Celebrating a Centennial

As organizations look for ways to tell the stories of African American heritage in their communities, they might find inspiration in the work of one highly successful nonprofit group.

Since 1923, the Roberts Chapel Homecoming and Burial Association, Inc., has been sharing the story of one of the oldest historically Black rural communities in the state. Now, the group is preparing to launch a public campaign to secure funds for a new “Legacy Walk,” an accessible path for self-guided exploration of the site’s rich history.

In the nineteenth century, free Blacks established farm settlements in states throughout the Midwest, including in Indiana. In 1835, the founders of Roberts Settlement migrated from northeastern North Carolina and bought land near abolitionist Quaker and Wesleyan communities in northern Hamilton County.

Settlement life centered around the church, and in 1858 residents of the community built the current chapel to serve as a church and social center. In addition to weekly religious services, the chapel hosted quarterly meetings and interracial revivals for the Wesleyan church. Today, Roberts Chapel houses a non-denominational congregation that is working to secure the building’s future. Two grants from the Cox Funds of the Central Indiana Community Foundation have helped the group repair and maintain the historic chapel and adjacent cemetery.

Though the settlement’s population dwindled throughout the twentieth century, those with roots in the area have continued to maintain a strong sense of community. Every year since 1925, former residents and their descendants have returned to the settlement for a Homecoming celebration. The multi-day reunion includes commemorations, reminiscences, and celebrations. Whether in Indiana or elsewhere, descendants of the Roberts community who have risen to the tops of their professions maintain a deep connection to the place where their values of hard work, endurance, and determination were first forged.

Roberts Homecoming c.1950 (Image source www.robertssettlement.org)

Earlier this year, the Association received a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Preserving Black Churches program to kick-start development of the proposed Roberts Settlement Legacy Walk. On February 23 at Bethel A.M.E. Church in Noblesville, the Roberts Chapel association will unveil plans for the trail and launch its “IMAGINE! Black Pioneers” campaign to secure additional funds for the project. The event is open to the public and free with RSVP.

To learn more about funding for Black heritage sites, contact Mark Dollase, Vice President of Preservation Services for information on Cox Funds grants, coxfunds@indianalandmarks.org, or Eunice Trotter, Black Heritage Preservation Program Director, etrotter@indianalandmarks.org.