Their car's backseat faces the rear window.
One man sits shot-gun, eyes to the future. The other watches signs shrink behind him, remembering the history he shaped.
Micah Maxwell and Hurley Goodall might not realize they're driving Muncie in the same direction, but Monday's Martin Luther King Jr. celebration will pair them as panelists in Cardinal Hall at 8:30 a.m.
Goodall met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery just as the bus boycott of the 1950s began. He represented Delaware County for 14 years in the Indiana House of Representatives, where he pushed for the state to recognize MLK Jr.'s birthday as a holiday.
He watched the bill fail eight times, he said.
"That was symbolic for me to be able to accomplish that," Goodall said.
He was raised in the Whitely neighborhood, home of the South Madison Center where Maxwell worked. Maxwell said a Union Baptist Church pastor encouraged him to volunteer there. He worked at the center as assistant director of youth programs for six years, answering two questions, he said.
"How can these young people develop themselves and have their needs met?" Maxwell asked. "Our programs were meant to better the youth and their parents."
As panelists, they'll discuss Muncie's progression and future. Maxwell said he is more focused on the city's potential than its past of racial tension. Goodall said the community has evolved, but Broadway street will measure how much.
"I think all this about renaming Broadway is a wake-up call to the city that there's still problems," Goodall said.
Both said Muncie has boundaries based on money and race, but neither will leave. They said they'd rather stay in the community that they've worked to change.
"If I can contribute by developing the next leaders, then that's what I want to do," Maxwell said.
After retiring from government in 1992, Goodall said he devoted himself to researching black history. Six of his books, including his most recent "A History of Negroes in Muncie," are available in Bracken Library's archives.
"I wanted to fill in that history gap," Goodall said.
Goodall broke several racial barriers in Muncie's history: He was one of the first two black men to join the Muncie fire department, the first to be elected on the school board and the first to represent Delaware County in the Indiana House of Representatives.
When he returned from Japan during World War II, he no longer wanted to settle for second-class treatment, he said.
"I held people's feet to the fire and made them live up to the Constitution," Goodall said.
He gathered 16 other parents and sued Muncie schools to prevent segregation in the early 1960s. He said new schools were built in the suburbs, while inner-city buildings dating back to 1890 crumbled.
"There were classes in the basement with the coal furnace," Goodall said. "As a firefighter, I cringed every time I went past them."
Goodall's trailblazing occurred before Maxwell's birth in 1978. Maxwell "grew up being a biracial kid in the '80s," but he was never attacked because of his skin color, he said.
"My mom and dad got stuff every time they went out somewhere," Maxwell said. "But I don't know how that would've kept me from what I'm doing now."
Maxwell heads the Youth Academy for Community Leadership at the Muncie Children's Museum, the collaborative group Youth Empowerment and serves on the board of directors for Habitat for Humanity. Last year, he received the Governor's Award for Tomorrow's Leaders.
"I felt like I could give back to the community for all that it's done for me and my family," Maxwell said. "Any piece of clothing I had, someone had given to me."
Maxwell will transfer from Ivy Tech to BSU in the fall, he said. He plans to enter the executive development and public service program.
Maxwell said he doesn't want to see Muncie hold onto the past and block out the future.
"People have a chance to get hung up on stuff that's happened in the past," Maxwell said. "We're here now. Let's move forward."
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