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Commission on Human Rights
Plans underway to publish Kentucky's Black Heritage Second Edition
LOUISVILLE – In recognition of African American History Month, the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights (KCHR) announces a new committee to develop a second edition of Kentucky’s Black Heritage. KCHR published the book in 1971 to give students information about the role African Americans played in the state and to provide a deeper understanding of the problems black Kentuckians faced and overcame throughout history.
Commission Chair Henry Curtis named as co-chairs of Kentucky’s Black Heritage 2nd Edition Book Committee Dr. John Hardin, professor of History at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, and Dr. William Turner, a KCHR commissioner and the National Endowment for the Humanities distinguished chair of Appalachian Studies at Berea College.
Other invited members are Dr. J. Blaine Hudson, dean of the College of the Arts and Sciences at the University of Louisville; Dr. Kevin Cosby, president of Simmons College in Louisville; Rev. Thurmond Coleman, a KCHR commissioner and pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church of Jeffersontown where he served as pastor for 45 years; Dr. Anne S. Butler, director of the Center of Excellence for the Study of Kentucky African Americans at Kentucky State University in Frankfort; and Dr. James C. Klotter, professor of History at Georgetown College and the state historian.
“The commission published Kentucky’s Black Heritage because the history of black Kentuckians had too long been ignored or misrepresented in textbooks,” said John Johnson, executive director of the commission. “Now, decades later, KCHR feels it is time to issue a second edition documenting some of Kentucky’s African American history in the past 37 years,” he said.
Members of the public may offer suggestions for the publication by contacting KCHR Executive Staff Advisor Cynthia Fox at 502.595.4024 or 1.800.292.5566.
Executive Director Johnson said the commission hopes to release the second edition at the KCHR 50th anniversary in 2010.
The committee will also work to find resources to pay for the book’s research and publication due to a lack of funding for the state human rights commission.
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