Jack Reed was about four or five years old when his mother moved him from Tennessee to South Bend. He absorbed a strong desire to work watching his mother clean other people’s homes. The job he desired most was as a state police officer. The Indiana State Police, however, did not hire African Americans.
Jack eventually served as the first African American Battalion Chief in the South Bend Fire Department, and then later got an offer from Mayor Joe Kernan to serve on a greater scale in his administration. Jack stayed on with the transition to Mayor Steve Leucke. From an office atop the County City Building, Jack had a unique view of how the city worked and tried to support its people.
In 2001, IU South Bend student Greg Balue and Civil Rights Heritage Center Director Les Lamon sat down with Jack Reed. They talked about Jack’s experiences with racism in this city, and in spite of his treatment, how he made his way up through multiple levels of city service.
This episode was produced by Donald Brittain from the Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts at IU South Bend, and by George Garner from the Civil Rights Heritage Center.
Full transcript of this episode available here.
Want to learn more about South Bend’s history? View the photographs and documents that helped create it. Visit Michiana Memory at http://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/.
Title music, “History Explains Itself,” from Josh Spacek. Visit his page on the Free Music Archive, http://www.freemusicarchive.org/.
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