Book Release Celebration: What Happened at Benham West

Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary will celebrate the June 2025 release of What Happened at Benham West: African American Stories of Community, Displacement and Hope by Indiana University South Bend’s Wolfson Press!

The book, which is a companion to the documentary of the same name, features edited transcriptions of the reflections of 17 elders who were part of Elkhart’s predominantly African American Benham West neighborhood known as “the village.” The project has also documented the process of the city’s clearing of the neighborhood in the 1970s with supporting historical research.

At the event, copies of the book will be available for purchase and for signing, and portraits of the elders will be on display. A brief program will take place at 7:15 p.m. — with project leaders sharing about the book — followed by an ice cream social and an interactive community storytelling activity. A campus tour will be available at 6:45 p.m.

The Benham West project was generously funded by the Community Foundation of Elkhart County and Indiana Humanities in cooperation with the National Endowment for the Humanities.

All are warmly invited to attend this free event! Enter through the tower entrance adjacent to the Lambright Center/Waltner Hall parking lot.

Learn more: ambs.edu/benham-west-project
Purchase the book: https://wolfsonpress.com/alexis-and-pitts-what-happened-at-benham-west/