The Indianapolis Public Library has a digital collection full of digital images that will give you a good look at black history in America and right here in Indiana. These items are the real thing. The collection includes photographs, photographs of artifacts and documents which would be great resources for school reports.
Artifacts at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis – A digital collection of 1,000 artifacts from the museum collection. Selected objects range over school subjects from Social Studies to Science to Geography with a particular emphasis on Indiana. You can visit the whole collection or you can see just the African-American artifacts on the IndyPl Kids Pinterest Board: Black History.
Free Soil Banner – The Free Soil Banner was a newspaper published in Indianapolis from 1848 to 1854 published by the Free Soil Party. The main plank in the Party’s platform was that slavery should not be extended to the territories newly gained in the war with Mexico, but should be “free soil”, worked by free (as opposed to slave) labor. They stopped short at advocating the abolition of slavery, preferring to contain it to the areas where it was already allowed, believing that it would eventually die out. “Free soil, free speech, free labor, free men.”
African American Firefighters – On May 19, 1876 Fire Chief W. O. Sherwood appointed the first black men to the 
Indianapolis Fire Department on Hose Company 9, located at 31 West Saint Joseph Street. This station, eventually renumbered as Station 1 and relocated to 441 Indiana Avenue, grew to become an all-black double company firehouse, with approximately 24 firefighters who rotated through two 24-hour shifts.
Black firefighters remained segregated from the rest of the Fire Department until the practice was officially ended on Jan. 1, 1960. Hired before integration in 1955, Joseph Kimbrew became the first black Fire Chief of the Indianapolis Fire Department on January 19, 1987.
The Indianapolis Postcard Collection - This postcard is a photo of the 1943 Negro League Indianapolis Clowns. The postcard collection is a great resource for Indianapolis history, especially if you have to know about a landmark in the city. The 
collection is mostly made up of postcards of buildings, but I didn’t want to miss pointing out this one. For more information about the negro leagues and black athletes take a look at Black History: Athletes. Especially don’t miss We Are the Ship by Kadir Nelson
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