An Oral History Project Conducted by John Robert Lewis Scholar Jason Wong
Project Description
The Danville Boyle County African American Historical Society (DBCAAHS) officially formed in early 2013 with the leadership of Michael Hughes and a few others had a common goal to preserve and remember the culture that was in the Danville community. I had the privilege to not just intern with Michael Hughes but learn about the history of the Danville community.
I first heard about the historical society when I took an anthropology class called Lived Histories in January 2021. Throughout the winter term class, we worked closely with the DBCAAHS and further learned more about what happened in Danville. Danville used to be a town with a huge, thriving Black population. However, when urban renewal started to wreak havoc on the Black community from the 1960s to the 1970s did we see many of the homes, the culture, and the connections, being destroyed. The Black business district of 2nd street was thoroughly razed as the people in charge of this urban renewal wanted to increase tourism with White people. The local government realized that in order to accomplish that task, they would need to remove the Black population.
Oral History Interview with Michael Hughes - 07/10/2022
Michael Hughes, the current president of the Danville Boyle African American Historical Society has worked and led the society for eight to nine years. The current headquarters of where the historical society is presently, 108 No Second St, Danville, KY 40422, was not the original place where the historical society was first created. Michael, with a group of others, first started meeting at the Eastern Kentucky University where they rented spaces as well as the local library to have meetings. It was only recently in July of 2020 they had the chance to take the place where anyone can visit at 108 No Second St. Mr. Hughes first started the task of collecting old photos, a lot of Second street - which used to have a huge thriving black population- as well as many others from locations that were once part of Danville. He first started with just 60 photos from the first 4-5 months to now over six to seven thousand photos 9 years later. He was born on August 11, 1948, and has been the anchor of memories kept about Danville and hopes to continue to preserve what he can from photos to have people recognize Danville had a thriving Black community.
Oral History Interview with Mike Dennis - 07/02/2022
Michael Denis, or preferred to be called “Mike” has been an important member of the Danville Boyle African American Historical Society. Originally from Maine, he came to Kentucky in 2008 in which he first started work with genealogy. He realized that in Danville itself, not many records were kept of Black families so he took it on himself to do what he can do best in preserving, researching and publishing writings, notes, excel sheets, and anything about the Black community of Danville. He recently published a free, no charge to read copy of “We Were Here African Americans in Danville and Boyle County, Kentucky” Going forward, this coming September Michael Hughes and Mike Denis will be publishing another book this September 2022 called “African Americans in Boyle County” You can learn more about their mission statement, their history, and more on their website here.
Presentation Slides
Presentation Recording
Photo Collection
Selections from a six thousand plus photo collection of photos of the Black community in Danville. Collected and captioned by Michael Hughes.
