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PodcastsHorses are running again at Keeneland and in this episode of WUKY’s Saving Stories we hear from one of the first, and one of the most successful, African American horse trainers in the modern era. In this 1986 Nunn Center interview, Oscar Dishman Jr. reflects on his rise from exercise boy / groom, his decision to become a horse trainer in 1960, and the challenges he had to overcome on his way to the top of his field. Training the winning horses for the 1973 Michigan Mile, Ohio Derby, Hawthorne Stakes, and the Widener Handicap (1977-1978) are among the highlights of his career for which he was awarded the Black Achievement Award in Lexington.
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The University of Kentucky is commemorating the 75th anniversary of the desegregation of its campus. In our latest edition of Saving Stories, Dr. Doug Boyd with the UK Libraries Nunn Center for Oral History shares audio from a series of interviews with Lyman T. Johnson; the first African-American student to set foot on the UK campus.
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The University of Kentucky is commemorating the 75th anniversary of the desegregation of its campus. In our latest edition of Saving Stories, Dr. Doug Boyd with the UK Libraries Nunn Center for Oral History shares audio from a series of interviews with Lyman T. Johnson; the first African-American student to set foot on the UK campus. Johnson successfully challenged a state law that prohibited students of different races to be educated together in the same classroom. The university had been getting around the 'Day Law' by sending professors to the Kentucky State University campus in Frankfort to instruct African-American students. That all changed with Johnson in 1949.
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Amid a national debate on how Black history should be taught, comes a new book on the African American Experience in Kentucky. Slavery and Freedom in the Bluegrass State: Revisiting My Old Kentucky Home is a collection of powerful essays that uncover the long-forgotten stories of pain, protest, and perseverance of African Americans in Kentucky. WUKY's Alan Lytle recently sat down with the editor of the project. Gerald L. Smith is professor of history at the University of Kentucky and pastor of Pilgrim Baptist Church in Lexington.
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This week marks the 75th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in major league baseball. Former Kentucky Congressman Ben Chandler's grandfather, A.B. "Happy" Chandler was MLB commissioner in 1947 when Jackie traded a Negro Leagues jersey for a Brooklyn Dodgers uniform and changed sports history forever. In 2016, right about the time Ken Burns released his documentary on Jackie, WUKY's Alan Lytle sat down with Ben to talk about and hear the historic tale from Happy himself; audio courtesy of theLouie B. Nunn Center for Oral History in the UK Libraries.
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The history of racial violence in Kentucky and how it connects to racial injustices today… that’s the basis of a talk at the University of Kentucky on Thursday. It’s sponsored by a relatively new program that highlights UK’s growing body of research into Black history.
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It's Black History Month, and Lexington Parks & Recreation is celebrating by featuring the history behind some of its many parks and facilities named after notable Black Americans. WUKY’s Arlo Barnette has more.
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For the first time in its history the University of Kentucky will recognize Juneteenth as a campus-wide holiday this Friday. June 19th has become a…
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'They Raised Me To Stand For What You Believe In.' Scholarship Honors First To Integrate Lex SchoolsIt’s been 66 years since Helen Caise Wade became the first African American to integrate a Lexington school. Now, a group of teachers has organized the creation of an endowed scholarship at the University of Kentucky that honors Ms. Wade and will help students of color become teachers themselves.
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Over the years it’s had many names: “Gunntown,” “Kinkeadtown,” and “Goodloetown,” and thanks to the talented and driven Black professionals in Lexington’s…