Civil Rights Movement in Lexington

My latest source I found was an article about segregation in Lexington during the civil rights movement.  The statement that originally caught my eye was the preview under the link and read, “In 1960-61, CORE demonstrations were held to integrate the seating at Lexington movie theaters.  The first took place at the Kentucky Theater and involved seven demonstrators.”  Upon clicking on the article, I was unable to access the entire thing, but what I was able to read proved to be very interesting.  The article discussed the events that took place through the 50s and 60s that led to Kentucky to becoming the first southern state to pass integration laws.  It also includes a first hand account from various protests. 

This article proves to be very useful to my research.  It marks a path to a huge new angle for the project.  Considering the civil rights movement is one of the most influential time periods in all of history, this shows insight into its effect on the Kentucky Theatre.  How Lexington handled these protests in return parallels how the Kentucky Theatre would have handled them.  As the quote above says, African-Americans were confined to specific seating areas, and it was over forty years after the theatre’s opening until they were able to sit where they pleased. 

One thing I found interesting about the article was how it mentioned that Kentucky never really protested the integration.  The local governments and state government went along with the federal government rather easily.  This makes me wonder, did the citizens of Lexington go along as easily?  Did other cities integration process differ from Lexington?  If yes, how so?  And lastly, in what other ways did Kentucky differ from other southern states such as Alabama and Mississippi?  Further research on this could be a documentary all in its own.  This angle could also be taken at a broader approach by looking at the Kentucky Theatre and how it was affected by the different eras of the twentieth century, another big example being the Great Depression.

Source:

Gerald L. Smith. "Direct-Action Protests in the Upper South: Kentucky Chapters of the Congress of Racial Equality." Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 109.3 (2011): 351-393. Project MUSE. Web. 13 Oct. 2014. <http://muse.jhu.edu/>.

Link:

http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/register_of_the_kentucky_historical_society/v109/109.3-4.smith01.html