"A lynching was an assault by one community, momentarily united in its whiteness across lines of class, gender and age, against another, which became the homogenized black enemy," Clegg said. "The lynched black person was simply a medium through which whites expressed their will and power to dominate blacks, whether regarding their labor, political access or social mobility."

Clegg explained that the identity of the individual, whether he was guilty or innocent of a crime, or even whether that person had already been apprehended by law enforcement officials, was less important than the message that a lynch mob's work could send to black communities.

"The desire to punish individuals was certainly the operative motive behind the actions of many lynch mobs, but there was an undeniably political motive, too: to protect white supremacy in all areas of life from encroachment by blacks," he said.

The last public lynching in Indiana -- the 1930 lynchings of Abram Smith and Thomas Shipp -- led the Indiana legislature to pass an anti-lynching law, which even the federal government had not done at the time. The state of Indiana was deeply shamed by the lynching of Smith and Shipp, Clegg said, and that shame remains palpable today.

Even John Hope Franklin, author of From Slavery to Freedom and later chair of President Clinton's initiative on race, was vulnerable. "As the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation approached (Jan. 1, 1963), the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights asked John Hope Franklin to write the story of civil rights over the last century," Polsgrove writes.

"When Franklin had done the job, he was told he had not sufficiently emphasized the racial progress thus far. To the commission director's request that he contribute to the revision of his manuscript that the commission itself was undertaking, Franklin replied in September 1962, 'I am not at all certain, after reading your letter, that my efforts will satisfy you or the Commission. In time I shall send them along for whatever they are worth; but I am afraid that I cannot 'tidy up' the history that Americans themselves have made.'"

Klotman's project, "African Americans in Cinema: The First Half-Century," is funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship. Release is scheduled for 2002.

The CD will advance classroom technology for multicultural teaching and learning in the humanities in both secondary and higher education, and it will complement scholarly texts available on black film.

Historical data will be organized into four chronological periods that reflect landmarks in the history of the country and the history of cinema. The CD will contain full-screen images of photographs, posters, production stills, film clips and video interviews, as well as audio excerpts and texts that will help place the first half-century of black cinema in context. Scholars in black film studies will contribute short essays on directors, films and genres.

The IU program, the oldest in Indiana and one of the first in the nation, is recognized as a pioneer in the field, said William Wiggins Jr., acting chair of the department. "We were one of the first undergraduate programs in the country in 1970, and when we added a graduate program two years ago, we also were one of the first in the nation to do so," Wiggins said.

The Department of Afro-American Studies introduces students to a wide range of current research and scholarly opinion on the history, culture and social status of black Americans and their African heritage. The department provides an eclectic analysis of the African American experience and trains students in many skills essential for later success in life. As a humanistic discipline in the democratic tradition, African American studies seeks to dispel the myths and expose those attitudes that perpetuate racism in American life.

The upcoming conference will involve 50 scholars from Midwest university programs who will investigate collaborative efforts in the recruitment of faculty and students, research, curriculum development and pedagogy. John Roberts, deputy director of the National Endowment for the Humanities, will present the keynote address at the conference.

"There is more variety on television today because cable televison has helped make so many channels available to the public," Gibson explained, "and this has provided more acting opportunities for blacks in dramatic roles."

Gibson, an associate professor in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, said in past decades most roles for blacks involved comedy or character roles. Now there are more star billing opportunities.

"Things have improved, but the goal is still for African Americans to be considered for more serious and complex roles, both on televison and in the movies. Except for Denzel Washington, there are few black actors who can command top salaries," she said.

"The KKK in the 1920s was considerably different from that organization today," Madison said. "That was an era just after World War I of general intolerance in America toward anyone who was not a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Many Hoosiers and other Americans were suspicious of not just African Americans, but Jews, Catholics, Indians, Mexican Americans and other racial and religious minorities. The Klan was widely supported throughout Indiana as a Christian patriotic organization, and politicians openly campaigned on Klan membership to help get elected to office."

He added that the KKK today is no longer acceptable to the majority of Americans. "The Klan today gets too much attention, even though they don't represent many people, because they are media-attractive. The change in the perceptions and activities of the Klan during the past 70 to 80 years has been a major factor in the evolution of Indiana history and U.S. history," he said.

"Because of that, they typically have a difficult time getting funding, whether it's from venture or angel capital investments or bank financing," said Elizabeth Gatewood, director of the Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in IU's Kelley School of Business.

These entrepreneurs make important choices about their companies' future, such as the kinds of businesses they start, their industry sector, how fast they want them to grow, and how large they ultimately want them to become.

"These choices might preclude getting outside financing or limit their ability to do that," Gatewood said. "Most angel and venture capital investing is made in companies that are in high-growth industries and plan on growing very quickly and reaching a significant size that allows for some kind of exit for investors."

Another barrier that minority- and women-owned businesses face is an institutional one -- finding themselves outside of organizations and networks, such as social clubs, where business transactions often begin. "Things are slowly changing," she said. "At one time it was difficult for a woman to get a bank loan without having her husband sign on the loan, despite the fact that he might not have any association with the firm."