Notable Kentucky African Americans Database

1878 Abdallah Park "Colored" Fair (Harrison County, KY)
Start Year : 1878
"I wonder how many who read this will remember when our colored citizens gave a fair at Abdallah Park? Along about 1878, I put it, and I was there. My father allowed his stable boy to show some stock and sent me along to act as kind of fiduciary agent." For more about the fair and additional history, see "African-American Life in Cynthiana - 1870 - 1940," Harrison Heritage News, February 2004, vol. 5, no. 2 (published monthly by Harrison County Historical Society. PO Box 411, Cynthiana, KY 41031).
Subjects: Colored Fairs & Black Expos, Parks
Geographic Region: Cynthiana, Harrison County, Kentucky

48th and 49th U.S. Volunteer Infantries, American-Philippine War
Start Year : 1899
End Year : 1902
The 48th and 49th Infantries, organized in 1899, were African American volunteer regiments that were enlisted for battle in the American-Philippine War. The line officers were African Americans; it was during President McKinley's second term in office that the 48th and 49th were formed with the appointment of 24 Captains, 50 1st Lieutenants, 48 2nd Lieutenants, and there were 2,688 enlisted men, all African Americans. The field and staffs were white. The regiments arrived in the Philippines in January 1900, and were stationed in the Department of Northern Luzon. The units had their share of racial problems and the African American officers were treated as enlisted men. There was opposition to the war from African American leaders in the U.S., such as Bishop Henry M. Turner, Booker T. Washington, and Washington, D.C. newspaper editor E. E. Cooper. After a year and a half, the 48th and 49th were the last of the volunteer forces to return to the U.S., in May and June of 1901. Of all the U.S. volunteer regiments in the Philippines, the 48th and 49th had the least desertions and the least reports of abuse of the Filipino people. Private Thomas Taylor, 14 year old from Winchester, KY, was one of the youngest U.S. volunteers in the Philippines.

Listed in the 1900 U.S. Federal Census among the 125 men in Company A, 49th Regiment Volunteer Infantry, were twelve Kentucky natives.

• Danville - Private Govenor Durham b.1875
• Frankfort - 2nd Lieutenant Henry Walls b.1870
• Lexington - Corporal Clifford Chambers b.1880
• Franklin - Private Abby Anderson b.1878, and Private James Turner b.1878
• Louisville - Corporal Lenwood Kendall b.1878, Corporal John VanDyke b.1872, Private James J. Lewis b.1876, Private William Logwood b.1878, Private Charley Miles b.1878, Private Sam Turner b.1877
• Mt. Sterling - Private Keas Anderson b.1878

Listed in the 1900 U.S. Federal Census among the more than 200 men in Company G, 48th Regiment Volunteer Infantry, are more than 60 Kentucky natives, many from Winchester, KY.

• Carlisle - Private George Price b.1878
• Cynthiana - Musician Edward J. Berryman b.1879, Private Virgil Asberry b.1880, Private James H. Block b.1880, Private James L. Bradshaw b.1877, Private Calvern Hill b.1880, Private Sanford Holmes b.1879, Private John Ingles b.1876, Private Newell G. Lattamore b.1866
• Elizabethtown - Private Edward Clark b.1879
• Frankfort - Private Abe Crocket b.1871
• Jamestown - Private John Wallace b.1873
• Lexington - Private Joseph Adley b.1880, Private William D. Carter b.1873
• Louisville - Private Robert Parrish b.1881
• Mildale - Sergeant William H. Jones b.1869
• Newport - Corporal George E. Bassett b.1869
• Paris - Corporal James Helvey b.1875, Musician James C. Whaley b.1882, Artificer George T. Robinson b. 1869, Private Richard Bedinger b.1878, Private Charles H. Robinson b.1879, Private John H. Robinson b.1880, Private Charles Steward b.1874, Private Thomas Turner b.1877
• Richmond - Corporal Creed V. Irvine b.1881, Corporal Pleas Ferrill b.1880, Cook Wesley Harris b.1874, Private William Black b.1878, Private James G. Brock b.1878, Private John Dillingham b.1873, Private Merrill Gentry b.1878, Private John Russell b.1867, Private Auros White b.1878, Private Elder W. Campbell b.1872
• Somerset - Private Kite Allen b.1881, Private Thomas Johnson b.1881
• Shelbyville - Private Fleur Lavine b.1879
• Winchester - Corporal John Clemens b.1860, Corporal Arthur Taylor b.1879, Corporal Robert Haggard b.1865, Private Thomas Downey b.1877, Private William Fulda b.1868, Private Isaac Gipson b.1881, Private Fred Kohlas b.1881, Private George W. Mills b.1881, Private Andrew Poston b.1865, Private Lee Taylor b.1881, Corporal Spencer Turner b.1880, Private Allen Childs b.1877, Private Samuel Duncan b.1880, Private Richard Hunter b.1882, Private William T. Rones b.1880, Private Robert Simpson b.1880, Private Thomas Taylor b.1885, Private William Taylor b.1879, Private Henry Watts b.1882, Private Parker Wells b.1881, Private Joseph Williams b.1882, Private Theodore Wilson b.1880
• Kentucky (no city given) - Private Daneal Amos b.1879, Private Edward Clay b.1877, Private James Judy b.1872, Private Edward Smith b.1877

For more information see "Negro Volunteer Regiments in Spanish-American War" in Negro Year Book, 1916-1917 edited by M. N. Work [available online at Google Book Search]; John Scott Reed, "Black Volunteer Troops in the Spanish-Cuban/American War and the Philippine War (1898-1901)" in The War of 1898 and the U.S. Interventions, 1898-1934 by B. R. Beede; for more on the encounters of the 48th and 49th, see Annual Report of Major General Adna R. Chaffee, U.S. Army, Commanding Division of the Philippines, vol.II, 1901 [available full view at Google Book Search]; and "Black Americans in the U.S. Military from the American Revolution to the Korean War" a New York State Military Museum website.
Subjects: Military & Veterans
Geographic Region: Kentucky / Philippines, Asia

800 Camp Street Neighborhood (Indianapolis, IN)
The Camp Street neighborhood became predominately African American in the 20th Century.  The residents included Kentucky natives such as 23-year old widow Susan Neely and her 16-year old brother Arthur, who was a tailor. Anna Poole was a 53 year old  domestic worker who was also a widow.  For more see Ransom Place Archaeology, IUPUI Archaeology Field School; the historical research was conducted by Dr. Susan Sutton's [ssutton@iupui.edu] Spring 2000 Urban Anthropology Class. See IUPUI 2003 Archaeology Field School for information on African Americans from Kentucky who lived on Agnes Street, such as Edmund and Mary Moore.
Subjects: Communities, Migration North
Geographic Region: Kentucky / Indianapolis, Indiana