Notable Kentucky African Americans Database

Abbington v Board of Education of Louisville (KY)
Start Year : 1940
When the Louisville Board of Education denied the petition for equal pay for African American teachers, a suit was filed by the NAACP on behalf of Vallateen Virginia Dudley Abbington. The case of Abbington v. Board of Education of Louisville was filed on December 5, 1940, in the Federal District Court. Abbington (1907-2003), a native of Indiana, was a school teacher in Louisville at the time. She was one of the African American teachers who received 15% less salary than white teachers. The case, brought by the NAACP, was argued by Thurgood Marshall. The School Board agreed that if Abbington would drop her lawsuit, the discrimination in salaries would cease. The lawsuit was withdrawn, and a retroactive clause in the suit gave African American teachers back pay. The equalization of teacher salaries was a campaign by the NAACP that began in 1936. Abbington v Board of Education of Louisville was the third case for the NAACP, the first such case in Kentucky. Abbington left Louisville and moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where she is remembered as a social worker, civic leader, and civil rights leader. Vallateen Dudley (1907-2003)was born in Indianapolis, IN, the daughter of George (b. in KY) and Annie L. Dudley. For more see Papers of the NAACP, Part 3, The Campaign for Educational Equality: Legal Department and Central Office Records, 1913-1950 / Series B, 1940-1950 / Reel 8; see "Kentucky Cases" in The Negro Handbook 1946-1947, edited by F. Murray; "Alumna, 96, remembered as strong-willed activist," Exemplar (Eastern Michigan University), Winter 2004, Special Annual Report Issue; and "Vallateen Abbington, social worker, civic leader," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 10/19/2003, Metro section, p. D15.
Subjects: Activists, Civil Rights, Education and Educators, NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), Court Cases
Geographic Region: Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky

Adams, Florence V. "Frankie"
Birth Year : 1902
Death Year : 1979
Adams, born in Danville, KY, was a professor at the Atlanta University School of Social Work, the first social work program accredited for African Americans (in 2000 it was renamed the Whitney M. Young, Jr. School of Social Work). Florence Adams and Whitney Young, Jr. were social work comrades and Kentucky natives. They co-authored Some Pioneers in Social Work: brief sketches; student work book (1957). Adams also influenced community organization and group work on the national level. She was author of Women in Industry (1929), Soulcraft: Sketches on Negro-White Relations Designed to Encourage Friendship, (1944) and The Reflections of Florence Victoria Adams, a history of the Atlanta University School of Social Work (published posthumously in 1981). She also wrote many articles and was editor of Black and White Magazine. The Frankie V. Adams Collection is in the Atlanta University Center Archives. For more see Who's Who in Colored America, 1950 and In Black and White. A guide to magazine articles, newspaper articles, and books concerning Black individuals and groups, 3rd ed., edited by M. M. Spradling.
Subjects: Authors, Education and Educators, Social Workers, Migration South
Geographic Region: Danville, Boyle County, Kentucky / Atlanta, Georgia

Adams, John Quincy "J.Q."
Birth Year : 1848
Death Year : 1922
John Quincy Adams was born in Louisville, KY. In 1879, Adams established the Bulletin as a weekly newspaper in Louisville. He served as president of the American Press Association (the African American press organization). In 1886, he left Louisville to join the staff of the Western Appeal in St. Paul, Minnesota, assuming ownership of the newspaper within a few months. Adam's career also included his position as Engrossing Clerk of the Arkansas Senate. He was also a school teacher in both Kentucky and Arkansas. He was a civil rights activist and served as an officer in the National Afro-American Council. Adams was a graduate of Oberlin College. He was a charter member of the Gopher Lodge No.105, Improved Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of the World. He was the son of Henry Adams and Margaret P. Corbin Adams. J. Q. Adams died September 3, 1922, after being struck by an automobile while waiting to board a street car. He was the husband of Ella B. Smith, and they had four children. For more see Dictionary of American Negro Biography, by R. W. Logan & M. R. Winston; D. V. Taylor, "John Quincy Adams: St. Paul editor and Black leader," Minnesota History, vol.43, issue 8 (Winter, 1973), pp.282-296; and for a history of J. Q. Adams career see, "Crowds throng to Adam's rites fill Pilgrim Baptist Church to capacity Elks conduct services," The Appeal, 09/16/1922, p.1.

See photo image and additional information on John Quincy Adams at African American Registry website.
Subjects: Activists, Civil Rights, Education and Educators, Journalists, Newspapers, Magazines, Book Publishers, Music Publishers, Migration West, Politicians, Politics, Appointments & Elections, Fraternal Organizations
Geographic Region: Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky / Saint Paul, Minnesota / Arkansas

The African American Herndons from Simpson County, KY
Start Year : 1852
The following information was submitted by Gayla Coates, Archives Librarian at the Simpson County Kentucky Archives. Melford, Solomon, Bob, and Amy were the slaves of James Herndon in Simpson County, KY. In 1852, they were all to be freed when James Herndon's will was probated. The will stipulated that the slaves were to be freed if they agreed to go live in Liberia, Africa; otherwise, they were to remain in bondage to a member of James Herndon's family. Robert Herndon (b. 1814) and Melford D. Herndon (b. 1819) sailed to Liberia in 1854 aboard the ship Sophia Walker. Solomon Herndon (b. 1811) left aboard the ship Elvira Owen in 1856. In Monrovia, Liberia, Melford Herndon attended the Day's Hope mission school where he learned to read and write. He became a missionary among the Bassa people. During the American Civil War, his salary for his missionary work was discontinued. Melford returned to the U.S. and was able to secure assistance for the mission in Liberia. He also brought two of his sons to Liberia. While in the U.S., he was ordained a minister at the First African Baptist Church in Philadelphia. Herndon also collected $2,000 to build a school and meeting house for the Bassa people. He returned to Liberia in 1865 and continued his work without a salary. In 1869, Melford Herndon left his brother in charge of the school in Liberia and again returned to the U.S. for additional fund-raising and to locate his other four children. In 1873, Melford Herndon was back in Herndonville, Liberia. He would again return to the U.S., bringing with him ten Africans who would become students at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. When he returned to Liberia, he brought along his sister, Mrs. Julia Lewis, from Kentucky. They sailed on the ship Liberia, which was sponsored by the Pennsylvania Colonization Society. For more see G. Coates, "Melford D. Herndon: Freed Slave and Missionary to Liberia," Jailhouse Journal, vol. 18, issue 2 (04/2009), p. 22. [The Simpson County Historical Society is housed in the old jail, thus the name of its journal.]
Subjects: Education and Educators, Freedom, Liberia, Liberian Presidents & Diplomats, Religion & Church Work, Migration Outside the U.S. and Canada
Geographic Region: Simpson County, Kentucky / Monrovia and Herndonville, Liberia, Africa

African American Schools - Colored Superintendents at Kentucky Public Schools, 1925
Start Year : 1925
Below are the names of the colored superintendents listed in the Kentucky Public School Directory for the school year July 1, 1925 to June 30, 1926. The publication is one of the earliest school directories for the state. For the county schools, the superintendent was white and served all the schools in the county system. In 1925, there were a few colored superintendents hired by the city and independent graded school systems for the colored schools. See also the NKAA entries for African American Schools.

African American Schools - Kentucky, 1886
Start Year : 1886
The Colored School System covered about 112 of the 120 counties. Many of the colored schools were actually school sessions being held for three to five months in colored churches. There was not sufficient revenue from the property taxes of African Americans to afford but a few new school buildings. School superintendents filed reports that included information about the condition of the facilities, enrollment and student attendance, and the qualifications of teachers. A driving force behind the development and continuation of a colored school was the community. It was not uncommon for schools to be opened, moved, or discontinued without the knowledge of the school superintendent. There were superintendents who did not submit a separate report about the colored schools, or there may be a statement about the colored schools in the annual report for the white schools. The following list comes from the "Colored Schools. A digest of the Epistolary Reports of County Superintendents," found within the Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the Commonwealth of Kentucky for the school year ending June 30, 1886 and for the school year ending June 30, 1887. The total number of schools/districts was not available for every county. See also the NKAA Dabatase entries African American Schools.

• Adair County
• Barren County
• Bath County - 8 districts with 1 school each
• Boone County
• Bourbon County - 24 schools
• Boyd County - 2 districts
• Boyle County
• Breathitt County - 2 districts
• Breckinridge County
• Bullitt County - 7 districts
• Butler County - 7 schools
• Calloway County - 8 districts
• Carroll County - more than 3 districts
• Casey County - 5 schools
• Christian County
• Clark County - 11 schools
• Clay County - 4 districts
• Crittenden County
• Cumberland County - 8 districts
• Daviess County - 4 schools
• Edmonson County - 4 schools
• Fayette County
• Fleming County - 6 districts, school held in churches
• Franklin County
• Fulton County - 11 districts, 1 school in a church
• Grant County - 4 districts
• Graves County - 16 districts
• Green County - 17 districts
• Harlan County
• Hardin County
• Harrison County
• Hart County - 10 districts
• Hopkins County - 18 districts
• Jessamine County
• Larue County
• Laurel County
• Lawrence County - 2 schools
• Lee County - 2 schools, 1 in a church
• Lewis County - 1 school in a church in Vanceburg
• Lincoln County - 16 districts
• Logan County - 21 teachers, many schools taught in church buildings
• Lyon County - 11 districts
• Madison County - 27 districts
• Magoffin County - 1 school
• Mason County
• Marshall County - 3 districts
• McCracken County - no school houses, 3 or 4 schools doing good
• McLean County - 5 districts, most schools held in church buildings
• Meade County
• Menifee County - 1 school
• Mercer County
• Metcalfe County - 7 districts
• Monroe County - 5 schools
• Montgomery County
• Muhlenberg County - the schools are at a stand-still
• Ohio County - 11 districts, 11 schools
• Oldham County
• Owen County
• Pendleton County - 3 districts
• Powell County - 3 schools
• Pulaski County - 6 schools
• Robertson County - 2 schools
• Rockcastle County - 2 schools, one in Brodhead
• Scott County - 1 school, school held in rented building
• Shelby County - 13 districts
• Simpson County - 10 districts
• Spencer County
• Taylor County
• Trigg County - 3 districts
• Union County - 9 districts, 6 with schools
• Warren County
• Washington County
• Wayne County
• Wolfe - 1 district
• Woodford County

African American Schools and Students in Kentucky (Photographs), Kentucky Digital Library
Start Year : 1901
Photographs of "Colored" and "Negro" schools and students are available online within the Kentucky Digital Library - Images section. Student body photographs include Bracktown 1901, Briar Hill 1901, and Burdine 1921. For more see the Kentucky Digital Library - Images. See also the entries for African American Schools in the NKAA Database.
Subjects: Education and Educators, Photographers, Photographs, Grade Schools & High Schools in Kentucky
Geographic Region: Bracktown and Briar Hill, Fayette County, Kentucky / Burdine (Jenkins), Letcher County, Kentucky

African American Schools and Teachers in Kentucky, 1929
Start Year : 1929
In 1929, Harvey C. Russell, Sr. found that the higher education institutions in Kentucky were at a low state of teacher preparation for the state's colored high schools. The findings are included in Russell's thesis The Training of the Teachers in the Colored High Schools of Kentucky, for a Master of Arts in Education at the University of Cincinnati. In his thesis, Russell focused on public high schools, but noted that there were 61 colored high schools of all types in Kentucky: 36 city controlled, 23 county controlled, and 2 state controlled. There were 204 teachers. The number of colored high schools had more than doubled over a 10 year period and student enrollment had increased by 170 percent. There were 31 four year approved high schools within 28 counties and all but three had less than 100 students. The Rosenwald Fund had provided for 10 libraries. Among the public high schools, 56% of the teachers were college graduates and "the state has drawn heavily upon educational institutions in other states." [quote from Chapter VI, p.68, item 7.] Below are the names of the higher education institutions with graduates who were teachers at the colored high schools in Kentucky during the 1928-29 school term, as listed in Table XI, pp.46-46a, in The Training of the Teachers in the Colored High Schools in Kentucky by Harvey C. Russell, Sr.

Training institutions in Kentucky attended by colored teachers (26%):

• Kentucky Industrial College [now Kentucky State University]
• Simmons University [now Simmons College of Kentucky]
• West Kentucky Industrial College [now West Kentucky Community and Technical College]
• Atkinson College [no longer exists]
• Louisville Normal [merged into U of L]
• Berea College
• Lincoln Institute [no longer exists]
• Chandler Normal [no longer exists]

• Fisk University
• Lane College
• Knoxville College
• Tennessee State College

• Wilberforce University
• Ohio State University
• Ohio University
• Miami University

• Howard University

• Indiana University
• Terre Haute Teacher College

• University of Chicago
• Northwestern University
• Illinois State Normal
• University of Illinois
• Chicago Business College

• Atlanta University
• Clark University
• Morris Brown University

• Lincoln University
• Cheney Normal

• Hampton Institute

• Tuskegee Institute

• Langston University

• Ypsilanti Normal

• Columbia University
• Pratt Institute

• Florida State College

• Smith College

• University of Nebraska

• John C. Smith University

African American Schools in Adair County, KY
Start Year : 1886
End Year : 1956
There were colored schools in Adair County in 1886, according to the Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. There are references to the schools in William G. Aaron's thesis History of Education in Adair County, Kentucky. In 1912, the Columbia Colored School was taught by Parker Jackman; he had been teaching since shortly after the end of the Civil War and was one of the first African American teachers in Adair County and Russell County. There were as many as 14 colored schools in Adair County, but the number decreased to 10 by 1933 [Aaron, p.112]. In 1917, bids were accepted for the building of a colored school in Kelleyville [source: "Notice," Adair County News, 07/25/1917, p.4]. In 1920, bids were accepted for the building of the Elroy Colored School in District G, Division 2 [source: "To Contractors," Adair County News, 01/28/1920, p.4]. In 1921, the colored teachers earned between $65-$75 per month, and in 1931, they earned between $44-$56 per month [Aaron, p.86]. Attendance ranged from 384 students in 1901 to 161 students in 1931 [Aaron, p.89]. The Columbia County High School for colored students opened in 1925; the school was funded by the County Board of Education and cost $3,800 [Aaron, p.107]. There was also the Rosenwald School built on Taylor Street and named Jackman High in honor of Parker Jackman. There were 10 high school students for the 1931-32 term. Integration of the schools in Adair County occured in 1956 after parents of Negro studens filed a lawsuit via the NAACP (James A. Crumlin, Sr.), [source: "Court orders Adair Board to end segregation, Leader, 12/01/1955].

• Colored Schools (14)
• Columbia School
• Jackman High School
• Kelleyville School
• Elroy School

African American Schools in Anderson County, KY
Start Year : 1880
End Year : 1963
There were colored schools in Anderson County, KY prior to the year 1900 and the exact date of the first colored school is not known. In 1880, 21 year old John Trunt(sp) was listed in the U.S. Federal Census as a school teacher who lived in the East District of Lawrenceburg, but there is no indication as to where the school was located. Trunt(sp) was a boarder with the John Penny family. {Trunt may not be the correct spelling of the last name, it is difficult to read the handwriting of the census taker}. There were still colored schools in Anderson County in 1895, according to the Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of Kentucky...for the two years beginning July 1, 1895 and ending June 30, 1897, there were five districts, each with one school that was taught five months per year. Three of the school buildings were frame structures, and the other two schools were taught in churches or other buildings. The colored schools were under the county system. There were six teachers and an average of 113 students attending school on a regular basis. By 1901, there were still five districts with five schools and six teachers [source: Biennial Report...beginning July 1, 1899 and ending June 30,1901]. One of the schools was taught more than five months. In 1901, there were four school buildings, one made of log and three frame structures, and the fifth school was taught in a church, or rented building, or in the teacher's home. The average attendance was 169 students for the school year 1899-1900, and the teachers earned an average of $46.61 per month. There was an average attendance of 135 students from 1900-1901, and the teachers earned an average of $41.55 per month. For both years, the Negro teachers earned more than the white teachers. There was one student from Anderson County who graduated from the State Normal School for Colored Persons for the scholastic year 1900 and 1901 [now Kentucky State University]. In 1916, there were two teachers listed in the Proceedings of the Kentucky Negro Educational Association, April 25-28, 1916: Mary W. Coleman [known as Mrs. Wally], p.26; and J. C. Diggs, p.27. By 1926, Raymond I. Pleasant had replaced J. C. Diggs and the Lawrenceburg Colored School was located in the Grove, it was Pleasant's first teaching job and he would become principal of the school. His wife, Catherine Utterback Pleasant taught at the Georgetown School in Anderson County, the school was in the African American community of Georgetown located off Lock Road in the area known today as the Georgetown School Road. Catherine and Raymond Pleasant are listed in the History and Families, Anderson County, Kentucky, by Turner Publishing, p.139. By 1935, William Coleman was a teacher and would become principal of the Lawrenceburg Colored School [source: KNEA Journal, v.6, no.1, p.52]. Prior to his arrival, Raymond I. Pleasant and Mary Coleman had added an unaccredited 2 year high school to the Lawrenceburg Colored School and there were 3 students [sources: Turner Pub., p.136; and KNEA Journal, Feb. 1931, v.1, no.3, p.11, and v.2, no.1, p.24]. William and Mary Coleman continued the unaccredited high school department, though in 1936, the school was still referred to as a city elementary school [source: KNEA Journal, October-November 1936, p.40]. Mrs. Lorelia C. Spencer was a teacher at the school in 1938 and she was principal of the high school department [source: KNEA Journal, v.9, no.1-2, p.52, and v.9, no.3, p.14]. According to historian Gary Brown, it was also in 1938 when the Lawrenceburg Colored School in the Grove burnt down and the new school was built on Lincoln Street. W. M. Thomas was a teacher at the school, and he left in 1939 to become principal of the Knob City High School in Russellville, KY [source: KNEA Journal, Jan.-Feb 1940, v.10, no.2, p.34]. L. L. Owens was principal of the Lawrenceburg Colored School in 1940 [source: KNEA Journal, October-November 1940, v.11, no.1, p.32]. Mrs. C. B. Daily was principal in 1945 [source: KNEA Journal, April-May 1945, v.16, no.2-3, p.29]. In 1949, William M. Coleman was principal of the junior high grades of the Lawrenceburg Colored School [source: KNEA Journal, March 1949, p.19]. The Anderson County colored schools were consolidated around 1950 and students from the county were bused to the Lawrenceburg Colored School on Lincoln Street. William M. Coleman would again be named principal of the school. There was never an accredited high school for Negro children in Anderson County and the unaccredited high school department at the Lawrenceburg Colored School were dropped in 1945. According to Lawrenceburg resident Ethel Thurman and historian Gary Brown, Anderson County paid for Negro high school students in Lawrenceburg to be bused to Lincoln Institute in Shelby County and to Simmons High School in Versailles, and there were a few students bused to the old Dunbar High School in Lexington. The Anderson County Schools began to integrate in 1963 when Negro high school students were given the option of attending the white high school in Lawrenceburg, or Lincoln Institute, or the high school in Versailles. According to historian Gary Brown, the following year, all other grades were integrated, and Robert Bird was the Superintendent of Schools. For this entry, assistance with geographic locations and names, the names of teachers, and school integration information were also provided by Jane Jones and Cathy L. Green.

• Colored Schools (5)
• Georgetown School
• Lawrenceburg School (burnt in 1938)
• Lawrenceburg School

African American Schools in Barbourville and Knox County, KY
Start Year : 1907
The Barbourville Colored School was taught by Zuetta Minor in 1907 and by Prof. Edward Kirtley in 1908 [source: "Colored School," Mountain Advocate, 12/25/1908, p. 1]. The seven colored schools in Knox County, KY, included the new brick school building in Barbourville, and there were plans to combine two of the school districts [source: Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of Kentucky, 1905-1907, pp. 135-137]. In 1910, the Barbourville School, considered a county school, had 35 students on the first day of classes; Mary Dee Robinson was the teacher [source: "Colored School Opens," Mountain Advocate, 07/15/1910, p. 3]. The Bertha Colored School held its commencement in January of 1910. Miss Laura Gibson had been the school teacher for two years [source: "Commencement: Colored School of Bertha," Mountain Advocate, 01/14/1910, p. 3]. Gibson lived in Emanuel [source: Proceedings of the Kentucky Negro Educational Association, April 18-21, 1923, p. 59]. The Barbourville schools had been overseen by a white school board until 1921, when the Board of Council of the City of Barbourville ordained that the white school have a white board of education, and the colored school have a colored board of education [source: "Ordinance," Mountain Advocate, 09/16/1921, p. 4]. In 1940, R. H. Thompson was principal of the Rosenwald High School in Barbourville [source: Kentucky Negro Educational Association Journal, vol. 11, no. 1, October-November 1940, p. 32]. Miss Laura Gibson retired from teaching at Barbourville Independent in 1942 [source: "Honor to whom honor is due," Kentucky Negro Educational Association Journal, vol. 13, no. 1, November-December 1942, p. 7].

• Colored Schools (7)
• Barbourville Independent School
• Barbourville School
• Bertha School
• Rosenwald High School
• Rosenwald Elementary School

African American Schools in Bath County, KY
Start Year : 1880
End Year : 1963
In 1880, there were at least two colored schools in Bath County, KY, according to the U.S. Federal Census, Elijah Grigsby was the teacher in Owingsville and Walace Smith was the teacher in Sharpsburg. By 1886, there were eight colored schools in Bath County, KY [source: NKAA entry for African American Schools, 1886], and in 1897, there were ten schools, according to the Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of Kentucky...July 1, 1895 and ending June 30, 1897, pp.216-219. All were rural elementary schools under the county school system. The schools were in session for nine months, and there were nine frame school houses and one made of logs. There were 11 school teachers, two of whom were female, and the Owingsville school teacher was M. C. Lasswell. In 1897, the average monthly salary for the female teachers was $32.91, and the wages of the male teachers was an average of $31.84 per month. The average attendance was 152 students in 1897, and four students graduated (from 8th grade). The number of colored schools had declined by 1925, there were six schools with seven teachers [source: Kentucky Public School Directory, 1925-1926, p.67], and the numbers had declined again by the 1936-37 school term when there were four teachers, and there were three teachers during the 1940-41 term. The names of teachers at the Owingsville School can be found in the Kentucky Negro Educational Association Journal for the years 1925-1941. The following information comes from the Bath County News-Outlook newspaper. The newspaper copies and the research were provided by the Bath County Memorial Library in Owingsville, KY. -- In 1953, there were 32 students enrolled in the Owingsville Colored School, and 75 students at the Bethel and Sharpsburg colored schools [article: "1500 are enrolled in county schools," 09/10/1953, p.1]. Mrs. Nannie M. Powell was the teacher at the Owingsville Colored School as early as 1953, and Mrs. Carie Lee Clemmons and Mrs. Mary F. Williams were the teachers at Sharpsburg Colored School [article: "Owingsville School," 09/03/1953]. Beginning in 1958, Mrs. Clemmons and Frank C. LaPrelle were the teachers at the Sharpsburg Colored School [articles: "Teachers placed," 04/30/1958; "Bath County schools to open Monday, August 29," 08/25/1960; and "County schools start Sept. 7, teacher list is announced," 07/26/1962]. In 1954, it was recommended that contractual arrangements be made for Negro high school students to attend the Negro high schools in adjacent counties or Lincoln Institute in Shelby County [article: "Negro schools," 02/18/1954]. The Owingsville Colored School on Harrisburg Street was the last one-room school house in Bath County, the school had students in grades 1-8 [article: photo caption "One big family," 01/12/1961], the school building was sold to George Harris for $1,555 in 1963 [article: photo caption "'Little Red Schoolhouse' auctioned to high bidder," 10/24/1963]. The Sharpsburg Colored School property was on the south side of Montgomery Street in Sharpsburg, and was to be sold at public auction after the Owingsville Colored School was sold [article: "5 Surplus schools go under auction hammer," 10/10/1963]. -- There was never a high school for Negro students in Bath County. The schools in Bath County were integrated during the 1963-64 school term [source: Kentucky School Directory, 1963-64, p.94].

• Colored Schools (10)
• Owingsville School
• Sharpsburg School
• Bethel School

African American Schools in Boone County, KY
Start Year : 1882
End Year : 1954
In 1882, the Kentucky Legislature passed an act for the benefit of the colored schools in Petersburg, KY, granting that lots 172 and 173 be used for schools for the colored children. The lots had belonged to Samuel Yowell, who died without any heirs in 1872 and the property was taken over by the state. Petersburg is an unincorporated community in Boone County, KY. It is not known if a school house was ever built on the lots, but by 1886, there were a few colored schools in Boone County [see NKAA entry African American Schools, 1886]. In 1891, the school superintendent complained that the schools were poorly financed and there were no school buildings amongst the three districts and the school sessions were held in churches [source: A History of Blacks in Kentucky, v.2 by G. C. Wright, p.108]. In 1911, the average salary for the teachers was $42.31 per month [source: Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1911, p.48]. Blanche Robinson was a teacher in Boone County in 1935, and Wallace Strader was the principal of Boone County High School, located in Burlington, KY, in 1937 [source: Kentucky Negro Educational Association Journal - October-November, 1935, v.6, no.1, p.21 and January-February, 1937, pp.14 & 16]. In 1954, there were 11 students in the Burlington Colored School, and there were two students attending Lincoln Institute, their tuition was paid by the school board ["Walton-Verona parents vote integration now," Louisville Courier Journal 07/09/1954 - online at nkyviews.com]. There was also colored school in Idlewild. In 1894, the Hopewell Baptist Church in Beaverlick was also used as a school [source: Mr. Robert Lett, "Hopewell Baptist Church," at the Boone County Public Library website]. In 1883, the African Americans in Florence, KY, had a picnic benefit for their school [source: Boone County Recorder, 05/30/1883, online note, Boone County Public Library website].

• Colored Schools
• Boone County High School
• Burlington School
• Idlewild School
• Hopewell Baptist Church School
• Florence School

African American Schools in Boyle County, KY
Start Year : 1837
End Year : 1964
Between 1866 and 1870, there were at least four colored schools in Boyle County that were supported by the U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands [see the NKAA entry Freedmen Schools, Kentucky]. According to William F. Russell's thesis, The History of Education of Boyle County, pp. 217-221, Willis Russell taught the first colored school in Danville, located in a frame house on Green Street (around 1837); a second school on Green Street was taught by Gib Doram. There were also schools taught at the Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist Churches. There was also a private school that cost $2.00 per month. The colored schools in Boyle County were counted in the Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. In 1881, John W. Bate came to Danville and took over teaching at what had been the Danville Freedmen School [source: Russell thesis, pp. 218 & 228]. The school house was described as a "barn-like frame structure" that was replaced by a brick school building in 1912. The school was under the county school system until 1892 when it was placed under the newly established city school system; all other colored schools remained under the county system. During the 1920s, the Danville Colored School had over 400 students in grades 1-12 taught by 12 teachers, four of whom taught the high school classes [source: Russell thesis, pp. 219-221]. High school students were bused to the school from Lancaster and Stanford, KY. From 1880-1881, there were seven colored schools reported by the county commissioner of schools [source: Russell thesis, pp. 208-210, & 227]. The schools had one room with one teacher. More county schools opened after 1881. The highest average attendance was 1,009 students in the year 1900. By 1928 many of the schools had been discontinued and there were only six colored schools in the county. In 1885, a school was established for the colored deaf children within the Kentucky Asylum for the Tuition of the Deaf and Dumb, located in Danville [see NKAA entry Early Schools for Negro Deaf and Blind Children]. The colored school for the deaf was actually a department--it opened on February 2, 1885, with eight pupils, Morris T. Long as teacher and supervisor and his wife, Nannie R. Long, the matron [source: Russell thesis, pp. 149-155]. In 1929, the instructors were Mrs. Mary Fosdick and A. D. Martin. Between 1885 and 1929, there were never more than 16 students in the *colored department. The Danville schools were integrated in 1964.

• Danville Freedmen School
• Danville American Missionary Association School supported by the Bureau
• Parksville American Missionary Association School supported by the Bureau
• Shelby City Freedmen School
• Danville School #1 on Green Street (Willis Russell)
• Danville School #2 on Green Street
• Methodist Church School
• Presbyterian Church School
• Baptist Church School
• Stony Point School
• Wilsonville School
• Perryville School
• Zion Hill School
• Atoka School
• Junction City School
• Colored Department of the Kentucky Asylum for the Tuition of the Deaf and Dumb

African American Schools in Breathitt County, KY
Start Year : 1886
End Year : 1956
In 1886, there were two colored schools in Breathitt County, KY, according to the Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. In 1907, there was one colored school with 100 children, the school was located in Jackson [source: Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction]. According to McClure's Magazine, October 1922, v.54, no.8, p.17, the Breathitt County inter-racial committee secured three acres of land and built a school for the Negroes of Jackson. During the 1930-31 school term, the colored school had an enrollment of 27 students who were taught by one teacher [source: Kentucky Public School Directory, 1930-1931, p.51]. There is also mention of the colored school in Jackson on pp.6-7 in the report titled "Education - Jackson City Schools," a WPA document written sometime around the 1938-39 school term [source: Kentucky Education Collection, Series 1, Box 4, File: Breathitt County Education]. The school was a two classroom room frame building that was in bad condition, the school building was old, it was located on the west slope side of Yo Hill. One room was sometimes used as a gymnasium and was fitted for basketball. There were also two small dressing rooms and a small room that had been used as a kitchen, workshop, library and store room. The school had grades 1-8 taught by Mrs. Katheryn Gatewood. Outside the school was a playground of hard packed red clay about 50 x 50 feet. There were also two outside toilets, one for the boys and one for the girls. In a 1940 letter from the Breathitt County Board of Education, written to the Kentucky Writer's Project, it was reported that that there were 49 Negro children in the city and 7 in the county [source: Kentucky Education Collection, Series 1, Box 4, File: Breathitt County Education, Letter from Marie R. Turner, County Superintendent, Breathitt County Board of Education, pp.1-2]. The county school system did not have a colored school, but rather paid tuition to the city school board for the county students who attended the Jackson colored school. According to the title Breathitt County by S. D. Bowling, p.54, the elementary Rosenwald School in Jackson was located on Hurst Lane. The Rosenwald School probably replaced the former school because there continued to be only one colored school in Jackson. There was not a high school for Negro children in Breathitt County. The Breathitt County Schools are noted as integrated in the Kentucky Public School Directory, 1956-57, p.402.

• Colored School
• Jackson School

African American Schools in Bullitt County, KY
Start Year : 1827
End Year : 1956
According to author Daniel Buxton*, in his article, "African American Education in Bullitt County," schools for African Americans were attempted as early as 1827. Other early schools in Bullitt County were supported by the U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, from 1866-1870 [see NKAA entry Freedmen Schools - Kentucky]. The schools were not welcomed; the teacher at the Shepherdsville Freedmen School was threatened, the Noble School was burnt down in 1867, and the schools held in churches resulted in the churches being burnt down. In spite of the resistance that was encountered, there were still colored schools in Bullitt County, with eight schools in 1880 [source: Ockerman, p. 127], and the 1886 Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction noted seven colored districts in the county. In 1890, the industrial school, Eckstein Norton University, opened in Cane Springs. The school was founded by William J. Simmons and Charles H. Parrish, Sr. both of whom would become president of the school. Louisville and Nashville Railroad (L&N Railroad) gave $3,000 toward the development of the school, and in return the school was named for Eckstein Norton, a banker and president of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad [source: The History of Education in Bullitt County, by H. N. Ockerman, pp. 76-96]. The school was situated along the Bardstown Branch of the L&N Railroad on 75 acres of land that had been purchased from Austin Speed. L&N Railroad built a station [Lotus, KY] just for the students and school personnel. There were seven buildings on the campus: the main building, a brick structure, and six frame buildings that were used as dormitories, a printing office, a laundry, and a blacksmith shop. There was a primary department, grades 1-5; a training department, grades 6-8; a normal and preparatory department, grades 9-12; and the college department, which offered a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Bachelor of Sciences degree. In 1911, Eckstein Norton University merged with Lincoln Institute, and the Eckstein Norton campus was closed in 1912. The school had awarded 189 bachelor's degrees. During the 12 years that Eckstein Norton existed, there were still seven colored public schools in Bullitt County, including the Copera Hollow School mentioned in the article by Daniel Buxton. After the closing of Eckstein Norton, the Bullitt County Board of Education established a contract with Lincoln Institute for the education of high school students. According to Buxton, the number of county public colored schools was six by 1905, reduced to four schools by 1910. According to Ockerman [p. 127], three colored school districts were eliminated in 1913. Another school opened around 1922: Central Christian Institute, owned by the Christian Woman's Board of Missions of the Disciples of Christ United Missionary Society; that school closed in 1927. It had been one of the five schools in Bullitt County for African Americans, along with Shepherdsville Colored School, Lebanon Junction Colored School, Mt. Washington Colored School, and Bowman Valley Colored School, which opened around 1916. All of the public colored schools were taught by African American women teachers; in 1908 their average monthly salary was $26.14 [source: Ockerman, p. 115]. Many of the county public schools were consolidated beginning in 1922, and in 1932 Bowman Valley Colored School became the only school for African American children. The school building was located between Shepherdsville and Bardstown Junction. In 1947, the teachers were Miss Maggie Owens and Miss Mattie Owens [source: Kentucky Negro Educational Association Journal, vol. 18, issue 2, (March-April, 1947), p. 27]. The schools of Bullitt County began to integrate in 1956.

• Shepherdsville Freedmen School [teacher threatened]
• Noble School supported by the Bureau [burnt down in 1867]
• Church School supported by the Bureau [church was burnt down]
• Church School supported by the Bureau [2nd church burnt down]
• Colored School Districts (8)
• Eckstein Norton University (1890-1912)
• Copera Hollow School
• Shepherdsville School
• Lebanon Junction School
• Mt. Washington School
• Bowman Valley School
• Central Christian Institute (c.1922-1927)

African American Schools in Caldwell County, KY
Start Year : 1866
End Year : 1962
Between 1866-1870, there was a freedmen school in Princeton, KY [see NKAA entry African American Freedmen School]. There are several photo images of colored schools in Caldwell County, taken during the 1880s-1890s. The images are within the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives [KDLA] Electronic Records Archives, and includes the schools in Chapel Hill, Freedonia, Princeton, and Walnut Grove. Ella O'Hara was the school teacher at the Princeton Colored School in 1880 [source: U.S. Federal Census]. The colored school in Princeton was one of the few in Kentucky to have a Colored superintendent in 1925 [see NKAA entry Colored Superintendents]. During the school term, there were four colored schools in the county, with five teachers and 547 students [source: Kentucky Public School Directory, 1925-1926, pp.67 & 69]. There were also four elementary schools in Princeton, and Princeton High School, all with a total of 264 students. The high school was later named Dotson High School. The St. Paul School in Princeton is listed in the Kentucky School Directory, 1962-63 as the first school in Caldwell County to become integrated. The public high schools started to integrate in 1963 [source: Patricia George interview in the Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky Oral History Project at the Kentucky Historical Society website].

• Freedmen School supported by the Bureau
• Princeton School [image in KDLA Electronic Records Archives] / later Dotson School
• Chapel Hill School [image in KDLA Electronic Records Archives]
• Freedonia School [image in KDLA Electronic Records Archives]
• Freedonia School (1926-1948, image at westernkyhistory.org website]
• Walnut Grove School [image in KDLA Electronic Records Archives]

African American Schools in Campbell County, KY
Start Year : 1873
End Year : 1955
Within Mary Lee Caldwell's thesis, History of Education of Campbell County, KY, p.44, it was stated that all African Americans in Campbell County lived in Newport, which was not entirely true. African Americans also lived in Ft. Thomas, Alexandria, and Dayton. The African American children from these communities attended the colored school in Newport. The school was established around 1873 and Elizabeth Hudson was the teacher [source: History of the Public Schools of Newport, Kentucky by James L. Cobb]. The school was located in a cottage near Saratoga Street and Washington Avenue. In 1916, the teachers were Emma J. Blanton, W. S. Blanton, A. J. Cox, and L. A. Ellis [source: Proceedings of the Kentucky Negro Educational Association, April 25-28, 1916, pp.25-27 & 39]. In 1936 the school was placed under the independent graded districts [source: Caldwell, p.45], by which time the school had been moved to Southgate Street, and the school was named Southgate Colored School. In 1941, there were 131 students taught by four teachers for grades 2-8, and first grade was taught at Corinthian Baptist Church in Newport. There was also a three-year high school from 1901- 1920, and it was taught by one teacher. After 1920, the Newport Board of Education provided the high school students with transportation and tuition to William Grant Colored High School in Covington, KY. The Southgate School was closed in 1955 when the Campbell County Schools integrated.

• Newport School
• Southgate School
• Corinthian Baptist Church School
• Southgate High School (1901-1920)

African American Schools in Carroll County, KY
Start Year : 1879
End Year : 1961
When R. W. Bevarly was completing his master's thesis in 1936, articles about the colored schools of Carroll County in 1879 were located in the Carrollton Democrat newspaper; the colored school at Liberty Station was attended by children in the day and by adults at night; in Carrollton, Maggie Woods was the teacher [source: History of Education in Carroll County by R. W. Bevarly, p.66]. There were three schools in 1880. In 1881 there were 226 students in the four colored schools [source: Bevarly, p.50]. In 1882 there were 268 students in the schools located in Carrollton, Ghent, Above Ghent, and Liberty Station [source: Bevarly, p.51]. There were five colored school districts in 1885: No.1 Carrollton, No.2. Ghent, No.3 Lynan Craigs, No.4 Sanders, and No.5 Worthville [source: Bevarly, p.30]. All of the schools were under the county school board with the largest colored school in Carrollton and James K. Polk was the teacher. Polk was a graduate of Gaines High School in Cincinnati, OH [source: Bevarly, p.66]. He taught at the colored school for one year and was replaced by J. E. Jackson, and in 1889 Jackson was replaced by Fred W. Burch, also a graduate of Gaines High School. There continued to be five colored schools in Carroll County until 1900 when there was six, and by 1933, there were two [source: Bevarly, p.94]. Dunbar Colored School, in Carrollton, was a brick building and was under the city school board, Bessie Whitacker was the teacher and had a monthly salary of $69, while her husband Dudley Whitacker had a salary of $75 for teaching at the Ghent Colored School that was held in a rented building that was in poor condition [source: Bevarly, p.94]. After WWII, a new colored school building was constructed in Ghent and it served as the county school for all African American children. There was never a colored high school in Carroll County, and the city and the county provided transportation for high school students attending Lincoln Institute [source: A History of Carroll County, Kentucky: containing facts before and after 1754 by M. A. Gentry, p.53]. The school systems of Carroll County began to integrate in the 1960s, starting with the first grade students [source: "Schools due to integrate at Carrollton," Louisville Courier-Journal, 04/22/1961].

• Carrollton School
• Dunbar School
• Ghent School
• Above Gent School
• Lynan Craigs School
• Sanders School
• Worthville School
• Liberty Station School

African American Schools in Casey County, KY
Start Year : 1880
In 1880 there were four colored school districts in Casey County, KY, with two schools and 190 students on the enrollment list [source: History of Education in Casey County, Kentucky, Lloyd Bryant Cox, p.111]. In 1886, there were five colored schools [source: 1886 Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction]. In 1890, there were still five colored schools, each with one teacher, and there were 94 students on the enrollment list. There were six schools during the 1901 and 1902 school terms [source: Cox, p.112]. By 1914, there were two schools, one in Liberty and one in Indian Creek, and by 1931, there was an average attendance of 23 students for both schools [source: Cox, p.113-114]. High school students from Casey County went to the colored high school in Stanford, KY.

• Colored Schools (5)
• Liberty School
• Indian Creek School

African American Schools in Clark County, KY
Start Year : 1866
End Year : 1956
According to the personal interviews conducted by Fred Allen Engle for his 1928 education thesis, there were some slaves who received an education in Clark County, KY. The slaves were taught by their owners, Judge Charles Stephen French, Mrs. Telitha Clay, Laura Bramlett, Mrs. Josephine Peterson Rogers and Mr. Samuel Rogers, and Philip B. Winn [source: The History of Education of Clark County (thesis) by F. A. Engle, pp. 28-29]. Engle also notes that, in 1866, at the first colored school in Clark County, (located in Winchester), classes were held in a rented building; it was the only colored school in the county for a few years. The teacher was Mrs. Amanda Faulkner [source: Engle, p. 43]. In 1869, the Freedman's Bureau provided funding for a new school building that was constructed on a lot at the corner of Broadway and Wall Streets; the land was secured from money raised by the African American community. The school was built by Kirkpatrick Brothers, a plumbing business [source: Engle,p. 43], and by the time the building was completed, the school teacher, Mrs. Amanda Faulkner, had died of tuberculosis and was replaced by John C. Hubbard. The new school was referred to as a Freedmen School [see NKAA entry Freedmen Schools, Kentucky]. The school term was four months and was extended to nine months, and there would later be three African American trustees who oversaw the school: J. T. Taul, Dan Baker, and M. M. Bell [source: Engle, p. 117]. Other city schools included a log school building at the corner of Maple and Washington Streets and a third colored school at No.24 Second Street [source: Engle, pp. 43-44]. In addition to Mrs. Amanda Faulkner and John C. Hubbard, the first colored teachers in Winchester were George Cary, Miss Delilah Culbertson, Miss Malinda Smith, Miss Sue Henry, and James S. Hathaway. School teacher George Cary had replaced John C. Hubbard; Cary was from Canada and was remembered for his brilliance and for greatly increasing the enrollment and attendance at the Freemen School. A disagreement of some sort arose between George Cary and members of the African American community, resulting in the construction of the Washington Street Colored School with Miss Delilah Culbertson as the teacher. Culbertson was later replaced by Miss Melinda Smith, who was replaced by Miss Sue Henry in 1877. George Cary left the Freedman School in 1882 and was replaced by James S. Hathaway and Miss Sue Henry. During this period, colored schools were begun in the county; one of the first was located at Howard's Creek around 1870, a log building later replaced by a frame building [source: Engle, p. 29]. The following quotation comes from the 1884 Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, p. 28: "Some of the districts depend on their churches as school-rooms. Immediate wants: School-houses and smaller districts." The report contains a discrepancy as to the number of school-aged children in Clark County [source: 1884 Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Colored. Table II. p. XXVII]: 967 children between the ages of six and 20 were reported to the auditors by the assessors for 1885; 1,628 children reported to the superintendent for 1885; there was a difference of 661 children. "Schools were taught in every colored district except one; there the house was not completed in time for school. Teachers were comparatively well-qualified. A majority were educated at Berea College, in the adjoining county." -- [source: Engle, p. 22]. In 1886, 11 colored schools were located in Clark County, KY, according the Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. The schools were supported by taxes, subscription fees, and donations [source: Engle, p. 30]. Additional information about the Freedmen School and the names of the teachers and principals can be found on p. 45 of The History of Education of Clark County (thesis), by F. A. Engle. In 1893, there were 15 colored school districts in the county with an average attendance of 575 students, and half the schools were still being taught in churches and other buildings. In the 1880s there was a disagreement: the African American community spoke out about the condition of the city colored schools, which resulted in all of the colored school buildings being closed. According to author F. A Engle (p. 118), in response to the closing of the schools, the African American community opened a new school in an old laundry building at the corner of Washington and Oliver Streets, and Mrs. G. S. Benton, a teacher and Berea College graduate, opened a school in her home on Third Street. Mrs. Benton had been the school principal at the Freedmen School. The interim schools continued until a bond issue was successfully voted into action by the city for a new colored school building on Oliver Street. The Oliver Street Colored School opened in 1892 and closed in 1969. The first principal, Mrs. G. S. Benton, was replaced the following year by J. H. Mingo, a graduate of the Chandler School in Lexington. The teachers were Miss C. N. Willis, Miss Flora Z. Barbee, Miss Willie Woodford, Mrs. Nettie David and Mrs. Julia A. Benton. In 1894, Principal Mingo was replaced by James H. Garvin. Within the Oliver Street School, the students were taught music, cooking, sewing, shoe making, brick laying, and business and literary courses [source: "The Colored School," Winchester News, 10/12/1908, p. 3]. Both Prof. Garvin and his wife, Lillie B. Garvin, were school teachers. Prof. Garvin was principal at the school for 24 years, retiring in 1918 [source: "Education," The Crisis, March 1918, vol. 15, no. 5, p. 215]. The Oliver Street Colored School contained grades 1-12. Early pictures of the Oliver Street Colored School are on pp. 123-124 of The History of Education of Clark County (thesis), by F. A. Engle. Another school, the Clark County Moonlight Colored School, was first held in 1915; considered one of the four best Moonlight Schools for Negroes in Kentucky, it had an enrollment of 203 students [source: Cora Wilson Stewart and Kentucky's Moonlight Schools, by Y. H. Baldwin]. The colored school in Indian Fields was taught by Maggie Kidd in 1919 [source: Day By Day County Illiteracy Agent's Record Book, Fanny Curry - Clark County Agent, 07/01/1919]. In 1924, there was a Rosenwald School in Jouett's Creek; a photograph of the school can be seen on p. 13 of Rosenwald Schools in Kentucky, 1917-1932 [online .pdf]. In 1928 the Freedmen School building was still standing; it was used as a manual training shop for the city colored school [source: Engle, p. 29]. A picture of the school building is on p. 125 of The History of Education of Clark County (thesis), by F. A. Engle. The Oliver Street High School was closed in 1956, and in 1957 the Clark County high schools began to integrate. The remainder of the Oliver Street School continued until 1969.

• Slaves educated by owners
• Colored School (1866)
• Winchester Freedmen School (Broadway and Wall Streets)
• Maple & Washington Street School
• Second Street School
• Howard's Creek School
• Colored Schools (1884)
• Washington & Oliver Street School
• Mrs. G. S. Benton's School
• Indian Fields School
• Moonlight School
• Oliver Street School 
• Jouett's Creek School (photo image, p. 13, Rosenwald)

African American Schools in Clinton County, KY
Start Year : 1866
End Year : 1956
There was one colored school in Clinton County, KY in 1866, according to the Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of Kentucky, for the School Year Ending December 31, 1864. Between 1895-1897, there were two colored schools in Clinton County, one school was constructed of logs and the other was a frame building [source: Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, pp.312-316]. There was one teacher at each school and the schools were in session for five months. During the 1896-97 school term there was an average attendance of 52 students. During the 1925-1926 school term, there was one school with one teacher and 10 students [source: Kentucky Public School Directory, p.67]. The school continued with one teacher and around nine students into the 1950s. There was no high school for Negro children in Clinton County, KY. During the 1956-57 school term the Clinton County Schools were listed as integrated in the Kentucky Public School Directory, though the colored school was listed until the 1957-58 school term. The Albany Independent School also was integrated during the 1957-58 school year.

• Colored Schools (2)

African American Schools in Cumberland County, KY
Start Year : 1866
End Year : 1959
Record of the first colored school in Cumberland County was for the school built by white citizens in Burkesville, KY, between 1866-1870. The school was supported by the U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands [see NKAA entry African American Freedmen Schools]. In 1870, Mag Taylor was the school teacher [see NKAA entry Migration from Canada to Kentucky]. Taylor was from Canada and lived with the Owsley family in Burkesville [source: 1870 U.S. Federal Census]. In 1886, there were six colored school districts in Cumberland County [see NKAA entry African American Schools, 1886]. One of the schools was located in Marrowbone, today within the Marrowbone Historic District. Other colored schools were located in Bakerton, Beech Grove, Burkesville, Clay Lick Bottom, Coe, and Lawson's Bottom [source: History of Cumberland County by J. W. Wells]. John E. Burbridge (1867-1914), from Adair County, was the school teacher at the Burkesville Colored School for several years, until his death in 1914 [sources: "Last week we wrote a notice of the death of John Burbridge..." The Adair County News, 06/03/1914, p.1; and Kentucky Death Certificate, File No. 12587]. In 1923, the school teachers were J. M. and Kate Alexander at Burkesville; Miss Stella Baker at Waterview; Mrs. Flora V. Allen at Leslie; Thomas E. Cox at Black Ferry; Mrs. Eliza Ellington at Marrowbone; Mr. W. J. Lawson and Miss Susie Lee Scott at Bakerton [source: Proceedings of the Kentucky Negro Educational Association, April 18-21, 1923, pp.49, 50, 55, 57, 66, & 74]. The number of colored schools would decrease to where there was only the one in Burkesville. There was not a high school for Negro children in Cumberland County. The Cumberland County Schools began to integrate during the 1959-60 school term [source: Kentucky Public School Directory, p.784], and the Cumberland County High School was noted as integrated the following school year. John W. Burbridge was principal of the Burkesville Negro School, grades 1-8, and both the school and the principal are listed in the Kentucky School Directory up to the 1966-67 school term.

• Burkesville Freedmen School
• Burkesville School
• Marrowbone School
• Bakerton School
• Beech Grove School
• Clay Lick Bottom School
• Coe School
• Lawson's Bottom School
• Waterview School
• Leslie School
• Black Ferry School

African American Schools in Earlington, KY (Hopkins County)
Start Year : 1891
End Year : 1947
Earlington Colored School was open as early as 1891; it was mentioned in a special report, "Masons Made - Mass Meetings - Visitors." Freeman, 02/28/1891, p.6. The school reopened for the year in September of 1892 [source: "School opens," Bee, 09/08/1892, p.6]. In 1894, A. R. Bailey was principal and J. E. Todd was his assistant [source: Bee, 03/22/1894, p.3]. The Colored school was located in District 7, there were 158 students enrolled with an attendance of 126, and the school was in session for nine months. In 1895, C. W. Merriweather was the assistant principal of the school. J. W. Bell was the principal in 1911 [source: "Prof. J. W. Bell...," Bee, 07/18/1911, p.5]. He was still the principal in 1920 when there were 14 students in Earlington High School (grades 9 and 10), according to author H. Ardis Simons' thesis, The History of Education in Hopkins County, Kentucky. From 1923 to 1941, the principals were Edward Dean, W. E. Strader, T. W. Austin, R. R. Buckner, Theodore Daly, W. B. Edwards, Austin Edwards, and S. S. Morris. The school still existed in the late 1940s and is mentioned in the Kentucky Negro Educational Association Journal. See also NKAA Database entry African American Schools in Madisonville and Hopkins County, KY.

• Earlington Colored School

African American Schools in Elliott County, KY
There is not a record of a colored school or Negro students in Elliott County, KY [sources: Kentucky Public School Directory; Kentucky School Directory; Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of Kentucky; and Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of Kentucky]. It is unclear if the children attended school with the white children, or attended the colored schools in a nearby county, or there were other arrangements. In the 1870 U.S. Federal Census, there were seven Collins children between the ages of 5 and 17, and two Howard children ages 10 and 7, all in Elliott County. In 1880, there was one African American child of school age; in 1900 there were five Leadenham children of school age; and in 1920 there were four children of school age.
Subjects: Education and Educators, Grade Schools & High Schools in Kentucky, African American Schools in Kentucky (Counties A-Z)
Geographic Region: Elliott County, Kentucky

African American Schools in Fleming County, KY
Start Year : 1884
End Year : 1956
As early as 1884, there were colored schools in Fleming County, KY, when the Kentucky General Assembly passed an act to support the schools with fines and forfeitures from the courts [source: Acts of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Passed, v.1, Chapter 356, pp.652-653]. In 1886 there were six colored school districts in Fleming County, the schools were held in churches [see NKAA entry African American Schools, 1886]. During the 1909-10 school term, there were 241 students in the colored schools, grades 1-8 [source: Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction in Kentucky, 1909-1911, Part I, p.14]. The average monthly salaries for the Negro teachers during the 1911-12 school term was $67 for the male teachers, which was the highest salary in the county, and $39.91 for the female teachers, which was the lowest salary in the county [source: Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1911-1913, p.47], and there were at least 6 colored schools [p.56], and the colored high school was located in Flemingsburg, it was rated as a 2nd class high school [p.330]. In 1923, the six Fleming County teachers listed in the Proceedings of the Kentucky Negro Educational Association, April 18-21, 1923, were Mr. and Mrs. G. W. Adams in Flemingsburg [p.49], Miss Bertha Brown in Flemingsburg [p.52], Mr. Abel N. Hewitt in Shurburne [p.62]; Mrs. Alma Iles in Flemingsburg [p.63]; and Mr. E. L. Moore in Flemingsburg [p.69]. In 1925, there were three colored elementary schools and one high school, with a total of seven teachers, two of whom taught in the high school, all in the rural area of Fleming County [source: Kentucky Public School Directory, 1925-1926, p.67]. Three of the teachers were listed in the Proceedings of the Kentucky Negro Educational Association, April 22-25, 1925: Mrs. Romania Flournoy in Nepton [p.58]; Mr. E. L. Moore in Flemingsburg [p.70]; and Miss Emma L. Walker in Flemingsburg [p.80]. In 1936, there were two colored elementary schools, one in Nepton and one in Flemingsburg, both listed on p.39 in A Study of School Attendance Areas in Fleming County, Kentucky by the Department of Education , Frankfort, KY, 11/01/1936 [within the Kentucky Education Collection, Series 1, Box 15]. The Nepton School had one teacher and the Flemingsburg School had three teachers. The colored high school was closed by 1936 and the students attended the colored high school in Maysville, KY [A Study, pp.24-25]. By 1955, there were still two colored schools in Fleming County with 57 students [source: Kentucky Public School Directory, 1955-56, p.210]. The following year, the Fleming County High School was integrated [source: Kentucky Public School Directory, 1956-57, p.427], and the city schools began to integrate in 1959 [source: Kentucky Public School Directory, 1959-60, p.786]. After the schools integrated, there was a a court case that went before the Kentucky Court of Appeals in 1964 to determine the rightful owners of the property where a colored school had been located, for more see "Fleming County Board of Education et. al., Appellants, v. Martha V. Anna Hall, Widow, et. al, Appellees."

• Colored Schools (6)
• Shurburne School
• Nepton School
• Flemingsburg School
• Flemingsburg High School

African American Schools in Frankfort and Franklin County, KY
Start Year : 1820
According to author Marion B. Lucas, there was a day school for Black children in Frankfort, KY as early as 1820, a grammar school was established in 1859, and there were five schools in Franklin County prior to 1900 [source: A History of Blacks in Kentucky, pp.141, 144, & 266]. That total may include the Freedmen School in Frankfort that was constructed between 1866-1870, and supervised by the Bishop of the Episcopal Church [see NKAA entry Freedmen Schools, Kentucky]. In 1871, Mattie E. Anderson opened the Frankfort Female High School, using her own money. The school trained students to become teachers. A colored high school was located on Clinton Street in the 1880s, and in 1907, the Board of Education had an addition built onto the school for the teaching of domestic science: cooking, sewing, and general housekeeping. The school principal was W. H. Mayo and the teachers were Winnie A. Scott, Margaret E. Gray, Bianca Parker, Sadie M. Kibby, Katie Smith, Virginia M. Madison, Julia M. Spencer, Lettye A. Williams, Martha E. Williams, Charity A. Boyd, and Annie L. Fairs. In 1887, State Normal School for Colored Persons opened to train teachers. For more see "Improvement of Colored School," The Frankfort Roundabout, 01/12/1907, p.3; "The commencement of the High School for girls..." The Frankfort Roundabout, 07/04/1891, p.6; and "Colored School," The Frankfort Roundabout, 06/22/1907, p.4.

• Clinton Street High School
• County Schools No.1-5
• Day School
• Female High School
• Frankfort School
• Frankfort School [Freedmen School under Bishop of Episcopal Church]
• State Normal School for Colored Persons [now Kentucky State University]

African American Schools in Gallatin County, KY
Start Year : 1869
In 1869 there were two colored schools in Warsaw, KY, and one of the schools was established by the U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands [see the NKAA entry for Freedmen Schools in Kentucky]. There was a school in the Parkridge community and according to author Anderson Bell Moore, the school was a log building "erected by free[d] slaves and southern sympathizers." -- source: History of Education in Gallatin County Kentucky by A. B. Moore, p.49. The teacher was Rev. J. P. Maxwell who taught at the Warsaw school for two winters [source: The Sons of Allen by H. Talbert, p.97] The other school was first located upstairs in the Methodist Church, the school did not have a name, and the teacher, Mr. Sim Craig, was a Yale University graduate who taught the students Latin and geometry [source: Moore, p.52]. The tuition was $3 per month. There would later be a colored school building in Warsaw. In 1892, there were four Negro districts with three teachers at two schools [source: Moore, p.51], and in 1900 the average attendance was 68 students [source: Moore, p.52]. In 1908, there were still two colored schools with one teacher at each school [source: Moore, pp.62 & 63]. In 1935, the Parkridge and Warsaw Schools were consolidated into one school in Warsaw and transportation was provided for the students [source: Moore, p.71]. There was not a colored high school in Gallatin County.

• Parkridge School
• Methodist Church School
• Warsaw Schools (2)

African American Schools in Grant County, KY
Start Year : 1881
End Year : 1958
The date of the first Negro school report in Grant County is said to be 1881 according to Samuel Elmore King's 1934 thesis titled A History of Education in Grant County, Kentucky, p.61. There was one school and one school district located in Dry Ridge [source: King, p.65]. There was a school census of 100 Negro children. Five years later, there were four school districts [source: 1886 Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the Commonwealth of Kentucky]. One of the colored schools was located in Williamstown in 1891, the teacher was Miss Grace Lewis [source: "The Williamstown Colored School," Williamstown Courier, 01/19/1891, last page - Grant County Public Library record]. By 1892, there were five colored schools and two were taught in school houses [source: King, p.62]. The number of school districts was reduced to three by 1905. A County Institute for Colored Teachers was held in Grant County in 1907-1908 [source: King, p.64]. There would be only the one colored school in Dry Ridge by 1934, and Zadah Thompson was the teacher [source: King, p.89]. The Dry Ridge Consolidated Colored School was restored as a a project of the Northern Kentucky African-American Task Force and the building opened in June of 2011 as the Grant County Black History Museum [source: N. Jameson, "White woman's passion leads to black history museum," Associated Baptist Press, 06/20/2011]. The museum was burned down by an unknown arsonist in October 2012 [source: "Arson destroys Black History Museum in Grant County," kypost.com, 10/15/2012, online]. The Grant County schools were integrated in 1958.

• Dry Ridge School
• Williamstown School

African American Schools in Grayson County, KY
Start Year : 1877
In 1940, the available records indicated that the first colored school in Grayson County, KY, was located in Leitchfield, according to the thesis of E. E. McMullin, History of Education in Grayson County, p.79. There is mention of the school on p.293 in Collin's Historical Sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky, published in 1877. There was never more than three colored schools in Grayson County. There was never a colored high school in Grayson County. In 1901, there were two colored schools [source: McMullin, p.54]. In 1908, there were three colored schools, one each in Leitchfield, Grayson Springs, and Caneyville [source: McMullin, p.126]. By 1940, there was only the one colored school in Leitchfield which had been under the county until 1934 [source: McMullin, p.79]. There were 18 students and the teacher was Miss Annie Clements [source: McMullin, p.79] and, in 1945 she was Mrs. Annie C. Johnson and still the Leitchfield Colored School teacher [source: KNEA Journal, v.16, April-May 1945, no.2-3, p.29].

• Leitchfield School
• Grayson Springs School
• Caneyville School

African American Schools in Greenup County, KY
Start Year : 1874
One of the earliest known colored schools in Greenup County, KY, was in session in 1866, according to the Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of Kentucky [see NKAA entry African American Schools, 1866]. The first colored school districts in Greenup County were established in 1874, per capita funding for the students came about in 1875, and in 1876 the city of Greenup had 1 school district with 73 students, and in Fulton there were 2 school districts with 54 students, all according to The History of Education in Greenup County, Kentucky by Benjamin F. Kidwell, pp.45 & 62-63. The school teachers were hired from up north, and were consider unprepared for teaching in the colored schools. By 1891, there was a school in Wurtland, and the two school districts in Fulton no longer existed. The Wurtland School was merged into the school in Greenup in 1911 [source: Kidwell, pp.158-160]. The Greenup and Wurtland colored schools had an all time high of 51 students in 1891, and by 1928, there was only the Greenup school with 27 students. The decrease in students was said to be due to Negro families leaving the area for work in the mines in Ohio and West Virginia. The Greenup Colored School was referred to as school number A, and during the 1928-29 school term, there was one teacher and 57 students [source: Kidwell, p.159].

• Colored School (1866)
• Greenup School
• Fulton Schools (2)
• Wurtland School

African American Schools in Hardin County, KY
Start Year : 1867
End Year : 1959
The first colored school in Hardin County, KY, is thought to have been located in Elizabethtown in 1867, according to the thesis of Hubert W. Comer, History of Education in Hardin County, p.74-75. The school term was three months and there was an average attendance of 45 students. The average monthly salary in 1893 was $26, and by 1908, the average salary was $37. The first school may or may not be the same school that existed in 1869, referred to as the African School of Elizabethtown by author Lottie Offett Robinson in The Bond-Washington Story, on p.28. The African School was a subscription school and members of the African American community had purchased a lot to build a school house at the corner of Lincoln and Kennedy Avenue. Another school mentioned in Robinson's book, was run by Reverend George W. Bowling (b.1849 in VA), classes were held in a two room cabin on Dixie Avenue [source: Robinson, p.28]. Another school, District A School, came under the county jurisdiction, but was located in town [source: Robinson, p.36]. In the county area, there were 11 colored schools in 1880, and that would increase to an all time high of 15 schools with 17 teachers in 1893 [source: Comer, p.76]. The number of county schools had decreased by 1908 to 10 schools with 11 teachers. The average attendance was about 50% of the overall colored school student census. Two of the county colored schools were located in Glendale [source: Robinson, p.57]. There was also the West Point Colored Independent School, grades 1-8. In 1933, the county teachers' average monthly salary was $82.30, and in 1935, there were four teachers with an average salary of $85.36 [source: Comer, p.114-115]. The only colored high school in Hardin County was located in Elizabethtown, it was named East Side High School [source: Robinson, p.40]. The school opened in 1921 with a two year curriculum, and became a four year high school in 1926 [source: Comer, p.115]. There were four teachers and 31 students. Two years later, the high school was renamed Bond-Washington High School in honor of James M. Bond and Booker T. Washington [source: Robinson, p.40]. The high school was attended by African American students within the entire Hardin County area, and those in LaRue County who paid tuition, and those from Ft. Knox whose tuition was paid by the military. The Elizabethtown schools were desegregated in 1959.

• Colored County Schools (15)
• African School
• Reverend Bowling's School
• District A School
• Glendale Schools (2)
• East Side High School
• Bond-Washington High School
• West Point Independent School

African American Schools in Harrison County, KY
Start Year : 1866
End Year : 1963
According to the 1866 Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, there was a colored school in Harrison County in 1866. It may have been one of the two schools in Cynthiana that were funded by the U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands between 1866-1870 [see NKAA entry Freedmen Schools, Kentucky]. A history of the colored schools was found in the Harrison County Historical Society files and reprinted in the Harrison Heritage News, with editing by William A. Penn. The original author is unknown. According to the article, it was thought that the first colored school in Harrison County opened in 1868 and was the beginning of formal education for African Americans in the county. The school was located on the "Commons" near the river [source: History of Education in Harrison County, by Mrs. H. E. Young, p.115]. According to the article in the Harrison Heritage News, a second school was located on Water Street. In 1870, a colored school was constructed in Cynthiana by the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, and in December of 1869, there was an American Missionary Society (AMS) school [source: Tenth Semi-annual Report on Schools for Freedmen, July 1, 1870, by J. W. Alvord]. The schools were independently managed, and it was after 1875 that the colored schools came under the Harrison County Board of Education [source: History of Education in Harrison County, pp.32-33]. In 1885, there were nine colored school districts with eight schools. The teachers were from Xenia, OH. In 1892, there were 11 colored school districts with 11 common schools, and the school terms lasted for 3 months (2 schools), 4 months (2 schools), 5 months (5 schools), and more than 5 months (2 schools) [source: Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1892, p.357-361]. Three of the school buildings were made of log, seven were frame structures, and 1 was made of brick. There were 1,165 school age children, of which 602 were enrolled in the colored common schools and they were taught by 13 teachers. In 1890, there was an all time high of 14 teachers in the colored elementary schools [source: History of Education in Harrison County, p.70]. In 1893, a new colored school was opened, bringing the total number of schools to 12; ten of the schools were taught for 5 months, and two were taught for more than 5 months. All but one of the schools were located in the county. Beginning in 1895, the colored schools were in session for nine months [source: History of Education in Harrison County, p.121]. By 1908, there were eight colored school teachers. The city school, Cynthiana Colored School, had three teachers, and was soon overcrowded. In 1921, the Board of Education purchased the old hospital in Cynthiana, had the building remodeled, the name Cynthiana Colored School changed to Banneker School, and two years of high school were added to the curriculum [source: History of Education in Harrison County, pp.116-124]. Mr. Newsom was principal. At the end of the school term in 1925, there were 150 students enrolled in Banneker School. The teachers earned a little more than $400 annual salary and the principal earned $1,000. By 1926, the number of colored teachers had decreased to 5, and the reason given was due the decrease in the African American population in Harrison County. The first high school graduation took place in 1928 [source: Harrison Heritage News]. The school systems were integrated in 1963 and became the Harrison County School System. For more see "African American Education in Harrison County," Harrison Heritage News, vol. 6, issue 2, February 2005 [available online]; and Welcome to Harrison County, KYGenWeb [online]. See photo image of Colored and Negro schools in Cynthiana by M. B. Kennerly.

• Banneker School, 1921-1963
• Cynthiana American Missionary Association School supported by the Bureau
• Cynthiana Freedmen School
• Colored Schools, 1885-? (12)
• Cynthiana School, ?-1921
• Leesburg School
• Water Street School

See photo images in Cynthiana by M. B. Kennerly, pp.51-55, via Google Books.
Subjects: Education and Educators, Grade Schools & High Schools in Kentucky, African American Schools in Kentucky (Counties A-Z)
Geographic Region: Cynthiana, Harrison County, Kentucky

African American Schools in Henderson County, KY
Start Year : 1866
End Year : 1965
Between 1866-1870, there was a school in Henderson County, KY, that was supported by the U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. The school didn't last: the teachers were threatened and run out of town [see NKAA entry Freedmen Schools]. There was a colored school in Cairo in the early 1870s [source: Starling, p. 378], and Dr. Pickney Thompson is credited as the author of the 1871 act that created a colored school in the city of Henderson, KY [source: History of Henderson County, Kentucky, by E. L. Starling, p. 719]. The act was amended in 1872 because of a wording error, "...be so amended as to read between the ages of six and twenty years, instead of between the ages of sixteen and twenty years..." -- [source: Acts of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, December 1871, Chapter 112, p. 194]. The trustees of the school were all white: Dr. Pickney Thompson, H. S. Park, A. F. Parker, Jacob Held Jr., and Y. E. Allison [source: History of Education in Henderson County, Kentucky, by Hal E. Dudley, pp. 91-92]. A school house was built on the lot located at the corner of First and Alves Streets; the lot was purchased by the Trustees. Classes started September 2, 1872, and Samuel Harris, who was also white, was the superintendent and one of the teachers. He was assisted by Mrs. E. P. Thompson, an African American, who resigned after three months. She was replaced by Mrs. Mary W. Letcher, also African American; she had been a school teacher in Henderson County since before the 1871 colored school opened in the town of Henderson. Both Mary Letcher and William W. Gilchrist were two of the African American teachers in Henderson County as early as 1870, according to the U.S. Federal Census. In 1880, the teachers listed in the census were Mary Letcher, Addy Letcher, Elija Ash, John K. Mason, and William H. Hall who lived at the home of Aaron Cabell. Teacher John Mason had also been employed as the Henderson colored school superintendent in 1874, and his wife Martha was the assistant teacher [source: Dudley, p. 92]. There were 145 students attending the school [source: Dudley, p. 93]. The Masons were from Louisville, KY, and had been teachers at Runkle Institute in Paducah, KY. Runkle Institute was one of the early schools supported by the U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Four years after the Masons arrived in Henderson, KY, in 1878 another room was added to the Henderson colored school and Miss Virgie D. Harris, a graduate of the school, was added to the teaching staff. During the 1882-83 school term, another addition was made to the school, and there were four teachers: the Masons, Miss Alice B. Moting, and William H. Hall. Two other schools in Henderson were the High Street School built in 1881 and the Alves Street School, which was built in 1889; a colored high school was established on the third floor of the Alves Street School [source: Dudley, p. 93]. The county colored schools were developed after 1871, and in the year 1880 there were 16 colored schools, and in 1892 there were 37 [source: Dudley, p. 121]. By 1908, there were 663 students enrolled in the Henderson County colored schools [source: Dudley, p. 93]. In 1916, the expected attendance at the Anthoston Colored School was 19 [source: Library of Congress, PPOC]. In 1935, the number of county colored schools had decreased to 15 one-room schools and a three-room school. [source: Dudley, p. 177]. The school in Corydon had three teachers, and there was also a two-year high school. The new Douglass High School, built in 1931-32 on the corner of Alvasia and Clay Streets, was in the city of Henderson and served as the high school for all the other colored schools in Henderson County [source: Dudley, pp. 177 & 155]. In 1951, G. Brisco Houston was principal of the Henderson County Consolidated Schools [source: "Notes on district officers," KNEA Journal, vol. 22, no. 2, p. 6 (online at Kentucky Digital Library)]. The Henderson County schools were fully integrated in the fall of 1965.

• Freedmen School
• Colored Schools (37)
• Henderson School
• High Street School
• Alves Street School
• Douglass High School
• Cairo School
• Anthoston School
• Corydon School
• Henderson County Consolidated Schools
• J. Boyd School [see p. 23 in Kentucky Historic Schools Survey by R. Kennedy and C. Johnson]
• Scuffletown School [see p. 23 in Kentucky Historic Schools Survey by R. Kennedy and C. Johnson]

 
Subjects: Education and Educators, Grade Schools & High Schools in Kentucky, African American Schools in Kentucky (Counties A-Z)
Geographic Region: Henderson County, Kentucky

African American Schools in Hickman County, KY
Start Year : 1866
Between 1866-1870 there was a Freedmen School in Columbus, KY, [see NKAA entry Freedmen Schools, Kentucky]. Six Hickman County colored schools are included in the title Hickman County, Kentucky, One Room Schools by LaDonna Latham. The schools are listed below. In 1880, Myra Ashley was a teacher at the Clinton School, and George E. Nall, from Alabama, was a teacher at the Columbus School [source: U.S. Federal Census]. Beginning in 1911, the Clinton colored school served as a traveling library station, and there was a second station for African Americans in Columbus, both in Hickman County [source: Kentucky Library Commission, Biennial Report, 1910-1929]. A new brick school house was completed in 1915 for the colored students in Clinton, KY [source: Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of Kentucky, 1915]. In 1928, there were seven teachers in the Hickman County colored schools [source: Kentucky Negro Educational Association Journal, April 18-21, 1928, p. 25]. There were nine teachers during the 1933-34 school term, two of whom had two years of college and four had one year of college, and there were two new school buildings constructed in the county for the colored children [source: History of Education in Hickman County, Kentucky (thesis), by V. A. Jackson, pp. 121 & 127]. In 1947, the Hickman County school teachers listed in the Kentucky Negro Educational Association Journal, vol. 18, issue 2, p. 28, were Mrs. Christine Cole, Mrs. Vivian Jones, Grant Martin Jr., Mrs. Melvan Martin, and Mrs. Susie M. Powell.

• Clinton School
• Columbus Freedmen School held in rented school house
• Columbus School
• Hailwell School
• Hayes School
• Moscow School
• Oakton School
• Springhill School
• Wolf Island School

African American Schools in Jessamine County, KY
Start Year : 1868
End Year : 1963
One of the earliest African American schools in Jessamine County, KY, was Arial Academy, founded in 1868 at what had been Camp Nelson then renamed Arial. The school was funded by the U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (see NKAA entry for Freedmen Schools). Ariel Academy was open to both girls and boys, then became an all girls school. The school was renamed Camp Nelson Academy, and in 1871, it became Fee Memorial Institute, organized by Rev. John G. Fee about a mile from the national cemetery on Danville Pike, according to the thesis of James Edward Nankivell, The History of Education of Jessamine County, pp.111-121. The school had an independent board of trustees before it was turned over to the Presbyterian Church. There were 12 acres of land, a three story framed dormitory, and a school building. The school contained grades 1-8, and any continuing students went to Berea College for high school. The three teachers earned between $10-12 per month, with free room and board. In 1904, Berea College was segregated. Fee Memorial Institute continued with grades 1-8, until 1916 when a normal school training program for teachers was added, and the graduate students would do their practice teaching at Fee Memorial Institute. In 1924, fifteen acres of land was purchased on the eastern border of Nicholasville and a new brick school house was constructed. The cost was $10 per month, per student, for room and board. In addition to Fee Memorial Institute, a second colored school in Jessamine County was established in 1873 in Sulphur Well [source: Nankivell, p.121]. By 1880, there were seven colored school districts in the county: three with frame school houses, districts 5-7; school was held in a tent in district 4; and there were no school houses in districts 1-3. The tuition was between 60 cents and $2.28 per three months of instruction [source: Nankivell, p.122]. The Nicholasville school had the lowest attendance with 11 students, and the Lee and Hervytown Schools had the highest attendance with 30 students. All of the teachers were males, and they earned between $12-$27.68 per month. In 1888, a Colored Teachers Institute was organized [source: Nankivell, p.123-127]. By 1890, there was a school house in all of the colored school districts [source: Nankivell, p.128]. In 1891, there were four more schools, and there would be as many as 12 colored school districts before the number was reduced to seven by 1927. All of the schools, except the one in Nicholasville, were under the county board of education and had grades 1-8 [source: Nankivell, pp.130-134]. The Nicholasville school was under the city board of education and had grades 1-8 and a two year high school program. A new school building was constructed in 1930. A private school, Keene Industrial Institute, was opened in 1900 by Prof. W. H. Parker [see NKAA entry for Keene Industrial Institute]. The school was moved to Beattyville in 1903. The schools in Jessamine County were integrated in 1963.

• Arial Academy
• Camp Nelson Academy
• Fee Memorial Institute
• Sulphur Well - District 6 (frame school house)
• Nicholasville School - District 1 (no school house)
• Hervytown School - District 2 (no school house)
• Keene School - District 3 (no school house)
• Lee School - District 4 (school held in a tent)
• Camp Nelson School - District 5 (box structured school)
• Marble Creek School - District 7 (frame school house)
• Troutman School - District 8
• Troy School - District 9
• Hickman School - District 10
• Clear Creek School - District 11
• Keene Industrial Institute
• Rosenwald-Dunbar School

African American Schools in Kenton County, KY
Start Year : 1866
End Year : 1964
Between 1866-1870, there were schools for African Americans held in churches in Kenton County, KY, and there were schools led by the American Missionary Association and a Freedmen School that were supported by the U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands [see NKAA entry for Freedmen Schools]. After the Freedmen's Bureau left Kentucky, the Covington Board of Education hired the first African American teacher in 1873, she was paid $30 per month according to the thesis of Howard H. Mills, A History of Education of Covington, Kentucky, p.65. Classes started the first Monday of September in the Second District School on Greer Street. The school had been used by white students up until 1871. Several years later, in 1879, the African American school had grown considerably, and with an average attendance of 173 students who were instructed by the principal and two teachers [source: Mills, p.72]. There was also a school in Milldale, in 1883 there was a search for a teacher [see NKAA entry for Milldale Colored School]. In Covington, the colored school was moved to the southside of 7th Street between Scott and Madison Streets [source: William's Covington and Newport Directory,1882, p.15], it was named 7th Street Colored School and Samuel R. Singer was the principal [source: William's, p.134], Clara B. Grandstaff, from Cincinnati, was a teacher [source: William's, p.65] along with Minnie Moore who was also from Cincinnati [source: William's, p.107]. In 1884, Andrew Jackson was the janitor at the school [source: William's, 1884, p.95]. A new school building for the 7th Street Colored School was completed in 1888 [source: B. L. Nordheim, Echoes of the Past]. By 1893, there was an average attendance of 287 students taught by nine teachers: Samuel R. Singer, Principal; Minnie Moore; Lillian Armstrong; Tillie Young; Laura A. Tray; Mary E. Allen; Annie Price; Charles Haggard; and Edwin H. Ball [source: Mills, p.82]. A woman teacher taught high school classes beginning in 1895, the program was named William Grant High School. William Grant (info at nky.com) was a Kentucky Legislator from Covington who had followed through on his promise of an African American public school in exchange for the African American vote in 1876. The first William Grant High School graduation was held June 21, 1889, with two graduates, Annie E. Price Hood and Mary E. Allen [source: "Lincoln-Grant School" by T. H. H. Harris in The Encyclopedia of Northern Kentucky, pp.552-554]. Both graduates had been elementary school teachers at the 7th Street Colored School. In 1909, the city of Latonia was annexed to Covington and the Lincoln Colored School in Latonia was merged with the 7th Street Colored School in Covington, and the combined school was named Lincoln-Grant School, while the high school kept the name William Grant [source: "William L. Grant" by T. H. H. Harris on p.413 in The Encyclopedia of Northern Kentucky]. The number of school age children increased to 44 high school students and 360 students in the elementary grades [source: Mills, p.103]. In 1914, the night high school was established in Covington for students who had completed 8th grade and were at least 14 years old [source: Mills, p.107]. In the colored night school, students were taught basic English and arithmetic. By 1924, within the colored day school, there were 519 students with a teaching faculty of 4 high school teachers and 18 elementary teachers [source: Mills, p.114]. The number of students had outgrown the size of the building, and in 1928, a bond was issued and passed with $250,000 approved for the building of a new colored school on Greenup Street, to be completed by September of 1930 [source: Mills, p.117]. The plans had to be changed due to the down turn in the economy and the school was completed in 1932. [For an early history of the William Grant School see "History of the School" on pp.1 and 2 of The Lincoln-Grant Herald, v.1, no.1, January 1913.] Another colored school in Covington was the United Bible School at 801 Russell Avenue, it opened around 1940 and is listed in William's Covington (Kenton Co., Ky) City Directory. In 1943, J. M. Gillian was the teacher at this school [source: Williams, p.411]. There was also a school for African American children in Elsmere, KY, Wilkins Heights. The head teacher was Rosella F. Porterfield who is recognized for encouraging the integration of Elsmere schools in 1955. Dunbar School was also located in Elsmere at 421 Spring Street with Thomas R. Lewis as the teacher 1936-1939 [source: William's Elsmere Directory for 1936-37, p.599, and for 1938-39, p.562]. The Covington Schools were desegregated in the mid-1960s. See also The Life and Legacy of Lincoln-Grant School, Covington, Kentucky, 1866-1976 by J. M. Walton.

• Church Schools
• American Missionary Association Schools
• Freedmen School
• Second District School
• 7th Street School
• Lincoln Colored School in Latonia
• Lincoln-Grant School in Covington
• William Grant High School
• Milldale School
• United Bible School
• Wilkins Heights in Elsmere
• Dunbar School in Elsmere

African American Schools in Larue County, KY
Start Year : 1880
End Year : 1956
In 1880, Molly Clagett was a teacher in the colored school in Hodgenville, KY [source: U.S. Federal Census]. There is a paragraph written about the colored schools in Larue County, KY, on page 72 in the 1885-1887 Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of Kentucky. By 1895, there were 4 colored schools, and the following year, there were 5 [source: Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of Kentucky, 1895-1897, pp.484-487]. Each of the schools had one teacher. The school term was five months and all the buildings were frame structures. The average student attendance was 106 in 1895-96, and 113 in 1896-97. In 1919, there was a Colored Moonlight School held in the school house in Buffalo, KY, the teacher was Bessie Ford, and there were 12 students [see NKAA entry African American Moonlight Schools]. Some of the teachers at the colored schools are listed in the Kentucky Negro Educational Association Journal: B. H. Larke in Hodgenville (1916, p.31); Miss Lucile Curle in Upton (1928, p.37); Rev. Claud and Mrs. Cecilia Taylor in Hodgensville (1929, p.55); and Mr. Amos Lasley in Hodgensville (1935, p.58). There was not a high school for Negro students, the students attended Bond-Washington High School in Hardin County. Below are the names of the colored schools that were in Larue County, KY, [sources: Old Schools in LaRue County by Edward Benningfield, and the 1914-1915 Census of LaRue County Schools (Colored Schools) by L. L. Salsman and C. L. Owens]. The schools in Buffalo, Hodgenville, and Magnolia, were listed as white and integrate in the Kentucky Public School Directory, 1956-57, p.436. It would take several years of effort for all of the schools in Larue County to be desegregated in 1967.

• Buffalo School
• Hodgenville School
• Knob School
• Lincoln Springs School
• Lyons Station School
• Moonlight School in Buffalo
• Orrender School
• Upton School
• Siberia School

African American Schools in Lawrence County, KY
Start Year : 1866
Education for African Americans in Lawrence County, KY, began after the Civil War. The early schools were held in the homes of ministers and by sympathetic whites, according to John E. Elkins in his thesis, The History of Education of Lawrence County. "Later Negro teachers were secured and the school was conducted in the church." --[source: Elkins, p.101]. In 1886, there were two colored schools in Lawrence County, KY, according to the Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the Commonwealth of Kentucky for the school year ending June 30, 1886 and for the school year ending June 30, 1887. At some point after 1887, there was only the one school in Louisa [source: Elkins, p.101]. Though the school was located in Louisa, it came under the county school system. In 1900, the teacher's salary was $28.79 per month, and the student enrollment was 45. There were 44 students in 1916, and by 1935, there were 30 students. The first colored school building was constructed in 1923, it was a one-room frame building that cost about $1,500, of which $800 was received from the Julius Rosenwald Fund and the remainder was paid by the Lawrence County Board of Education. Grades 1-8 were taught at the school. In 1933, the school teacher was Mrs. Bertha Murphy who was a graduate of Kentucky Institute for Colored Persons [now Kentucky State University] and her salary was $84 per month. There was not a colored high school in Lawrence County; the county board of education paid $50 per year for Negro high school students from Lawrence County to attend Booker T. Washington High School in Ashland, KY. In 1935, there were four students who traveled each school day from Lawrence County to attend high school in Ashland.

• Early Church Schools
• Colored Schools (2)
• Louisa School

African American Schools in Leslie County, KY
Start Year : 1883
There was only one colored school in Leslie County, KY, and it existed as early as 1883, when H. C. Napier, the school commissioner, failed to report that there were 11 colored children attending school in the county [source: Acts of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Passed, 1883, chapter 405, p.731]. As a result of the oversight, the Superintendent of Public Instruction authorized that $15.40 be withdrawn from the common school fund and be paid to the teacher of the Leslie County colored school, approved March 17, 1884. Eleven years later, there was still one colored school in Leslie County, according to the Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of Kentucky, 1895-1897, pp.504-507. There was one teacher for an average of 31 students 1895-96, and for 33 students 1896-97. In 1925, there were 12 students in the school [source: Kentucky Public School Directory, 1925-1926, p.67]. The school still existed in 1943 when the the Asher v Huffman case went before the Kentucky Court of Appeals in an attempt to allow Bruce Asher to attend the Leslie County School for white children, rather than forcing him to attend the colored school. By the late 1940s, the Leslie County colored school had closed and there were 2 Negro students counted in the county in the Kentucky Public School Directory, 1958-59, p.1011.

• Colored School

African American Schools in Lewis County, KY
Start Year : 1885
End Year : 1959
In 1885, there was one colored school in Vanceburg, KY, the school was held in a church [see NKAA entry African American Schools, 1886]. At times, there were two colored schools, one in each of the colored districts, though the County Superintendent was not always able to verify that the schools were in session, and he wrote that the majority of the colored students did not go to school on a regular basis [source: Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1885-1887, p.128 and pp.193-194]. By 1895, there were two schools with an average attendance of 19 students 1895-96, and an average of 11 students 1896-97 [source: Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1885-1887, pp.513-516]. There was one teacher at each school. The average attendance was about the same for the next several years. The average salary for the teachers was $33.66 from 1909-10, and $33.08 from 1910-1911 [source: Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1909-11, p.49 and p.151]. By 1925, there was one colored school in Lewis County [source: Kentucky Public School Directory, 1925-1926, p.67]. The Lewis County Schools started to integrate during the 1959-60 school term, according to the Kentucky Public School Directory, p.799.

• Colored Schools (2)

African American Schools in Lincoln County, KY
Start Year : 1866
Between 1866-1870, there was a Freedmen School in Crab Orchard, KY [see NKAA entry Freedmen Schools, Kentucky]. It was one of the early schools for African Americans in Lincoln County. There were two colored schools in 1875, according to the thesis of Morris B. Vaughn titled History of Education in Lincoln County, Kentucky, p.123. There were 12 schools In 1880; 13 schools in 1881; 16 schools in 1887 [source: Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the Commonwealth of Kentucky]; and in 1902 there were 17 colored schools in Lincoln County [source: Vaughn, p.123]. By 1931, several of the schools had been consolidated and there were nine colored graded schools in the county. The consolidated schools were located in Stanford, Halls Gap, Hustonville, and McKinney. According to the title Lincoln County, Kentucky by Turner Publishing Company, p.121, the first colored school house in Crab Orchard, KY, was thought to have been built behind First Baptist Church on Cedar Street around 1890. The first school bus was thought to be the one used to transfer students from Cedar Ridge to the Crab Orchard Color School [see p.130]. The next school building was constructed in 1924 on Highway 150. The third building was constructed in 1937 by the Second Christian Church, located on Cedar Street, the school was off to the side and behind the church. Within the same title, on p.124, there is mention of a Colored School in District A in 1897, located in Stanford, KY. There had been a colored school in Stanford as early as 1879, it was established by the African American community that had also hired a teacher who graduated from Berea [source: "Colored School," Interior Journal, 06/06/1879, p.3]. The teachers hiring included a school examination, followed by a parade and a festival [source: "The Colored School," Interior Journal, 06/13/1879, p.2]. Another school, McKinney Polytechnic Institute, opened in 1911 with three students from Iowa [source: "The McKinney Polytechnic Institute...," Stanford Interior Journal, 11/10/1911, p.1]. During the 1930s, the high school students in Stanford were bused to Bate High School in Danville; there had been a high school within Stanford School up to the 1930-31 school term, but it was deemed to be more cost efficient to bus the 22 students to Danville. The Lincoln County Board of Education paid Bate High School $5 per month for the instruction of the high school students from Lincoln County [source: Vaughn, p.124]. The Logantown School and Hubble School were merged with the Stanford School. According to the Handbook of Kentucky by the Kentucky Bureau of Agriculture for 1906-1907, p.515, there were 17 colored school districts in Lincoln County. In 1909, School No.16, located in Preachersville, was merged with the school in Walnut Flat [source: "Preachersville," Interior Journal, 06/25/1909, p.1]. The colored school in Hubble was located on Cherry Street, the building was sold in 1914 [source: "Hubble," Interior Journal, 03/13/1914, p.2].

• Colored Schools 1-17
• Crab Orchard Freedmen School
• Crab Orchard School
• Halls Gap School
• Hustonville School
• Hubble School
• Logantown School
• McKinney School
• McKinney Polytechnic Institute
• No. 16, Preachersville School
• Stanford School [including a high school]
• Walnut Flat School

African American Schools in Logan County, KY
Start Year : 1866
The colored school in Logan County, KY, was one of the 13 counted in the 1866 publication titled Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of Kentucky, for the School Year Ending December 31, 1864. Between 1866-1870, there was to be a colored school established in Auburn and supported by the U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, but the plans were scrapped due to a mob's reaction. In spite of the opposition, by 1879, there were 26 colored school districts in Logan County, according to the thesis of Charles Thomas Canon, History of Education in Logan County, p.43. The enrollment and attendance records, if they ever existed, were no longer available when Canon completed his thesis in 1929. However, records from 1881 showed that there were 18 log house buildings and 9 frame houses [source: Canon, pp.47-48]. In 1886, there were 21 teachers in the colored schools in Logan County, and many of the schools were taught in churches [see NKAA entry for African American Schools, 1886]. By 1901, there were 9 log house schools and 16 frame schools [source: Canon, p.92]. In 1917, the number of log house schools had decreased to 2 and there were 21 frame schools. Between 1917 and 1932, Logan County would have more Rosenwald structures than any other Kentucky county; there were 8 schools and a library [see NKAA entry for Rosenwald Schools]. The school in Adairville was supported by the Jeanes Fund and had a two year high school that was attended by 8 students in 1925 (Logan County Trade School), and there were 155 elementary students [source: Canon, pp.66-68]. The county school system would pay the tuition of students who wanted to attend Russellville City High School, a four year high school. The highest attendance at the Logan County colored schools was 1,049 for the school terms in 1904 and 1905 [source, Canon, pp.93-94]. By 1927, the attendance had decreased to 459. In 1930, the colored school in Knob City was taught by John Cooper [see M. Morrow, "The History of Russellville's Uncovered Cabin," News Democrat Leader, 03/04/2009, Opinions section, p.A4 [available online].

• Colored Schools (23)
• Adairville School
• Russellville School
• Knob City School
• Logan County Trade School (principal A. M. Todd - source: Kentucky Public School Directory, 1925-1926)

African American Schools in Madison County, KY
Start Year : 1825
End Year : 1963
In his master's thesis, History of Education in Madison County, Robert E. Little wrote that in the first quarter of the 1800s, slave owner Green Clay taught his Negro overseers to read and write [p.42]. Also according to Little, it was around 1850 that slave owner Cabell Chenault built a school on his property for his slaves [p.42]. Chenault and his daughter taught the school. It was in 1866 that the first public colored school was held in Madison County with as many as 34 students [sources: History of Education in Madison County, p.43; the Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Education in Kentucky; and the NKAA entry African American Schools - Kentucky, 1866]. According to author Richard D. Sears, John H. Jackson taught a school class in Madison County in 1868, and Cornelius C. Vaughn taught at a freedmen's school in Richmond in 1870 [source: A Utopian Experiment in Kentucky by R. D. Sears, p.91]. There were several colored schools in Madison County that were supported by the U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands [see NKAA entry Freedmen Schools, Kentucky]. From 1880 to 1881, there were 14 colored schools and 14 teachers [Little, p.44], the schools were taught in churches and rented buildings, and there were only two or three colored school buildings [Little, p.45]. According to Little, in 1886, there were 27 colored schools [Little, p.172]. In 1888, there were still 27 colored school districts in Madison County, KY [source: Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the Commonwealth of Kentucky for the school year ending June 30, 1886 and for the school year ending June 30, 1887]. There were as many as 34 colored schools in 1893 and in 1897 [Little, p.172], and the highest attendance was during the 1893-94 school term with 975 students [Little, p.174]. In 1903, there was a colored school in Berea [source: "Berea and vicinity," The Citizen, 11/26/1903, p.6; and the Joshua Crenshaw Report on the Berea Colored School 1905-06]. Within the Black American Series title, Berea and Madison County by J. G. Burnside, there are pictures of former students, teachers, and principals at Madison County colored schools. The pictures were taken prior to school desegregation in Bobtown, Farristown, Middletown, Peytontown, and Richmond. Also included are students and faculty at Berea College prior to segregation in 1904. Other Colored schools in Madison County in 1912 were Concord School, Richmond City School, Valley View School, and Calloway Creek School [source: "Graduation Diplomas," Richmond Climax, 02/07/1912, p.4]. During the school year 1932-33, there were 14 colored schools in Madison County [Little, p.172-173]. The Madison County Board of Education paid $4 per month, per county high school student who attended Richmond Colored High School; there was not a colored high school in the county. The Madison County schools integrated in 1963.

• Colored Schools (34)
• Berea School
• Berea Freedmen School
• Bobtown School
• Calloway Creek School
• Concord School
• Farristown School
• Kingston American Missionary Association School supported by the Bureau
• Middletown School
• Peytontown School
• Richmond American Missionary Association School supported by the Bureau
• Richmond Freedmen School
• Richmond High School
• Valley View School 

African American Schools in Magoffin County, KY
Start Year : 1881
There was never more than one colored school in Magoffin County, KY, according to author Edgar W. Bailey in his thesis, History of Education in Magoffin County, pp. 34-35, 64-66. In 1881, there were 25 colored students in the school, and $14.50 was appropriated to the school by the state. The school was mentioned in the 1886 Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. For some years the school was taught in one section of Magoffin County for half a school term, then taught in another section of the county for the latter half of the school term. The school had elementary grades only and was supported by the state for the most part, with very little local support. There was never a colored high school in Magoffin County. Author Bailey explains that, "Negro population is very sparse in the county. The colored census is gradually decreasing." --p.67. Between 1884 and 1931, the highest number of colored students who attended school was in 1902 with 17 students. The lowest number was 3, for the years 1914-16 and 1917-18. The teachers' average salary ranged from a high of $36.75 during the 1911-12 school term to a low of $19.77 during the 1896-97 term.

• Colored School

African American Schools in Marshall County, KY
Start Year : 1874
End Year : 1928
The colored school districts in Marshall County, KY, were established in 1866, but with no schools until 1874, which was the only year that the two schools were open according to the thesis of Tullus Chambers, History of Education in Marshall County, p.39. The reason given for the closing of the schools was that there were too few students. Though attendance may have been low, there were more than a few Negro children in the county; according to the U.S. Federal Census, there were more than 100 Negro children in Marshall County between 5 and 18 years old in 1870 and in 1880. In 1886, there were still 3 colored school districts [see NKAA entry African American Schools, 1886]. There is a photo image online of the Walnut Grove, No.2 Colored School, the picture was taken between the 1880s and 1890s [source: Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives Electronic Records Archives]. There were still more than 100 Negro children of school age in Marshall County in 1900, according to the census records, but the numbers would be greatly reduced as Negroes left Marshall County for other locations. The last colored school is listed in the Kentucky Public School Directory for 1927-1928, p.64; it was a county school with eight students and one teacher. In 1935, Tullus Chambers noted that there were only 5 Negro children in Marshall County, and the prior year, one of the children had attended the colored school in McCracken County because there was no longer a colored school in Marshall County [p.57]. The child's tuition had been paid by the Marshall County Board of Education. There was only one child of school age listed in the 1930 U.S. Federal Census and none in the 1940 Census. In 1938, there was a colored school at the Negro Village Site in Gilbertsville, KY; the school was part of he African American community that had been established by the Tennessee Valley Authority for work on the Kentucky Dam Project [see NKAA entry Negro Village Site]. The school was not included in the public school directory.

• Colored Schools (2)
• Negro Village School
• Walnut Grove School [photo image at KDLA Electronic Records Archives]

African American Schools in Mason County, KY
Start Year : 1865
End Year : 1930
According to Kentucky author Marion B. Lucas, freemen in Maysville, Kentucky, opened a school prior to the end of the Civil War. There were at least four schools in Mason County that were supported by the U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands from 1866-1870 [see NKAA entry Freedmen Schools, Kentucky]. According to Elizabeth Jefferson Dabney, in her thesis, The History of Education in Mason County, Kentucky, "There is little statistical material available in regard to the general report of the Negro schools. The only years between 1874 and 1890 for which a report could be found were the years 1880 and 1881" [p.68]. There were nine colored schools in Mason County in 1880, and 12 schools in 1881 [Dabney, p.68]. A year later, in 1882, one of the colored schools had a high school, and there were 40 students. The principal D. L. V. Moffitt resigned at the end of the school year [see citation below]. In 1891, there were 15 colored schools [Dabney, p.160], one of the schools was in Maysville led by Charles Harris, the principal, and three assistants, Miss Britton, Miss Barbee, and Miss Smith. Another school was in the community of Washington and was led by Miss Belle F. Chew, from Cleveland, OH, and she was assisted by Miss Mary Bookram from Oberlin, OH [source: "About men and women," Cleveland Gazette, 05/09/1891, p.3]. According to author Dabney, the 1891 superintendent's report stated that most of the teachers at the Mason County colored schools came from Cincinnati, Dayton, Cleveland, and Stubenville, Ohio [p.160]. Other colored schools that existed during the 1890-1891 school term are listed in Dabney's thesis as Dover School No.106; Minerva School No.105; Mayslick District No.101; Charleston No.109; and Murphysville No.110 [pp.171-172]. The Maysville Colored School continued into the 1900s, and in 1904, there was a complaint made to the Maysville Board of Education that there were not enough teachers at the colored school [source: "There was no business...," Evening Bulletin, 10/01/1904, p.1]. In 1915, the Maysville Colored Moonlight School was reported by Cora W. Stewart to be one of the best for Negroes [source: Cora Wilson Stewart and Kentucky's Moonlight Schools by Y. H. Baldwin]. By 1930, there were eight colored schools according to Dabney [p.160]. For more see A History of Blacks in Kentucky by M. Lucas; see "D. L. V. Moffitt...," and "Our public schools," both articles in the Evening Bulletin, 06/01/1882, p.3; "The Colored school commencement in every way excellent - interesting program rendered," Evening Bulletin, 06/14/1902, p.1; and see the c.1910 photo image of the Maysville and Mason County colored schools at the Northern Kentucky Views website.

• Colored Schools (15)
• Charleston School
• Dover School
• Mayslick - American Missionary Association School supported by the Bureau
• Mayslick School
• Maysville School
• Maysville American Missionary Association School supported by the Bureau
• Maysville Freedmen School
• Maysville John Fee High School
• Minerva School
• Moonlight School
• Murphysville School
• Washington School
• Washington Freedmen School

African American Schools in McLean County, KY
Start Year : 1886
End Year : 1957
Within the 1886 Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, it was reported that McLean County had five colored district schools that were taught in churches [see the NKAA entry African American Schools, 1886]. The schools were held three to five months [source: A History of Education in McLean County, Kentucky by Leonard C. Taylor, p.33]. There were seven colored schools in 1890, and by 1939, there were three [source: Taylor, pp.58 & 62]. The Livermore Colored School operated for nine months and had 17 students. The other colored schools were in Calhoun and Sacramento [source: "Sacramento Black School by Janey Johnston - 1992" in Down Memory Lane in Sacramento, Kentucky]. Miss Geneva Clayborne, Miss Mary E. Eads, and Mrs. M. L. Humphrey, all of whom lived in Calhoun, were the teachers listed in the Proceedings of the Kentucky Negro Educational Association, April 18-21, 1923, pp.54, 57, & 63. The Sacramento school was a one room building located behind the Sacramento Methodist Church. There is a picture of the teacher and students on the page titled "Sacramento Black School 1918-1920" in Down Memory Lane in Sacramento, Kentucky. The school closed sometime between 1941-1945, which left only the Calhoun colored school. There was not a colored high school in McLean County; the high school students were transported each day to Western High School in Owensboro, and the transportation was paid by the county board of education. In 1939, the school attendance for Negro children in McLean County was 40 and five were high school students [source: Taylor, p.63]. Siblings Betty Jean and Henry Thomas were the first Negro students from Sacramento, KY, to graduate from high school [source: Down Memory Lane in Sacramento, Kentucky]. The Sacramento schools began to integrate in 1957.

• Colored Schools (7)
• Livermore School
• Calhoun School
• Sacramento School

African American Schools in Mercer County, KY
Start Year : 1866
End Year : 1962
In 1866 there was a colored school in Mercer County, KY, according to the Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of Kentucky. An early teacher, Susan Mary Craig, was one of the first African American school teachers in Harrodsburg, KY, according to the thesis by William M. Wesley: The History of Education of Mercer County, Kentucky, pp. 186-201 and p. 205. Susan Mary Craig had attended a white school and taught students in Harrodsburg before the Civil War. She opened a school after the war, located on Fort Street and later moved to Greenville Street. Another teacher was Landonia Simms from Ohio, who was hired by Craig to teach at her school. After the death of Susan Mary Craig, Sallie Ann Taylor began teaching at the school. Taylor is often noted as the first African American teacher in Harrodsburg. Another teacher was a Dr. Jackson, who moved the Craig School to the basement of the New Methodist Church. The school was later taught by Dr. I. H. Welch. Another school was started by Ellen Craig Harris, the daughter of Susan Mary Craig. Classes were held in Ellen Harris' home for 40-50 students who paid $1 per month for instruction. The State Association of Colored Teachers was formed in 1877, and the second annual meeting was held in Mercer County, August 7, 1878 [source: The History of Education of Mercer County, Kentucky, p. 185]. The colored schools in Mercer County were still operating independently in the 1870s. W. E. Newsom would become the next school teacher in Mercer County, teaching from 1888-1891. During this time, the city of Harrodsburg had two colored schools, one in the basement of St. Peter's Church and one at the corner of Lexington and Warrick Streets. By 1893, there were 10 colored schools in Mercer County, according to the county superintendent's report. In 1903, A. L. Garvin became principal of Harrodsburg Colored School, and a new school building was constructed on four acres of land. There were Colored Moonlight Schools in every colored school district in Mercer County in 1911. There were eight districts [source: 1911 Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction]. Principal A. L. Garvin left Mercer County in 1920, and Maynette M. Elliott became principal of Harrodsburg Colored School; she was the granddaughter of Susan Mary Craig. (Her name is given as Mattie Elliott in the census records.) By 1929, there were five colored schools in Mercer County, including Rosenwald Schools in Maye, Salvisa, and Unity; and schools in rented buildings in Burgin and Robinson Row. In 1930, Maynette M. Elliott was principal of the newly constructed West Side School in Harrodsburg. The school held the elementary grades and the approved four-year high school grades. The cost of the school was covered in part by $4,000 from the Julius Rosenwald Fund [source: "Counties aided on buildings," Kentucky Negro Educational Association Journal, vol. 2, issue 2, p. 23]. A picture of the school is on the cover of the Kentucky Negro Educational Journal, vol. 2, issue 1 (October-November 1931), and additional information about the school is on p. 6. Another school in Mercer County was Wayman Institute, established in 1890 just outside Harrodsburg, KY; it was owned by the Kentucky Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (A.M.E.) [source The History of Education of Mercer County, Kentucky, pp. 196-201]. The first school teacher for Wayman Institute was Dr. I. H. Welch, who had resigned as the school teacher of the New Methodist Church School. Dr. Welch taught the first class of Wayman Institute in the lecture room of St. Peter's Church. The students came from surrounding counties and boarded with families in Harrodsburg. The city school system in Harrodsburg, KY, was integrated in 1962.

• Colored Schools (10)
• Susan Mary Craig School
• Ellen Craig School
• New Methodist Church School
• St. Peter's Church School
• Lexington / Warrick Street School
• Harrodsburg School
• Maye School
• Salvisa School
• Unity School
• Burgin School
• Robinson Row School
• Moonlight Schools (8)
• Wayman Institute
• West Side School

African American Schools in Muhlenberg County, KY
Start Year : 1886
African American schools in Muhlenberg County are mentioned in the 1886 Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The schools were said to be at a standstill. One of the teachers was William H. Ross, who left teaching in 1887 to open a grocery store. Sallie L. Waddleton Campbell was a school teacher at the Central City Colored School in 1894; she was the wife of William J. Campbell. Between 1891 and 1893, there were 14 African American teachers in Muhlenberg County colored schools, with an average monthly pay of $29.06 for male teachers and $28.10 for female teachers [source: History of Education in Muhlenberg County by C. E. Vincent, pp.92-96]. The school houses and grounds were valued at $1,258.00 and the furniture at $74.50. There was a new school built in 1893 that cost $25. In total, there were 13 school districts with 13 schools: 2 schools in session for 3 months; 2 in session for 4 months; and 9 in session for 5 months. Six of the schools were log buildings and three were frame. None of the schools were in good condition (not including the new building). In 1909, the colored schools at Bevier and Drakesboro needed furnishings and repairs, and the same was true for most of the colored schools in Muhlenberg County [source: "A Plea to the members of the fiscal court," The Record, 03/18/1909, p. 3]. Professor William Holloway was the principal of the Drakesboro Community School in 1937; the school was the result of the consolidation of rural schools in Muhlenberg County [source: "1937 K.N.E.A. Honor Roll" on p. 14, and "Education since the War of 1917" on p. 22, in the KNEA Journal, January-February 1937]. The colored school in Greenville had Mrs. Blonnie Shelton as the teacher, and C. L. Timberlake was principal of the County Teachers Training School [source: "The New president at the West Kentucky Vocational Training School, KNEA Journal, vol. 20, issue 2, pp. 12 & 18].

• Bevier School
• Central City School
• Colored Schools (13)
• Drakesboro School
• Drakesboro Community School
• Greenville School

African American Schools in Ohio County, KY
Start Year : 1878
End Year : 1910
In 1878, there was a bill in the Kentucky Senate to authorize the building of a colored school in District 1 of Ohio County [source: Journal of the Regular Session of the Senate of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, December 1877, p.764]. The bill was said to have passed due to the Democrat vote, according to the article "Colored voters remember..." in the Hartford Herald, 08/01/1877, p.2. The school teacher at the Hartford Colored School in 1880 was Joe C. H. Taylor and the school year began in September [source: Hartford Herald, "The colored school...," 09/01/1880, p.3]. Prof. McDowell from Bowling Green, KY was the teacher at the Hayti Colored School [source: "Prof. McDowell...," Hartford Herald, 09/10/1884, p.3]. In 1886 there were 11 colored schools in Ohio County, according to the Kentucky Superintendent Report, and by 1899 there 8 school districts reported in the article "Statistics" in the Hartford Republican, 06/02/1899, p.3. In 1892, there was an investigation by the Hartford Herald on behalf of the colored schools and the colored teachers who had not received their pay. The newspaper reviewed the bookkeeping of the Ohio County school superintendent and determined the colored teachers were owed their pay [source: "In case a suit is brought..." and "Cowering beneath the Herald's revelations" both in the Hartford Herald, 10/26/1892, p.2] The debate about the disposition of the colored school fund became a political disagreement between the Democrats and Republicans as to which had done more for the Negro. Other schools in Ohio County included Rockport Colored School in District 9 with P. A. Gary as the teacher [source: "Report," Hartford Republican, 11/17/1893, p.4]. The Sulphur Springs Colored School teacher was Samantha Bracken during the 1893-94 school year [source: "Program," Hartford Republican, 01/19/1894, p.2]. There was a colored school in McHenry as early as 1894 when Miss Charlotte Eidson was the teacher [source: "McHenry Colored School," Hartford Republican, 01/19/1894, p.1]. L. W. Smith was the McHenry school teacher in 1904 [source: "The Guess candle," Hartford Herald, 01/20/1904, p.3]. In 1906 there were 478 school age persons in Ohio County [source: Hartford Herald, "A School army," 08/22/1906, p.1]. 

• Hayti School
• Hartford School
• McHenry School
• Rockport School
• Sulphur Springs School

African American Schools in Owsley County, KY
The Sag School was the only colored school in Owsley County, KY [source: The History of Education in Owsley County, by Eugene Field Gabbard, p. 112]. The school was located in District 14, which is where the majority of the Negro population lived in Owsley County. The 1939 school enrollment at Sag School was 19 students. The school was located on land the county school system purchased from Billie Hall. The African American community built the school and raised the money for the seats and equipment. The teacher was Sanford Scott, who encouraged students to continue their education at Kentucky Normal School [at present day Kentucky State University] in Frankfort, KY. Two of the students who attended the normal school were Jack Jett, who in 1922-23 was a farm agent in Jefferson County, and Lena Guess Lightfoot, who returned to teach at the Sag School during regular terms and attended the normal school in the summer [source: Gabbard, p. 113]. A picture of the Sag School, a one-room school house, is on p. 127 in Gabbard's thesis.

• Sag School

African American Schools in Paris and Bourbon County, KY
Start Year : 1866
Some of the early schools in Bourbon County were built and supported by the U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, between 1866-1870 [see NKAA entry Freedmen Schools, Kentucky]. The Negro common schools began around 1874, according to James R. Welch in his thesis titled The History of Education of Bourbon County. The following comes from Welch's thesis: In 1881, there were 1,765 colored school age children counted in the school census, and not many of them attended school. There were 16 colored school districts, with 15 schools. In 1885, there were 22 colored schools. In 1886, there were 24 colored schools, according to the Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. All of the schools were held in full session up to the 1893-94 school year, which was about a decade prior to the beginning of a continuing decrease in the number of schools and students [source: The History of Education of Bourbon County]. The number of school districts held constant between 1890 and 1908, with 22 to 24 colored school districts and a daily attendance from a high of 1,063 students in 1893-94, to a low of 532 students in 1902-03. The attendance numbers picked up, but started to slip again in 1906. From 1908-1919, the number of colored schools decreased from 20 to 12. The following is a compilation of newspaper items on the history of Paris and Bourbon County colored Schools; the articles contained quite a bit more information than was printed in most other Kentucky newspapers for the same time period. Reverend Graves, who died in 1902, had come to Paris, KY in 1901 to become principal of the Paris Western Colored School. There were 248 students and seven teachers, and the numbers would remain consistent for the next several years. The prior year there was a high school graduating class of eight: Katie L. Long, Anna E. Parker, Fannie B. Buford, Dora B. Kimbrough, Jimmie R. Fields, James B. Woodward, and Keatha R. Williams. Graduation ceremonies were initially held at the Opera House in Paris, KY, with admission costs of 10 cents, 15 cents, and 25 cents. A smaller school system was the Millersburg Colored School, where in 1901 there were three graduates: Frank R. Lewis, Lucile Jefferson, and Hattie B. Mayburry. Manual training was introduced in the Paris school in 1907 with 26 men and boys enrolled in the newly established night school; the Colored teachers' wages for the year totaled $2,550. At the end of the school year in 1909, there were two graduations, one for 7th graders held at a local African American church and one for high school graduates held in the school auditorium. In 1909, new colored schools were scheduled to be built in Ruddles Mills and Jacksonville. The following year, several colored schools in the county were consolidated: Ruddles Mills School with Glentown School; Millersburg School with Shipptown School (the school location was undecided); and Houston School with Amentsville School. By 1910, a new school was being built in Centerville, and the Sidville School was to be repaired if church members would agree to help raise funds for the repairs. In 1915, Cora W. Stewart reported that the Paris Colored Moonlight School was one of the best in the state for Negroes [source: Cora Wilson Stewart and Kentucky's Moonlight Schools by Y. H. Baldwin]. See photocopy image of Cumensville School on p.12 at Rosenwald schools in Kentucky, 1917-1932 [.pdf]. The following is additional information from Welch's thesis. The number of students had continued to decrease. During the 1908-09 school term the average elementary school attendance was 587 colored students, and by the end of the 1932-33 term, the average attendance was 296. An industrial training school opened in Little Rock in 1914, it was established with support from the Slater Fund. It was developed into the Bourbon County Training School for colored persons in 1918, and was also referred to as the Little Rock Training School. For more see The Bourbon News articles - "Colored School Commencement," 06/12/1900, p. 1.; "Millersburg," 02/15/1901, p. 2; "Commencement items of the Paris High Schools," 05/31/1901, p. 3; "New board elects teachers," 07/05/1901, p. 3; "A tribute," 05/02/1902, p. 5; "City Schools," 09/09/1902, p. 5; "Meeting of school board," 06/14/1907, p. 1; "Expenditures," 07/16/1907, p. 8; "800 pupils," 10/08/1907, p. 6; "Calendar of Colored School," 06/04/1909, p. 1; "School Improvement League in session," 08/24/1909, p. 3; "County School Board," 11/16/1909, p. 4; "County School Board meets," 05/10/1910, p. 1; and "Recent meeting of the County Board," 08/12/1910, p. 1.
 

• Amentsville School
• Bourbon County Training School [Little Rock]
• Brentsville School
• Browntown School (submitted by Myke Carter; photo image by The Feedman)*
• Caneridge School
• Centerville School
• Claysville School
• Clintonville School
• Cumensville School
• Glentown School
• Houston School
• Jacksonville School
• Little Rock School
• Monterey School
• Millersburg School
• Millersburg Freedmen School
• Moonlight School
• North Middletown School
• Paris American Missionary Association School
• Paris Freedmen School
• Paris Western School
• Ruckerville School
• Ruddles Mills School
• Shipptown School
• Sidville School

See photo image of Clintonville Colored School building at Kentucky Digital Library - Images.
 
*Browntown was an African American Community on Townsend Valley Road in Bourbon County, KY, from the 1800s-sometime in the 1900s [source: The Feedman, Browntown Church Flickr site].
Subjects: Communities, Education and Educators, Grade Schools & High Schools in Kentucky, African American Schools in Kentucky (Counties A-Z)
Geographic Region: Bourbon County, Kentucky: Paris, Millersburg, Ruddles Mills, Jacksonville, Glentown, Shipptown, Houston, Amentsville, Sidville, Centerville, Clintonville

African American Schools in Pike County, KY
Start Year : 1875
End Year : 1966
The colored school in Pike County, KY, was established prior to 1875, according to Herbert Woodson Crick in his thesis, History of Education in Pike County, Kentucky, p. 47. The school was located in Pikeville. In the 1890s, Effie Waller Smith was a teacher at the Pikeville Colored School. There were 63 Negro children and one Negro teacher in Pike County in 1890; 83 students in 1910; 87 students in 1920; and 83 students in 1930 [source: Crick, p. 106]. The Pikeville Colored School offered two years of high school. There were four teachers in the county colored schools. William R. Cummings was principal of the Perry A. Cline School in 1938 when he wrote "History of the Perry A. Cline High School," which appeared on p. 49 of the KNEA Journal, vol. 9,no. 1-2. The Perry A. Cline School would become a four year high school and then close in 1966 when the Pike County schools integrated.

• Perry Cline School
• Pikeville School
• Pike County Schools (4)

African American Schools in Rockcastle County, KY
Start Year : 1865
A colored school in Rockcastle County, KY, was established several years prior to 1884, according to the thesis of Egbert F. Norton: History of Education in Rockcastle County, Kentucky, pp. 57-58. Norton estimated that the colored school house had been built in 1865 [source: Norton, p. 79]. In 1886, there were two colored schools, one in Brodhead and one in Mt. Vernon [see NKAA entry African American Schools, 1886]. In 1899, the teacher of the colored Mt. Vernon school was Remetha Ford [source: "The colored school here..." in the column "LOCAL and OTHERWISE," Mount Vernon Signal, 11/17/1899, p. 3]. By 1903, there was only one colored school, according to the Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of Kentucky For the two years beginning July 1, 1901, and ending June 30, 1903, p. 232. In 1906, it was reported in the Mount Vernon Signal that there were 23 colored students in Rockcastle County [source: "Kentucky's Annual School Census," 07/13/1906, p. 3]. According to E. F. Norton, by 1930, there were nine Negro children of school age listed in the school census of Rockcastle County, and the average school attendance was 0. Norton stated, on p. 79 of his thesis, "Colored education in Rockcastle became less serious during this period, because of the gradual decrease in colored population in the county." There were 79 Blacks listed in the 1930 U.S. Federal Census for Rockcastle County, KY, including 17 children between the ages of 6 and 18. Overall, the U.S. Census population in Rockcastle County, KY, listed 92 Blacks and 38 Mulattoes in 1910; 71 Blacks and 35 Mulattoes in 1920; 79 Blacks in 1930. Miss Lena Marshall was the school teacher in 1935 [source: KNEA Journal, vol. 6, no.1, p. 59], and she was the first teacher from that county to enroll in the Kentucky Negro Educational Association.

• Brodhead School
• Mt. Vernon School

African American Schools in Warren County, KY
Start Year : 1800
End Year : 1964
One of the earliest schools for slaves in Kentucky was established by Peter Tardiveau (d.1817), a friend and fellow Revolutionary War veteran of Robert E. Craddock. The school was located in Warren County, KY, around 1800 for the slaves of Robert E. Craddock [see NKAA entry Willis Russell]. One of the first schools for the freemen was established between 1866-1870 in Bowling Green with support from the U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands [see NKAA entry Freedmen Schools]. The school teacher was run out of town. During this same time period, a school was held within the Stoney Point Missionary Baptist Church which was established in 1866 [see NKAA entry Stoney Point]. The school was moved in 1908 to a newly built school house in Stoney Point, and the school continued to serve the community for about 20 more years before it was closed and the children were bused to the Smith Grove School. By 1895, the Simmons Memorial College was in operation, headed by Robert Mitchell [see NKAA entry American Baptist Home Missionary Schools]. In 1902 a school was opened in the Colored Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Bowling Green, KY. The school was later moved into a building on State Street and named Bowling Green Academy. Other communities with colored schools was Sunnyside, Freeport, and Oakland [see NKAA entry African American Communities in Warren County, KY]. Reverend Robert Mitchell ran a private school for ministers, it was located in Bowling Green [source: Rev. Robert Mitchell in Lexington Herald, 10/08/1926, p.16]. In the 1930s, a report completed by Kathryn S. Coleman lists twelve colored schools in Warren County, along with the enrollment numbers, and the number of teachers per school. The title of the report is "Public Schools," and on pp.10-11 is the section titled "Warren County, Colored Public Schools" - - [source: Kentucky Education Collection, Series 1, Box 25, 0000UA129, File: Warren County, at the University of Kentucky Special Collections]. Within the Shake Rag District in Bowling Green was the State Street High School [see NKAA entry Shake Rag]. The schools in Warren County began to integrate in 1964 [source: George Esters interviews (High Street School) within the Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky Oral History Project, a Kentucky Historical Society website].

• Peter Tardiveau School on Craddock Plantation
• Freedmen School
• Stoney Point Missionary Baptist Church School
• Smith Grove School
• Simmons Memorial College (Baptist)
• Bowling Green Academy (Presbyterian)
• Loving Union School (in Sunnyside)
• Woodland School (in Freeport)
• Kepley School (in Oakland)
• Oakland School
• State Street High School
• High Street School
• Bristow School
• Cosby School (in Alvaton)
• Rockfield School
• Woodburn School
• Salem School (in Rockfield)
• Dellafield (in Bowling Green)
• Robert Mitchell School for Ministers

African American Schools in Wayne County, KY
Start Year : 1868
End Year : 1955
According to an article in Overview, both African American and white settlers of Shearer Valley and Simpson Branch (then called Turkey Ridge) came together to build the first church/school house for colored and white children in Wayne County, KY. The school was built in 1868 and was named the Little Flock School and Church [source: History of Public Education of Wayne County, 1842 to 1975 by Ira Bell]. William Simpson, who was white, was the first teacher. The names of 76 Negro teachers, beginning in 1885, are listed on pages 18-19 in History of Public Education of Wayne County, 1842 to 1975 by I. Bell. There was one colored school in Wayne County in 1886, according to the Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Later other African American schools were established in the county in Dogwood, Duncan Valley, Mill Springs, Monticello, and Meadow Creek. According to the thesis of Harry F. Young, History of Education in Wayne County, pp.35-37 and 69-73, in 1890, all of the colored school buildings were log structures that in total were valued at $700. The schools were poor and the teachers were not very well prepared. From 1890-1927, the highest average enrollment at the colored schools was 191 during the 1920-21 school term. The lowest average attendance was 60 during the 1917-18 school term. There were never more than 8 teachers in the colored schools.  For more see "Negro Schools," Overview, vol. 13, issue 1, 1992. Overview is published by the Wayne County Historical Society in Monticello, KY.

• Colored School (1868)
• Dogwood School
• Duncan School
• Meadow Creek School
• Mill Springs School [photo on p.20 in History of Public Education of Wayne County, 1842 to 1975 by I. Bell]
• Monticello School
• Shearer Valley School
• Valley School

African American Schools in Woodford County, KY
Start Year : 1866
A Colored School in Midway, KY, had its exhibition attacked by a mob on July 31, 1868 [source: Index to the Miscellaneous Documents of the Senate of the United States, 1871, p. 49]. The school may have been one of the two Freedmen Schools in Woodford County established between 1866-1870 [see NKAA entry Freedmen Schools, Kentucky]. In the Kentucky superintendent's report for the years 1881-1886, there were 16 colored school districts; the Versailles Colored School was said to be a model school [source: Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, 1881-1886]. According to the Simmons Elementary website, the Simmons School existed in the late 1890s along with the Woolridgetown School and 17 other colored schools in Woodford County. When the Woolridgetown School burned, students attended school at a church in Big Spring Bottom. Within the Hifner Photo Collection are pictures of all the Colored schools in Woodford County in 1892. The collection was created for the educational exhibit at the World's Fair and is available online via the Hifner Colleciton at the Kentucky Historical Society Digital Collections web page. Various colored schools in Woodford County are mentioned in issues of the Kentucky Negro Educational Association Journal, available full-text in the Kentucky Digital Library - Journals. See KHS to Dedicate Historical Marker to Honor Midway Colored School, a Kentucky.gov website.

• Big Spring Bottom School (church)
• Davistown School [photo in Hifner Collection]
• Elm Bend School [photo in Hifner Collection]
• Fermantown School [photo in Hifner Collection]
• Fort Spring School
• Frazier School [photo in Hifner Collection]
• Jacksontown School [photo in Hifner Collection]
• Midway School [photo in Hifner Collection]
• Midway School (Hadensville, 1911-1958)
• Midway Freedmen School
• Milville School [photo in Hifner Collection]
• Mortonsville School [photo in Hifner Collection]
• Mount Vernon School [photo in Hifner Collection]
• Nashville School [photo in Hifner Collection]
• Simmons School [photo in Hifner Collection]
• Versailles School [photo in Hifner Collection]
• Versailles Freemen School
• Woolridgetown School

Alexander, Joseph L.
Birth Year : 1930
Death Year : 2002
Joseph L. Alexander was a senior at Fisk University in 1951 when it was announced that he would become the first African American admitted to the University of Louisville School of Medicine. Alexander was born in Oneonta, AL, and grew up in Anchorage, Kentucky. He received a four-year scholastic scholarship to attend Fisk. The University of Louisville trustees had decided during the summer of 1950 to admit Negroes to the school's graduate and professional schools. Alexander would go on to accomplish many firsts during his career. He was a military surgeon and performed the Army's first kidney transplant. He was the first Chief of Surgery at the Martin Luther King Jr. General Community Hospital, and during the same period he was a professor at the Charles R. Drew Post Graduate Medical School; both institutions are in Los Angeles, CA. Alexander wrote many medical articles, including "The King-Drew Trauma Center," published in the Journal of the National Medical Association, vol. 68, no. 5 (1976), pp. 384-386. He became the first African American member of the California Club in Los Angeles in 1988 after the city passed an ordinance that banned membership discrimination by private organizations. Joseph L. Alexander was the son of Hattie Hughes. The Joseph L. Alexander Fund was established at the University of Louisville. For more see "A Fisk University senior, Joseph L. Alexander...," on page 257, and "Joseph L. Alexander" on page 284 -- both articles are in The Crisis, vol. 58, no. 4 (April 1951), and the same article can be found on pp. 204-205 of the Journal of the National Medical Association, vol. 43, no. 3 (May 1951); under the heading "Died:" "Joseph L. Alexander...," Jet, May 27, 2002, p. 54; "Watts finally gets a hospital," Ebony, December 1974, pp. 124-128, 130, 132, and 134; "Joseph L. Alexander, M.D." in A Century of Black Surgeons: pt. 1 institutional and organizational contributions, by C. H. Organ and M. M. Kosiba; and "Alexander, 72, pioneer as scholar, physician," The Los Angeles Times, 05/14/2002, News section, p. B9.
Subjects: Activists, Civil Rights, Education and Educators, Medical Field, Health Care, Migration West, Military & Veterans
Geographic Region: Oneonta, Alabama / Anchorage, Jefferson County, Kentucky / Nashville, Tennessee / Los Angeles, California

Allensworth, Allen [Allensworth, California]
Birth Year : 1842
Death Year : 1914
Allen Allensworth was born a slave in Louisville, KY, the son of Levi and Phyllis Allensworth. He escaped and became a nurse during the Civil War and later joined the Navy and became a chief petty officer. After the war, he returned to Kentucky and became a schoolteacher, an ordained minister, and a delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1880 and 1884. He was appointed chaplain of the 24th Infantry by President Cleveland and received promotion to lieutenant colonel. In 1890, Allensworth moved to California and established a company to assist African Americans in their migration to California. The town of Allensworth was developed, the first and still the only California town founded by African Americans. Today the area where the town once stood is Colonel Allensworth State Historical Park. Allen Allensworth was the husband of Josephine Leavell Allensworth, also a Kentucky native. For more see Dictionary of American Negro Biography, ed. by R. W. Logan and M. R. Winston; "Rev. Allen Allensworth, A.M." on pp.198-199 in Golden Jubilee of the General Association of Colored Baptists in Kentucky; History of Allensworth, CA; Friends of Allensworth; and for more about Allen Allensworth's military career see his entry in On the Trail of the Buffalo Soldier by F. N. Schubert.

See photo image of Allen Allensworth on p.189 in Golden Jubilee of the General Association of Colored Baptists in Kentucky, at the NYPL Digital Gallery.
Subjects: Communities, Education and Educators, Migration West, Military & Veterans, Parks, Religion & Church Work, Appointments by U.S. Presidents/Services for U.S. Presidents, Nurses
Geographic Region: Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky / Allensworth, California (no longer exists)

American Baptist Home Missionary Society Schools in Kentucky
Start Year : 1895
In 1895, the American Baptist Home Missionary Society had 619 African American students in its Kentucky schools: State University [Simmons University], Louisville; Cadiz Normal and Theological College [headed by Rev. W. H. McRidley], Cadiz; Simmons Memorial College [headed by Robert Mitchell], Bowling Green; Henderson Normal School, Henderson; Glasgow Normal School, Glasgow; and Baptist Church School, Danville. For more see the Sixty-third Annual Report, of the American Baptist Home Mission Society, May 30th and 31st, 1895, pp.115-117 [full view available via Google Book Search]. See also the entries for African American Schools in the NKAA Database.
Subjects: Education and Educators, Religion & Church Work, Higher Education Before Desegregation, Kentucky
Geographic Region: Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky / Cadiz, Trigg County, Kentucky / Bowling Green, Warren County, Kentucky / Henderson, Henderson County, Kentucky / Glasgow, Barren County, Kentucky / Danville, Boyle County, Kentucky

Anderson, Florence G.
Birth Year : 1891
In 1915, Florence Anderson was the first African American to be appointed State Supervisor of Colored Rural Schools in Kentucky. She was born in Louisville, KY, and was a graduate of Louisville Central High School and Hampton Institute [now Hampton University]. Anderson had been a domestic science instructor at Denton Institute in Maylon in 1911. She was next a domestic science instructor at Tuskegee Institute, and she left that post in 1913 to teach domestic science at the Colored Institute held in Hopkinsville, KY, during Summer School. In 1914, Anderson was a teacher at State University [Simmons College, KY], and later a school supervisor in Winchester, KY. She had been a school teacher in Maryland, before returning to Kentucky in 1915 to become State Supervisor of Colored Rural Schools. By 1916, Anderson had been replaced as Supervisor of the Colored Rural Schools. Florence Anderson was the daughter of Dr. Charles W. Anderson, Sr. (1865-1931) and Mildred Saunders Anderson. She was an older sister of Kentucky's first African American legislator, Charles W. Anderson, Jr. For more see "Miss Florence Anderson," Freeman, 06/26/1915, p.3; see last paragraph on p.263 of Negro Education, Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education, Bulletin, 1916, volume II, No.39; see "Miss Florence Anderson," Freeman, 09/23/1911, p.8; see "Miss Florence Anderson," Freeman, 07/12/1913, p.2; see "Miss Anderson" in the third paragraph of the column "Kentucky's Capital," Freeman, 01/03/1914, p.1; see "Miss Florence Anderson," Freeman, 08/15/1914, p.3; and see "Institute," Hopkinsville Kentuckian, 07/06/1912, p.1.
Subjects: Education and Educators
Geographic Region: Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky

Ariel/Hall (Camp Nelson, KY)
After the Civil War, the refugee camp at Camp Nelson became the community known as Ariel. The school, Ariel Academy, was founded in 1868, with initial funding support coming from the Freedmen's Bureau and teachers supplied by the American Missionary Association. The school was led by Howard Fee, son of John G. Fee and Gabriel Burdette, a former slave from Garrard County, KY. The community of Ariel was later named Hall. For more see Historic Jessamine County, The Hall Community, an official Jessamine County website; and A Utopian Experiment in Kentucky: integration and social equality at Berea, 1866-1904, by R. B. Sears.
Subjects: Communities, Education and Educators, Grade Schools & High Schools in Kentucky
Geographic Region: Camp Nelson, Jessamine and Garrard Counties, Kentucky / Ariel, Jessamine County, Kentucky / Hall, Jessamine County, Kentucky

Arnold, Adam S., Jr.
Birth Year : 1922
Arnold is a Lexington, KY, native who became the first African American faculty member at the University of Notre Dame. In 1957, Arnold was hired as a professor of finance, receiving tenure in 1961. He remained at the school for 30 years. In 2002 he received the William P. Sexton Award for outstanding service to the University of Notre Dame. Dr. Arnold received his Ph.D. in finance in 1951 and his MBA in 1948, both from the University of Wisconsin. He is a U.S. Army veteran, having served during WII. For more see "Arnold honored with Sexton Award," Notre Dame Business Magazine Online, Issue 11, 2004.

Subjects: Bankers, Banks, Finance, Financial Advisors, Education and Educators, Migration North, Military & Veterans
Geographic Region: Kentucky / Notre Dame, Indiana

Arthur, William R. B. [People's Auxiliary Hospital (St.Louis, MO)]
Birth Year : 1868
Arthur, a surgeon and physician, was born in Kentucky; he received his M.D. from Howard University Medical College in 1890. He returned to Kentucky to practice medicine in Louisville, to teach at the Louisville National Medical College, and to serve as a surgeon at the Auxiliary Hospital. Arthur left Louisville and moved to St. Louis, MO, where he founded the People's Auxiliary Hospital and Training School in 1898. The three-story hospital building, which had 12 rooms for up to 15 patients, was located at 1001 N. Jefferson Avenue. For more see the William R. B. Arthur entry in A Historical, Biographical and Statistical Souvenir, by Howard University Medical Department [available full-text at Google Book Search]; "Hospital for Colored Patients," Medical Review, vol. 39 (Jan. 7 - July 1, 1899) [available full-text at Google Book Search]; and Glimpses of the Ages, vol. 1, by T. E. S. Scholes [available full-text at Google Book Search].
Subjects: Education and Educators, Medical Field, Health Care, Migration West, Hospitals and Clinics: Employment, Founders, Ownership, Incidents
Geographic Region: Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky / St. Louis, Missouri

Ashford, Mary B.
Birth Year : 1898
Death Year : 1997
Ashford, born in Kentucky, was a poet, teacher, and advocate for equality. The Mary B. Ashford Senior Citizens Daycare Center in New Haven, CT, was named in recognition of Ashford's more than 40 years of community service and volunteerism. Ashford also compiled a scrapbook containing the history of her family; the book was donated to a Kentucky archive. The Mary B. Ashford Outreach Support Project was established at the Christian Tabernacle Baptist Church. For more see S. A. Zavadsky, "Community remembers Mary B. Ashford," New Haven Register, 05/14/1997, Local News section, p. a3.
Subjects: Civic Leaders, Education and Educators, Migration North, Poets
Geographic Region: Kentucky / New Haven, Connecticut

Atkinson Literary and Industrial College [H. V. Taylor]
Birth Year : 1892
H. V. Taylor was one of the presidents of the Atkinson Literary and Industrial College in Madisonville, KY. The school was founded in1892 and was dedicated in 1894 by Bishop Alexander Walters, who led the effort to build the school, along with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) Church. According to author H. Ardis Simons, there were 145 students and five female graduates in 1897 [source: The History of Education in Hopkins County, Kentucky by H. A. Simons]. The school was originally located on two acres at Seminary and Lake Streets in Madisonville, and in 1903, the school trustees sold the property and moved the school outside the city. The school was located on 36 acres and had eleven grades, three of which were at the high school level. There were 2 two-story buildings that served as dormitories and classrooms. There were five college graduates in 1906. According to author Simons, the school staff members were Bishop Clinton who was the school president; Mr. Shaw, principal; S. F. Collins; Mrs. M. E. Littlepage; Mrs. W. E. Shaw; and Miss C. M. Shirley. James Muir was president of the school in 1917. For more see Who's Who in Colored America, 1927; Atkinson College, Madisonville, dedicated, Nov. 16, 1894; "Atkinson Literary and Industrial College" on pp.269-270 in Negro Education, v.2, by the Department of the Interior [available at Google Books]; and Bulletin: announcements for ... by the Atkinson Literary and Industrial College. See also the entries for African American Schools in the NKAA Database.
Subjects: Education and Educators, Grade Schools & High Schools in Kentucky
Geographic Region: Madisonville, Hopkins County, Kentucky

Atwood, Rufus B.
Birth Year : 1897
Death Year : 1983
Rufus B. Atwood was born in Hickman, KY. In 1929 he became the sixth president of Kentucky State College [now Kentucky State University], serving in that capacity until 1962. Atwood led the school toward becoming a four-year accredited college with revised and expanded programs. He was a non-confrontational advocate for the school and the education of African Americans. Atwood was a World War I veteran and the first African American awarded the University of Kentucky Sullivan Medallion for his dedication to education. The Rufus B. Atwood papers are located at Kentucky State University. For more see A Black Educator in the Segregated South, by G. Smith; and the Kentucky State University entry.

  See photo image of Rufus B. Atwood and Lyman T. Johnson at Kentucky Digital Library - Images.

Read about the Rufus B. Atwood Oral History Project interviews that are available at the University of Kentucky Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, item records in the SPOKE Database.
Subjects: Activists, Civil Rights, Education and Educators
Geographic Region: Hickman, Fulton County, Kentucky / Frankfort, Franklin County, Kentucky

Austin, Jacqueline
Austin has been principal of the John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Louisville, KY, since 1990. Under Austin's direction, the school became the first public school in the state to adopt the Montessori teaching method. This and other reforms helped improve academic performance, attendance, and parental involvement at the school. Austin also expanded school services to include GED adult education classes. In 1996, Austin was chosen as a Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award recipient. For more see Jacqueline Austin at the Milken Family Foundation website, and "KERA: A tale of one school," Phi Delta Kappan, vol. 79, issue 4 (Dec. 1997), pp. 272-276.

Subjects: Education and Educators, Grade Schools & High Schools in Kentucky
Geographic Region: Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky

Baker, Houston A., Jr.
Birth Year : 1943
Houston Baker, born in Louisville, KY, is a distinguished essayist, poet, and activist-scholar. Baker is a graduate of Howard University and the University of California-Los Angeles. He has received numerous awards, including the 2003 J. B. Hubell Award for lifetime achievement in the study and teaching of American Literature. Author of more than 20 books and many, many more articles, he has been editor of Black Literature in America and editor of the journal American Literature. For more see Houston Baker in the video Roots and First Fruit; The African American Almanac, and Directory of American Scholars.

  See Houston A. Baker, Jr. webpage at Vanderbilt Univeristy.
Subjects: Authors, Education and Educators, Poets
Geographic Region: Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky

Ballard, William H., Sr.
Birth Year : 1862
Death Year : 1954
William Henry Ballard, born in Franklin County, KY, was the first African American to open a drug store in the state: Ballard's Pharmacy was established in Lexington, KY, in 1893. Ballard was also a historian; he is the author of History of Prince Hall Freemasonry in Kentucky, published in 1950. He came to Lexington when he was 17 years old, having previously lived in Louisville where he graduated from a public school. He was also a graduate of Roger Williams University [in TN]. Ballard was a school teacher in Tennessee and in Kentucky. He earned his B.S. in Pharm., D. in 1892 in Evanston, IL. In addition to owning his own drug store, Ballard was also director of Domestic Realty Company, and president of Greenwood Cemetery Company, both in Lexington. He served as president of the Emancipation and Civic League, and was a delegate to the National Republican Convention in 1898. He was the son of Matilda Bartlett Ballard and Dowan Ballard, Sr. He was married to Bessie H. Brady Ballard, and the couple had six children. Their oldest son, William H. Ballard, Jr. was a pharmacist in Chicago, and two of their sons were physicians. William H. Ballard is buried in the Cove Haven Cemetery in Lexington, KY [photo]. For more see Who's Who of the Colored Race, 1915; W. H. Ballard, "Drugs and druggists," Records of the National Negro Business League, Part 1 Annual Conference Proceedings and Organizational Records, 1900-1919, 10th Annual Convention, Louisville, KY, August 18-20, 1909, reel 2, frames 186-189; and Dr. William Henry Ballard, Sr. in The Encyclopaedia of the African Methodist Episcopal Church compiled by Bishop R. R. Wright.
Subjects: Authors, Businesses, Education and Educators, Historians, Medical Field, Health Care, Undertakers, Cemeteries, Coroners, & Obituaries, Fraternal Organizations, Realtors, Real Estate Brokers, Real Estate Investments, Negro Business League, Pharmacists, Pharmacies
Geographic Region: Franklin County, Kentucky / Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky

Banks, Johnella Barksdale
Birth Year : 1929
Death Year : 1990
Banks was born in Hopkinsville, KY, and reared in Detroit, MI. She was a graduate of Wayne State University (BA), Provident Hospital School of Nursing (Chicago), Boston University (MA), and Catholic University (Ph.D.). Banks was a nursing faculty member at Howard University and lived in Silver Spring, MD. She is considered one of the African American nurses who achieved greatness: her career is included in the written history of Black nurses. Banks was a past president of the National Black Nurses Association of the Greater Washington Area. The Johnella Banks Memorial Scholarship was named in her honor, and the Johnella Banks Member Achievement Award is presented by the Association of Black Nursing Faculty, Inc. For more see "Johnella Banks, 61, Howard professor," The Washington Times, 12/12/1990, Metropolitan section, p. B4; and Johnella B. Banks in The Color of Healing; a history of the achievements of Black nurses, by B. F. Morton.
Subjects: Education and Educators, Migration North, Nurses
Geographic Region: Hopkinsville, Christian County, Kentucky / Detroit, Michigan / Silver Spring, Maryland

Bannister, Frank T., Jr.
Birth Year : 1932
Death Year : 1986
Bannister, at one time a schoolteacher in Louisville, KY, later became a pollster with Jet magazine, compiling African American college football and basketball polls. Bannister was also a broadcaster who in 1976 became the first African American closed-circuit announcer for a heavy-weight championship fight: Muhammad Ali vs Ken Norton. He was selected for the job by Top Rank Inc. executives Robert Arum and Butch Lewis. Bannister, who had taught Ali when he was a student in Louisville, was a sportswriter and commentator. He was born in Roanoke, VA, and was a graduate of Tuskegee University, and earned a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts. For more see "Jet pollster Bannister to call Ali-Norton fight," Jet, vol. 51, issue 2 (09/30/1976), p. 52; and "Frank Bannister, 54 dies; sportscaster, educator," Jet, vol. 71, issue 8 (11/10/1986), p. 18.
See photo image of Frank T. Bannister, Jr. in Jet.
Subjects: Boxers, Boxing, Education and Educators, Journalists, Newspapers, Magazines, Book Publishers, Music Publishers, Television
Geographic Region: Roanoke, Virginia / Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky

Barbour, James Bernie
Birth Year : 1881
Death Year : 1936
J. Bernie Barbour was born in Danville, KY, and it was thought that he died in New York. Barbour actually died in Chicago, IL, on April 11, 1936 [his name is misspelled as "Bernie Barfour" on the death certificate ref# rn11543], and his burial is noted with Central Plant Ill. Dem. Assn. Barbour was an 1896 music education graduate of Simmons University (KY), and he graduated from the Schmoll School of Music (Chicago) in 1899. Both he and N. Clark Smith founded a music publishing house in Chicago in 1903; it may have been the first to be owned by African Americans. Barbour also worked with other music publishing companies, including the W. C. Handy Music Company. He was a music director, and he played piano and sang in vaudeville performances and in nightclubs and toured with several groups. He composed operas such as Ethiopia, and spirituals such as Don't Let Satan Git You On De Judgment Day. He assisted in writing music for productions such as I'm Ready To Go and wrote the Broadway production, Arabian Knights Review. Barbour also organized the African American staff of Show Boat. J. Bernie Barbour was the son of Morris and Nicey Snead Barbour. He was the husband of Anna Maria Powers, they married May 29, 1909 in Seattle, WA [source: Washington Marriage Record Return #15629]. According to the marriage record, Anna M. Powers was a white or colored musician from New York. For more see Profiles of African American Stage Performers and Theatre People, 1816-1960, by B. L. Peterson; Who's Who in Colored America, 1928-1929; and "J. Berni Barbour" in Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musicians, by E. Southern.
Subjects: Businesses, Education and Educators, Journalists, Newspapers, Magazines, Book Publishers, Music Publishers, Migration North, Musicians, Opera, Singers, Song Writers, Minstrel and Vaudeville Performers
Geographic Region: Danville, Boyle County, Kentucky / New York, New York / Chicago, Illinois

Barnett, Peter W.
Birth Year : 1871
Peter W. Barnett was an author, educator, journalist, publisher, veteran, and musician. He was born in Carrsville, Livingston County, KY, the son of Sarah (b. 1840) and Peter Barnett (1830-1898). [Peter Sr. is listed as white in the 1870 U.S. Federal Census.] Peter W. Barnett taught school in Kentucky. He was educated in Kentucky and Indiana, moving in 1891 to Indiana to attend high school. He went on to become a student for two years at Indiana State Normal in Terre Haute [now Indiana State University]. He was employed at Union Publishing Company, the company that published the first labor paper in Indianapolis; the company later moved its headquarters to Chicago. During the winter of 1896, Barnett opened a night school in Indianapolis. Barnett was also a reporter and representative for the African American newspaper, Freeman. Barnett and J. T. V. Hill [James Thomas Vastine Hill] published the Indianapolis Colored Business Chart Directory in 1898, the goal of which was "to promote industry and race patronage and to encourage business enterprise." J. T. V. Hill was an African American lawyer in Indianapolis, opening his office in 1882 [source: Encyclopedia of Black America, by W. A. Low and V. A. Clift]. He was the first African American to be admitted to the Indianapolis Bar. Peter Barnett would become his understudy while in the service. Barnett was 28 years old when he enlisted in the U.S. Army in Indianapolis, IN, on March 13, 1899. He was assigned to the 24th Infantry, Company L. In December of 1899, while stationed at Ft. Wrangle, Alaska, Peter Barnett, who had been studying law under J. T. V. Hill, gave it up because there were no resource facilities available to him in Alaska. He began to study music and organized a group of musicians (soldiers) that he named the Symphony Orchestra of Company L, 24th Infantry. Most of the men could not read music. Barnett was discharged from the Indiana Colored Infantry on March 12, 1900, at Fort Wrangle, Alaska [source: U.S. Army Register of Enlistments]. For more see "Peter Barnett..." in the last paragraph of the article "Camp Capron Notes," Freeman, 10/01/1898, p. 8; "Night School," Freeman, 10/24/1896, p. 8; On the Trail of the Buffalo Soldier, by F. N. Schubert; quotation from "Local Notes," Freeman, 12/11/1897, p. 4-Supplement; and "From Alaska," Freeman, 12/30/1899, p. 9.
Subjects: Authors, Education and Educators, Journalists, Newspapers, Magazines, Book Publishers, Music Publishers, Migration North, Military & Veterans, Musicians, Opera, Singers, Song Writers
Geographic Region: Carrsville, Livingston County, Kentucky / Indianapolis, Indiana

Bate, Langston F.
Birth Year : 1899
Death Year : 1977
Langston Fairchild Bate was born in Danville, KY, the son of Ida W. and John W. Bate. He received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry at the age of 26 from the University of Chicago, later heading the chemistry departments at Lincoln University in Missouri, Virginia State College, and Miner Teachers College in Washington D. C. [which merged with two other colleges to form the present day University of the District of Columbia]. Bate was chair of the chemistry department at Miners College from 1944-1954. He published several articles in science journals. Langston F. Bate was a normal graduate from Kentucky State College [now Kentucky State University] and is believed to be the first to earn a Ph. D. For more see Blacks in Science and Medicine, by V. O. Sammons; "Langston Bate, Division Head at Miners College," Washington Post, 07/17/1977, Obituaries section, p. 49; and see the last paragraph of the article "Two Kentucky State College graduates...," The Crisis, vol.57, no.11, p.736. Additional information provided by Kenneth Bate, son of Langston F. Bate.
Subjects: Chemists, Education and Educators, Migration North
Geographic Region: Danville, Boyle County, Kentucky

Bean, Walter Dempsey
Birth Year : 1912
Death Year : 2007
Bean was born in Midway, KY, to James Ennis and Lula G. Rollins Bean. He was a 1935 graduate of Kentucky State University and earned his MS at Butler University in 1954. He was a teacher, principal, and supervisor with the Indianapolis Public Schools, and the first African American administrator and recruiter for African American teachers. He helped integrate the Phi Delta Kappa Fraternity at Butler University In 1956 when he became the first African American chartered member. He was also the second African American member of the USA American Association of School Personnel Administrators. In 1986, the Kentucky State Alumni Association voted Walter D. Bean one of 100 outstanding alumni. For more see Who's Who Among African Americans 1985-2006; and Walter D. Bean in The Indianapolis Star "Obituaries," 04/12/2007, p. B04.
Subjects: Education and Educators, Migration North, Fraternal Organizations
Geographic Region: Midway, Woodford County, Kentucky / Indianapolis, Indiana

Benjamin, R. C. O.
Birth Year : 1855
Death Year : 1900
Robert Charles O'Hara Benjamin was shot in the back and died in Lexington, KY, in 1900. He was killed at the Irishtown Precinct by Michael Moynahan, a Democrat precinct worker. The shooting occurred after Benjamin objected to African Americans being harassed while attempting to register to vote. When the case went to court, Moynahan claimed self-defense, and the case was dismissed. Benjamin had become a U.S. citizen in the 1870s; he was born in St. Kitts and had come to New York in 1869. He had lived in a number of locations in the U.S., and he came to be considered wealthy. For a brief period, Benjamin taught school in Kentucky and studied law. He was a journalist, author, lawyer (the first African American lawyer in Los Angeles), educator, civil rights activist, public speaker, and poet, and he had been a postal worker in New York City. In addition to being a journalist, Benjamin also edited and owned some of the newspapers where he was employed. Between 1855-1894, he authored at least six books and a number of other publications, including Benjamin's Pocket History of the American Negro, The Zion Methodist, Poetic Gems, Don't: a Book for Girls; and the public address The Negro Problem, and the Method of its Solution. In 1897, Benjamin returned to Kentucky with his wife, Lula M. Robinson, and their two children. Benjamin was editor of the Lexington Standard newspaper. The first bust that Isaac S. Hathaway sculpted was that of R. C. O. Benjamin. For more information see Robert Charles O'Hara Benjamin, by G. C. Wright in the American National Biography Online (subscription database); and "R. C. O. Benjamin," Negro History Bulletin, vol. 5, issue 4 (January 1942), pp. 92-93.

See sketch of R. C. O. Benjamin in the New York Public LIbrary Digital Gallery online.

See photo image of R. C. O. Benjamin and family in Explore UK.
Subjects: Activists, Civil Rights, Authors, Education and Educators, Journalists, Newspapers, Magazines, Book Publishers, Music Publishers, Voting Rights, Lawyers, Poets, Postal Service
Geographic Region: St. Kitts, West Indies / Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky

Bingham, Walter D.
Birth Year : 1921
Death Year : 2006
Rev. Walter D. Bingham became, in 1966, the first African American to lead the Kentucky Association of Christian Churches. Five years later, he became the first African American named to the top post of the Christian Church (Church of Christ) as moderator of the denomination of 1.5 million members. Bingham's first vice moderator was Mrs. H. G. Wilkes, the first woman moderator. Bingham was minister of the Third Christian Church [now Third Central United Christian Church] in Louisville, KY. A native of Memphis, TN, he was a 1945 graduate of Talladega College and earned his divinity degree from Howard University in 1948. He taught at Jarvis Christian College and was a pastor in Oklahoma before arriving in Louisville, KY in 1961. He was the husband of librarian Rebecca Taylor Bingham, and the son of Lena and Willie Bingham. For more see "Louisville minister heads church group," Lexington Herald, 04/21/1966, p. 1; "Born in slavery era; church elects first Black man national moderator," Lexington Herald, 10/20/1971, p. 31; and P. Burba, "Rev. Walter Bingham dies; was pioneer with Disciples of Christ," Courier Journal, 04/16/2006, News section, p. 4B.

See photo image and additional information about Rev. Walter D. Bingham at Find A Grave website.
Subjects: Education and Educators, Kentucky African American Churches, Migration North, Religion & Church Work
Geographic Region: Memphis, Tennessee / Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky

Black History Gallery [Emma Reno Connor]
The Black History Gallery is located in Elizabethtown, KY. The gallery items comprised the personal collection of Emma Reno Connor, a schoolteacher first in Kentucky and later in New York. She collected pictures, articles, biographies, and other materials pertaining to African Americans. The items were used in her classes because there was little information in school textbooks about African Americans. Since Connor's death in 1988, her family has managed the museum in her childhood home in Elizabethtown. Emma R. Connor was the author of a book of poems titled Half a Hundred. For more information, contact: Black History Gallery, 602 Hawkins Drive, Elizabethtown, KY 42701, 270-769-5204 or 270-765-7653. For more on Emma Reno Connor see the online video "A Teachers Legacy," Kentucky Life Program 905; and "Black history collection took lifetime to amass," Lexington Herald-Leader, 08/12/1991, Lifestyle section, p. B6.
See the video "A Teachers Legacy" online at Kentucky Life Program 905.
Subjects: Education and Educators, Genealogy, History, Historians, Migration North
Geographic Region: Elizabethtown, Hardin County, Kentucky / New York

Blanton, John Oliver, Jr.
Birth Year : 1885
Death Year : 1962
J. O. Blanton, Jr. was born in Versailles, KY, on Christmas Day in 1885, according to his WWI Draft Registration Card. He was the son of John, Sr. and Eliza Blanton [source: 1900 U.S. Federal Census]. He was president of the American Mutual Savings Bank in Louisville, KY. The building was built by Samuel Plato in 1922, the same year that William H. Wright launched the business. Blanton was also director of the Mammoth Building and Loan Association and a professor of mathematics at Central High School in Louisville for 12 years. Blanton was also involved with the Louisville Urban League, which was founded in 1959. His wife was Carolyn Steward Blanton; they were the parents of John W. Blanton. For more see Who's Who in Colored America, 1933-37.
Subjects: Activists, Civil Rights, Bankers, Banks, Finance, Financial Advisors, Education and Educators, Fathers, Urban Leagues
Geographic Region: Versailles, Woodford County, Kentucky / Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky

Bluster, Missouri Quisenberry
Start Year : 1899
End Year : 1994
Missouri Quisenberry Bluster was a school teacher for more than 40 years at the Oliver School in Winchester, KY. For many of those years she taught first grade during the time Oliver was a segregated school for African American children. She is remembered as a disciplinarian who cared about the children. Bluster and her parents, William and Mamie Custard Quisenberry, were born in Winchester, KY. She was the wife of Rev. Climiton Bluster (1893-1961), who was born in Alabama. Missouri Bluster, a graduate of Kentucky State University and Wilberforce University, also served as president of the Kentucky Association of Colored Women's Clubs. The Quisenberry family has been in Clark County since the early history of the state, and records of the African American Quisenberrys can be found in the slave schedules and birth records, including that of a baby girl born in 1853 to a slave woman and slave owner Roger Quisenberry. [Roger Quisenberry of Clark County owned at least 11 slaves, according to the 1850 slave schedule.] Several of the African American Quisenberry men served with the Colored infantries during the Civil War, and after slavery ended, the families settled in the communities of Blue Ball, Ford, Germantown, Kiddville, and Winchester. For more about Missouri Quisenberry Bluster, see A. D. Johnson, "Winchester teacher stressed discipline, love," Lexington Herald-Leader, 02/09/1986, City/State section, p. B1.

Read about the Missouri Q. Bluster oral history interview available at the University of Kentucky Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, item record in the SPOKE Database.

Subjects: Communities, Education and Educators, Women's Groups and Organizations, Association of Colored Women's Clubs
Geographic Region: Blue Ball, Ford, Germantown, Kiddville, and Winchester, Clark County, Kentucky

Bond, Horace M.
Birth Year : 1904
Death Year : 1972
Horace Mann Bond was born in Nashville, TN. He could read at the age of three and entered high school at the age of nine. His family moved back to Kentucky, where he graduated from Lincoln Institute and went on to college at the age of fourteen. Bond earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1936 with financial assistance from the Rosenwald Fund. He became recognized as an authority on Negro education. Bond authored many publications and articles, including the article "Intelligence Tests and Propaganda" and the book The Education of the Negro in American Social Order. He was the first African American president of Lincoln University (Pennsylvania), the first school in the United States to provide higher education for African Americans. Horace was the son of Jane A. Browne Bond and James M. Bond, and he was the father of Julian Bond, civil rights leader and former Georgia senator and representative. The Horace M. Bond papers are at the University of Massachusett's W.E.B. Du Bois Library Special Collections and University Archives. For more see The Bonds, by R. M. Williams; and the 1955 video Rufus E. Clement and Horace M. Bond recorded as part of the Chronscope Series by Columbia Broadcasting System.

See photo image and additional information on Horace Mann Bond at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives website.
Subjects: Authors, Education and Educators, Fathers, Mothers, Legislators (Outside Kentucky)
Geographic Region: Nashville, Tennessee / Lincoln Ridge, Shelby County, Kentucky

Bond, J. Max, Jr.
Birth Year : 1935
Death Year : 2009
J. Max Bond, Jr. was born in Louisville, KY. He was an internationally recognized architect and a fellow in the American Institute of Architects (AIA). He earned both his bachelor's and master's degrees in architecture at Harvard University. His designs include the Bolgatanga Library in Ghana, Africa, and the Birmingham Civil Rights Museum in Alabama. Bond established and became director of the Architects Renewal Committee of Harlem and from 1980-1986 was commissioner of the New York Planning Committee. He taught at and was a former dean of the architecture school at the City University of New York (CUNY). Bond was the co-author of New Service Buildings, Harvard University... and was co-author of the newspaper Harlem News. He was the son of J. Max Bond, Sr. and Ruth E. Clement Bond and the grandson of James M. Bond. For more see Who's Who in America, 47th ed. - 52nd ed.; L. Duke, "Blueprint of a life, Architect J. Max Bond Jr. has had to build bridges to reach ground zero," Washington Post, 07/01/2004, p. C01; and D. W. Dunlap, "J. Max Bond Jr., Architect, Dies at 73," New York Times, 02/19/2009, Obituary section,p.20. See also The Directory of African American Architects, sponsored by the City for the Study of Practice at the University of Cincinnati.

Read about the J. Max Bond, Jr. oral history interview available at the University of Kentucky Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, item record in the SPOKE Database.
Subjects: Architects, Authors, Education and Educators, Migration North
Geographic Region: Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky / New York

Bond, James Arthur, Sr.
Birth Year : 1892
Death Year : 1957
In 1929, James A. Bond was the interim president of the Kentucky Normal and Industrial Institute [now Kentucky State University]. Bond had been a dean at the school, replacing President Green P. Russell when he resigned in 1929. Russell was indicted on three counts of defrauding the state: he had hired his wife and daughter as librarians for the school. The charges were later dismissed. James A. Bond served as the interim president until the end of the year when Rufus B. Atwood was named president. James A. Bond left the Kentucky Normal and Industrial Institute and moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, when he was named a Specialist in Education with the Bureau of Education in the U.S. Department of the Interior. His first duty was to assist in the survey of secondary education. While in Cincinnati, Bond completed his master's degree in 1930 at the University of Cincinnati. His thesis is entitled Negro Education in Kentucky. Bond would become a dean at Bethune-Cookman College in Florida, where he worked from 1935-1941. He temporarily left the school in 1935 to complete a semester of work on his doctorate at the University of Chicago; Bond specialized in junior college curriculum. He was author of "Bethune-Cookman College: community service station," The Crisis, vol. 48, no. 3 (March 1941), pp. 81 & 94 [available online at Google Books]. While in Florida, the family lived at 625 Second Avenue in Daytona Beach, according to the 1941 Polk's Daytona Beach (Volusia County, Fla.) City Directory. While in Florida, Bond also wrote "Freshman reading program in junior college," Community and Junior College Journal, vol. 11 (1941), p. 22. James Arthur Bond, Sr. was born in Greenwood, TN, and grew up in Williamsburg, KY. He was the son of Henry Bond and Anna Gibson Bond. In 1910 he was a teacher in Williamsburg, KY [source: U.S. Federal Census], and in 1918 he was principal of the Colored High School in Middlesboro, KY [source: Bond's World War I draft registration card]. Bond was a government clerk in Chicago in 1920 [source: U.S. Federal Census]; the family of five lived on South Wabash Avenue. James Arthur Bond was the husband of Rosabelle [or Rosa Belle] Cleckley Bond, who was born in South Carolina. For more see 50 Years of Segregation by J. A. Hardin; "James A. Bond of Kentucky...," The Crisis, vol. 37, no. 2 (Feb. 1930), p. 60 [available online at Google Books]; and "Bethune-Cookman College dean leaves for Chicago," The Negro Star, 03/29/1935, p. 3.
Subjects: Education and Educators, Migration South
Geographic Region: Greenwood, Tennessee / Williamsburg, Whitley County, Kentucky / Frankfort, Franklin County, Kentucky / Daytona Beach, Florida

Boswell, Arnita Y.
Birth Year : 1920
Death Year : 2002
Arnita Young Boswell was born in Lincoln Ridge, KY. She was a graduate of Kentucky State College [now Kentucky State University] and Atlanta University [now Clark Atlanta University], and earned her advanced social work certification at Columbia University and advanced education at Colorado State University. She was a professor of social work at the University of Chicago (1961-1980) and Director of the Family Resources Center at the Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago. She was also the first national director for Project Head Start, the first director of the social workers of the Chicago Public Schools, and founder of Chicago's League of Black Women. Boswell was the daughter of Whitney Young, Sr. and Laura R. Young. For more see Who's Who Among African Americans, 1975-2002.

See photo image and additional information about Arnita Y. Boswell at African American Registry.
Subjects: Civic Leaders, Education and Educators, Social Workers, Women's Groups and Organizations
Geographic Region: Lincoln Ridge, Shelby County, Kentucky / Chicago, Illinois

Bourbon County Training School (Little Rock, KY)
Start Year : 1911
The Bourbon County Training School was located in Little Rock, KY. The school began as an idustrial course at the colored school prior to becoming the industrial training school in 1914. The school was supported by the Slater Fund [source: The History of Education of Bourbon County by J. R. Welch]. Ms. Maggie L. Freeman was the principal as early as 1911. The industrial school was to provide advanced training for students in the county. In 1915, there were 70 students and three teachers. The students were provided a nine grade course with elementary work in the first eight grades and secondary subjects and practice teaching in the ninth grade. Industrial training included cooking, sewing, gardening and poultry farming. According to J. R. Welch, the Bourbon County Training School was established in 1918, it was a consolidation of the colored school district in Little Rock. C. T. Cook was the school principal in 1919. The school was located on two acres on Mt. Sterling Pike, there was a frame school house with six rooms and an auditorium. The building had electric lights. The building and property were valued at about $3,000. By 1933, there were near 80 students, some were transported by school bus. In addition to the courses, there was P. T. A., a dramatic club, and a music club, and there were basketball, baseball, and track teams. The school was still open in 1933 when Professor William J. Callery was principal, and the school had become an accredited four year high school. For more see "Bourbon County Training School" on pp. 264-265 in Negro Education by the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education, Bulletin 1916, NO. 39, Volume II [available full-text in Google Books]; and The Kentucky Negro Educational Association Journal, April 25-26, 1919, p.4, and v.3, issue 2 (January-February 1933), p.22 [available online at Kentucky Digital Library - Journals]. See also the entries for African American Schools in the NKAA Database.
Subjects: Education and Educators, Grade Schools & High Schools in Kentucky
Geographic Region: Little Rock, Bourbon County, Kentucky

Bowling Green Academy (Bowling Green, KY)
Start Year : 1902
End Year : 1933
The Bowling Green Academy School opened in 1902 with 57 students in the Colored Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Bowling Green, KY. Rev. R. L. Hyde was the school's president. The school was later moved into a building on State Street. "The object of this school is threefold (1) education in general of all negro children, especially in Kentucky, who desire the advantage of a first-class institution at reasonable rates; (2) education along special lines which shall fit our young men to fill more efficiently the pulpits of our churches; (3) to develop the negro youth into good Christian citizens by educating the head, heart and hand." The school attendance grew to more than 150 students before it closed in 1933. For more information see Bowling Green Academy, and "Bowling Green Academy" in the Kentucky Encyclopedia 2000. See also the entries for African American Schools in the NKAA Database.
Subjects: Education and Educators, Kentucky African American Churches, Religion & Church Work, Grade Schools & High Schools in Kentucky
Geographic Region: Bowling Green, Warren County, Kentucky

Braden, Anne McCarty and Carl
Anne (1924-2006) and Carl (1914-1975) Braden were white activists with civil rights and labor groups in Louisville, KY. One of their many efforts occurred in 1954 when they assisted in the purchase of a house in Louisville on behalf of the Wade family; the Wades were African Americans, and the house was in a white neighborhood. The house was bombed, and the authorities, rather than arresting the responsible parties, charged the Bradens and five others with sedition - attempting to overthrow the state of Kentucky. Anne Braden was born in Louisville and reared in Alabama. She was a reporter who left Alabama for a job with the Louisville Times newspaper. For more see Subversive Southerner and Once Comes the Moment to Decide (thesis), both by C. Fosl; and The Wall Between, by A. Braden. View Ann Branden's interview in "Living the Story: The Rest of the Story," a Civil Rights in Kentucky Oral History Project. 

Listen online to selected audio recordings from the Anne Braden Oral History Project at the Kentucky Digital Library.

Read about all the interviews in the Anne Braden Oral History Project available at the University of Kentucky Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, item records in the SPOKE Database.
 
Subjects: Activists, Civil Rights, Authors, Education and Educators, Journalists, Newspapers, Magazines, Book Publishers, Music Publishers
Geographic Region: Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky

Bramwell, Fitzgerald B. "Jerry"
Birth Year : 1945
Fitzgerald Bramwell was born in New York. In 1995 he was a chemistry faculty member and the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies at the University of Kentucky. In 1996, Bramwell was the highest ranking African American at the University of Kentucky. Bramwell earned his B.A. from Columbia University and his master's and doctorate from the University of Michigan. His research explores how beams of laser light change the structure and reaction of certain carbon-based compounds. Bramwell has written a number of articles and is author of Investigations in general chemistry: quantitative techniques and basic principles and co-author of Basic laboratory principles in general chemistry: with quantitative techniques. For more see Distinguished African American Scientists of the 20th Century (1996), by J. H. Kessler, et al. Of the total chemists and materials scientists in Kentucky, 4% are African Americans, according to Census 2000 data.
Subjects: Authors, Chemists, Education and Educators, Migration South
Geographic Region: Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky / New York

Braxton, Frederick [Bracktown] [Main Street Baptist Church]
Death Year : 1876
Rev. Frederick Braxton, born in Kentucky, was a slave and a pastor of the First African Church. In 1864, the church was located on Short Street, according to William's Lexington City Directory 1864-65. Rev. Braxton succeeded Elder London Ferrill, who had organized the congregation in 1822; Elder Ferrill died in 1854. During Rev. Braxton's tenure, the church continued to grow and had over 2,000 members by the beginning of the Civil War in 1861. The following year the First African Church split, with 500 members following Rev. Braxton as he founded the Independent African Church. The new church was located at the corner of Main and Locust Streets, according to William's Lexington City Directory 1864-65, and for a brief period, Rev. Braxton was pastor of both his new church and the First African Church. New church members were baptized in the Poor House Pond that was located in the southern part of Lexington [the pond was also used for the baptisms of the Pleasant Green Baptist Church]. In 1867, Rev. Braxton organized a school with nearly 300 students at the Independent African Church; it was managed by Negro teachers. Later the Independent African Church was located at the corner of Main and Merino Streets, according to the Lexington City Directory 1873 and 1874. The name of the church would be changed to Second Colored Baptist Church (1876), to Main Street Independent Baptist Church, and then later renamed the Main Street Baptist Church. Rev. Braxton was also a land owner: he owned part of the Stonetown property on Leestown Pike in Fayette County, KY, where the community that became known as Bracktown (named for Rev. Braxton) was established. Rev. Frederick Braxton died January 31, 1876. He was the husband of Keziah "Kessie" Ware Braxton, and they were the parents of at least two children, Cary Braxton (d. 1913) and Charly J. Braxton (d. 1923) [source: Kentucky Death Certificates]. After Rev. Braxton's death, his widow, Keziah, and Betsie Braxton, lived on Bolivar Street, the 2nd house east of Broadway [source: William's Lexington City Directory 1881-82]. For more see A History of Kentucky Baptist, Vol. 2, by J. A. Spencer; A Brief History of the First Baptist Church (Black), by H. E. Nutter (1940), a Baptist History Homepage website; "Under the law...," Lexington Observer and Reporter, 10/02/1867, p. 3; "Five thousand people," The Kentucky Leader, 04/18/1892, p. 7; Kentucky Place Names, by R. M. Rennick; and "A Hamlet and a Railroad Town" within the African Americans in the Bluegrass website. For a photo image of Rev. Frederick Braxton, see the First Baptist Church Souvenir Bulletin in the Sallie Price Collection at the University of Kentucky Special Collections Library. See photo image of baptism at the Lexington Work House Pond [also called the Poor House Pond] in Kentucky Digital Library - Images.

Poor House Pond

See photo image of Rev. Frederick Braxton in the right hand column on p.191 in Golden Jubilee of the General Association of Colored Baptists in Kentucky, at NYPL Digital Gallery.
Subjects: Communities, Education and Educators, Religion & Church Work, Grade Schools & High Schools in Kentucky
Geographic Region: Lexington and Bracktown, Fayette County, Kentucky

Brennen, David A.
In 2009, David A. Brennen was named the dean of the University of Kentucky (UK) College of Law, making him the state's first African American law school dean since the desegregation of Kentucky higher education. Brennen will be the 16th dean of the UK College of Law. He has more than 15 years experience in classroom teaching, is the co-founder and co-editor of Nonprofit Law Prof Blog, and is editor of the electronic abstracting journal, Nonprofit and Philanthropy Law Abstracts, published by the Social Science Research Network in the Legal Research Network series. He has a number of research publications and is co-author of the 2008 statutory supplement to The Tax Law of Charities and Other Exempt Organizations. David Brennen graduated with a finance degree from Florida Atlantic University and earned his Juris Doctor and Master of Laws in Taxation from the University of Florida. He has served as the assistant general counsel in Florida's Department of Revenue and as deputy director of the Association of American Law Schools. Additional information for this entry was provided by Michelle Cosby, librarian at the UK College of Law Library. For more see "College of Law names David A. Brennen as Dean," University of Kentucky News, 04/09/2009. For the earlier history see the NKAA entries Central Law School (Louisville, KY) and Albert S. White.
Subjects: Authors, Education and Educators, Lawyers, Migration North
Geographic Region: Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky

Britton, Mary E.
Birth Year : 1855
Death Year : 1925
Mary E. Britton was born in Lexington, KY. She was an activist and a journalist who wrote many articles against segregation laws. Britton was also a schoolteacher. She would later become the first African American woman physician in Lexington and a founder of the Colored Orphan Industrial Home. Britton was a graduate of Berea College. She is buried in the Cove Haven Cemetery in Lexington. She was a sister of Julia B. Hooks. For more see Mary Britton at womeninky.com; and E. Applegate, "The Noble Sole of Mary E. Britton," in Berea College Magazine [online]. 

See photo image of Dr. Mary E. Britton at Great Black Kentuckians, a Kentucky Commission on Human Rights website.
Subjects: Activists, Civil Rights, Education and Educators, Journalists, Newspapers, Magazines, Book Publishers, Music Publishers, Medical Field, Health Care, Orphans and Orphanages in Kentucky
Geographic Region: Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky

Brooks, Charles H.
Birth Year : 1859
Death Year : 1940
Charles H. Brooks was born in Paducah, KY. A lawyer, businessman, and writer, Brooks wrote the official history of the Odd Fellows Fraternity and was a delegate to the International Conference of Odd Fellows in Europe in 1900. He was educated in the Colored school in Paducah [info NKAA entry], and after finishing his studies in 1876, he became a teacher at the school. He taught for five years, and was then named the school principal. While he was principal of the school, Brooks became a member of the Paducah Odd Fellows Lodge No. 1545. He served as secretary and was influential in the building of the Colored Odd Fellows Lodge in Paducah [info NKAA entry]. Brooks was State Treasurer, he was secretary of the B. M. C. and was Grand Director at Atlanta, GA. On the national level, he was Grand Auditor. Brooks' work with the Odd Fellows was also during the time he was Secretary of the Republican County Committee in Paducah, and Secretary of the First Sunday School Convention and Baptist Association. In 1889, he successfully passed the civil service exam, and Brooks left Kentucky to become a clerk at the Pension Bureau Office in Washington, D.C. While in D.C. he attended Spencerian Business College, completing a course in bookkeeping. Brooks left his job in D.C. and entered law school at Howard University where he completed his LL.B in 1892, which was also the year that he was elected Grand Secretary of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows. As a lawyer, Brooks gained admission to practice before the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. He left D.C. in 1892 to work full time at the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows Office in Philadelphia, PA. He was there for ten years, and led the effort to pay off all debts, sustained a surplus of $50,000, and established a printing press and the publishing of a weekly journal. Brooks traveled extensively throughout the U.S. to visit the various Odd Fellows lodges. He also traveled to England; the Colored Odd Fellows dispensations came from England, and they were the only Colored organization with a regular affiliation to the English fraternity. When Charles Brooks retired from the Odd Fellows Office in Philadelphia, he operated a real estate and insurance office. He continued to be active in organizations such as the National Negro Business League, Gibson's New Standard Theater, Model Storage Company, and he was secretary of the Reliable Mutual Aid and Improvement Society, all in Philadelphia. He is author of The Official History of the First African Baptist Church, Philadelphia, Pa., published in 1922. Charles H. Brooks was the husband of Matilda Mansfield Brooks (1862-1945, born in KY). The couple married on August 24, 1880 in Paducah, KY [source: Kentucky Marriages Index]. Both are buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Paducah, KY [source: Find A Grave website]. For more see The Fascinating Story of Black Kentuckians, by A. A. Dunnigan; The Official History and Manual of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows in America, by C. H. Brooks; Who's Who in Colored America, 1928-29; "Charles H. Brooks," Freeman, 10/10/1896, p.5; and "Out of the depths," The Colored American, 09/19/1903, p.1.
Subjects: Authors, Businesses, Education and Educators, Historians, Lawyers, Fraternal Organizations
Geographic Region: Paducah, McCracken County, Kentucky / Washington, D.C. / Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Brown, Hugh Victor
Birth Year : 1891
Death Year : 1994
Hugh V. Brown was born in Henderson, KY. He was a school principal in Virginia and North Carolina. Brown also organized district associations for the North Carolina Teachers Association while serving as its first president in 1936; he served as president again from 1948-1950. He was also president of the Southeastern District Teachers Association. Brown was a two time graduate of Hampton Institute [now Hampton University], and was a trustee in 1950. He was a veteran of WWI. For more see Who's Who in Colored America, 1950; Folks Around Here by G. Price; and "Hugh V. Brown" in the Obituaries section of the Daily Press, 09/22/1994, p.C4. See also A History of the Education of Negroes in North Carolina by H. V. Brown; E-qual-ity Education in North Carolina Among Negroes by H. V. Brown; and A Study of the Functional Value of Curricula Materials and Methods of the Goldsboro (North Carolina) Negro Schools in Meeting the Economic and Civic Needs of the Pupils (thesis) by H. V. Brown.

Read about the Hugh Victor Brown oral history interview available at the University of Kentucky Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, item record in the SPOKE Database.
 
Subjects: Authors, Education and Educators, Migration East
Geographic Region: Henderson, Henderson County, Kentucky / Virginia / North Carolina

Brown, Lee L.
Birth Year : 1879
Death Year : 1948
Lee L. Brown was born in Spring Station, KY. He was owner of a stenography school in Louisville, KY, and also owned Brown's Leather Shop. Brown was a correspondent for Dobson's News Service and editor and an organizer of the Louisville News. He was a representative of the Negro Press Association of Chicago. Brown was a two-time candidate for the Kentucky State Legislature, once in 1913 and again in 1935. Lee L. Brown was the son of Richard and Lucy Alexander Brown [source: 1910 U.S. Federal Census; and Lee L. Brown's Kentucky Death Certificate]. He was the husband of Etta C. Brown [source: 1930 U.S. Federal Census]. The couple last lived at 1014 West Chestnut Street in Louisville. Lee L. Brown died at the Louisville Red Cross Hospital on August 17, 1948. For more see Who's Who of the Colored Race, 1915; and Who's Who in Colored America, 1933-37.
Subjects: Businesses, Education and Educators, Journalists, Newspapers, Magazines, Book Publishers, Music Publishers, Politicians, Politics, Appointments & Elections
Geographic Region: Spring Station, Woodford County, Kentucky / Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky

Brown, Maude S. [Marie]
Birth Year : 1869
Her name is given as Marie Spratt Brown on the cover of The K.N.E.A. Journal, vol. 6, issue 2. Brown was a Louisville, KY, schoolteacher who in 1898 became the first woman president of the Kentucky Negro Educational Association. The next and last woman president, Lucy H. Smith, would take office in 1945. For more see The Kentucky Negro Education Association, 1877-1946, by H. C. Russell.
Subjects: Education and Educators
Geographic Region: Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky

Brown, Thelma Waide
Birth Year : 1897
Death Year : 1975
Brown was born in Ashland, KY. She toured as a concert and opera singer and was a music and voice instructor for more than 25 years in the Chicago Musical College at Roosevelt College [now Roosevelt University]. She was considered one of the most respected concert singers and teachers in the Chicago area and was sought out for private lessons. For more see African American Concert Singers Before 1950 by D. G. Nettles; and "Obituaries" in The Black Perspective in Music, vol. 4, issue 3 (Autumn, 1976), p. 344.
Subjects: Education and Educators, Migration North, Musicians, Opera, Singers, Song Writers
Geographic Region: Ashland, Boyd County, Kentucky

Broyles, Moses
Birth Year : 1826
Death Year : 1882
Moses Broyles was a slave who was born in Maryland, according to the 1880 U.S. Census. His mother's name was Mary and his father's name was Moses. Moses Jr. was sold at the age of three or four to a slave owner named John Broyles in Kentucky, and he lived in McCracken County, and later worked in Paducah to purchase his freedom for $300. White children he played with had taught him to read, and Moses Broyles also had the gift to recite, sing, and give speeches. While still a slave, he began preaching in Paducah, and helped build the first Colored Baptist meeting house in Paducah. Moses Broyles would become a religion leader and an education leader among African Americans in Indianapolis, IN. Broyles purchased his freedom when he was an adult and left Kentucky, he moved to Lancaster, IN, in 1854. He was a prominent student at Eleutherian Institute in Lancaster, where many of the students were from Kentucky. In addition to his education, Broyles also learned furniture-making. Broyles would become a minister and led the Second Baptist Church in Indianapolis from 1857-1882. He also led in the establishing of several other churches in Indiana, and helped found the Indiana Baptist Association. He also taught school in Indianapolis, teaching at one of the first schools in the city for African Americans. He is author of the 1876 title The History of Second Baptist Church. The church prospered under Broyles leadership, and the congregation increased from 30 to 630. Broyles was a Republican and pushed for African Americans to align themselves with the Republican Party. Moses Broyles was the husband of Francis Broyles, and in 1880 the couple had seven children [source: 1880 U.S. Federal Census]. The family lived on Blake Street in Indianapolis. For more see J. C. Carroll, "The Beginnings of public education for Negroes in Indiana," The Journal of Negro Education, vol.8, no.4, Oct. 1939, pp.649-658; Second Baptist Church Collection, 1912-1985 at the Indiana Historical Society[user info .pdf]; T. Sturgill, "Celebrating Black History Month: Three stories of survival," The Madison Courier, 02/16/2011 [article online at The Madison Courier.com]; and see Moses Broyles in the various entries in The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis by D. J. Bodenhamer and R. G. Barrows.
Subjects: Authors, Education and Educators, Freedom, Kentucky African American Churches, Migration North, Religion & Church Work
Geographic Region: Maryland / Paducah, McCracken County, Kentucky / Lancaster and Indianapolis, Indiana

Buckner, George Washington
Birth Year : 1855
Death Year : 1943
George W. Buckner was born a slave in Green County, KY; after being freed, he went on to become a physician. Buckner taught school in Kentucky and Indiana for 17 years before moving to Monrovia, Liberia, where he was the U.S. Minister to Liberia from 1913 to 1915. He was the first African American diplomat appointed to a foreign country. For more see The Political Graveyard; Who's Who of the Colored Race, 1915; and Who Was Who in America: A component volume of Who's Who in American History, vol. 4, 1961-1968. See also The Diplomat and the Librarian in Little Known Black Librarian Facts (blog).

See photo image of G. W. Buckner at the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online.
Subjects: Education and Educators, Liberia, Liberian Presidents & Diplomats, Medical Field, Health Care, Migration Outside the U.S. and Canada
Geographic Region: Green County, Kentucky / Monrovia, Liberia, Africa

Burks, Ishmon, F. Jr.
Birth Year : 1945
Ishmon Burks, Jr. was born in Louisville, KY. He was the first African American Kentucky State Police Commissioner, appointed by Governor Paul Patton in 2000. Burks was promoted to Justice Cabinet Secretary in 2002. In 2011, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer named Ishmon Burks, Jr. interim chief of the Louisville Metro Police Department. Burks is a former executive vice president and COO of Spalding University. He is a graduate of Lincoln University of Missouri, Indiana University, and City College of New York. He is a retired colonel from the U.S. Army. Ishmon Burks, Jr. is the son of Ishmon Sr. and Juanita Burks. For more see "Retired Army officer first Black KSP chief," The Kentucky Post, 08/23/2000, News section, p.1K; D. Stephenson, "Burks becomes state police head," Lexington Herald-Leader, 09/01/2000, City & Region section, p. B1; and "Mayor selects Ishmon Burks as Louisville's interim police chief [Opinion: The Arena]" by T. McAdam, online at Louisville.com.
Hear the Ishmon Burks Oral History Interview and read the transcript at the Kentucky Historical Society.
Subjects: Education and Educators, Military & Veterans, Corrections and Police, Appointments by Kentucky Governors
Geographic Region: Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky

Burleigh, Angus A.
Birth Year : 1848
Death Year : 1939
Angus A. Burleigh was the first adult African American to attend and graduate from Berea College in Berea, KY. Burleigh had been born free, the son of an English sea captain and an African American woman, but after his father's death the family was sold into slavery, first in Virginia, then in Kentucky. Burleigh ran away and joined the Union Army when he was 16 years old. In 1866, he had finished his stint with the Army and enrolled at Berea with the encouragement and support of John G. Fee. After his graduation in 1875, Burleigh immediately left Kentucky and headed north, where he would spend the rest of his life preaching and teaching. For more see "Hasan Davis and the story of A.A. Burleigh," Kentucky Life, Program 807. Hasan Davis gives a phenomenal live performance of A. A. Burleigh's life in The Long Climb to Freedom. You have got to see it! Program 807 is available at the UK Young Library Audio Visual Services.

See photo image of Angus Burleigh at the Long Climb to Freedom website.
Subjects: Education and Educators, Freedom, Migration North, Military & Veterans, Religion & Church Work, Higher Education Before Desegregation, Kentucky
Geographic Region: Virginia / Berea, Madison County, Kentucky

Burnside, Carl Meredith
Birth Year : 1898
Death Year : 1967
Professor C. M. Burnside, born in Bryantville, KY, was an educator and active member of the AME Church. He attended Wayman Institute, Lincoln Institute, and graduated from Kentucky State University in 1933. He was a high school teacher and principal in Lancaster and Monticello, KY, and established a standard four-year high school and led in the construction of a new school building. Burnside served on various committees within the KNEA, and is listed as a member of the organization in the Kentucky Negro Educational Association Journal, 1936-1939 [Lancaster], 1940 [Monticello]. He was also president for 15 years of the United Brothers and Sisters of Benevolence, was senior warden within the Masons, and was a member of the United Brothers of Friendship. He was a delegate to the AME General Conference 1940 and 1944. He was the son of Mahalia and Lee Burnside. For more see Prof. C. M. Burnside in in The Encyclopaedia of the African Methodist Episcopal Church compiled by Bishop R. R. Wright.
Subjects: Education and Educators, Fraternal Organizations, Grade Schools & High Schools in Kentucky, Benevolent Societies
Geographic Region: Bryantville, Garrard County, Kentucky / Lancaster, Garrard County, Kentucky / Monticello, Wayne County, Kentucky

Burse, Raymond M.
Birth Year : 1951
Burse was born in Hopkinsville, KY, the youngest of the twelve children of Joe and Lena Belle Burse. He was captain of his high school track and football teams and declined football scholarships to attend Centre College, where he majored in chemistry and math, graduating in 1973. While at Centre, Burse was named most outstanding individual in track at two invitational meets and was named to the All-College Athletic Conference Football Team in 1972. He also earned a Rhodes Scholarship and attended the University of Oxford, majoring in organic chemistry and graduating in 1975. While at Oxford, he became the first African American to earn three "Blues," one in rugby; Burse also participated in basketball, track, and crew. He returned to the U.S. to attend Harvard Law School, graduating in 1978. Burse has had many recognitions and awards. He served as president of Kentucky State University, 1982-1989, and is presently vice president and general counsel at GE Consumer and Industrial. For more see Who's Who Among African Americans, 1985-2006; and M. Starks, "Raymond & Kim Burse," Who's Who in Black Louisville, 3rd ed. p.73.
Subjects: Athletes, Athletics, Education and Educators, Football, Lawyers, Track & Field, Rugby
Geographic Region: Hopkinsville, Christian County, Kentucky / Frankfort, Franklin County, Kentucky

Campbell, William Joseph
Birth Year : 1863
Death Year : 1912
William [W. J.] Campbell was a politician, a member and organizer of the Knights of Labor, a delegate and leader of the United Mine Workers of America, and a civil rights leader. The Knights of Labor, a labor organization, was founded as a secret society in Philadelphia, PA, in 1869. According to the organization's website, as of 1881, the Knights of Labor were no longer secret, and by 1886 the membership included 50,000 African American workers and 10,000 women workers. W. J. Campbell fought for improved race relations in coal towns and for interracial unions. He would become the representative of the Kentucky District of the United Mine Workers of America. W. J. Campbell was born in Morgan County, AL, the son of William Campbell and Bethiah Jones Campbell [source: W. J. Campbell's KY death certificate]. His family was poor; his father died when he was a boy. W. J. Campbell was hired out to a man who allowed him to attend and finish school in Huntsville, AL. Campbell became a teacher at the school he had attended. In 1880, he moved to Birmingham, AL, where he studied barbering and would become a barber. In 1881, he left barbering for the coal mines in Pratt City, AL. He became an advocate for the rights of African American miners, and in 1881 was secretary of the newly organized Knights of Labor in Pratt City. A year later, he was organizer-at-large, and established the first Knights of Labor in Birmingham and Montgomery. He established the beginnings of the United Mine Workers and the Federation of Mine Laborers, Division 10, in Chattanooga, TN. The division included Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky. W. J. Campbell was also a politician; he was the elected secretary of the Republican Committee of Jefferson County, AL, in 1882 and was also an elected delegate to the Republican State Convention. In 1892, he was an elected delegate-at-large to the Republican National Convention for Alabama. W. J. Campbell got married in 1889 and left Alabama in 1894 to settle in Central City, KY. Campbell was a miner and a barber, and his wife was a teacher at the Colored common school. Campbell organized Republican national league clubs for African Americans and whites. He was a delegate to the National Republican League Convention, and in 1901 was a member of the Republican State Campaign Committee. In 1898, Campbell drafted the Miners' Pay Bill of Kentucky that was passed by the Kentucky Legislature; it replaced the two weeks pay bill that had failed. In 1900, Campbell was a delegate to the National United Mine Workers of America [UMWA]. The UMWA was founded in Columbus, OH, in 1890, resulting from the merger of the Knights of Labor Trade Assembly No. 135 and the National Progressive Union of Miners and Mine Laborers. The constitution of the UMWA barred discrimination based on race, religion, and national origin. In 1901, Campbell became the secretary-treasurer of UMWA District 23 and is said to be the first African American at the post within the UMWA. He came to Lexington, KY in July of 1901 to settle a matter with W. D. Johnson, editor of The Standard newspaper. In 1904, Campbell was a member of the executive office of the UMWA, serving as a cabinet officer of John Mitchell. He was also president of Afro American National Protective Union, which sought to organize a National Labor Union. In 1912, Campbell would serve as president of the National Negroes' Industrial and Protective Union of America. William J. Campbell was the husband of Sallie L. Waddleton of South Carolina; the couple last lived in Drakesboro, KY. Campbell was a Mason, a member of the Odd Fellows, and a member of the A.M.E.Z. Church. He died November 28, 1912, and is buried in Smith Chapel Cemetery in Drakesboro, KY [source: Kentucky Death Certificate]. For more see the Knights of Labor website; the Brief History of the United Mine Workers of America website; The Challenge of Interracial Unionism, by D. Letwin; "W. J. Campbell...," Freeman, 01/24/1903, p. 4; "Birmingham: Victory won by the Warrior [AL] miners," Huntsville Gazette, 09/13/1884, p. 3; "Mr. W. J. Campbell," Huntsville Gazette, 02/13/1886, p. 2; "Mr. W. J. Campbell" in the Personals column of the Freeman, 01/20/1900, p. 8; "W. J. Campbell of Central City, Ky...," Freeman, 07/20/1901, p. 4; "W. J. Campbell," Freeman, 02/08/1902, p. 8; picture of W. J. Campbell on p. 1, biography on p. 4 of the Freeman, 03/01/1902; "Important Points great events in the suburban districts," Freeman, 03/01/1902, p. 4; "Mr. W. J. Campbell, miner," Freeman, 04/23/1904, p. 4; and "National Negroes' Industrial and Protective Union of America," Freeman, 01/27/1912, p. 6.
Subjects: Activists, Civil Rights, Barbers, Education and Educators, Migration North, Miners, Mines, & Steel Mills, Politicians, Politics, Appointments & Elections, Fraternal Organizations, Union Organizations
Geographic Region: Morgan County, Alabama / Central City and Drakesboro, Muhlenberg County, Kentucky

Capers, Jean M.
Birth Year : 1913
Jean Murrell Capers was born in Georgetown, KY. Her family moved to Cleveland, OH, when she was a child. Capers was a teacher in the Cleveland schools before becoming an attorney in 1945. She is a education graduate of Western Reserve University [now Case Western Reserve University]. She was assistant police prosecutor from 1946 until 1949, when she became the first African American elected to the Cleveland City Council. The N.C.N.W. recognized her as one of the 10 outstanding women in public service in 1950. She was the director and organizer of the Central Welfare Association. Capers later became a Cleveland Municipal Court Judge. In 2006, Capers, at 93 years of age, was the oldest practicing member of the National Bar Association. She has received a number of awards, including the 2011 Ohio State Bar Association Nettie Cronise Lutes Award [article online at Call & Post website]. Jean M. Capers is a law graduate of the Cleveland Law School [which merged with the John Marshall School of Law in 1945 to become the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law]. For more see Who's Who in Colored America, 1950; The American Bench. Judges of the nation, 2nd edition, ed. by M. Reincke and N. Lichterman; and "Capers oldest member to attend annual convention," National Bar Association Law E-Bulletin, vol. 14, issue 1 (August 2006). Photos of Jean Capers are in the African Americans of Note in Cleveland database.


Subjects: Activists, Civil Rights, Education and Educators, Welfare (Social Services) Organizations, Lawyers, Migration North, Corrections and Police, Politicians, Politics, Appointments & Elections, Social Workers, Judges
Geographic Region: Georgetown, Scott County, Kentucky / Cleveland, Ohio

Carter, Lillie Mae Bland
Birth Year : 1919
Death Year : 1982
Lillie Mae Carter was born in Bowling Green, KY, the daughter of John and Maude W. Husky Bland. She was a graduate of Tennessee State university and was employed in the Toledo, Ohio, school system. Carter is the author of a number of books, including a book of poems, Black Thoughts, and the anthology, Doing It Our Way. She is the mother of Leon J. Carter, III. For more see The Fascinating Story of Black Kentuckians, by A. A. Dunnigan.
Subjects: Authors, Education and Educators, Migration North, Poets
Geographic Region: Bowling Green, Warren County, Kentucky / Toledo, Ohio

Cayce, James B.
Birth Year : 1915
Death Year : 1971
James B. Cayce was born in Louisville, KY, the son of Paul and Mamie Cayce. He was an instructor at Simmons University in Louisville from 1940-1942. During that same time period, he supervised the division of activities within the Department of Public Welfare in Louisville. Cayce was executive director of the Washington Community Association in Hamilton, Ohio, from 1942-1943. He was also a minister and pastored at several churches. Cayce was also editor of the Ohio Baptist News from 1948-1950, authored Negroes and The Cooperative Movement (1940), and wrote a number of articles and editorials. Cayce moved from Ohio to Pittsburgh, PA, where he was the respected pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church from 1950-1971. He was a active member and recruiter of the NAACP and he corresponded with Martin Luther King, Jr. For more see Who's Who in Colored America, 1950; "Ebenezer Baptist Church celebrates its rich history," New Pittsburgh Courier, 07/17/2008, p.B2; and The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. by M. L. King, et al.

See photo image of Rev. James B. Cayce at Carnegie Museum of Art website.
Subjects: Activists, Civil Rights, Authors, Civic Leaders, Education and Educators, Welfare (Social Services) Organizations, Journalists, Newspapers, Magazines, Book Publishers, Music Publishers, Migration North, Religion & Church Work, Social Workers, NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)
Geographic Region: Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky / Hamilton, Ohio / Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Chappell, Roy M.
Birth Year : 1921
Death Year : 2002
Roy M. Chappell, a Tuskegee Airman, was born in Williamsburg, KY. Chappell attended high school in Monroe, Michigan; he was the only African American in his graduating class. He next attended Kentucky State College [now Kentucky State University] where he majored in chemistry; he left school his junior year to join the service during World War II. His aviation career began when he was a volunteer with the 477th Bombardment Group, and he later served at Godman Field at Fort Knox, KY. He participated in the Freedman Field Mutiny when 104 African American officers protested for equal treatment in the military. After his military service, Chappell settled in Chicago. He graduated from Roosevelt College [now Roosevelt University] and taught elementary school for 30 years; he was also a post office supervisor. The Roy M. Chappell Community Education Center at Kentucky State University was named in his honor. A historical marker, honoring Roy M. Chappell, is at the Briar Creek Park on South Second Street in Williamsburg, KY [note from Laurel West, Williamsburg City Council Member]. For more see HR1074 92 General Assembly and Roy Chappell Biography in The History Makers.
Subjects: Aviators, Education and Educators, Migration North, Military & Veterans, Postal Service, Community Centers and Cultural Centers
Geographic Region: Williamsburg, Whitley County, Kentucky / Monroe, Michigan / Chicago, Illinois

Cheaney, Henry E.
Birth Year : 1913
Death Year : 2006
Henry E. Cheaney was born in Henderson, KY. A leading authority on the history of African Americans in Kentucky, Dr. Cheaney retired from Kentucky State University (KSU), where he had been a professor for 46 years and is recognized for establishing its African American history collection. His personal collection was used for the writing of the history of Blacks in Kentucky, a two volume work. Dr. Cheaney received his undergraduate degree from Kentucky State in 1936, his master's degree in history from the University of Michigan in 1941, and his Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago in 1961. For more see Dr. Henry E. Cheaney - Portrait of Dedication; "KSU history professor remembered as a legend," Lexington Herald-Leader, 07/21 /2006, City&Region section, p. C1; and C. White, "Historian Henry E. Cheaney dies at 94: collected data on African Americans," Courier Journal (Louisville), 07/21/2006, News section, p. 6B.
Subjects: Education and Educators, Historians
Geographic Region: Henderson, Henderson County, Kentucky / Frankfort, Franklin County, Kentucky

Clark, Charles H.
Birth Year : 1855
Rev. Charles H. Clark was born in 1855 in Christian County, KY, to unmarried slave parents. His father escaped from slavery, leaving Charles and his mother behind. His mother later married a man named Clark, and Charles took his stepfather's last name. Charles Clark taught school at the Mount Zion Baptist Church near Hopkinsville, KY. He was pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Chicago, IL. He served as director of both the Binga State Bank in Chicago and the Citizens Bank and Trust Co. in Nashville. The Binga Bank was the first African American bank in Chicago. Clark also organized and chaired the Board of Directors of the National Baptist Publishing Board in Nashville. He was president of the Tennessee Baptist Convention and the National Baptist Sunday School Congress, and was appointed by the Tennessee governor to the Educational Convention of Negro Leaders. For more see Who's Who in Colored America, 1941-44; "Charles Henry Clark" in vol. 2 of the African American National Biography, edited by H. L. Gates, Jr. and E. B. Higginbotham; and "Charles Henry Clark, LL.D" in Who's Who Among the Colored Baptists of the United States, by S. W. Bacote.

See photo image and additional information about Rev. Charles Henry Clark in Simms' Blue Book and National Negro Business and Professional Directory by J. N. Simms, at the New York Public Library Digital Gallery.
Subjects: Bankers, Banks, Finance, Financial Advisors, Education and Educators, Journalists, Newspapers, Magazines, Book Publishers, Music Publishers, Religion & Church Work, Migration South, Sunday School
Geographic Region: Christian County, Kentucky / Chicago, Illinois / Nashville, Tennessee

Clark, John T.
Birth Year : 1883
Death Year : 1949
John T. Clark was born in Louisville, KY, the son of John R. and Sallie Clark. He graduated in 1906 from Ohio State University with a focus in sociology and economics. Clark returned to Louisville, where he was an instructor at Central High School (1907-1913). He left Louisville to become housing secretary in New York City (1913-1916). He was a contributing author to the 1915 collection, "Housing and Living Conditions among Negroes in Harlem." Clark held a number of posts with the National Urban League and its state chapters from 1916 to1949, including bringing the National Urban League to Pittsburgh in 1917 and becoming executive secretary of the St. Louis Urban League, beginning in 1926. Also a member of the American Social Workers Association, Clark was elected the third vice president of the National Conference of Social Work in 1940. For more see Who's Who in Colored America, 1933-37; and Who's Who in Colored America, 1950. The John T. Clark files of the Urban League of St. Louis are available at the Washington University of St. Louis Library.
Subjects: Activists, Civil Rights, Authors, Civic Leaders, Education and Educators, Migration North, Migration West, Social Workers, Sociologists & Social Scientists, Urban Leagues, Housing, Fair Housing, Open Housing, Housing Agencies
Geographic Region: Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky / New York City, New York / Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania / St. Louis, Missouri

Claybrook v Owensboro
In the late 1800s, Edward Claybrook (1821-1896) and others sued the City of Owensboro, KY, and others to prevent a segregated method of using taxes to pay for public education. Only taxes collected from African Americans were to be used for educating African American children in the city. For white children, the sum of $9,400 was available for two well-built schools, 18 teachers, and the 9-10 month school session. For African American children, $700 provided the one inferior school, three teachers, and a school session of about three months. In 1883, U. S. Circuit Judge John Barr ruled that the method of distributing school funds was unfair. "If I am correct in my conclusion, all that colored children in Owensboro are entitled to is the equal protection of the laws, in that a fair share of this fund be applied toward the maintenance of the common schools especially provided for colored children. In this view the only remedy is in equity.... United States courts have heretofore enjoined state officers from obeying state laws which were declared to be unconstitutional." For more see Claybrook and others v. City of Owensboro and others, District Court, D. Kentucky, 16 F.297 U.S. Dist. 1883; and Claybrook v. Owensboro by L. A. Coghill (thesis).
Subjects: Education and Educators, Grade Schools & High Schools in Kentucky, Court Cases
Geographic Region: Owensboro, Daviess County, Kentucky

Coe, James R. "Jimmy" [Jimmy Cole]
Birth Year : 1921
Death Year : 2004
James R. Coe was born in Tompkinsville, KY, but grew up in Indianapolis, where he spent his entire music career. He could play a number of instruments, but performed most often on the baritone and tenor saxophone. He also studied the clarinet. Coe played and recorded with Jay McShann's band as a replacement for Charlie Parker. He also recorded with other groups, sometimes under the name Jimmy Cole. He used his birth name 'Coe' with his own groups: Jimmy Coe and His Orchestra, and Jimmy Coe and His Gay Cats of Rhythm. He served in the U.S. Army, 1943-1945 and played in the 415th Band. By the mid 1960s, Coe was teaching music in the Indianapolis public schools and also was working for the Marion County juvenile courts and the U.S. Postal Service. For more see The Jimmy Coe Discography, a Clemson University website; and J. Harvey, "Jimmy Coe , well-known jazz musician and band leader, dies," The Indianapolis Star, 02/28/2004, City State section, p. B01. 


Subjects: Education and Educators, Migration North, Musicians, Opera, Singers, Song Writers, Postal Service
Geographic Region: Tompkinsville, Monroe County, Kentucky / Indianapolis, Indiana

Coggs, Pauline Redmond
Birth Year : 1912
Death Year : 2005
Pauline Coggs was born in Paris, Kentucky, the daughter of Rev. John B. and Josephine B. Redmond. The family moved to Chicago, where Coggs graduated from high school and earned a bachelor's degree in sociology and psychology at the University of Chicago. She earned a master's degree in social work at the University of Pittsburgh. Coggs was the first African American woman to head the Washington, D.C. Urban League. She also directed the youth activities department in the Chicago Urban League, 1936-1940. She was a part-time instructor in the Department of Social Work at Howard University, 1943-1944, and later became the assistant executive secretary of the Wisconsin Welfare Council, 1947-1948. Coggs was the author of "Race Relations Advisers - Messiahs or Quislings," Opportunity, 1943. She was a confidante of Eleanor Roosevelt. The governor of Wisconsin appointed her to the Wisconsin Civil Rights Commission. Pauline R. Coggs was the aunt of Wisconsin Senator Spencer Coggs. The Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. created the Pauline Redmond Coggs Foundation, Inc. For more see Who's Who in Colored America, 1950; C. Stephenson, "Striving to combat myths and ignorance never goes out of style," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 12/04/02, B News section, p.02; and F. Thomas-Lynn, "Coggs 'silent strength' behind political dynasty," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 07/28/2005, B News section, p. 07.
Subjects: Activists, Civil Rights, Education and Educators, Welfare (Social Services) Organizations, Politicians, Politics, Appointments & Elections, Social Workers, Women's Groups and Organizations, Urban Leagues
Geographic Region: Paris, Bourbon County, Kentucky / Washington, D.C. / Chicago, Illinois / Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Collins, Iona Wood
Birth Year : 1914
Death Year : 2003
Iona Wood Collins was born in Paris, KY; her family moved to Maryland when she was a child. Collins was one of the first African American librarians with the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, MD, working there from the late 1930s to the early 1940s. Following the birth of her daughter in 1945, Collins reopened the previously closed Little School, a private preschool in Baltimore for African American children. She owned and managed the school for 35 years, later opening the Park Hill Nursery. Collins was a graduate of Howard University and attended the Hampton Institute [now Hampton University] library science school before transferring to Columbia University, where she earned her library degree. She was the daughter of Nellie Virgie Hughes Wood and Francis Marion Wood, former president of Kentucky State College [now Kentucky State University] and Baltimore's first superintendent of Colored schools. For more see J. D. Rockoff, "Iona Wood Collins, 89, one of the first black librarians at Enoch Pratt," The Sun (Baltimore, MD), 12/28/2003, LOCAL section, p. 3B.
Subjects: Education and Educators, Librarians, Library Collections, Libraries, Migration North
Geographic Region: Paris, Bourbon County, Kentucky / Baltimore, Maryland

Colston, Lugusta Tyler
Birth Year : 1911
Death Year : 2008
Lugusta T. Colston, born in Lexington, KY, was a graduate of Wiley College and received her undergraduate library degree from Wayne State University. She was the librarian at Booker T. Washington High School in Miami, FL, for more than 30 years, and had also taught at the Booker T. Washington High School in Columbia, SC. In 1940, she was one of the seven founding members of the the Miami Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She was also a founding member of the Greater Miami Chapter of Links, an international women's civic organization, and was involved in several community organizations that included her leading role with the Minority Involvement Committee of the Miami-Dade County Division of the American Cancer Society. Lugusta T. Colston was the daughter of Mattie Mason Tyler and Charles W. Tyler. Lugusta T. Colston was a sister to Jimmie Tyler Brashear. Since the 1999 death of her husband, Nathaniel Colston, Lugusta T. Colston had been living in Southfield, MI. She is buried in Lexington, KY. For more see E. J. Brecher, "Veteran librarian at Booker T. Washington," Miami Herald, 03/09/2008, Metro and State section, p.5B.
Subjects: Civic Leaders, Education and Educators, Librarians, Library Collections, Libraries, Migration North, Migration South, Women's Groups and Organizations
Geographic Region: Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky / Columbia, South Carolina / Miami, Florida / Southfield, Michigan

Cook-Parrish, Mary Virginia
Birth Year : 1868
Death Year : 1945
An education and religious leader, Mary V. Cook-Parrish spoke before the American Baptist Home Mission Society on 'Female Education' in 1888. She was a professor at the Kentucky Baptist College, then known as State University [later Simmons University]. She became a journalist in 1886 with The American Baptist while at the same time editing a column with The South Carolina Tribune, writing under the pen name Grace Ermine. She spoke out on women's suffrage and full equality in employment, education, social reform, and church work. Cook-Parrish was born in Bowling Green, KY, the daughter of Ellen Buckner. She was the wife of Charles H. Parrish, Sr. Cook-Parrish's death certificate has her age as 77 years old. Additional information can be found in the Charles Parrish, Jr. Papers at the University of Louisville Libraries. For more see The Fascinating Story of Black Kentuckians, by A. A. Dunnigan; Africana: the encyclopedia of the African and African American experience, edited by K. A. Appiah and H. L. Gates, Jr.; and "Prof. Mary V. Cook, A.B." in Noted Negro Women: their triumphs and activities, by M. A. Majors.

See image of Prof. Mary V. Cook from The Afro-American Press and its Editors by I. Garland Penn, at NYPL Digital Gallery.
Subjects: Education and Educators, Journalists, Newspapers, Magazines, Book Publishers, Music Publishers, Religion & Church Work
Geographic Region: Bowling Green, Warren County, Kentucky / Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky

Copeland, Mayme L.
Birth Year : 1893
Death Year : 1970
Mrs. Mayme L. Copeland was the rural supervisor in the State Department of Education; her office was located in Frankfort, KY. She was one of two African American education administrators in the South whose salaries were partially paid by the Southern Education Foundation. During her career, Copeland was supervisor of Christian and Todd County Schools and head of the Rural Department of the American Teachers Association. She was recognized in Mabel Carney's article on rural education for her outstanding work in teacher training for one-teacher schools. She was the wife of Dr. Thomas H. Copeland, and was a member of Iota Phi Lambda. Dr. Thomas Copeland was presiding elder of the Hopkinsville District. Mayme Copeland was a 1933 graduate of Kentucky State College, and in 1937 earned her Master's degree in rural education from Columbia University. She was secretary of the Woman's Connectional Council of the Colored Methodist Church (CME). She retired from the Kentucky State Department of Education in 1947 after 44 years of service, and having been the longest serving African American employee. For more see The Fascinating Story of Black Kentuckians, by A. A. Dunnigan; M. Carney, "Rural education in American Universities, 1944-45," The Journal of Negro Education, vol. 15, issue 1 (Winter 1946), p. 98; W. G. Daniel, "Current trends and events of national importance in Negro education - Section A: General Activities," The Journal of Negro Education, vol. 7, issue 2 (April 1938), p. 221; "Kentuckian gets high post," Capital Plaindealer, 09/11/1937, p.3; "Prominent Kentucky school teacher will retire July 1," Plaindealer, 06/20/1947, p. 3; and "Mrs. M. L. Copeland plans retirement," KNEA Journal, March-April 1947, vol. 18, no. 2, p. 7 [available online].
Subjects: Education and Educators, Women's Groups and Organizations, Grade Schools & High Schools in Kentucky
Geographic Region: Frankfort, Franklin County, Kentucky

Cosby, Laken, Jr.
Laken Cosby, Jr. is a graduate of Lousiville Central High School. In 1988, he became the first African American chairman of the Jefferson County School Board. Cosby was also appointed to the Kentucky Board of Education in 1994 by Governor Brereton Jones; Cosby was vice chairman of the board for three terms. In 2002, Cosby was not reappointed to the board by Governor Patton. For more see "Cosby is Jefferson County board's first black chairman," in 1988 Kentucky Directory of Black Elected Officials, Seventh Report, by the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights, p. 36; and M. Pitsch, "Longtime advocate of school reform replaced on board," Courier-Journal, 05/11/2002, News section, p. O1A.

See photo image and additional information about Laken Cosby, Jr. at Hall of Fame 2012, a Kentucky Commission on Human Rights website. 
Subjects: Education and Educators, Politicians, Politics, Appointments & Elections, Appointments by Kentucky Governors, Board of Education
Geographic Region: Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky

Cotton, John A.
Birth Year : 1865
Death Year : 1943
Born in Manchester, KY, Reverend John Adams Cotton was the second African American President of Henderson Institute in Henderson, N.C. (1903-1943). The school, which existed from 1891-1970, was known as Henderson Normal and Industrial Institute until 1903, when Cotton changed the name to Henderson Institute. Cotton was educated at Berea College and Knoxville College and was a graduate of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. He was the husband of Maude Brooks. In 1903, the Cottons came to Henderson, N.C. from Cleveland, Ohio; Rev. Cotton had been transferred by the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church of America to replace Rev. Jacob Cook, who had died. Henderson Institute was placed on the National Register of Historical Places in 1995. Rev. John A. Cotton was the son of Nelson Cotton and Silphia Carroll Cotton. For more see Who's Who in Colored America, 1933-37; Minutes of the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church of America, by United Presbyterian Church of America, General Assembly (1958); Vance County, North Carolina, by A. D. Vann; and "John Adams Cotton" in History of the American Negro, North Carolina Edition edited by A. B. Caldwell.
Subjects: Education and Educators, Migration North, Religion & Church Work, Migration East
Geographic Region: Manchester, Clay County, Kentucky / Cleveland, Ohio / Henderson, North Carolina

Cox, Johnson Duncan
Birth Year : 1875
Death Year : 1952
Johnson D. Cox, born in Kentucky, was a teacher at Governor Street School in Evansville, Indiana. He was the husband of Eugenia D. Talbott Cox (b.1879 in Indiana) and the father of Alvalon C. Cox, and Elbert Frank Cox (1895-1969), the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics. Johnson D. Cox would later marry school teacher Ethel Cox (b.1893 in Indiana), they are listed in the 1940 U.S. Federal Census, where it is also noted that Johnson D. Cox attended one year of college and his wife had completed four years of college. Johnson D. Cox was a teacher and school principal in Evansville for 40 years. He was the son of Calvin and Annie Cox, and in 1880, the family lived in Allensville, KY, according to the U.S. Federal Census. By 1900, Johnson D. Cox was a school teacher in Pigeon, IN, and he and Eugenia had been married for five years and had two sons. The family was living in Evansville when the 1910 Census was taken, and Johnson D. Cox was employed as a school teacher. His son, Elbert Cox, began his teaching career at the Colored high school in Henderson, KY in 1917. He taught mathematics and physics for a year before leaving to join the Army during World War I. Elbert would go on to become a great educator. He was married to Beulah Kaufman, whose father, Lewis Kaufman (b.1853 in Indiana), had been a slave in Kentucky. Once freed, Lewis Kaufman left Kentucky for Princeton, Indiana, where he owned a blacksmith shop. For more see J. A. Donaldson and R. J. Fleming, "Elbert F. Cox: an early pioneer," The American Mathematical Monthly, vol.107, issue 2, (Feb., 2000), pp. 105-128; and "Evansville Honors the first Black Ph.D. in mathematics and his family, by T. M. Washington in Notices of the AMS, v.55, no.5, pp.588-589.
Subjects: Education and Educators, Fathers, Migration North, Blacksmiths
Geographic Region: Allensville, Todd County, Kentucky / Pigeon, Evansville, and Princeton, Indiana

Craft, Thomas, J. Sr.
Birth Year : 1924
Thomas J. Craft, Sr. was born in Monticello, KY, the son of Wonnie Alta Travis Craft and Thomas M. Craft. For generations, his family had lived near Albany, KY. Thomas J. Craft, Sr. graduated from the Colored school in Monticello and started college in 1941, but he was drafted before he finished and served with the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II. He returned to Monticello, then went on to completed his bachelor's degree in 1948, his master's degree in 1950, and his Ph.D. in 1963. His research involved transplants, skin grafts and the problem of graft rejection. Craft conducted research with amphibians and discovered a correlation between the release of stress hormones and the rejection of skin grafts. He held tenured positions at several universities and was inducted into the Central State University Hall of Fame in 1993. Craft was a nephew of Oneth Travis, Sr. For more see African Americans in Science, Math and Invention, by R. Spangenbur and K. Moserand; and Distinguished African American Scientists of the 20th Century, by J. H. Kessler, et al.
Subjects: Biologists, Education and Educators, Military & Veterans
Geographic Region: Monticello, Wayne County, Kentucky / Albany, Clinton County, Kentucky

Crawford, Don L.
Birth Year : 1921
Death Year : 2000
In 1961, Don L. Crawford became the first African American to be elected a Dayton City Commissioner. He was also the first person to be both a commission clerk and executive assistant to the commission, he retired in 1990. Crawford was also recognized for his public speaking ability. Born in Clinton, KY, he was a mathematics and physics graduate from Kentucky State University. Crawford left Kentucky for Dayton after his college graduation. He was a high school mathematics teacher and basketball coach before joining the U.S. Navy during WWII. In 1946, he became a social work administrator and later became more involved in the local politics. A park and Don Crawford Plaza were named in his honor. For more see A. Robinson, "Ex-commissioner Crawford dies," Dayton Daily News, 12/14/2000, p.1B; and MS-332 Don L. Crawford Papers at Wright State University Special Collections and Archives.
Subjects: Education and Educators, First City Employees & Officials (1960s Civil Rights Campaign), Migration North, Military & Veterans, Parks
Geographic Region: Clinton, Hickman County, Kentucky / Dayton, Ohio

Crocker, Cynthia
Cynthia Crocker had been a teacher for 26 years when she received the Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award in 1999. Crocker initiated the statewide Student Technology Leadership Program (STLP) at Noe Middle School in Louisville, KY. Crocker also initiated the Parent Laptop Checkout Program as a way to provide technology and training to families without computers. For more see Cynthia Crocker at the Milken Family Foundation website.


Subjects: Education and Educators
Geographic Region: Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky

Crouch, Hubert B.
Birth Year : 1906
Death Year : 1980
In 1943, ten men of science from historically black colleges established what would become the Association of Science Teachers in Negro Colleges and Affiliated Institutions (ASTNCAI). One of the members was Hubert Branch Crouch, a zoologist who taught at Kentucky State College [now Kentucky State University], beginning in 1931. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 1936. It had been in 1931, while attending the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, that Crouch got the idea to form a national organization of African American scientists. He also formed the Council of Science Teachers within the Kentucky Negro Educational Association. For more see W. M. King, "Hubert Branch Crouch and the origins of the National Institute of Science," The Journal of Negro History, vol. 79, issue 1 (1994), pp. 18-33.
Subjects: Education and Educators, Zoologists
Geographic Region: Frankfort, Franklin County, Kentucky