"Living the Story: The Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky"

No, Abraham Lincoln, who was born 204 years ago today, was not in any way a supporter of civil rights for anyone but native-born white men. But the civil rights movement honors his legacy anyway.

From the Kentucky Historical Society:

Initiated in 1998 by the Kentucky Oral History Commission (KOHC), The Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky Oral History Project continues to provide resources to Kentuckians and teachers in the form of an online database and the documentary “Living the Story: The Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky.”

The original oral history project documented the civil rights movement in Kentucky through interviews focusing on the black experience from 1930 to 1975. Nearly 200 interviews were collected statewide, resulting in the production of radio programs, symposiums, live museum theatre performances and a 2010 publication, “Freedom on the Border: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky,” by Tracy K’Meyer and Catherine Fosl. Two resources continue to have a lasting impact on educators and the public: a documentary, “Living the Story: The Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky,” and an online database, containing keyword searchable video and audio clips from the oral history interviews and 10,000 pages of transcripts.

The Kentucky Oral History Commission is an agency of the Kentucky Historical Society (KHS).

“Living the Story: The Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky,” premiered on Kentucky Educational Television (KET) on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2002, to be shortly followed by expanded access to the documentary interviews in “The Rest of the Story.” KET also created a follow-up piece, “Kentucky Beyond the Color Lines,” which revisited a panel of the original documentary participants and focused on the impact of civil rights in the state in the 10 years since it first aired.

For airtimes of any of these broadcast pieces, visit www.ket.org. To order a DVD of “Living the Story: The Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky,” contact KOHC Administrator Sarah Milligan at sarah.milligan@ky.gov or 502-564-1792, ext. 4434.

The database with expanded documentary content and full access to the original oral history interviews can be found on the KOHC page of the KHS website at www.history.ky.gov/oralhistory.