History

Emma Lou Thornbrough (1913–1994) was born in Indianapolis, where she attended Shortridge High School

Shortridge High School

Shortridge High School is a public high school located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Opened in 1864, it is the oldest free, public high school in the state...

 and Butler University

Butler University

Butler University is a private university located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Founded in 1855 and named after founder Ovid Butler, the university offers 60 degree programs to 4,400 students through six colleges: business, communication, education, liberal Arts and sciences, pharmacy and health...

. A recipient of degrees from Butler University and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Michigan

University of Michigan

The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

 (1946), she was a pioneer among professional historians who have researched and published in the field of African-American history. Although she wrote numerous scholarly articles and books, the concentration of her work was in Indiana history with a focus on African- Americans. Her vast range of interest and expertise is suggested by a selected review of her published works which include Black Reconstructionists, Booker T. Washington, Eliza A. Blaker: Her Life and Work, Indiana in the Civil War Years, The Negro in Indiana before 1900, Since Emancipation: A Short History of Indiana Negroes, 1863-1963, and T. Thomas Fortune, Militant Journalist.

Thornbrough taught at Butler University from 1946-1983. While at Butler, she received many awards including the Outstanding Professor Award in 1965, an appointment in 1981 to the McGregor Chair in History, and an honorary doctorate in 1988. She was also a visiting professor at Indiana University

Indiana University

Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...

 and Case-Western Reserve. Emma Lou Thornbrough was active in many national and local historical organizations. She was a past president of the Indiana Association of Historians (IAH). The IAH annual fall lecture was recently renamed to honor Thornbrough and her sister, Gayle, a retired editor and former director of the Indiana Historical Society

Indiana Historical Society

The Indiana Historical Society is one of the United States' oldest and largest historical societies and describes itself as "Indiana's Storyteller". Housed within the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center, it is located at 450 West Ohio St...

 and the Indiana Historical Bureau. The Thornbrough award given annually to recognize the best article to appear in the Indiana Magazine of History

Indiana Magazine of History

The Indiana Magazine of History is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering research on the history and changing culture of Indiana and the Midwest. It has been published for more than a century and is one of the oldest historical journals in the United States...

also honors the sisters' contributions to the history profession.

Emma Lou Thornbrough was active in several professional and civil rights organizations.

She received numerous awards from her community including Indiana Author's Day recognition, Martin Luther King award, Indiana Liberty Bell, Roy Wilkins award, and the Hoosier Historian award. At the time of her death, Thornbrough had completed all but the last chapter of her book Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century.