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Sister of the Solid Rock: Edna Mae Barnes Martin and the East Side Christian Center
Sister of the Solid Rock Edna Mae Barnes Martin and the East Side Christian Center Author:Wilma Rugh Taylor First settled by African Americans in 1878, Indianapolis's east-side district of Martindale had, by the early 1940s, fallen on hard times. A bleak economic outlook had helped fuel a growing crime rate among the neighborhood's young people. Into this seemingly hopeless situation stepped a forty-four-year-old wife and mother who knew somethin... more »g about despair, having endured the death of a child. In 1941 the woman?Edna Barnes Martin?established a day care center for the children of working mothers, offering hope and security to countless young African Americans. For thirty years Martin, the founder and director of the East side Christian Center, "reformed so-called unredeemable boys, trained girls to become compentent women, clothed and fed multitudes, and found jobs for the unemployed." Martin's work in one of Indianapolis's worst ghettos helped break down negative racial attitudes and gained the spiritual and financial backing of white missionaries and philanthropists throughout the state.« less