Ray Crowe, left, with the 1954-55 Crispus Attucks High School boys basketball team. Crowe, a Whiteland native, coached the team to two state titles. The team was the first in the United States from an all-Black school to win a state title.

SUBMITTED PHOTO

Ray Crowe Elementary School is named for who is one of the most famous Black former residents of Whiteland.

Cowe coached the Crispus Attucks High School boys basketball team to not only the first state title by an Indianapolis team in 1955 but the first state title by an all-Black school in United States history.

Documentary producer Ted Green will discuss his 2016 documentary “Attucks: The School That Opened a City,” about the school and basketball team 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Johnson County Museum of History as part of Black History Month. The free talk comes during a year when a state historical marker is planned for Whiteland in dedication to Crowe, said David Pfeiffer, the museum’s director.

Crowe’s connection to Johnson County stems from his family, who were farmers and split time between Franklin and Whiteland. While Ray Crowe went to Whiteland High School and was a basketball star there, his younger brother, George Crowe, was a star in both basketball and baseball at Franklin Senior High School, later playing professionally in both sports. Their sister, Sylvester Crowe, did volunteer work in the county throughout her life and worked at Camp Atterbury for 30 years, Pfeiffer said.

“I think there’s been a realization the whole Crowe family has been very important in Johnson County history,” he said. “Going beyond that, there’s just seeing what they were able to do in a difficult time for Black athletes and Black families.”

For Ray Crowe, the challenge of leading a team to two state titles was compounded by an era of segregation that caused his team to be overlooked, Green said.

“He opened up so many white eyes in Indianapolis to do away with the racist tropes of ‘well, Black people will lash out or play out of control or aren’t smart enough or can’t do well in school or they’re lazy,’” he said. “All these remarks Attucks help prove wrong. When the basketball team got famous, the rest of society could not ignore it.”

The team’s success also helped in the fight against segregation, Green said.

“It went from a school built to fail to one that helped enormously push in integration in Indianapolis. Ray Crowe was at the center of that fight,” Green said, “Attucks was the school that opened a city, but certainly not right away. There are big problems still today, but do I think Attucks helped, including the basketball team? No doubt.”

Crispus Attucks High School was the subject a federal lawsuit that ended with Indianapolis Public Schools found guilty of de jure segregation, meaning segregation enforced by law. With the lawsuit, United States v. Board of School Commissioners, IPS was forced to make changes to integrate, Green said.

Green started working on the documentary in 2014 for release in 2016, Indiana’s bicentennial. It premiered at the Walker Theatre, which like Crispus Attucks High School, is a pillar in the Black Indianapolis community, Green said.

“I can’t count how many lunches and dinners I had at the houses of Attucks graduates in their 80s and 90s,” he said. “When we went into production, it was very important learning from the people themselves. If you see the film, I hope you’ll see it’s a film built from heart and emotion.”

During Saturday’s event, Green will discuss the film, show clips from it and answer questions from attendees, Pfeiffer said.

Once the Indiana Historical Bureau finalizes the site and text for the marker, it will be the fifth state marker in Johnson County. It will likely stand on the campus of Whiteland Community High School, which Crowe graduated from in 1934. A pair of markers stand in Franklin for former Indiana governors Roger Branigin and Paul McNutt, one in Nineveh for artist William Merritt Chase and another in Franklin for the Franklin Wonder Five, the Franklin basketball team that won three consecutive state titles in the 1920s, Pfeiffer said.

After his coaching career, Crowe served as an Indiana lawmaker in the 1960s and ‘70s. Ray and George Crowe have a residence hall named after them at the University of Indianapolis, where they attended and played sports while it was named Indiana Central College.

Ray Crowe died in 2003 at the age of 88.

The amount of recognition Crowe has received is telling of the effect he had on other people’s lives, said Butch Zike, a member of the Clark-Pleasant school board who interacted with Crowe on multiple occasions and voted for the district’s newest school to be named after him.

“He’s a man of character and he’s a really good leader. The honors he’s received have been because of his character and leadership and work ethic,” Zike said. “Past (school) boards never wanted to name a building in honor of anyone. When we had a change in direction, he was one of the top people to consider because of his character and what he accomplished.”


IF YOU GO

The Johnson County Museum of History will host a discussion on Ray Crowe and Crispus Attucks High School.

When: 1:30 p.m. Saturday

Registration: No RSVP is needed, free to attend

More info: A documentary about the school can be found here: http://bit.ly/3YabUZF