Africa
987
K. A. Bright is a third generation Black Louisville businessman. He discusses his family's history in the drug store and beauty aid businesses, his education and personal history.
2595
Tia Brown grew up in the Newburg neighborhood and current resides in Fern Creek. She shared memories of Newburg from her childhood and the history she’s researched of the neighborhood. She worked for a time as a real estate agent in Maryland and compared it to the housing situation in Kentucky.
1095
Bryant discusses her childhood in Detroit, Michigan, where her father was involved in fair housing work. The interview also includes recollections of her education at a private girls' school in Washington, D.C. and at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she received an AB in history; her move to Louisville with her husband, a physician; her work with the West End Community Council; and involvement with the Black Six conspiracy trial.
1684
Civil Rights Activist Ruth Bryant (1923-2013) speaks about her childhood and family history growing up in Detroit; her move to Louisville and observations about housing available to Black Louisvillians; how she became interested in and active in the open housing movement; her work with Committee on Community Development oversaw all federal funding that came into Louisville and how it was dispersed; and her involvement with other organizations such as the West End Community Council, Head Start, Citizens' Advisory Committee under the Urban Renewal Program, Black Unity League of Kentucky, and Women United for Social Action. She also talks about her arrest at open housing demonstrations and her memories of the 1968 Parkland Uprising. She mentions but does not speak at length about being one of the "Black Six," a group of Black Louisvillians accused of inciting rebellion during the 1968 Parkland Uprising and charged with conspiracy to destroy property and to blow up West End chemical plants.
956
Juanita Burks is the founder and president of City Plaza Personnel, a Black-owned employment agency in Louisville. She discusses her personal history, her difficulties in founding her own business and her opinions on the economic history of Blacks in Louisville.
1876
Veterans History Project
2353
Discusses 1968 Parkland Uprising and neighborhood history (emphasis on Shively race relations during the 1960s and 1970s). Interview index available
2605
Mr. Burton reflects on growing up in Russell, happy neighborhood, Old Walnut St., destruction of Urban Renewal, Rahn Burton, musician brother, played with Roland Kirk, working at Brown Foreman, starting the club, buying the building, fellowship of the club, community outreach, food giveaways, Easter, COVID, contracting COVID.
These and other interviews were conducted by the Louisville Story Program and collaboratively edited with the participants authors between 2020 and 2023. The culmination of this collaborative work is the documentary book, “If You Write Me A Letter, Send It Here: Voices of Russell in a Time of Change.” This anthology of nonfiction documents the rich layers of history and cultural heritage in the Russell area of west Louisville, a neighborhood whose history is centrally important to the Black experience in Louisville.
983
Mrs. Butler discusses her recollections of Simmons University beginning around 1909; the General Association of Kentucky Baptists (formerly the General Association of Colored Baptists in Kentucky); and the American Baptist newspaper beginning around the 1930s; I. Willis Cole, editor of the Louisville Leader; and Reverend William H. Ballew of the General Association of Kentucky Baptists.
841
Hilda Butler is one of Mammoth Life Insurance Company's vice presidents as well as its secretary. She discusses her career and memories of her father, Henry E. Hall, who was one of the founders of the company. She also discusses the Walnut Street Black business district and Mammoth Life's building there before the 1965 Urban Renewal program.
