Indiana University South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center Oral History Project


[Bobbie Durant]: Right up here on the corner of Eddy and Campeau. That church, First AME Zion Church. My Dad was very active in the church. But the history that… they didn’t mention it—that the other ministers had told—when they were fortunate enough to get that property right there on that corner, the Ku Klux Klan was active. And my Dad [told] about the day they… nights they would sit out there at night and hold guns because the Ku Klux Klan said they were going to burn that down. They weren’t gonna put no nigger church there. But they did calm the Klan down [and they built the church] and the church is right up there now.