Tracy E. KMeyer - Civil Rights in the Gateway to the South: Louisville, Kentucky, 1945–1980

Civil Rights in the Gateway to the South

CIVIL RIGHTS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR BLACK EQUALITY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Series Editors
Steven F. Lawson, Rutgers University
Cynthia Griggs Fleming, University of Tennessee

Becoming King: Martin Luther King Jr.
and the Making of a National Leader
Troy Jackson

Civil Rights in the Gateway to the South: Louisville, Kentucky, 19451980
Tracy KMeyer

Democracy Rising: South Carolina and
the Fight for Black Equality since 1865
Peter F. Lau

Subversive Southerner: Anne Braden and the Struggle
for Racial Justice in the Cold War South
Catherine Fosl

This Little Light of Mine: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer
Kay Mills

Louisville, Kentucky 19451980

TRACY E. KMEYER

THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY

Copyright 2009 by The University Press of Kentucky

Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth,
serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. All rights reserved.

Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky
663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008
www.kentuckypress.com

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Maps created by Jeff Levy at the University of Kentucky Cartography Lab

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

KMeyer, Tracy Elaine.

Civil rights in the gateway to the South : Louisville, Kentucky, 19451980 / Tracy E. KMeyer.

p. cm. (Civil rights and the struggle for black equality in the twentieth century)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8131-2539-8 (hardcover : acid-free paper)

1. African AmericansCivil rightsKentuckyLouisvilleHistory20th century. 2. African AmericansKentuckyLouisvilleSocial conditions20th century. 3. Civil rights movementsKentuckyLouisville20th century. 4. Louisville (Ky.)Social conditions20th century. I. Title. II. Title: Louisville, Kentucky, 19451980.

F149K647 2009

323.119607307694409045dc22 2009000990

This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.

Manufactured in the United States of America.

Member of the Association of American University Presses

To Glenn,
with love

Over the years that I have been researching and writing this book, I have received financial, moral, and intellectual support from a number of institutions and individuals. The research could not have been completed without funding from the Louisville Institute, the Kentucky Oral History Commission, and the University of Louisville graduate school, College of Arts and Sciences, and Commonwealth Center for Humanities and Society. The content draws from and was fundamentally shaped by interviews with over eighty Louisvillians who graciously welcomed me into their homes and shared their stories of the movement. In particular, I am grateful to the Reverend James Chatham, Raoul Cunningham, Anne Braden, and J. Blaine Hudson for helping to identify narrators and make the contacts necessary to launch the interviews.

Once I moved on to writing, I benefited from the insights and suggestions of friends and colleagues. Catherine Fosl provided her perspective on Anne Braden and the Wade case. John Dittmer served as an extremely thorough and insightful external reader. And Kathryn Nasstrom not only was my sounding board over the years but read and gave extensive comments on the manuscript at various stages. I am profoundly grateful for their contributions.