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Photo History in Kentucky
“The state of Kentucky holds a rich history in the struggle for civil rights and pioneered many efforts advocating for social justice and equality. Berea, Kentucky, is home to Berea College, the first integrated university. Simpsonville is the birthplace of Whitney M. Young Jr., who vastly improved and expanded the National Urban League and feverishly combated employee discrimination. And in the 1960s, Louisville gained national recognition for its peaceful sit-in demonstrations, successfully ending the segregation of its downtown businesses through the passage of a public accommodations ordinance – the first law of its kind in the South.” – Civil Rights Trail
Researcher/Contributor: HistoryofRace.com
Topics Include:
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Thirty-three people participated in a hunger strike in the state Capitol in March 20, 1964. The group vowed to remain in the House gallery and starve until the Kentucky General Assembly acted on a civil rights bill. The quote on their posters is from Harriet Tubman, “I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other.” The group ended its hunger strike later that evening after Gov. Edward T. Breathitt promised to call a special session of the legislature on civil rights. It would be two years, however, before the bill passed. Learn more from recollections from Senator Georgia Davis Powers (1923-2016 ), who was part of the 1964 March on Frankfort that set the stage for the hunger strike and the ongoing effort to get a civil rights bill passed in Kentucky. Photo courtesy of The Associated Press
The faculty at the Lincoln-Grant High School in Covington, 1940. The school served Black students until desegregation in the 1960s. In 1940, the Negro teachers in Kenton County, KY, were Roscoe C. Baught, Martha Bishop, Alberta E. Booker, William Craig, Maggie Fisher, Nathan Fleming, Eliza W. Gooch, William Hargraves, Elenora Henderson, Etta L. Hundley, Jewell Jackson, James H. Johnson Sr., May Fortes Kelly, Coleman Kelly, Laura E. Lewis, Mamie Memy, Ella Mitchell, Nan Mae Orben(?), Paul Redden, Chester A. Rice, Ednice Simpson, Melvin W. Walker, Catherine Williams, and Clarence Williams [source: U.S. Federal Census].
READ ARTICLE: https://nkaa.uky.edu/nkaa/items/show/2765
The faculty at the Lincoln-Grant High School in Covington, 1940. The school served Black students until desegregation in the 1960s. In 1940, the Negro teachers in Kenton County, KY, were Roscoe C. Baught, Martha Bishop, Alberta E. Booker, William Craig, Maggie Fisher, Nathan Fleming, Eliza W. Gooch, William Hargraves, Elenora Henderson, Etta L. Hundley, Jewell Jackson, James H. Johnson Sr., May Fortes Kelly, Coleman Kelly, Laura E. Lewis, Mamie Memy, Ella Mitchell, Nan Mae Orben(?), Paul Redden, Chester A. Rice, Ednice Simpson, Melvin W. Walker, Catherine Williams, and Clarence Williams [source: U.S. Federal Census].
READ ARTICLE: https://nkaa.uky.edu/nkaa/items/show/2765
Gloria Richardson, head of the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee, pushes a National Guardsman’s bayonet aside as she moves among a crowd of African Americans to convince them to disperse, Cambridge, Md., July 21, 1963. (AP Photo). Read More