Hurley C. Goodall papers

Hurley Charles Goodall was born in Muncie on May 23, 1927 to Hurley Charles and Dorene (Mukes) Goodall. His childhood was marked by both tragedy and poverty. His father died in 1930, and his mother had few job skills. As a result, the family spent the majority of his early years on welfare. His mother was hired to work in the White Liner Department of the Ball Brothers Glass Plant in 1943, largely because of the industrial boom sparked by World War II. Hurley was the second of three sons born to his parents. His younger brother Frederick contracted polio in 1930, and spent the next twelve years having numerous operations at James Whitcomb Riley Hospital to improve his walking. Frederick later died in an automobile accident. In 1943, Hurley’s older brother Robert dropped out of the eleventh grade at Muncie Central High School to join the US Navy. Robert died while fighting in the Korean War.

Hurley Goodall graduated from Muncie Central High School in 1945 and joined the United States Army. After leaving the military in 1947, he returned to Muncie to work at Muncie Malleable Foundry Company, where he had also worked in high school. Goodall married Fredine Wynn a year later in 1948 and the couple had two sons, Hurley, Jr. and Fred. While working and starting a family, Goodall found time to further his education. He took classes at Indiana Business College (1950-1951) and studied Time and Motion Engineering at Purdue University and Michigan State University (1955-1956). He left the foundry in 1958 to join the Muncie Fire Department and served there for twenty years. Goodall was one of the first two African Americans to work in the fire department in Muncie. He was also the first African American elected to serve on the Muncie Community Schools Board of Education (1970-1978). After retiring from the fire department in 1978, Goodall worked briefly as an Administrative Assistant to the County Engineer before being elected to the Indiana House of Representatives later that year. He went on to serve in the Indiana General Assembly from 1978-1992 and was an active member of the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus (1980-1992) and the Indiana Caucus of Black Democrat Elected Officials (1980-1992).

After his retirement from the Indiana General Assembly in 1992, Hurley Goodall continued the scholarly work he began sixteen years earlier in 1976 when he co-authored A History of Negroes in Muncie, Indiana with J. Paul Mitchell. Goodall served as a visiting professor in the Political Science Department and visiting scholar with the Center for Middletown Studies at Ball State University. As a visiting scholar at the Center for Middletown Studies, Goodall worked to document the history of African Americans in Muncie through his lectures, publications and research projects. Research projects of particular note included a compilation of interviews conducted during the 1930s with African-Americans in Muncie whose families had experienced the era of slavery in the United States, his work documenting “the other side of Middletown” through written narrative and the collection of source material, and his published monograph Inside the House: My Years in the Indiana Legislature, 1978-1992.

In addition to his civic and community service as a firefighter, school board member and state representative, Goodall actively served as a board and committee member with numerous organizations including Action, Inc. of Delaware County (1966-1975), Central States Region National Caucus of Black School Board Members (1974-1977), Delaware County Emergency Medical Services, Democratic Precinct #12 Committeeman, Eastern Indiana Public Television (WIPB), Indiana School Boards Association (1973-1975), Muncie Chamber of Commerce Leadership Academy, Muncie Children’s Museum, Muncie Human Rights Commission (1961-1967), National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Muncie Chapter, National Caucus of Black School Board Members, Roy C. Buley Center (1974-1975), United Way Community Services Council (1971-1972), and the Whitely Community Council (1966-1969).