 2000, Thomas was the ninth person to manage the building. Rogers said the Walker's next president won't face the infrastructure challenges – frozen pipes that led to flooding, the absence of air conditioning – that hindered previous administrators.
"What we really want to do now is focus on the organization itself," Rogers said. "We're proud of the work we've done with the building, but we don't want our leadership focused on whether the roof is leaking and the daily calendar."
The Walker building opened in 1927 to realize a dream of late African-American hair care entrepreneur Madam C.J. Walker.
Walker's life story was the basis of "Self Made," a Netflix miniseries that premiered in March. Freeman B. Ransom, Madam Walker's attorney, inspired the name of an Indianapolis neighborhood Thomas hopes to spotlight in her new professional pursuits.
The historic Ransom Place neighborhood was an enclave of affluent Black residents more or less bordered on the north by Crispus Attucks High School and bordered on the south by the Walker building.
"I'm trying to work with a group to bring out the history again of Ransom Place," said Thomas, who worked as a VisitIndy executive before her Walker stint. "It would bring back signage and create a digital opportunity to show what it looked like before."
Thomas said there's an opportunity to enhance existing Black history tours that connect Indiana Avenue and Ransom Place to the Flanner House Homes and Riverside neighborhoods.
"We have to hold on to what we have now," Thomas said. "I feel like that's kind of my mission. That's what I saw when I was at the Walker. I feel like it's important to connect with people who can make that happen."
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Contact IndyStar reporter David Lindquist at dave.lindquist@indystar.com or 317-444-6404. Follow him on Twitter: @317Lindquist.
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July 06, 2020 at 05:21PM
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As Madam Walker Legacy Center president exits, organization focuses on online experiences - IndyStar
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