Both blacks and whites arriving in Hammond, Indiana in the late 1800s and early 1900s played significant roles in its development. The role of the early black settlers has been largely untold outside the black community and is thus unappreciated. The goal of this project was to change this historical neglect. Statistical data from traditional sources provided limited information, while the use of the manuscript census forms filled out by census workers as they made their rounds and current project oral history interviews provided the internal dynamics and inner realities of black people as history-makers in Hammond. Eighty- and ninety-year-olds recalled the days when blacks could live only in one "designated" area of the city, and when single working blacks lived in a tent city provided by local merchants while saving money to claim a wife. Tales of scandal, tribulation, hard work, and entertainment were intertwined. The project became a source of pride as black residents related tales with honesty and simplicity of various firsts: the first black to buy a house, the first black high school and college graduates, the first black foreman and the first black owner of a local business. That most blacks endeavored to help improve the lives of other blacks is evident. A copy of the questionnaire used to locate possible interviewees and a 28-item bibliography are included. (JB)