Have We Been Down This Road Before? Reflections on Kentucky Women’s History

Have We Been Down This Road Before?Reflections on Kentucky Womens HistoryRandolph Hollingsworth, M.A.T., Ph.D.University of Kentucky"Don't worry about a thing,'Cause every little thing gonna be all right.Singin': "Don't worry about a thing,'Cause every little thing gonna be all right!"

Rise up this mornin',Smiled with the risin' sun,Three little birdsPitch by my doorstepSingin' sweet songsOf melodies pure and true,Sayin', ("This is my message to you-ou-ou:")

Singin': "Don't worry 'bout a thing,'Cause every little thing gonna be all right."Singin': "Don't worry (don't worry) 'bout a thing,'Cause every little thing gonna be all right!"

Rise up this mornin',Smiled with the risin' sun,Three little birdsPitch by my doorstepSingin' sweet songsOf melodies pure and true,Sayin', "This is my message to you-ou-ou:"

Singin': "Don't worry about a thing, worry about a thing, oh!Every little thing gonna be all right. Don't worry!"Singin': "Don't worry about a thing" - I won't worry!"'Cause every little thing gonna be all right."

Singin': "Don't worry about a thing,'Cause every little thing gonna be all right" - I won't worry!Singin': "Don't worry about a thing,'Cause every little thing gonna be all right."Singin': "Don't worry about a thing, oh no!'Cause every little thing gonna be all right! /fadeout/1Dont worry about a thing, cause every little thing gonna be alright!Women dont have any history not reallyWomens history isnt about me or you.Women in KY were poor, illiterate, pregnant and sick dodging bullets from all the feuding, right? nuff said!

Women and children on the front porch of a mining company house at Four Mile, Bell County KY, 1946

Womens history is often viewed as a sideline to the real history of Kentucky. However, this genre can often create a clearer picture in the mind of the general reader or novice historian than the usual scholarly history focused on male activities and words.

Not satisfied but conservative Cultural tone, but look closer and find stubborn, progressive, transnational2Dont worry Wait werent Kentucky women Southern belles and wily whorehouse madams?

Sallie Ward, Louisville 1860Belle Brezing, Lexington 1895

I propose that we can read Kentucky womens history as a way to learn Kentucky history more fully and, those readers interested in Kentucky history can better learn womens history.3Pre 1750s: sustainable agriculture, international markets, healing aspects of spirituality18th and early 19th centuries: agri-business, church as microcosm of local social reform, public education, transnationalism, patriotismSing sweet songs of melodies pure and true Chickamauga, Cherokee, Creek, Cherokee women farms = meadows; created beautiful art and set up pelts for trade

Alongside the fabled long hunters, citizen militias in hastily built stations and land speculators, Kentucky women expanded farms; demanded sidewalks, gaslights, and symphonies. Itinerant preachers and dinner parties while still forted (esp white women and blacks in GA revivals = new sects: Sisters of Charity of Nazareth & Catherine Spalding; Shakers at Pleasant Hill; Cane Ridge. Kentucky Colonization movement; 1830s rise of public ed reform + KY law for women to vote on school taxes for whites; late 1850s, resistance in federal military occupation and emancipation efforts vs. state militia & local laws. Increasing rigidity in bl-wh relations, strange with multi-ethnic cultures esp Louisville with strategic railroads and ports that rely so heavily on black labor. This new stage in Kentucky race relations becomes startlingly clear when seen from a womans point of view. 419th & early 20th centuries: war resistance, memorialization of warriors, white supremacy, free love, literacy, defining citizenship, kinship networks across boundaries, rely on federal funding while emphasizing states rightsEvery little things gonna be all rightDecision to recruit blackKYians as Union troops infl political affiliations of white KYians, and tradtlanger at miscegenation in antebellm pro-slavery argumnts transformed into images of rape by armed Union soldiers. The role of black benevolent societies, especially womens groups, supporting black troops and educating freedmen bolsters the internal workings of the Kentucky black communities and leads to organized civil and human rights movements critical to black Kentuckian success. Womens associations come out of their parlors after the Civil War, public art Woman Triumphant and public petitions by women in the town and state legislatures. Womens local clubs came to depend on national affiliations, rival groups cooperated at the local level on common causes eg homes for war widows/orphans, temperance, literacy, reproductive health, segregation regulations. Josephine Henrys pacifism and free love vs Laura Clay & sisters take up white supremacy and states rights; African-Am womens clubs addressing education (apprentice), safety (lynching) and civil rights (juries, electoral politics) KY 1st to revoke womens suffrage. The image of the KKK riding to the rescue of a white woman in the embrace of a black man came from a Kentuckians novel and transfers easily into the new medium of film: the Birth of a Nation reflects white Kentuckian sentiment and sparks a revolutionary chord in black communities. 520th & early 21st centuries: conservation, improved labor conditions, internationalism & human rights, how to woo an international company to Kentucky and when not to, polite racismEverythings gonna be all rightU.S. participation in 2 World Wars imp time at which both black & white females move from domestic-centered economy (which may or may not allow for income generation) into a job-centered wage economy. Black womens strength always a part of the labor force is seen to reside in careful conformity to respectability standards defined in male-led local churches, and in the support of state and national organizations led by women. Black and white women work as local/bridge leaders in the civil rights era tho men are at the podium. White union workers persevere and the Democratic Party gains some new bosses under Lt-Gov Thelma Stovall, Mae Str Kidd and Georgia D Powers incr role of women in traditionally male organizations and who helped paved the way for Kentuckys first female governor. Womens ideologies and activities support the conservative trends in Kentucky in the latter part of the 20th and early 21st century. Women play important roles in the rise of mega-churches, right-to-life groups and home-schooling. Fewer women run for or win political offices than ever before. More women and their children find themselves in abusive relationships with fewer options for getting help. Illiteracy, poor health and poverty bind womens imaginations as firmly as any patriarchal sense of propriety. Funding for Homeland Security and technology resources wins out over programs for community and health services for women and children. While the context is bleak, the biographical narrative derived from oral history interviews can inspire many.

6Sisters in the Struggle: KY Women in the Long Civil Rights Era, 1920s-70sHistorical records and record-keepingThe promise of our youthDigital media and the InternetHistory in the open each 1 teach 1 http://www.kywcrh.orgEverythings gonna be alrightexploration of and experimentation with the historians craft

Twitter during Dialogs on Race with famous KentuckiansWikipedia7Created new Wikipedia category: History of Women in KentuckyJoyce Hamilton BerryJoy Bale BooneAnna Mac ClarkeDolores DelahantyAudrey GreviousElizabeth FouseJulia Britton HooksKentucky Female Orphan SchoolLucille C. LittleAnita MaddenNAACP in KentuckyJudi PattonLena M. PhillipsSuzy PostJeanette B. Priebe8

Research Journalsin the open9

Research fueled by Reinette Jones UK NKAA database10Research fueled by others findings & supportive messages

11Oral History Group Projects

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Oral History Group Projects13Can help us focus and refocus our lens on our futureKentucky womens history

We must examine Kentucky and national economic/political indicators for trends for Kentucky womens future. Poverty has become feminized though women are half of the labor force (and more than half of those are mothers) While the context is bleak, the biographical narrative derived from oral history interviews can inspire many. Make your own history!14