The West Side / “Shantytown”

Side A: In the early twentieth century, Marion’s West Side was dominated by the Erie Railroad switchyards, a major hub of employment. During World War I, the railroad recruited Black workers from the South for jobs in its yards and roundhouses. In Marion, these workers made their homes in a West Side encampment that became the target of white suspicion and violence. In February 1919, following the unsolved murder of a white roundhouse worker’s wife and a separate alleged assault, a 300-man lynch mob smashed windows and occupied the West Side. All Black residents were ordered to leave the city by 6:00 PM the next day. Despite pleas to Governor Cox, at least 200 Black residents were forced to flee Marion. Marion’s anti-Black violence foreshadowed the nationwide “Red Summer” of 1919. Side B: New Black families arrived in Marion following World War II, as part of the longer Great Migration. Fleeing anti-Black violence in the South and drawn to good-paying industrial jobs, they settled in temporary dwellings on the West Side, called “Shantytown.” Black churches such as Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church (1919) and King’s Temple Apostolic Church (1944) became West Side hubs of spiritual, cultural, economic, political, and mutual aid organizing. These congregations called for an end to residential segregation in Marion. A Black business district flourished along Cass Avenue and sponsored the neighborhood’s “Shantytown” softball team. West Side residents and dignitaries dedicated Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park in 1987. The new park honored both Rev. Dr. King and the West Side’s legacy of Civil Rights and racial justice organizing.