What Happened at Benham West:
African American Stories of Community, Displacement, and Hope
by Nekeisha Alayna Alexis and Jamie Pitts
paperback, 340 pages
2025
Description
From the 1920s to the 1970s, the majority of African American residents of Elkhart, Indiana, made their home in a socially and institutionally segregated part of the city known to many there as "the village." Residents built and rented homes, started their own cottage industries and businesses, gathered at churches and clubs, engaged in political organizing, and fostered community in the face of racism and other hardships. In the 1970s, the city demolished the Benham West neighborhood in the name of "urban renewal." Yet, development never came, and the area remained largely untouched.
What Happened at Benham West: African American Stories of Community, Displacement, and Hope tells this story of closeness, loss, and desires for the future through the voices of seventeen local elders. Historical essays by Jamie Pitts add national add regional context to their reflections, while an afterword by Nekeisha Alayna Alexis makes a powerful case for repairing the harm.
Reviews
Benham West was a village. Outside forces of systemic racism imposed geographical boundaries, but strong social institutions and a shared community identity arose from within. And what happened at Benham West in Elkhart, Indiana, also happened in cities throughout the United States with the end of legal and de facto segregation. Boundaries became blurred, the forces of urban "renewal" wreaked havoc on weakened community bonds, and soon the village no longer existed. Except, of course, in the memories of those who grew up and flourished there and continue to mourn its loss. What Happened at Benham West tells a story of an African American urban village. These beautifully presented oral histories put a very human face on an important time and an important place in our nation’s complex story.
—Les Lamon, Emeritus Professor of History, Indiana University South Bend
What Happened at Benham West: African American Stories of Community, Displacement, and Hope shows the importance of local history for understanding the impact of racism and residential segregation on the real lives of ordinary people. Unfortunately, the destruction of “the village” in which so many people lived, worked, played, and raised families is an all-too-common fact of African American urban life in communities throughout the country. What is significant about this book is the way the true impact of “urban renewal” is revealed through the eyes of those most affected. Every African American community should follow the lead of Benham West residents and document their local history through the voices of those who bore witness to a transformation they were powerless to stop, but whose memory lives on. Only through acknowledging the harm can a just repair be found. What Happened in Benham West is a step towards a more just future.
—Dr. Darryl Heller, Director of the South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center
Contributors of Oral Histories
Bonnie Clark
Phyllis Davis
Gloria “Chris” Edgerton
Arthur Fisher
Travis Jackson
Nadine Johnson
Glenda Love
Rev. Dr. Plez Lovelady, Jr.
Rev. Willie Jean Mayes
Steven Millsaps, Sr.
Sondra Mose-Ursery
James Otterbridge
Esther Pettis
Rod Roberson
Jean Robinson
Leroy Robinson
Charles Walker, Jr.
Authors
Born in Trinidad, Nekeisha Alayna Alexis grew up in New York City and became an Elkhart transplant in 2004. She has worked as Intercultural Competence and Undoing Racism coordinator at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary for many years.
Jamie Pitts is Professor of Anabaptist Studies at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary and director of Institute of Mennonite Studies. He has lived in Elkhart since 2012.
