KY Black History
Before adopting the name Muhammad Ali, this boxing legend won Olympic gold, became a three-time heavyweight champion, and inspired generations through his courage, charisma, and activism.
Who is Cassius Clay?
This annual fall event brings students and alumni together for football games, marching bands, and campus pride, celebrating AUC unity and culture.
What is homecoming?
Written by James Weldon Johnson in 1900 and often called the “Black national hymn,” this song has been performed at civil rights rallies, schools, and celebrations for over a century.
What is Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing?
This cuisine, rooted in the food traditions of enslaved Africans, evolved in the American South and became a symbol of community, resilience, and cultural identity for Black Americans.
What is soulfood?
She developed haircare products specifically for Black women, including oils and treatments to promote hair growth and manageability.
Who is Madam CJ Walker?
This body of water formed a natural boundary between slaveholding Kentucky and free states to the north, offering a pathway to freedom.
What is the Ohio River?
This longtime Coca-Cola CEO donated millions to Atlanta’s historically Black colleges, funding scholarships, campus programs, and even a library that still honors his support today.
Who is Robert Woodruff?
Sam Cooke’s 1964 hit became an anthem for the civil rights movement, expressing hope for a better tomorrow.
What is A Change is Gonna Come?
This law, passed in several U.S. states, prohibits discrimination based on natural hairstyles like braids, locs, and afros in workplaces and schools.
What is the crown act?
This invention by Garrett Morgan helped reduce car accidents and improve road safety.
What is the traffic light/ signal?
Born in Shelbyville, Kentucky, this civil rights leader became the first Black Kentuckian to head the National Urban League, championing equal employment opportunities and economic justice across the nation.
Who is Whitney Young?
Graduating from what was then Clark University in 1888, this scholar became the first African American to earn a PhD from Harvard, co-founded the NAACP in 1909, and wrote The Souls of Black Folk, a seminal work analyzing Black life in America.
Who is W.E.B Dubois?
Stevie Wonder wrote/composed this 1980 song to support the movement honoring Martin Luther King Jr. with a national holiday.
What is Happy Birthday (Stevie Wonder version)
During the 1920s, this cultural explosion in New York City saw Black writers, musicians, and artists produce poetry, novels, jazz, and visual art that challenged stereotypes and celebrated African American life, particularly in neighborhoods like Harlem.
What is Harlem Renaissance?
This agricultural scientist developed hundreds of uses for peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans, including plastics and gasoline substitutes.
Who is George Washington Carver?
This Black jockey won the very first Kentucky Derby in 1875.
Oliver Lewis
In 1960, students from AUC institutions organized this civil rights coalition to coordinate sit-ins and protests across Atlanta in response to the Greensboro sit-ins.
What is the Atlanta Student Movement?
This 1939 Billie Holiday song, often called one of the first protest songs in jazz, condemned the brutal lynching of Black Americans in the South.
What is Strange Fruit?
A tradition revived in modern Black weddings, this practice symbolizes sweeping away the past and stepping into a new life together.
What is jumping the broom?
This NASA mathematician, featured in the film Hidden Figures, calculated the flight trajectories that helped send American astronauts safely into space.
Who is Katherine Johnson?
While Juneteenth commemorates freedom in Texas, this Kentucky holiday on August 8 celebrates when formerly enslaved people in the state first heard they were free.
What is Emancipation day?
This Atlanta-based organization coordinated nonviolent protests and became a central force in the civil rights movement co-founded by Ralph Albernathy and MLK.
What is Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SLSC)?
Founded in Detroit in 1959, this record label launched careers for artists like The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, and Marvin Gaye, helping Black music reach mainstream audiences and opening doors for future labels.
What is Motown Records?
Following the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, this period saw formerly enslaved Black Americans vote, hold office, and begin reshaping Southern politics for the first time.
What is the Reconstruction Era?
In 1966, inventor Marie Van Brittan Brown patented this early household safety system that allowed homeowners to see and communicate with visitors before opening the door, influencing modern surveillance technology like Ring cameras.
What is the home security system?