Group items tagged

From its start as the WAAC in 1942 until the end of World War II in 1946, only two black women from Kentucky would join the Women's Army Corps and go on to become officers, Anna Clarke and Mary A. Bordeaux (from Louisville), who was a member of the first Officer Candidate Class at Fort Des Moines and eventually was assigned to WAC recruiting duty in Chicago, Illinois.

Anna Mac Clarke was a pioneer, part of a unique group of women who came together for one purpose, to help their country win a world war. She and her sister WAACs would also fight another war at home; that of racism, and they, as one unified force, began to break down the barriers of her race and gender which would eventually lead to the civil rights movement of the late 1940s, up through the 1960s. Anna Mac would never know the full impact her efforts to right injustice would have on things that we take for granted today, not only in the military, but in the civilian world as well.

The Women's Armed Services Integration Act gave women permanent military status in the regular army or reserves.

“All of the adults looked after all of the children. Everybody knew each other. Everybody helped each other.”

Oakwood was special from the beginning. When the 106-home subdivision opened in 1964, it was only the second development in Lexington where African-Americans could buy a new house. The first, St. Martins Village, had opened a few years earlier, about a mile down Georgetown Road.

Oakwood opened the same year that Congress passed landmark civil rights legislation that prohibited housing discrimination. Before that, such discrimination was not only legal but widely practiced.

Dr Lillian Herald South   Born:  January 31, 1879 Died:  September 13, 1966  A native of Warren County, KY, Lillian South exerted a powerful influence on Kentucky’s public health. She was born the daughter of a doctor, JF South and his wife Martha (nee Moore).  Lillian went to public school in Bowling Green and graduated with a BA degree from Potter College (at the present location of WKU) when she was only 18 years old.  She then traveled to Patterson, NJ, where she studied for two years for her RN degree in nursing. Having “aced” every course in nursing school, she decided to pursue a doctoral degree in medicine. After 5 years, she earned her MD degree  from the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (1904). She returned to practice in Bowling Green, joining the successful practice of Dr J N McCormack and Dr A T McCormack. Two years later the three doctors established St Joseph Hospital in the South family home on (what is now) 12th Avenue. The home was re-built to accommodate 42 beds.  Just a few years later, in 1910, Dr South was appointed as state bacteriologist at the State Board of Health in Louisville, a position that she held for 40 years. In this capacity, she gained national recognition for her many years of research on hookworms, rabies, and leprosy in Kentucky. She is credited for virtually eradicating the once widely prevalent hookworm from the state, through public health campaigns to exterminate houseflies which are the vector. She also led the movement to ban the use of the public drinking cup.  Dr South was also very active in state and national organizations, and was the first woman to be elected vice president of the AMA (1914). She was an active member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Kentucky Medical Association, the Jefferson County Medical Society, and the Tri-County Medical Society.     [Note: the Warren County Medical Society was formerly called the Tri-County Medical Society].  She was president of the Association of Southern Medical Women, and councilor of the American Association of Medical Women.  Dr South traveled extensively to learn as much as she could about the science of medicine. She studied at Johns Hopkins, Mayo Clinic, the Pasteur Lab in Paris, as well as the Madame Curie Radium Institute. She was a delegate to the International Hygiene Congress in Dresden, Germany, and to the Public Health Division of the League of Nations in Geneva, Switz.

To work for the economic, moral, religous and social welfare of women and youth. To protect the rights of women and youth. To raise the standard and quality of life in home and family. To secure and use our influence for the enforcement of civil and political rights for African Americans and all citizens. To promote the education of women and youth through the work of the departments. To obtain for African American women the opportunity of reaching the highest levels in all fields of human endeavor. To promote effective interaction with the male auxiliary. To promote inter-racial understanding so that justice and good will may prevail among all people. To hold educational workshops biennially at the Convention.  

Many southerners did not believe that African Americans should have been allowed to know how to read. When dealing with the racism of southern America and the required segregation, Andrew Carnegie went as far as to build separate Carnegie libraries specifically for African Americans.

He is best known as a part-owner and leader of Sears, Roebuck and Company, and for the Rosenwald Fund, which donated millions to support the education of African Americans and other philanthropic causes in the first half of the twentieth century.

Over the course of his life, Rosenwald and his fund donated over $70 million to public schools, colleges and universities, museums, Jewish charities, and black institutions. The school building program was one of the largest programs administered by the Rosenwald Fund, contributing over $4 million in matching funds to the construction of over 5,000 schools throughout America. These schools became known as "Rosenwald Schools."