Segregation--Kentucky--Louisville

Elmer Lucille Allen grew up in the Russell neighborhood in the 1930s and 40s. Allen described the neighborhood in the days before urban renewal in the late 1950s. She attended Madison Street Junior High School and Central High School during segregation. She attended Louisville Municipal College, the African American arm of the University of Louisville. After the Supreme Court desegregated schools in 1954, UofL closed Louisville Municipal College and Allen went on the Nazareth College (now Spalding University). She became the first African American chemist at Brown-Foreman.

Elmer Lucille Allen discusses general information about her life, including her educational and working career. She received degrees from University of Louisville and Spalding University. Her early childhood education was during segregation. Her working career included time at Brown Forman, where she was the first African American Chemist. Allen explains how her teachers shaped her adulthood. She discuses general information about her adult life, including her husband and children. She provides her and her children's experiences in school and the discrimination they faced. Allen discuses what she believes the boundaries of the Parkland neighborhood include. She discusses the riot of 1968 (she notes people destroying the neighborhood) and compares it to the riots in Ferguson Missouri. Allen describes the Parkland neighborhood after the riot, and notes the persisting negative stereotypes of the West End. Allen describes past segregation in Louisville, including parks and funeral homes, and the discrimination of African American's by businesses. She notes the progression of Louisville in general. (Interview index available.)

Mervin Aubespin (b. 1937 in Louisiana), a reporter for the Courier-Journal, talks about his path to the Civil Rights movement starting in Alabama and then in Louisville; Louisville during segregation; housing discrimination; and white flight. As an activist, Aubespin participated in marches, sit-ins, voter registration and organization for public accommodation, open housing, and to integrate Fontaine Ferry. Aubespin was originally hired by the Courier-Journal an artist, one of the first Black employees there. He covered the Parkland Uprising but did not get a byline or credit for his work. He then attended an intensive program at Columbia University to produce Black journalists and had a successful career as a reporter for the Courier-Journal, specializing in covering topics of interest to the Black community. Regarded as an expert on racism and the media, Aubespin is a past president of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and was given the Ida B. Wells Award for his efforts to bring minorities into the field of journalism. Aubespin was also the founder of the Louisville Association of Black Communicators.

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.

From his childhood until its closing in 1951, Lattimore Cole, a Louisville native, worked intermittently at the “Louisville Leader,” an African-American weekly, founded in 1917 by his father, I. Willis Cole. Mr. Cole served in World War II, attended Louisville Municipal College, and retired from the U. S. Postal Service. Much of the interview involves comments and identifications provided by Lattimore Cole when shown family photographs and items from the “Louisville Leader” newspaper/printing company. Publishing company operations and staff are recounted. Mr. Cole also comments on his father’s friendships with national African-American business and political leaders as well as local figures like newspaper rival William Warley. I. Willis Cole’s personality and business instincts are discussed along with descriptions of Louisville’s segregated Old Walnut Business District. The interview concludes with Lattimore’s discussion of his siblings and their home-life together. NOTE: The recorder was inadvertently not started until about thirty minutes into the interview. When taping commenced the interviewer incorrectly stated the date as “October 19, 2013.” The error was corrected at the conclusion of the interview. Mr. Cole’s daughter, Nora, is heard commenting in the background. Earlier interviews conducted on November 26, 1977 and June 23, 2004 (video) are also available.

Henry Ebbs is a 75-year-old Black man, and was a resident of the Parkland area during the 1940s and 1950s. He discusses his life in Louisville as well as the Parkland area during the 1940s. As an early resident of the neighborhood he discusses the mixed racial area and peaceful atmosphere. Recreational activities centered around the churches and related religious groups. Left the area for better living conveniences. Enjoyed Chickasaw Park and other amenities. Discusses the racial segregation of the city during the time and inequality some members of his family received.

Ira Grupper was born in New York City in 1944. Before moving to Louisville in 1969, Ira was involved in rent strikes in New York and he took part in the civil rights movement all over the South with the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee). In this interview, Ira talks about his personal friendship with Carl and Anne Braden, whom he worked alongside as part of the SCEF (Southern Conference Education Fund). Other topics include Ira's work as a commissioner and eventual Vice-Chairman of the Louisville and Jefferson County Human Relations Commission. He talks about being a staunch advocate for workers rights and an improvement in labor conditions. He also discusses his involvement with the busing situation during the 1970s and his role as an outreach spokesman who went to white communities to attempt to persuade them to support desegregation in the local schools.

Cheri Bryant Hamilton, born and raised in the West End of Louisville, attended Fisk University for her undergraduate degree and went on to get a law degree at North Carolina Central University. In this interview, Hamilton discusses getting involved in the Civil Rights Movement at a young age, following behind her mother's activism. She talks about her involvement in open housing during her high school years, the experiences of attending rallies in the city, her involvement in SCLC, the NAACP, and the Youth NAACP. She also discusses the riot that occurred in Louisville when Stokley Carmichael was coming to town as well as her memories of the Black Six trial, briefly. Following law school, she returned to Louisville and worked for the city on labor type issues. In this part of her interview, Hamilton discusses her work on the city's first affirmative action plan, her work in the NAACP as the political action chari, and her work with Martha Layne Collins and the KY Commision on Women. She continued to work for the city and be involved in various ways including serving on the Jefferson County Democratic Executive Committee and the Metro Louisville Women's Political Caucus.

Lula Howard was the first African American woman to work in planning services for the city of Louisville. She discusses zoning as it relates to racial segregation.