The Kentucky Oral History Commission awarded a more than $3,500 grant to a project to convey life in Hopkinsville before desegregation.
Executive Director of Museums of Historic Hopkinsville Alissa Keller is collecting materials for “The African American Experience in Segregated Hopkinsville,” which aims to understand the African-American experience before desegregation.
Keller says African-Americans are a thriving and influential portion of the city’s population and she wants to celebrate the diversity of the community.
Keller says the project will tell the comprehensive and inclusive parts of history that are overlooked or not included in the overall prospective.
"Acknowledging the contributions and the hardships that have been gone through by that segment of our population and kind of embracing it all as one history will help move us forward,” says Keller.
The project will include at least 25 oral history interviews with those who recall the experience and will incorporate them through audio or video presentations at the Penny Royal Museum. Keller is expecting the community to play a major role in completing the project.
The project grant application was prepared by the museum with help from the Kentucky New Era.
