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140 m Minnie Mayme Lacy—(Sulfur Vapor Bath Institute)—h 1319 S. 9th Much like Leon Bingham, Minnie would swipe a good ten years off her age when the U.S. census takers came calling in 1930. Turns out her 1958 obituary, over which she had considerably less control, lists her as being 76. The potential health benefits of sulfur spring therapy notwithstanding, the census taker apparently had no trouble believing her. (See Denzil M. Ferguson.) Bruce K. Ladd (Gustava)—janitor, The Women’s Department Club—h 518 N. 23rd Ernest Ladd (Matilda)—janitor, Mary Stewart Apartments—h 410 N. 6th Henry Ladd (Lena)—janitor—h 1433 N 25th Marcellus C. Ladd (Hattie L.)—porter, SS Kresge Co.—h 2217 Tippecanoe Might have been an impressive family tradition had they all been related. As it stands: a unique little quirk in the community. The only other Ladd in Terre Haute who held a job in 1927 was also engaged in a form of property management: rentals and real estate. 410 North 6th Street was one of Terre Haute’s largest apartment buildings in 1927, with 28 units, including Ernest and Matilda’s in the basement. Like the Walden and Bement Flats, the Mary Stewart Apartments offered sedate rental units for individuals with steady employment in the downtown area. Bertha Byerly in Apartment B was a bank teller alongside Earl Kickler at First National. Benjamin Blumenthal in Apartment I was the manager at Brown’s Smart Shop, a high-end women’s clothing store on the 600 block of Wabash Avenue. His walls were shared with Joseph Flaig, a watchmaker in Apartment J and Joseph Traum, a tailor living in Apartment H. The Mary Stewart Apartments had the requisite share of salesmen-inresidence , including the ultimate door-to-door icon, Terre Haute’s Fuller Brush Man: Dewey F. Harmon. The sheer number of tenants suggests that Ernest and Matilda’s Christmas envelope from the residents might have been fairly generous. Then there was Mr. Bruce Ladd’s situation: male janitor for the state’s largest women’s club, certainly regarded as sacred space. Here, the janitor would have been practically guaranteed a substantial Christmas bonus from the ladies, having undoubtedly earned it during the year (see Mrs. William Clark). (N) Leefronia Laffoon—domestic—r 1111 S. 6th William Laffoon (Viola)—barber @ 1532 Wabash h do Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1927 was a segregated city. There were separate public elementary schools for African Americans, a separate municipal swimming pool, a separate day nursery for toddlers and infants, separate seating in theaters and public transit, as well as a separate newspaper column inside the Terre Haute Star called “News from the Colored People.” At the very same time, the Terre Haute Tribune ran a column of jokes, entitled “Dinner Stories.” The columns for June 27 and August 15, 1926, included the word “nigger,” apparently assuming the slur would provoke some coarse laughter among its readers. L 141 William Laffoon The largest African American neighborhood in Terre Haute was commonly referred to as Baghdad. Like the red light district, downtown, or Terre Haute’s various ethnic enclaves, Baghdad’s boundaries were imprecise. It is believed that Baghdad’s southern edges reached to the cross streets of Hulman or Deming. 13th Street formed the neighborhood’s western border, extending to Crawford or even Ohio Boulevard to the north and then east as far as 16th or maybe 18th. This neighborhood provided a refuge from the suspicion, indifference, and exclusion that African Americans faced every day of their lives. In 1927, there were not only former slaves still living, but former slaveholders as well. Just four years earlier, a march by 2,000 African American women prevented an effort by southern lawmakers to erect a statue in the U.S. Capitol honoring the “Black Mammy of the South.” Meanwhile, Alvira Washington, who had been born into slavery in Virginia, entered her 85th year at 621 South 3rd Street in Terre Haute. Various other addresses across the city offered safe havens for African Americans. The so-called colored lodges met on the upper floors of two buildings along 3rd Street. There was a small African American neighborhood near Lincoln School at 16th and Elm. But the Baghdad neighborhood was, by and large, the place for non-white residents to go if they were in need of a meal, some medicine, or burial arrangements for a family member. Baghdad was not without its dangers. At night, street gangs...

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