Black History Month Binge Blog: Rev. Ernie Butler, Second Baptist Church Bloomington IN

Search engines are great and glorious pathways to remembering. RantWoman today feels called to speak of Black History up close from her experience. Tonight's inspiration, Rev Ernest Bulter of Bloomington IN  is vaguely related to various voting themes swirling in RantWoman's head and in the zeitgeist. South Bend IN Mayor Pete Buttagieg is somewhere near the top of the balloting, assuming IA democrats get the ballots sorted out in time to send delegates to the Democratic national Convention. RantWoman is both listening to RantMom's piquant opinions about the latest #DemDebate and ignoring the debate herself. RantWoman is in make sure everyone has a full chance to get counted mood about purges of voter rolls in many states and RantWoman is seasoning how to be concise about the latest in accessibility screwups about the King Conservation District all online election. Look for this on RantWoman's other blog.

RantWoman is remembering Jesse Jackson's 1988 presidential campaign: RantWoman was an alternate delegate to the IN state Democratic convention; RantWoman got to go because the official delegate could not. RantWoman remembers a behind-the-scenes tussle about two competeing delegations from Gary, presumably one African American and one white. RantWoman also remembers the car ride to Indianapolis with Rev. Ernie Butler, pastor of the Second Baptist Church in Bloomington.

RantWoman is thrilled to find a number of really intersting remembrances of Rev. Ernie Butler, pastor of the Second Baptist Church in Bloomington IN. RantWoman moved to the Bloomingon area for a not great job but RantWoman's employer had been spending a lot of time around the sort of political activists who think "Oh, gee, we really want people of color to come to our events." RantWoman and her employer both concurred: if we wanted to work with people of color, we needed to show up. So we showed up at the local chapter of the NAACP. That is how RantWoman met Rev. Butler.

Here are some vivid remembrances.

A towering presence and man of God

American Folk LifeCenter Autobiography record

Bloomingpedia Entry

Blurb from facebook about a documentary shown at the Bloomington Unitarian universalist Church in November 2018

Reverend Ernest Butler: Rebel With a Cause (28 minutes): This powerful short documentary, produced by David Guadaitis, Larry Laswell, and Alan Backler, tells the story of Reverend Ernest Butler, Bloomington’s dynamic civil rights activist and leader for decades in the late 20th Century. The documentary traces Butler’s childhood and formative years as a pastor in Connersville to his efforts to integrate public and private facilities in Noblesville, before moving to Bloomington as pastor of the Second Baptist Church. It describes the conditions Butler confronted on arrival in Bloomington in 1959, and examines his efforts to open up employment and housing opportunities for African Americans in Bloomington. His daily struggle to improve the lives of the members of his church and the wider community comes to life in the film. Rev. Butler’s transformation from fiery rebel to respected elder leader was hard fought, and decades in the making.


RantWoman would say the web record is a little sparse though clearly there is some material if a historian wanted to dig past the confines of the internet. And here RantWoman offers humility about a moment of center the conversation around the white person: RantWoman remembers the car ride passing through Martinsville IN serious Klan country. RantWoman had a brief flicker of fretting: Oh noes. Here I am riding through Klan country with a completely respectable African American minister. Then Rev. Butler piped up about one of his many roles: Rev. Butler was the first African American to serve on the IN federal grand jury.
Okay then. RantWoman will Get Over Herself.

Rest in Power, Rev. Butler, for years already.