Political Quotes

“Mr. President, today I wish to recognize and celebrate the centennial of Indianapolis' Frederick Douglass Park. In the early 20th century, recreational opportunities for Black Americans in Indianapolis were separate and unequal. There were no public swings or slides for children to play on, no designated green spaces for communities to gather in. When the city's government took notice of the polluted and dangerous swimming holes and streams in which citizens cooled off, it constructed sanitary swimming pools, in White neighborhoods only. There were, thankfully, Hoosiers who recognized these injustices and resolved to right them: the physician and city council member Sumner Furniss and journalist Marcus Stewart, who both lobbied for the creation of a park to accommodate the city's growing Black population. And the family of local entrepreneur Edward Claypool, who donated the land on which to build it. Because of their efforts, in the summer of 1921, a new park opened on the northeast side of Indianapolis where African Americans were welcome. It was fittingly named for the great champion of freedom, Frederick Douglass. A year later, a large swimming pool filled with clean water opened. There were slides, swings, and merry-go-rounds too. Next came the adjoining Douglass Park Golf Course. Originally six tomato cans in a cow pasture, it later grew to nine holes and par 34 and is one of the only golf courses in the Nation named after an African American.…”