History you can see: Black Heritage Trail installed in downtown Columbus

By: Taj Simmons

COLUMBUS — Black history is all around Indiana, but sometimes it can be hard to find. A Columbus woman made it her mission to bring her city's Black history out into the open.

The Columbus Black Heritage Trail, a project spearheaded by Paulette Combs Roberts, officially opened on Juneteenth. The trail features plaques around downtown Columbus marking important places and people in the city's Black culture.

"I saw lots of things like this that were happening in other towns, and I said, 'Columbus needs something,'" Combs Roberts said. "I needed to dig and do some research."

The places highlighted by the plaques include a hotel that hosted Black guests, a shoeshine business that once served President William McKinley, and an opera house where Frederick Douglass gave a speech.

"On January 6, 1873. Frederick Douglass spoke here about anti-slavery and the equality of races," Combs Roberts recalled. "People in Columbus were not very happy. Only a handful showed up."

One plaque also notes a neighborhood called Little Harlem, which was demolished when the nearby Cummins Corporate Office Building prepared to expand.

Roxanne Stallworth lived in the neighborhood. The plaque features her grandfather's name since he owned a store on the corner of 8th and Jackson Streets.

"My daughter, son-in-law, niece, nephew, and husband. We've all been down here taking pictures. It's a place in our hearts."

Descendants of the people honored by the plaques officially opened the Black Heritage Trail on Juneteenth, but Combs Roberts hopes people in Columbus notice it every day of the year.

"It's important to have good knowledge of what is going on in the city that you live in," Combs Roberts said. "It is one of the most powerful things that could happen here in Columbus, Indiana."