Remembering Our Past: Preserving the Soul of Second Street through Digital Images

FAIN: PY-253057-17

Centre College of Kentucky (Danville, KY 40422-1309)
Amy Frederick (Project Director: May 2016 to June 2019)

A digitization event, community conversations, workshops, and an exhibition to preserve and provide access to photographs and historical documents that chronicle the town of Danville during the 1920s through the 1970s, a time during which its historic Second Street was the “heartbeat of the African American community” in segregated Boyle County, Kentucky. The applicant would digitize family photographs and documents during the Soul of Second Street Festival and in subsequent months would offer a series of community conversations led by representatives from partner organizations: the Danville/Boyle County African American Historical Society; the Boyle County Public Library; and the Heart of Danville Main Street Program. A day-long workshop on how to care for paper, photographs, textiles, and other objects would also be provided at the Public Library, and the project would culminate in a multi-site, interactive exhibition of the collected materials during Black History Month in 2018.

From the 1920s to the 1970s, Danville, KY's Second Street district served as a vibrant hub for the surrounding African American community to socialize, shop and worship. Providing a communal space for those living in segregated Kentucky, the area fostered entrepreneurial success and social cohesion. Unfortunately, urban renewal efforts in the 1970s destroyed many of the buildings that provided the structure for this community. Recently, local organizations have begun to research and reclaim the stories of Second Street and Centre College faculty and students have begun to incorporate this work into internships and classes. Through the digitization of photographs during the Soul of Second Street Festival; the development of a public digital archive; public discussion on the importance of preserving local history; and a multi-site exhibition of the collected photographs, a Common Heritage grant would support efforts to better understand, record and share this vital piece of history.