Primary Sources
- Black People in Lexington Oral History Project - Louie B. Nunn Center This link opens in a new window
This project was originally created as a partnership with the Urban League of Lexington-Fayette County in 1978. These interviews concern the educational, political, economic, and social opportunities for African Americans in Lexington during the twentieth century. It consists of 232 interviews.
- Black Community News Collection - Lexington Public Library
The Black Community News Collection compiles searchable newspaper articles and ads for local Black community events, schools, social gatherings, church events, obituaries, and wedding announcements in older local newspapers in the library’s collection.
Broad primary sources that may contain Kentucky History
- African American Newspapers - Chronicling America, Library of Congress This link opens in a new window
Black Newspapers digitized by Library of Congress as part of the Chronicling America project. Covers 1800 to current with the bulk in 1850-1949. - Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1938 - Library of Congress This link opens in a new window
This collection contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project (FWP) of the Works Progress Administration, later renamed Work Projects Administration (WPA). At the conclusion of the Slave Narrative project, a set of edited transcripts was assembled and microfilmed in 1941 as the seventeen-volume Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves. - Black Freedom Struggle in the United States This link opens in a new window
This database contains about 1,600 primary source documents spanning nearly all of U.S. history. Subjects covered include slavery and the abolitionist movement, the U.S. Civil War, and the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements of the 20th century. - Black Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window
Black Thought and Culture contains about 100,000 pages of non-fiction writings by over 1,000 American black leaders—teachers, artists, politicians, religious leaders, athletes, war veterans, entertainers, and other figures—covering 250 years of history. The collection includes letters, speeches, prefatory essays, political leaflets, interviews, periodicals, and trial transcripts. - African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 This link opens in a new window
Search articles from historical African American Newspapers.
Non-Primary Sources
- Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (NKAA) This link opens in a new window
The Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (NKAA) offers information about African Americans in and from Kentucky. It is a free online collection of entries about people, places, events, and communities. The entries go far beyond straight biographies addressing issues and subjects, as well. Created and hosted by librarians and scholars at University of Kentucky
The Kentucky African American Encyclopedia by Publication Date: 2015The Kentucky African American Encyclopedia is an essential guide to the black experience in the Commonwealth. The encyclopedia includes biographical sketches of politicians and community leaders as well as pioneers in art, science, and industry. Kentucky's impact on the national scene is registered in an array of notable figures, such as writers William Wells Brown and bell hooks, reformers Bessie Lucas Allen and Shelby Lanier Jr., sports icons Muhammad Ali and Isaac Murphy, civil rights leaders Whitney Young Jr. and Georgia Powers, and entertainers Ernest Hogan, Helen Humes, and the Nappy Roots. Featuring entries on the individuals, events, places, organizations, movements, and institutions that have shaped the state's history since its origins, the volume also includes topical essays on the civil rights movement, Eastern Kentucky coalfields, business, education, and women.
Johnson, W. D. (William Decker). Biographical Sketches of Prominent Negro Men And Women of Kentucky. Lexington, Ky., 1897.
Kellogg, John. “The Formation of Black Residential Areas in Lexington, Kentucky, 1865-1887.” The Journal of Southern History, vol. 48, no. 1, 1982, pp. 21–52.
O’Malley, Nancy. “The Pursuit of Freedom: The Evolution of Kinkeadtown, an African American Post–Civil War Neighborhood in Lexington, Kentucky.” Winterthur Portfolio, vol. 37, no. 4, 2002, pp. 187–218.
Thomas, Herbert A. “Victims of Circumstance: Negroes in a Southern Town, 1865-1880.” The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, vol. 71, no. 3, 1973, pp. 253–71.
How to
- How to Read CursiveThis is a very good introduction to reading cursive writing and the form of letters, put together by the librarians at University North Carolina Wilmington.
- Citing Archives, Manuscripts, Oral Histories, City Directories, and MapsCreated by the McIntyre Library