History
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African-American leaders formed the Young Men’s Prayer Band in 1900, and by 1910 it had become a branch of the city YMCA. Black and white leaders helped raise funds for a new building here, which opened as the Senate Avenue YMCA in 1913. Booker T. Washington dedicated the building, and Faburn DeFrantz led it from 1916 to 1951. It became one of the largest black YMCAs in the U.S. and a center of community life, social activism, and education for African Americans. For decades, it sponsored “Monster Meetings” with national leaders including Martin Luther King, Jr., W.E.B. Du Bois, George Washington Carver, and Eleanor Roosevelt. The Indianapolis YMCA integrated in 1950, and the Senate Avenue YMCA moved to Fall Creek in 1959.
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Indianapolis city (balance), Indiana · United States
