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Pre-statehood to 1860s
African Americans migrated to Indiana before its official statehood in 1816. The first recorded were five enslaved people in Vincennes, Indiana in 1746. Many Black migrants established Black settlements, which are commonly rural, all-Black towns, while others settled in central and southern cities. Many Black settlements were located in the southern region of the state. In the 1820 federal census, 1,230 reported themselves as residents of Indiana. Most Black migrants in Indiana arrived from South Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and Kentucky. Black migration and settlement in Indiana was deemed illegal by Article 13 of the 1851 Indiana Constitution. It stated: “No negro or mulatto shall come into, or settle in the State, after the adoption of this Constitution.” Despite this, few Hoosiers until about 1865 contributed to efforts on the Underground railroad to aid refugees from slavery in the South.

Civil War, Exodusters, and the Great Migration
Article 13 of the 1851 Indiana Constitution was deemed ‘unconstitutional’ in 1866, but was not amended until 1881. Indiana’s Black population increased after the Civil War mostly along the Ohio River, such as Spencer County, Indiana which increased by 947 Black citizens by 1870.

As Reconstruction ended in the South, former enslaved peoples wanted to move North, which included the migration of Black people from North Carolina to Indiana. Black people who migrated from the south after the Civil War were known as Exodusters, who were in search of access to good schools, Black community-centered churches, and job opportunities. Many migrants during this time who arrived in Indiana were met with anti-Black violence and forced to relocate due to the high volume of sundown towns. Many Black communities around Indianapolis tried to help those who had migrated, but many of the Exodusters became discouraged and went back to North Carolina. Those who stayed often settled in Indianapolis, contributing to the Black population growth.

The Black population in 1880 was 39,228 and by 1900 it was 57,960. During the Great Migration, Black individuals who came to Indiana between 1910 and 1920, often settled in central or northern parts of the states. New opportunities were available due to industrialization and the war economy, and rumors of new opportunities were appealing.

Forced migration & relocation
Redlining, or the discriminatory and exclusionary housing practice meant to separate affluent white populations from low-income racial groups, was a form of forced migration and relocation that many Black communities experienced during the twentieth-century. For example, the Indiana Avenue community on the west side of downtown Indianapolis was displaced by the building of Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) in the sixties.