It also became a hub for social activism, as leaders of Industry neighborhood including Rev. J.C. Williams and Alice McIntosh-Kelly were highly influential, and at times Human Rights Commission meetings would hosted at the center. A sociologist visiting Muncie in 1980 recalled in his journal “one of the young youth workers at the Multi-Purpose Center on South Madison had said that whites did not want blacks to have the multi-service center, but the community rose up in protest. There seems to be an undercurrent of bitterness carried into the present that resulted from past actions that may be unacknowledged or denied?”5

In 1996, then-Mayor Dan Canan discontinued city ownership of community centers, and the Multi had to rely on non-governmental organizations to remain standing.6 Demetrius Dee Harris served as an executive director starting in 1997, and by many accounts he brought the center to a new level in its last decade. Jasmine Taylor, one of the members of the new advisory committee, called the center “an asset to all the youth in the area, to families, to seniors. It was the only thing the Industry neighbors had that was really something positive and a safe haven and place for kids to go.”7

The original Hope VI grant demolishing the center ensured that a replacement would be built, with $343k in funding appropriated, but it remains unclear what happened to the funding. There was a Unity Center, opened in 2014 after long awaited talks starting just after the Multi’s demolition, that was intended to combine programming for the former Multi and Muncie Boys & Girls Club. The Unity Center lost its building on June 15, 2017, yet the financial reasons are unclear. Advocate for the center Carl Malone told the Star Press in 2017 that nobody knew where the funding that was earmarked went. 

The committee established last year, called the Community Center Advisory Committee, has had its own hiccups since being formed. Mayor Ridenour once had Industry neighborhood representative Jasmine Taylor removed and replaced by Parks Department Superintendent Carl Malone, before changing the decision. Lezlie McCrory from South Central Neighborhood had left the committee in frustration with the direction the city was taking it. A council representative was supposed to be voted on by the council, however Council President Jeff Green decided to join before a vote could be made. That decision would be reversed with a formal vote from council, and Councilor William McIntosh was voted unopposed and unanimously.

Daisy Dale is the editor and publisher of The Muncie Post-Democrat, a commissioner for the Muncie Human Rights Commission, and a board member of Muncie Queer Alliance.