The Lexington History Museum reopened at its new home on Saturday, and it includes a display featuring WUKY’s own DeBraun Thomas who helped shape changes in the city.
The area around the old courthouse in downtown Lexington used to be called Cheapside. It was once used as a slave auction block. In the fall of 2017, the group Take Back Cheapside successfully galvanized the urban county council to relocate confederate statues outside the courthouse, and eventually rename the area Tandy Park.
Leading the charge were Russell Allen and DeBraun Thomas. Fast forward nearly six years. Allen and Thomas were invited to a VIP tour of the museum where their names are part of history.
“Got some stickers, some things, some items from the reimagine Cheapside phase of what we did. And Russell and I both gave the shirts that we wore the night of the city council meeting and um…” Thomas pauses and sighs,“When I tell you what it was like to walk in there, I just don’t even, I just, I don’t truly think I can formulate the words.”
Thomas said it’s important for these and other items to be on display for the community to see. The road wasn’t easy. Both he and Allen received death threats.
“To think about all that we went through. To think about the things that happened before, during, and after. It’s one, nice to be appreciated and acknowledged, but that history part that’s the, that’s the part that really resonates with me. That yeah, we are part of history. We are part of the story of Lexington.
The museum is located on North Broadway in The Hunt Morgan House. For hours of operation and other information visit lexhistory.org.
