As a student athlete in Central High School, Tom Singer saw how his African American teammates had very different experiences than he did. This observation fueled his work as an ally in the 1960s civil rights movement. 

Tom leveraged his law degree to challenge discrimination, filing a case against a local gym that charged African Americans more for memberships, challenged discriminatory treatment against incarcerated Muslims, and many other actions that pushed for real, meaningful change. 

As Tom looked back on the changes from the 1960s into the 21st century, he saw progress. He also saw a need for more. His story reveals the ongoing struggle for racial justice in South Bend.

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This episode mentions a 1963 Testimony on Fair Housing held at the University of Notre Dame. Click hereto see text from that. You can also listen to the full oral histories of Audrey and Dr. Bernard Vagner as well as Dr. Roland Chamblee.  

This episode was produced by Jon Watson 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 Repeats,” from Josh Woodward, used via CC-BY-4.0-DEED. Visit his website at https://www.joshwoodward.com.