Indiana University’s Center for Rural Engagement partners with Indiana Landmarks Black Heritage Preservation Program

Indiana University’s Center for Rural Engagement has partnered with the Indiana Landmarks Black Heritage Preservation Program in an effort to collect and preserve the oral histories and significant Black landmarks to document Black Hoosier history. The project is bringing together Eunice Trotter, the director of the Indiana Landmarks Black Heritage Preservation Program, Rural Oral History Scholar Olivia Novak, and Colleen Rose, the director of student engagement at the IU Center for Rural Engagement.

According to an article on Indiana University’s website, Trotter is quoted as saying, “People want to share their history. People want to tell their stories, and everybody has a story to tell. We are losing stories about Black history because our elders are dying.”

The Indiana Landmarks Black Heritage Preservation Program was created in 2022 with support from Lilly Endowment Inc. The program was designed to identify, protect, and celebrate historic Black sites around the state. Its oral history initiative works to collect first-hand accounts of Black individuals, and these interviews become part of the Indiana Landmarks Black Heritage Oral History Collection on the Indiana Memory website, which is operated by the Indiana State Library.

Rose explained how the Center for Rural Engagement became involved with the project. She said, “We had just started this Rural Scholars Program and were looking to have a student help document more history out of rural communities. So I approached Eunice and asked if they could benefit from having an extra person contributing to this important work they’re doing.”

Novak began working on the project as the result of Rose approaching Trotter. She has helped interview individuals to collect oral histories, as well as document historically significant Black sites. She recently graduated with degrees in history and anthropology.

Novak said, “It has been a really cool hands-on experience getting to uncover the history for myself. I love exploring history that focuses on underrepresented people. It’s just really important to finally highlight their stories.”

The project to preserve the oral histories of Black Hoosiers is modeled in part on the Works Progress Administration’s oral history work of the 1930s. One aspect of the project is oral history harvests, which are gatherings at which individuals are invited to participate in interviews to share their personal stories. Three or four times per semester, these harvests are held in churches or community centers where the participants feel comfortable. 

Novak helped coordinate these harvests, from setting up audio equipment to ensuring permission forms were signed. She also occasionally served as an interviewer herself, and some of these interviews were with Black elders who shared their and their parents’ experiences with the Great Depression, World War II, Jim Crow laws, and the Civil Rights movement.

Rose said, “Olivia has done some incredible work with collecting oral histories about the Black experience in rural communities—stories that hadn’t been previously documented.”

Echoing these sentiments, Trotter said, “She loves doing the work, and you can see her passion. She’s a great interviewer, a good listener.”

Beyond interviews, Novak also helped document historically significant Black sites in Knox County. For this aspect of the project, she worked alongside Tom Bartholomew, who is the project facilitator for the Black History Preservation Project of Knox County, and volunteer Angie Bartholomew. The team built an interactive digital story map using GIS (geographic information systems) mapping tools, which users will be able to explore once the project is completed and hosted by Indiana Landmarks. 

Novak’s work on the project was recently recognized with the 2026 Student Employee of the Year Award for Social Impact and Belonging from IU Bloomington Career Exploration & Student Employment.

For more information about Indiana University, visit the school’s website.