Conversations in Indiana African American History and Culture
Category: Event Calendar
Date and Time for this Past Event
- Thursday, Feb 15, 2024 6pm
Location
Indiana Landmarks
1201 Central Avenue
Details
In this recurring series presented by Freetown Village, historians, researchers, and educators discuss topics related to Indiana’s Black heritage, followed by question-and-answer sessions. Sponsored by Indiana Landmarks’ Black Heritage Preservation Program, Indiana Humanities, IUPUI Africana Studies, and Association of the Study of African American Life and History Joseph Taylor Branch.
Lieutenant Colonel Joseph H. Ward, M.D.
Leon Bates, local historian, veteran, and educator presents a talk on the life of Lieutenant Colonel Joseph H. Ward, M.D. Genealogists say the single most important mark on a grave marker is the dash between the date of birth and date of death, for it is this dash that represents all that one has accomplished in their lifetime. An example of this concept is the simple government issued stone in section 60, lot 639, at Crown Hill Cemetery, which marks the resting place of Joseph Henry Ward. A first-generation freedman, born in a slave cabin in Wilson, North Carolina; Ward went on to become a physician, surgeon, entrepreneur, army officer, first African American to lead a U.S. Army field hospital, first African American to lead a U.S. veteran’s hospital, and the first African American to lead a major hospital in the United States. He did all this at the height of the Jim Crow era, between Plessy vs. Ferguson and Brown vs. Board of Education (1896-1954), and yet, almost no one knows his name.
