Celebrate Kentucky African Americans’ History

This collection of online resources on Kentucky African Americans’ history has been compiled by the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. It is not a complete list of all the noteworthy men and women who have contributed to Kentucky’s heritage. Please contact the KDLA staff if you would like to add an Internet resource on famous Kentucky African Americans or Kentucky African American history.

Biographies

• Gallery of Great Black Kentuckians from the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights
• Notable Kentucky African Americans from the University of Kentucky
• Dr. Carter G. Woodson, Father of Black History, Graduate of Berea College, Kentucky, by Dorothy E. Lyles, Compiler
• Kentucky African American Women from Women in Kentucky: Our Legacy, Our Future
• Mary Britton, First African American Woman Physician in Lexington, Kentucky
• Alice Allison Dunnigan, Journalist from Russellville, Kentucky
• Helen Humes, Singer, Writer, and Actress from Louisville, Kentucky
• Lt. Anna Mac Clarke, First African American of the Women’s Army Corps to command an all-white regiment from Lawrenceburg, Kentucky
• Lois Morris, “The Lady Who Cared”
• Ora Framer Porter, Nurse from Bowling Green, Kentucky
• Effie Walker Smith, Writer from Pike County, Kentucky

Kentucky African Americans’ History

• Timeline of Kentucky African American History from the Kentucky Historical Society (in PDF form with online links, please see below for instructions on viewing PDF materials)
• Kentucky’s Underground Railroad: Passage to Freedom by Kentucky Educational Television (KET)
• Kentucky’s United States Colored Troops by John M. Trowbridge, Kentucky Historical Society
• Kentucky African Americans during the Civil War at Camp Nelson, Jessamine County, Kentucky
• Living the Story: The Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky by Kentucky Educational Television (KET)
• Kentucky African American Family History Resources: Fayette County, Kentucky by KyGenWeb
• Kentucky African Americans in the Derby from the Churchill Downs Simulcast Network
  

Historical Places

• Historic African American Churches of Lexington from the Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau
• First African Baptist Church, Lexington, Kentucky, from the National Park Service: A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary
• We Shall Overcome: Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement, Whitney M. Young, Jr., Birthplace in Shelby County, Kentucky
• Early History of Black Berea (1860-1900) before Kentucky’s Day Law in 1904 by Dr. Jackie Burnside, Berea College
• Roadside History: A Guide to Kentucky Highway Markers (choose subject “African American” for 3 pages of Kentucky African American Highway Markers)
• A Separate Flame Western Branch: the First African American Public Library from the Louisville Free Public Library
• At Leisure’s Edge: A Journey through Kentucky’s Historic Black Parks by Boyd Landerson Shearer, Jr.
• The Daily Aesthetic: Leisure and Recreation in a Southern City’s Segregated Park System by Boyd Landerson Shearer, Jr.
• Kentucky African American Heritage Guide from the Kentucky Department of Travel and the Kentucky African American Heritage Guide Committee
• Kentucky African American Heritage Trail in Downtown Lexington by Doris Wilkinson (PDF printable guide, please see below for instructions on viewing PDF materials)
  

Kentucky Historical Documents

• Narrative of the life of J.D. Green, a runaway slave from Kentucky, from the African American Pamphlet Collection, 1824-1909: From Slavery to Freedom with the Library of Congress American Memory Project [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aapchtml/aapchome.html]
• Three full-text transcripts from the Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky: Oral History Project available in PDF format (please see below for information on viewing PDF materials)
• The Kentucky Oral History Commission Guide to Kentucky Oral History Collections Subject Index, which contains information on oral history collections at forty-seven universities and libraries across Kentucky, including Kentucky African Americans’ oral histories.
• Kentucky Civil Rights Act from the Kentucky Revised Statutes
• Documenting the American South from the University of North Carolina with featured documents pertaining to Kentucky’s African Americans’ history
  • Narratives and Writings of Andrew Jackson of Kentucky
  • Slavery Days in Old Kentucky: A True Story of a Father who Sold His Wife and Four Children by One of the Children, Isaac Johnson
  • Life of S.J. McCray: Born and Raised a Slave in the State of Kentucky
  • Slave Life in Virginia and Kentucky
  • Autobiography of John Gregg Fee; Berea, Kentucky
  • What Experience has Taught Me: An Autobiography of Thomas William Burton
  • Life of the Rev. Elisha Winfield Green
  • Life and History of the Rev. Elijah P. Marrs
  • Biography of London Ferrill, Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Colored Persons, Lexington, Kentucky
    

National Documents

• Encountering the First American West from the Library of Congress American Memory Project
• The Emancipation Proclamation from the National Archives and Records Administration
• The Our Documents Project with images of historically significant documents of the United States government and essays on the history of the documents.
  • 13th Amendment
  • 14th Amendment
  • 15th Amendment
  • 1964 Civil Rights Act
  • 1965 Voting Rights Act
• In Motion: African American Migration Experience (http://inmotionaame.org/home.cfm) offers a new interpretation of African American history from the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Kentucky African American Census Data

• Kentucky State Data Center and Kentucky Population Research
• Historical Census Browser from the University of Virginia Geostat Center with population and economic data from 1790 to 1960
• Quick Facts on Kentucky’s Population from the U.S. Census Bureau

Genealogical Resources

• Researching your African American Ancestors from the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives
• African American Research: An Overview of African Americans in Kentucky History from the Kentucky Historical Society
  

PDF Documents
From the U.S. Census Bureau, an explaination of the PDF document and information on how to view the files.
The letters PDF or symbol indicate a document is in the Portable Document Format (PDF). To view file you will need the Adobe(R) Acrobat(R) Reader which is available for free from the Adobe web site.