Tim Lake : "Wabash College's pioneering Black student: A tale of diversity and progress"

1. Wabash College’s historic integration
2. First Black student at Wabash College.

Accident – Death – Obituary News : When Tim Lake, an associate professor of English and Black Studies at Wabash College, arrived in Crawfordsville 21 years ago, he inquired about the school’s first Black student. His colleagues informed him about John Evans, the first Black graduate of Wabash College in 1908, who went on to have a successful career in education. However, Lake wanted to know who the first African American to be enrolled in the college was.

According to the story Lake heard from his colleagues, Wabash admitted a Black student in January 1857, just 25 years after the college was founded. This was a remarkable step considering that Indiana University and Earlham College had yet to admit Black students at the time. However, the student’s experience at Wabash was not positive due to racial backlash from the town. As a result, the student left the college.

For over 16 years, Lake conducted extensive research in school and local newspaper archives, as well as letters and other documents, to uncover the truth about Wabash’s first Black student. He discovered that the story that had circulated for 167 years was largely false.

The true story of Wabash’s first Black student begins in 1841 in Essex County, Virginia. John Randall Blackburn was born to white planter William Blackburn and Fannie Randol, one of William’s slaves. In the late 1840s, William emancipated Fannie and the Blackburn children and moved the family to Cincinnati. In 1856, John Blackburn traveled to Crawfordsville and enrolled at Wabash on January 1, 1857.

Not much is known about Blackburn’s time at Wabash, but he did not live on campus as Black students were not allowed to do so until the 1950s. Instead, he stayed with James Askins, a prominent Black barber in Crawfordsville. While the school claimed that Blackburn left of his own accord, Blackburn wrote in a memoir before his death in 1937 that he was “sent away.” Lake suspects that the backlash leading to Blackburn’s departure came from within the student body, as newspaper accounts of his time in Crawfordsville were published after he had left.

Despite the controversy, Blackburn went on to have a successful career in education. He studied at Lane Theological Seminary and Dartmouth College, eventually becoming the Principal of Colored Education in Xenia, Ohio, and a mathematics professor at what is now Alcorn State University. He received a Master of Arts from Dartmouth in 1883 and served as a trustee for Ohio University and Wilberforce University.

Meanwhile, Wabash College seemed to intentionally ignore Blackburn’s story, allowing it to fade into obscurity. Lake believes that this lack of acknowledgment represents a missed opportunity for racial justice, harmony, and healing.

To address the past, Wabash College is now actively confronting the story of John Blackburn. Lake recently shared Blackburn’s story with students, faculty, and residents of Crawfordsville, and he has successfully connected with Blackburn’s living descendants. Five generations of Blackburn’s family came to Crawfordsville, and a portrait of John Blackburn now hangs in the Malcolm X Institute of Black Studies building on campus.