On a Saturday morning in March, a group of students and parents toured the newly renovated library at The Oaks Academy Middle School in Martindale Brightwood.
Librarian Maurice Broaddus watched as a few lingered before sitting on a wooden bench against the wall.
“What’s up?” Broaddus asked.
“I wanted to sit where my grandmother once sat, where she came and would read books,” he recalled one parent, who is a dad, saying. “And this was her space. And we just want to come and sit and absorb that.”
Broaddus said another dad insisted his daughter sit with him.
“You do not know what it means, what this history represents,” the dad said. “You need you to just sit in the history of this space.”
This space, while only open to students and employees of the private Christian school now, has a special significance for Indianapolis. It was the original location of the Paul Laurence Dunbar library — the first library in Indianapolis created specifically for Black residents.
‘A jewel for the Black community’
When the library first opened in 1922, the Indianapolis Public Library system said branches were “open to all.” But under Jim Crow laws, that wasn’t true in practice.
“While we can say they weren’t segregated, I don’t think the doors were as open and as welcoming as it is now,” said Alexus Hunt, the manager of the Indianapolis Public Library’s Center for Black Literature & Culture.
To better serve Black residents, the library created the Paul Laurence Dunbar Library inside of John Hope School No. 26. Lillian Childress Hall, the state’s first formally trained Black librarian, was the branch’s first manager.
“What she did at the time was set the precedent for other African Americans to come through and say, ‘Hey, we want to be in libraries, we want opportunities, we want to educate one another and form communities,” Hunt said.
The library was well loved by both students of School 26 and the community. In 1949, the library expanded and moved to a different part of the school before the branch closed in 1967.
School 26 closed in 1997. By the time the Oaks Academy moved into the building in 2015, the original library space had been unused for years. Walls were put up and the room had been separated into an office, storage space and a custodial closet. It remained that way until recently, when Broaddus learned about the history and impact of the Dunbar library and pushed to renovate and reopen the space.
“This space represented a jewel for the Black community,” Broaddus said. “And I said no, this needs to be that sort of space for the community again.”
Broaddus, who is also a local afrofuturist author, said the goal in the restoration process was to pay homage to what the library originally looked like.
“It was right in the heart of the Harlem Renaissance,” Broaddus said. “And so we wanted to echo even the ceiling tile and the lighting, we wanted to echo on things to give it some aesthetic appeal for that aesthetic for what it looked like back then.”
Antique-inspired lamps sit on some shelves and square wooden desks that are reminiscent of the desks featured in an old photograph of the library. Around the room are modern works of art from local artists and old photographs of School 26 and the original Dunbar Library.
“This is actually the original woodwork from that space,” Broaddus told Mirror Indy, pointing to the benches the parents had sat on during the tour.
The Oaks Academy was able to renovate the space through grants from several community partners. Funders declined to disclose the cost of the renovation.
[Learn how to apply for a historical marker to preserve your historical favorites.]
A roadmap toward the future
Librarian Maurice Broaddus talks with guests on May 7, 2024. Credit: Jenna Watson/Mirror Indy 
Books line shelves. Credit: Jenna Watson/Mirror Indy 
Charles Martindale (left) and Eunice Trotter (right) share a laugh during a reopening ceremony. Credit: Jenna Watson/Mirror Indy 
Books at Paul Laurence Dunbar Library. Credit: Jenna Watson/Mirror Indy
Broaddus said history is an important part of the renovation process and of the library’s future.
“How do I honor the community?” Broaddus said. “Honoring the past is great, but how does the past impact the present? And how does it create a roadmap to work toward the future.”
Broaddus has a few ideas. He said he has taken special care in speaking with historians and community residents about what to do with the library.
The Oaks hasn’t had an official library before, instead relying on the Indianapolis Public Library’s shared ordering system. Broaddus has curated a collection of middle school classics and is in the process of curating three special collections: One on the Harlem Renaissance, another on the Black arts movement, and the third an afrofuturism, a genre that combines science fiction and the African American experience.
He also has developed the Mari Evans Residency for Artists and Authors of Color. Named after Indianapolis poet and playwright Mari Evans, the residency program will connect Oaks Academy students with professionals in the arts and sponsor community events.
A painting by Boxx the Artist depicts Mari Evans. Credit: Jenna Watson/Mirror Indy 
William Gibson (from right), Charles Martindale, Andrew Hart and Stanley Warren look at a photo of the John Hope School No. 26 1947-1948 basketball team. Credit: Jenna Watson/Mirror Indy 
Eunice Trotter (left) mingles during a reopening ceremony. Credit: Jenna Watson/Mirror Indy 
Guests and honorees pose for a photo during a reopening ceremony. Credit: Jenna Watson/Mirror Indy
Evans is known as one of the leaders of the Black Arts movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
“Mari has had such a huge imprint in Indianapolis and on many of the creatives here in Indianapolis,” Broaddus said. “Just the whole idea of combining art and activism, she basically set the blueprint. And so I wanted to continue that in this space.”
Broaddus named himself the test resident for the program this semester. He started a creative writing club for students.
Eighth grader Elaiyah Winters is a member of the club.
“The best memory in middle school, for sure,” Winters said. “In middle school, it is very strict. It has a lot of rules and you have to act a certain way. But in the writing club, you can have the personality to be yourself.”
With Broaddus as her mentor, Winters is writing her first book — a mystery-thriller novel. She said the program is inspirational.
“Everytime I hear poems or essays that are moving, I think, ‘How can people think like that?” Winters said. “By having mentors, you can also do that. You can also write emotional poetry, you can also write a book. The skills that they have, you can also acquire.”
Although Winters will be moving on to high school next year, she is excited for future Oaks Academy students to use the library.
“I am so proud that we can bring it back and have it here,” Winters said. “When you come to the library, you can think about the history and why it is so important to be in this space.”
Mirror Indy reporter Darian Benson covers east Indianapolis. Contact her at 317-397-7262 or darian.benson@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on X @HelloImDarian.
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