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Collection: Museum: University of St Andrews

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Following the Kentucky State Colored Convention, held in Frankfort, delegates submit a document to the US Senate challenging the rise of racial violence in the state, pointing to “organized bands of desperate and lawless men, mainly composed of soldiers of the late rebel armies, armed, disciplined, and disguised” as the perpetrators.

Freedom March on Frankfort, KY. 10,000 people, led by Martin Luther King, Jr., and other civil rights leaders, march in peaceful protest against the Kentucky legislature’s failure to support a bill for the removal of racial barriers in public accommodations.

Further intensive excavations by the University of Kentucky on sites of Camp Nelson refugee cottages and huts reveals rim lock fragments and keys, suggesting that residents actively worked to secure their possessions, while ink bottle and slate board fragments point to the presence of literate residents, or those involved in learning at the camp’s schoolhouse. Professor Stephen McBride argues that these finds “may reflect the transition from slavery to freedom at Camp Nelson.”

General Burnside orders the establishment of Camp Nelson, a fortified supply depot to support a military campaign to East Tennessee.

General Orders No. 20 formalizes African American enlistment in Kentucky and authorizes the creation of eight training centers for United States Colored Troops (USCT), including at Camp Nelson.

General Orders No. 34 permits African American men (free and enslaved) to enlist with US military forces in Kentucky, with their enslaver’s permission.

General Orders No. 41 authorizes the US Army to use enslaved African Americans for military construction projects. Enslaved men and women constructed roads and fortifications in Central Kentucky, including at Camp Nelson. Their enslavers were compensated by the federal government.

George Floyd killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis, MN. His death gives rise to worldwide protests against historic racism and police brutality, and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Jessamine County Pro-Slavery Lodge, No. 23, passes a resolution against the discussion of “anti-slavery doctrines, either publicly or privately.”

Jessamine County’s Black leaders meet at the Nicholasville A.M.E. Church to elect a committee of preachers, teachers, and entrepreneurs capable of writing a resolution to oppose the state’s “Jim Crow Car Bill.”

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