Saving Stories WUKY

WUKY's Saving Stories commemorates the sixtieth anniversary of the March for Civil Rights in Frankfort. On March 5, 1964 thousands came toKentucky's Capitol to hear from Martin Luther King, baseball great Jackie Robinson, folk group Peter, Paul and Mary, and rally support for a public accommodations bill. To celebrate Women's History Month, Nunn Center Director Dr. Doug Boyd shares audio from three recent interviews with local women who participated in the event on that historic day.

WUKY's Saving Stories commemorates the sixtieth anniversary of the March for Civil Rights in Frankfort. On March 5, 1964 thousands came to Kentucky's Capitol to hear from Martin Luther King, baseball great Jackie Robinson, folk group Peter, Paul and Mary, and rally support for a public accommodations bill. In this segment we hear distinctly different perspectives from two Kentuckians and their respective experiences that historic day.

The University of Kentucky is commemorating the 75th anniversary of the desegregation of its campus. In our latest edition of Saving Stories, Dr. Doug Boyd with the UK Libraries Nunn Center for Oral History shares audio from a series of interviews with Lyman T. Johnson; the first African-American student to set foot on the UK campus. Johnson successfully challenged a state law that prohibited students of different races to be educated together in the same classroom. The university had been getting around the 'Day Law' by sending professors to the Kentucky State University campus in Frankfort to instruct African-American students. That all changed with Johnson in 1949.

In a special edition of WUKY's Saving Stories Nunn Center Director Doug Boyd shares interviews detailing the stories of two Kentucky couples and one lawyer who were part of the legal fight that led to the Supreme Court–and brought marriage equality to the country. The conversations come from the John G. Heyburn II Initiative for Excellence in the Federal Judiciary Project archived by Anu Kasarabada and the Nunn Center's Outsouth: LGBTQ+ Oral History Project. The interviews are also featured in the latest episode of the Nunn Center's "The Wisdom Project" podcast.

This week on Saving Stories Dr. Doug Boyd, director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History in the UK Libraries highlights an interview with Jim Green, the first African-American student-athlete to graduate from UK. In the conversation Green talks about his decision to enroll at the state’s flagship university in the late 1960’s, what it was like competing in the racially-charged Southeastern conference, his role in desegregating the track program, and how he’d like to be remembered by future generations.

In this special MLK Holiday edition of WUKY's Saving Stories, Doug Boyd, director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History in the UK Libraries highlights an extraordinary interview with Dr. King from March of 1964. Hear the non-violent advocate and activist at the height of his influence in a one-on-one conversation with Kentucky author Robert Penn Warren discussing the revolutionary nature of the Civil Rights movement and where he thought it should go next.