In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

696 The Kentucky Anthology Georgia Davis Powers from Celia’s Land Like her friend Mae Street Kidd, Georgia Davis Powers was active in politics, and she served in the Kentucky General Assembly from 1968 to 1989. She was the first woman and the first African American to serve in the state senate. She was born in 1923 in Springfield and later came to Louisville to attend and graduate from both Central High School and Louisville Municipal College. In the 1960s she became a force in local politics, serving as a campaign head for a number of Democratic candidates for public office. In I Shared the Dream (1995) she recalls her active role in the major civil rights campaigns and marches and her friendship with the movement’s national leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King. Her most recent book is Celia’s Land (2004), a historically accurate novel based on the life of her great aunt, Celia Mudd, who was born a slave in Nelson County in 1859 and who, after receiving her freedom, chose to remain with the Lancaster family, who had formerly owned her. When Sam Lancaster dies and leaves Celia the family’s 840acre farm, the Lancaster family contests the will. The passage below shows the racial tension in Bardstown as Celia prepares to leave for the courthouse and the trial by an all-white male jury to determine who will inherit the property—a white relative or a black ex-slave. h Celia awoke abruptly after a fitful sleep that climaxed with dreams of an angry crowd storming the farmhouse. Even half conscious, she knew it was simply her imagination running wild. Nevertheless, the first thing she did on rising was rush to the window and peek outside. Nothing had changed, of course. From the front of the two-story house she could see the courtyard, the open gate at the edge of the property, and beyond it Plum Run Road winding toward town. The only person around was Young Sam, her halfbrother humming absently as he led a buggy out of the barn. In her dream, the mob had surrounded the building, torches blazing, taunting Celia to come out and meet her maker. Some wore Klan hoods or masks, but most of the faces were recognizable in the flickering light. Horrified , she recognized neighbors, white folks who had never expressed anything remotely like this kind of rage. And respected pillars of Bardstown, people who had always treated her with, if not convincing respect, at least a formal civility. Now they were out for blood. 696 Georgia Davis Powers 697 It was very much like one of those terrible tales she too often read in the papers. Usually, the victims were ripped from jail in the middle of the night, then strung up at the edge of town and left for children to see on the way to school the next day. In Shelbyville, not much more than a year ago, Jimbo Fields and Clarence Garnett had been lynched from a railroad trestle less than a mile from the center of town. The next day they were still hanging when Methodists from all over the state arrived for their convention. It was a gruesome reminder of southern “justice,” and what could happen to Negroes when whites needed someone to blame. They were just boys, teenagers accused of killing a white man who sometimes shared a bed with their mother. But no trial was ever held; the jail had been stormed within days of their arrests. No one had threatened Celia—at least directly. But whenever she thought about the trial that would begin today, she couldn’t help but suspect that if the verdict went in her favor, night riders might some day come for her and her family. Dozens of colored folks had met Judge Lynch in just the last few years. In fact, things recently seemed to be getting worse rather than better. Forty years after The Emancipation Proclamation, and it still wasn’t always safe to be free and colored in Kentucky. “Mornin’, Miss Cely,” shouted Young Sam from the yard. “When we goin’ to town?” The words jerked Celia back to reality, reminding her that, no matter what her private paranoia, this day couldn’t be avoided. It had been coming for almost a year, ever since the moment Boss Sam Lancaster signed his will. Sometimes she wondered whether—if she’d known what he was planning to do—she could or would...

Share