Indiana farm community joins 'absolutely moving' Smithsonian museum opening
It has been more than 200 years since African-American settlers put down roots that grew into a small farming community in southwestern Indiana.
Two centuries later, Lyles Station may be the last of the roughly 100 black farming settlements that popped up in the Midwest in the 1800s — and its little-known story is among those spotlighted at the Smithsonian Institution's new National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Stanley Madison, a fifth-generation Lyles Station farmer who donated his great-grandfather's scythe to the museum's collection, was among thousands of people on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for the weekend opening festivities.
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A joy-filled, multicultural crowd celebrated as entertainers including Will Smith, Oprah Winfrey, Angela Bassett and Stevie Wonder and history makers such as the Tuskegee Airmen joined Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush at Saturday morning's dedication.
In opening the only national museum dedicated to a full rendering of African-American history, Obama said the museum tells an essential part of the American story, "one that has at times been overlooked."
“The story that is told here doesn’t just belong to black Americans, it belongs to all Americans,” President Obama said from the covered doorway of the $540 million, 400-square-foot structure whose filigreed bronze exterior mimics an African crown.
"Together, we’ll learn about ourselves as Americans, our sufferings, our delights and our triumphs," Obama said. "And we'll walk away better for it."
The excitement of the crowd carried over to those watching the proceedings on Jumbotrons across the street on the Washington Monument grounds. After the ceremony, while visitors with timed passes queued on Constitution Avenue, others enjoyed the Freedom Sounds festival which featuring storytellers, singers, African drummers and more. Saturday evening's concert featuring Living Colour, Public Enemy and The Roots drew as many people as daylight events.
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"It was just absolutely outstanding to be there," Madison said of Saturday's ceremony. "It was absolutely moving."
Madison and about 40 residents and descendants of early settler families, representing nearly a quarter of the population of Lyles Station, chartered a bus to attend the ceremony.
Madison, 66, said the event was a highlight of his life. "It's probably the top of our list for everybody," he said of his group.
Lyles Station is among 10 African-American communities highlighted in the museum's “The Power of Place” exhibition on the third floor. The exhibit includes historic photographs and typical 19th-century artifacts, such as a horse-drawn plow, a communion plate, a quilt and clothing, a journal and wood podium from the community's Wayman Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church. There even will be a few spades of soil from one of the farms.
The group toured the museum Sunday, but Madison got a sneak preview of the exhibit before this weekend.
"It was very emotional to see those articles from 1885 and things that had just been around our household forever," he said.
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The museum tells a story, Madison said, that has too often been lost in history.
"We’re finally going to get a chance to tell our story of the pioneer African-American farmers," he said. "That’s a plus for us. It's never been recognized and never been told."
Also little known is another contribution Lyles Station made to history: Alonzo Fields, whose father had conducted Lyles Station's volunteer marching band, moved to Washington in 1931 and became the first African-American chief butler at the White House.
Lyles Station was never a booming place. But at one time, the community, which freed slaves and other black pioneers carved out of the frontier in the first half of the 1800s, at least bustled. In its heyday, between 1880 and 1913, the hamlet had 55 homes, a train station, two general stores, a post office, a school, two churches, a lumber mill and about 800 residents, according to the Lyles Station Historical Preservation Corp. website.
A giant flood drenched its fields in 1913, and after that, the population began to scatter.
But others — including Madison's family, who arrived in 1838 — stayed in Lyles Station and pursued the same rural life their families had lived for generations.
"Today, only a few homes remain in the community of Lyles Station, but nearly half of the residents are descendants of the original black settlers," the historical group's website says. "Along with the scattered houses, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, a grain elevator and the schoolhouse are all that stand as a physical reminder of the once-thriving settlement of Lyles Station, Ind."
Norman Greer, 79, still works the land his forebears farmed before the Civil War. He grows corn, soybeans and wheat on 300 acres. This past spring, representatives from the Smithsonian came to his farm and held a ceremony during which they dug a few spadefuls of Greer's soil and carted it away with them.
That soil, the sustaining earth Greer's family has labored on for more than 150 years, is now part of the museum's Lyles Station display.
.Contributing: Will Higgins; USA TODAY reporters Mary Troyan and Nichelle Smith.
Follow Tim Evans on Twitter: @starwatchtim.
