South Bend's Own Words IU South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center

Ruperto Guedea lived the majority of his life in the United States straddling multiple cultures. Born into a small mining community in northern Mexico during the late 1930s, his mother and father brought their family across the border just after World War II. His first school was openly hostile towards Spanish speakers yet did not teach him English. After moving to Chicago, he fit right in with the Polish and other European immigrant families who also knew no English. He met and married a woman whose Mennonite faith traditions were significantly different than his. Together, they got involved with the new influx of Mexican and Central American immigrants that transformed the Elkhart and Goshen area into a multi-lingual and multi-cultural community. For Ruperto, it meant reflecting on his personal transformation between his Mexican, American, and Mennonite cultural identities. 

 

In 2007, Indiana University South Bend’s Cynthia Murphy sat down with Ruperto. They talked about his parents, his youth in Mexico, and his incredible journey over six decades in the United States.

 

This episode was produced by Nathalie Villalobos and George Garner from the Indiana University South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center. 

 

Full transcript of this episode available here.

 

 

Want to learn more about South Bend’s history? View the photographs and documents that helped create it. Visit Michiana Memory at http://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/. 

 

Title music, “History Explains Itself,” from Josh Spacek. Visit his page on the Free Music Archive, http://www.freemusicarchive.org/. 

Alma Powell left her hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, when she was two years old. Her father worked for Studebaker by day, and with his family, ran Nesbitt’s Club and Casino by night. Despite the name, it was a music and a social hall, holding local political rallies and community conversations as well as nationally known musicians. 



There were, as Alma said, few career paths for an educated young Black woman. Teaching was one of them, and Alma’s career as an educator and administrator is distinguished. She is the first African American woman to serve as principal of a South Bend school, and in 1980, she was chosen to lead the South Bend School Corporation’s desegregation efforts. Additionally, she served in leadership roles in her beloved Olivet A.M.E. church, in the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, and during the formative years of the transformation of the Engman Natatorium into the IU South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center. 

 

In 2012, Dr. Monica Tetzlaff sat down with Alma Powell. They talked about her growing up, her family’s business on the west side—specifically, the Lake—as well as her years of leadership, especially as an education administrator.

 

This episode was produced by Nathalie Villalobos and George Garner from the Indiana University South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center. 

 

Full transcript of this episode available here.



 

Want to learn more about South Bend’s history? View the photographs and documents that helped create it. Visit Michiana Memory at http://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/. 

 

Title music, “History Explains Itself,” from Josh Spacek. Visit his page on the Free Music Archive, http://www.freemusicarchive.org/. 

We’re releasing a new book. Placing History: An African American Landmark Tour of South Bend, Indiana, features South Bend’s African American history as told through some of the many landmarks where that history was made. The book is available for free in print while supplies last, and always available as an e-book by visiting http://aalt.iusb.edu/.

 

The oral histories we’ve archived deeply informed the writing. Today, we hear longer versions of the oral histories quoted in Placing History—just some of the many people who lived, worked, or organized for change within some of these landmarks.

 

This episode was produced by Nathalie Villalobos and George Garner from the Indiana University South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center. 

 

Full transcript of this episode available here.

 

 

Want to learn more about South Bend’s history? View the photographs and documents that helped create it. Visit Michiana Memory at http://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/. 

 

Title music, “History Explains Itself,” from Josh Spacek. Visit his page on the Free Music Archive, http://www.freemusicarchive.org/. 

The daughter of migrant farmworkers, Rebecca Ruvalcaba witnessed the growth of the Latines community from a few originators, like her father, Benito Salizar. Rebecca’s parents instilled in her a desire to learn, and to serve. She adapted to a late-in-life diagnosis of dyslexia to earn degrees from Indiana University South Bend and the University of Notre Dame. She became a social worker, a director of La Casa de Amistad, and served in various leadership roles at the University of Notre Dame. 



In 2018, Rebecca sat down to talk about her roots in South Bend’s migrant farm community, her growth as a learner and a leader, and her continued passion for serving her community. 



This episode was produced by Nathalie Villalobos and George Garner from the IU South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center. 

 

Full transcript of this episode available here. 

 

Want to learn more about South Bend’s history? View the photographs and documents that helped create it. Visit Michiana Memory at http://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/. 



Title music, “History Explains Itself,” from Josh Spacek. Visit his page on the Free Music Archive, http://www.freemusicarchive.org/. 

In the 1940s, professional baseball segregated players both by race and by gender. The All-American Girls’ Professional Baseball League, and our home team, the South Bend Blue Sox, famously upset rigid gender discrimination and opened pro-ball to white women. But only white women.

For a talented young athlete like Renelda Robinson, the opportunity to play ball came from a café owner on Birdsell Street in South Bend’s west side. Uncle Bill’s All-Colored Girls Softball team brought young players on adventures across the Midwest.

In 1987, Renelda sat down to talk about her years in baseball’s spotlight.

This episode was produced by Nathalie Villalobos and George Garner from the Indiana University South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center.

Additional thanks to Ryan Olivier and the Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts at IU South Bend.

Full transcript of this episode available here.

Over the last three years, professors, staff, and students from the University of Notre Dame reached out to community partners about a new project called Foundry Field. They’re building a new diamond on South Bend’s southeast side, focusing on honoring local baseball history, particularly marginalized players. The Civil Rights Heritage Center is one of the partners, contributing historical research. Learn more about the project and its focus on local history and art at foundryfield.org.

Want to learn more about South Bend’s history? View the photographs and documents that helped create it. Visit Michiana Memory at http://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/.

Title music, “History Explains Itself,” from Josh Spacek. Visit his page on the Free Music Archive, http://www.freemusicarchive.org/.

Near the end of World War II, at age four or five years old, Abdul Nur moved from Elkhart, Indiana, to South Bend. Despite the short distance, Abdul experienced a huge cultural shock. For the first time, he was surrounded by children from multiple racial and cultural groups. Abdul went on to experience multi-ethnic spaces throughout his time at Central High School and into the Air Force.

As early as middle school, Abdul began a deep education into Islam that eventually led him, as an adult, to convert and take on the name Abdul Nur. These experiences led him to get involved in civil disobediences in Nashville, Tennessee, fighting for justice during the height of the 1960s civil rights movement. With a degree from Indiana University South Bend, Abdul became involved in several activist groups here from the 1960s through the 90s.

In 2001, IU South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center students Andrea Sheneman and David Healey sat down with Mr. Nur. They spoke about his early experiences in South Bend’s schools, his learning and conversion to Islam, and how that all informed his actions for justice.

This episode was produced by Donald Brittain from the Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts at IU South Bend, and by George Garner from the Civil Rights Heritage Center.

Full transcript of this episode available here.

Want to learn more about South Bend’s history? View the photographs and documents that helped create it. Visit Michiana Memory at http://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/.

Title music, “History Explains Itself,” from Josh Spacek. Visit his page on the Free Music Archive, http://www.freemusicarchive.org/.