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Category: History
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Tetanus and Whooping Cough
We Americans put a high value on our individual rights and this has served us well. However, with rights come responsibilities. We don’t have the right to kill each other. We do have the responsibility to protect each other.
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Kentucky, England and the Shire
Could hobbits have originated not only in England’s green and pleasant land, but also in Kentucky’s beautiful Bluegrass region? Was Strider, the ranger who was destined to become Aragorn the king in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings,” modeled in part on Kentucky’s legendary frontiersman, Daniel Boone?
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Diphtheria
It might be instructive to note that in our current pandemic, many of the anti-vaxxers refuse the COVID-19 vaccine because they “don’t know what the vaccine will do to them in the long term.” They don’t seem to remember that the other vaccines they received did them no harm nor do they consider what actually…
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Another Fine Winchester Home—Gone
Driving into Winchester last month (February 2022), I noticed a newly vacant lot where the Ratliff House had recently stood at 130 West Lexington Avenue. Once a showplace, it had fallen on hard times from lack of maintenance. A picture of the house on Google Street View from September 2021 shows a failing porch, deteriorated paint, rotting…
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Colored Paupers Graveyard
Cemeteries are said to be sacred spaces, and our society recognizes some obligation to preserve and care for them. Kentucky lawmakers have set minimal standards to protect cemeteries. In the case of the Colored Paupers Graveyard, it appears those laws have not been enforced.
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The ‘Colored Paupers’
Little is known about the men and women buried in the Colored Paupers Graveyard. Some were born into slavery. Most lived desperate lives of poverty. Some suffered from alcoholism or drug abuse. We know that at life’s end, they did not have the resources to pay for a burial coffin. For many, that life would…
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Ford fiasco
On the morning of July 16, 1895, the citizens of Winchester were greeted with gruesome news. The bullet-riddled body of 19-year-old African American Bob Haggard hung from the Kentucky Central Railroad Bridge from midnight until 4 a.m. when it was cut down, examined by the coroner, and buried in a nearby field.
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Racial terror in Clark Co.
Harry Enoch details available information from public records and contemporary newspaper accounts of six incidents of racial terror in Clark County's history. Commonly referred to as "lynchings," these are illegal execution of black men by vigilantes.
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Lynchings, ancient and modern
It goes by different names. Vigilante justice. Racial terrorism. Lynching. Someone would be accused of a crime. Before the justice system had a chance to process the case, a group of men — a “lynch mob” — would gather, kidnap the accused, take him out somewhere, and summarily execute him, usually by hanging.
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Attend a fun learning experience
This Saturday, February 19, from 6 to 8 p.m., First Baptist Church is presenting “A Tribute to Black History: Our Heritage, Our Culture.” I have registered to attend via the FBC Winchester Facebook page, and hope you do also. Registration is encouraged, but not required. Masks are required.