A new book out from former Louisville Mayor Harvey Sloane captures his life story of adventure and public service.

Our Chip Polston sat down with Dr. Sloane to find out how it all came about.

Harvey Sloane was Louisville's mayor during tumultuous times in the 1970s, which saw everything from a tornado ripped through the heart of the community to the desegregation of the school system.

So how did this adventurous spirit from a farm in Virginia end up as Louisville mayor?

That's just one of the areas covered in Sloane's new book, Riding the Rails My Unexpected Adventures in Medicine, City Hall and Public Service.

Dr. Sloane.

Thanks so much for being with us.

Great to be here, Jeff.

So you went to Yale and as the title of your book says, after reading The Grapes of Wrath, you decided you thought it would be fun to jump on boxcars and take you around to see what you can see.

Where did that sense of adventure for you really come from?

Well, first of all, I read the Grapes of Wrath, as you mentioned, and I just thought, I don't know what's going on in this country.

I don't know what's going on.

You know, in my outside my cocoon, I went to an all male, all white prep school.

And then Yale was all male, all white.

It was only when I got into medical school in Case Western Reserve in Cleveland that we had a few girls around.

So I needed just to be liberated and to go on these hitchhiking and then end up in the community and get a job.

Was, you know, was an adventure that allowed me to sort of expand my universe.

Appreciate other people.

I mean, I work with the migrants and particularly in Tijuana and picking celery and that's a hard job.

Got to squat all day.

You can have exercise or anything, and then you sleep with them and they're lousy places to sleep.

And eat what have you.

So I got a view of many people who were working, who were migrants, who were making things just made for their families.

After you graduated, you went into public health.

You landed in Louisville to help set up the park.

Duvall Community Health Center, which still to this day exists.

54 years.

When you came to Louisville, Dr. Sloane, at what point did you have one seminal moment where you looked around and thought, I'd like to lead this community?

What was it that made you want to do that in Louisville?

Well, I. I was in eastern Kentucky from 64 to 66, and I made a couple of trips here.

And I liked everybody I met and made some friends.

And then when we got the community health center started and I ran it for a while, I said, you know, this is where I want to be.

So you were elected mayor in your late thirties.

And within the first 18 months of your administration to really of the the seminal moments in Louisville of the 1970s occurred the April 4th tornado that wiped out a significant part of certain portions of the city, as well as the court ordered desegregation.

What did you learn about being a leader from having those two events happen so close to each other?

Well, I think the first event helped.

In the second event.

I mean, I didn't know much of anything was April when I got in in in the first December.

But I knew I had to be out there and working with the neighborhoods because I wanted them to stay in Louisville and not leave.

And so we wanted to make sure that they were looking forward to staying, even though some of their neighborhoods were devastated.

But the bus scene was another story.

It was tough.

It was tough.

Kathy and I saw that this was coming.

My wife and there was a U.S. Conference of Mayors in Boston and we went up there and talked to Mayor Kevin White, good mayor, and also Tom Winship, who is the editor of The Boston Globe and what can we do to have a better experience?

And they did well, two, three things.

First of all, train the police and have a strong police presence.

Second of all, encouraged the judge, Judge Gordon, from Owensboro to be as firm about the order as possible because Judge Garrity in Boston would say, well, let them have a little demonstration, maybe light a fire.

Well, then it all got blown up.

And thirdly, have a rumor control.

So I came back and I met with Barry Bingham Jr at the Courier Journal, and he immediately got together all the printed media and all the electronic media.

We didn't have any social media that day.

And got everybody to agree to have a common broadcast of what had happened every day in the desegregation.

So there were rumors that black student was white girl and what have you.

And that helped him immensely.

It really did.

Fascinating.

Coming up tomorrow night on Kentucky Edition, Chip talks with Dr. Sloan about lessons he learned that can apply to Louisville.

Today.

Former Louisville Mayor Harvey Sloane led the city through a tumultuous period in the 1970s, weathering everything from natural disasters to civil unrest.

What lessons did he learn from those experiences, which could be applicable today?

In the second part of our interview with Dr. Sloane.

Our Chip Polston asked him what advice he'd give to leaders today.

So Dr. Sloane, when you and I were talking on the phone about getting together for this interview and I told you I wanted to look at lessons you had learned from the 1970s and how they could be applied to the situation that Louisville finds itself in today.

You immediately said something without hesitation.

Very directly said it's the guns.

Do you feel that way?

Well, I feel it's assault guns.

Yeah.

No question.

We've had in this country 200 or so massacres.

And of course, we had one here in Louisville a month or so ago.

And I just don't see any place for assault weapons in the civilian society.

Tom Brokaw came down here in 1989 after the massacre at Sandy Hook.

Reviewer and he went to a gun range in the adjacent county, a bullet county.

And there was a lady there on a machine gun and just ripping up a refrigerator.

And he asked her, well, what why do you do this?

She said, Well, it just makes me feel good.

You know, we don't have machine guns in the streets.

We do have assault weapons.

Why can't assault weapons just be in the ranges?

People can shoot them all they want, but in the streets, these are sort of monstrous weapons that tear the body absolutely apart.

We've had 200 of these massacres.

This year.

Now, you've met with Mayor Greenburg in the last hour, right?

Correct.

What what advice did you give him?

What did you tell him in that meeting?

Well, I didn't you know, he he he's been through hell.

He's been through the trial.

He got shot at during the campaign and and he had this massive I'm not sure I could tell him anything.

And he's got a massive problem with the police.

I mean, he's got to the Justice Department is given all sorts of recommendations, and that has to be fulfilled.

But he's got to remember that police have a job.

And so far there are a lot of vacancies in the police department and they just can't be going into a combat zone within their department as well as out.

So it's a difficult, difficult problem.

Dr. Sloan, final question.

You close your book with a quote and it was always strive for something bigger than yourself.

I think you've done that in spades.

You feel like you've done that?

Yeah, I think I've done that.

It's not only the experience in Louisville and Kentucky, but I spent 12 years in Russia working on HIV, aids in Siberia, in the Russian Far East, in the prisons, and that all has been a reward to me personally.

Very fortunate.

My family, as has stuck with me during all these adventures and experiences, and I've been blessed.

I had a privileged background to start with and I could build on that.

And I've just met people there that have been, first of all, very generous but fascinating and having a vision in life.

And I think I have to quote this one person who worked with this, Lou Byron.

He was in the Public Works department, and I asked him about our administration after and he said, you know, we just didn't know what we couldn't do.

And that's the motto.

I hope other young people adopt.

And in the end, it's public service.

It's public public service.

And the more we can encourage that, the better it is, because you meet people that you never would meet before and also you get out of your little cocoon.

Right.

Well, it has been an adventurous life.

Yeah, Well, again, the name of the book Riding the Rails My Unexpected Adventures in Medicine, City Hall and Public Service.

Dr. Sloane, thanks so much for being with us today.

Thanks very much for this.

Appreciate it.

Casey, back to you.

For information on Sloane's book, you can google Harvey Sloane: Riding the Rails.