2024 Leadership Lexington History Day Recap

Written by: Jyre Richardson, From Here to There Moving

​For our first Leadership Lexington session, we had the privilege of touring Lexington and hearing from and speaking to multiple historians. We began our day at the Downtown Lexington Public Library, hearing from Mr. Dudley Webb of The Webb Companies. He regaled us with stories of the history of Lexington, or the “world's largest national park”, as he called it, thanks to the various organizations restricting our physical growth. Mr. Webb commented on the past and present dynamic of Lexingtonians wanting progress, while simultaneously opposing too much change. 

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​Next, we spoke with Mr. Shea Brown and Dr. Vanessa Holden with the Digital Access Program (DAP), which
 “…seeks to digitize archival records to achieve accessibility and preservation. The project will bring to light more than 113,000 pages of records, in 218 books, spanning from the late 1700s through 1865 and forward. Many of these books include deed records identifying names of enslaved people who were sold, purchased, transferred, conveyed, auctioned off, or even emancipated, deed and mortgage records of enslaved people who were used as collateral to secure a debt, and wills, estate appraisements, settlements, inventory or other probate records including enslaved people as part of an estate, and county court orders which list fugitives as runaways and also contain other various information about enslaved people.” (https://fayettecountyclerk.com/web/landrecords/digitalaccessproject.htm)
 
We then had the pleasure of hearing from Mandy Higgins, Executive Director of the Lexington History Museum.  She described how history is usually told as either a list of dates or through nostalgic, rose-tinted glasses. She claimed that neither approach is helpful, as history is best presented as an argument. She stated that Lexington has both an uplifting history, as well as an extremely violent and degrading history. History moves, flows and changes, including the names, people, places, and definitions. What is correct at one time, eventually changes. Change is the only constant.
 
Finally, we heard from Yvonne Giles, who gave us a tour of Lexington’s East End. She taught us of the rich, and largely unknown, African American jockey tradition in Lexington. We saw an incredible statue by local artist Kiptoo Taurus of Will Harbut, Man O War’s African American groom for 16 years. We then viewed the Isaac Murphy Memorial Art Garden, the first (and only) park in the United States to honor the earliest African American professional athletes – the Thoroughbred jockey. We finished at Charles Young Park and learned the history of Charles Young – a soldier, diplomat and civil rights leader.
                   
In closing, I’m thankful we learned that the only way to learn from history is to study it. We must learn the good and the bad to move forward.