The Muncie Race Riots Of 1967, Representing Community Memory Through Public Performance, And Collaborative Ethnography Between Faculty, Students, And The Local Community

Abstract

In October 1967, a footnote in the larger national struggle over civil rights for African Americans occurred at Southside High School in Muncie, Indiana. On the nineteenth, a fight broke out between about 100 black and white students in the halls of the school, where the football team was named the “Rebels,” and a modified Confederate flag flew just in front of the building. In spring 2001, a group of Ball State University faculty and students along with a group of more than thirty consultants from the Muncie community engaged in a collaborative ethnographic project to present the community’s memory of the event as a theatrical performance. This essay details this process as well as its consequences for practicing reciprocal and collaborative representation.