100 Years Ago This Week: Sept. 15-21

From The Indianapolis News, Thursday, September 20: Since the new school year began city school officials are facing a new problem – how to care for the increased number of African-American pupils. Six of the eleven exclusively “colored schools” are now overcrowded, and some of them are on half-day sessions. Heretofore, there has been overcrowding, but nothing like the present conditions. The African-American enrollment which is an increase of 500 over former years is about one-ninth of the total school enrollment. “This is an unusual condition,” said Harvey S. Gruver, assistant superintendent. “The increase is due to many colored people moving to Indianapolis, their coming being largely for industrial reasons.” Portable schoolhouses probably will need to be built to care for the increased numbers. School officials regard this as the quickest and best method of solving the problem.