>> All of that would never have been in place had it not been for that March in 1964.

[MUSIC] >> I look back at the life and legacy of Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr and the history of the holiday we recognize today.

>> We will march on Washington.

We were there, and every major thing that happened in the 60s, we were there.

>> And we look at the work of a civil rights activist who used music and song as a form of protest.

[MUSIC] >> Production of Kentucky Edition is made possible in part by the KET Millennium Fund.

>> Good evening and welcome to Kentucky Edition for this Monday, January the 19th, I'm Renee Shaw and we thank you for spending some of your evening with us.

Today we celebrate and remember the life and legacy of Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.

King was born in Atlanta on January 15th, 1929.

He was murdered in Memphis 39 years later.

Our Toby Gibbs takes a look at how the third Monday in January became a federal holiday to honor the civil rights icon.

>> The campaign to make Doctor King's birthday a federal holiday began within days of his assassination in April of 1968.

Congressman John Conyers of Michigan introduced a bill almost immediately, but it took 11 years for the U.S.

House to vote on it.

When that vote finally occurred in 1979, the bill failed to get the necessary two thirds vote, despite a petition with 300,000 names and the support of President Jimmy Carter.

Critics of the bill questioned whether the U.S.

could afford another paid holiday.

A common argument made in opposition to the bill then and later, the bill finally passed the U.S.

House and then the U.S.

Senate in October of 1983.

In the Senate.

Supporters of the bill overcame the opposition of Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, who claimed King had been a Communist.

Both of Kentucky's U.S.

senators at the time, Wendell Ford and Walter de Huddleston, voted for the King holiday.

Although President Ronald Reagan had been critical of making Martin Luther King Jr's birthday a holiday.

He signed the bill.

The first national Martin Luther King Day was more than two years later, on January 20th, 1986.

Kentucky was ahead of most of the country in observing Doctor King's birthday.

The University of Kentucky celebrated Doctor King as early as 1973, and the state made Doctor King's Birthday a holiday in 1974.

One of the first states to do so.

But it wasn't until 1986 that some schools started closing on MLK day.

Others eventually followed.

Now in Kentucky, Doctor Martin Luther King Junior Day includes marches and other programs and the closing of state office buildings, schools, colleges, and some businesses.

For Kentucky edition, I'm Toby Gibbs.

>> Thank you, Toby, for that.

Martin Luther King Junior had many ties to Kentucky and made stops in the Bluegrass State.

King's most well known visit to Kentucky was in 1964, leading a march of 10,000 Kentuckians on the state Capitol.

The march on Frankfort helped get the Kentucky Civil Rights Act of 1966 passed.

Speaking at the Frazier Museum in Louisville, some of the original marchers shared their memories of that day and how it changed the course of the civil rights movement in Kentucky.

>> It was all intertwined.

The March on Washington led to the March on Frankfort, the 64 civil rights bill nationally led to the 66 civil rights bill in Kentucky.

So civil rights was all interwoven, intertwined.

>> The Kentucky Commission on Human Rights was established in 1960, and people were all proud of it, that they had a state human rights commission, one of the first in the South.

In March of 1964, that laid the foundation for the passage of the legislation in 66, but that gave the commission the same authority as a court of law to investigate complaints of discrimination.

All of that would never have been in place had it not been for that March in 1964.

>> The Kentucky Civil Rights Act prohibits housing and employment discrimination based on race, national origin, color, or religion.

The Kentucky General Assembly passed the act, and Governor Ned Breathitt signed it into law on January 27th, 1966.

A civil rights activist in Logan County, Kentucky, met and marched with Doctor King Charles.

Neblett was a founding member of the Freedom Singers, who used music as a nonviolent form of protest.

Our Laura Rogers tells us more about Neblett life and work.

>> I went to a one room country school.

>> Charles Neblett was raised in a small town in Tennessee by activist parents.

>> My mother told us that what?

Nobody any better than us.

And that's when segregation was rampant in the 40s.

>> He would later be moved to action by the brutal killing of Emmett Till.

>> It's the most horrible sight I've ever seen in my life.

I was sick.

>> It lit a spark within Neblett as he saw himself and the young boy.

>> I was going to do something about it.

I wasn't going to live like that because that was me.

>> Neblett would go on to lead desegregation efforts as a student at Southern Illinois University, and joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the early 1960s.

>> A lot of singing going on in that movement, and it had to be because singing people wouldn't have had the courage to do the things they did.

>> Though he initially rejected phone calls to join the Freedom Singers.

>> I told him I had more important things to do.

>> Neblett would change his mind, and some may say the course of history.

>> The songs are so important because what we did, we sang songs like sang songs.

We sang down south like ain't nobody let nobody turn me around.

Woke up this morning with my mind stayed on freedom.

>> He says the songs were a motivator and an organizing tool.

They would lead him to cross paths with Doctor Martin Luther King Junior.

>> Well, Doctor King, he was one hell of a preacher, but he couldn't sing.

So we would meet Doctor King and he would say, how are you doing?

He had a southern accent.

How are you doing?

Glad to see you.

He said, can I sing with you?

>> The Freedom Singers traveled all over the country and performed at the March on Washington in 1963.

In 2011, they were back in the nation's capital to perform at the white House.

>> I felt like we were at home.

That's how nice it was.

And he came through and talked to us like we were anybody else.

It was just remarkable.

And when we performed, we got Barack Obama and his wife, and everybody else was there.

Made him stand up and sing.

Sing those freedom songs.

>> Diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer, Neblett also advocates for health equity.

As black men in the U.S.

are more likely to develop and die from the disease.

>> They found out too late.

And the point is, if you catch it early, it's a big chance you can beat it.

>> Neblett encouraging the black community to get screened early and often.

On this Martin Luther King Junior day, he echoes Doctor King's message of love, equality and justice.

>> Let children hear the truth and the power of change that people like Doctor King made.

>> And being a vehicle of change in their own communities for Kentucky Edition.

I'm Laura Rogers.

>> Thank you so much, Laura.

America turns 250 years old this year to mark the milestone.

The Kentucky Historical Society is hosting monthly events as part of its America 250 KY initiative this month.

The focus is a statewide food drive honoring Doctor Martin Luther King Junior and his legacy of community service.

One of the goals of the America 250 KY initiative.

>> America 250 Kentucky is we're talking about this massive, massive commemoration that's happening throughout the rest of the year.

There's going to be lots of events and activities happening every single month.

It doesn't just end in July 4th.

We're taking this all the way until December.

You know, we're commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

But in that timeframe, too, we want to recognize all of the people across the state who are participating in this and really being sensitive to those who during July, you know, when we get together to have potlucks like we're doing on July 5th for America's Potluck, that we're being sensitive to those that do experience food insecurity and so that everyone can really participate in the celebration.

And that's where the idea of a food drive comes from is serving the rest of the state together.

You know, we're all getting together to to participate in this commemoration and supporting each other like like good neighbors do.

>> The food drive will continue through January 24th.

To find out more about the food drive and the many other events the Kentucky Historical Society is putting on around the state and celebration of America's 250th birthday.

Go online to history ky.gov.

[MUSIC] Well, a special edition of Inside Kentucky Politics on this Monday, where we're talking with Bob Babbage and Trey Grayson about election 2026.

Bob, you first.

What are you what the state of the race right now?

Let's talk specifically about the US Senate.

What do we know right now and what should we be looking forward to?

>> Well, we know again, we've had reinforcement of what we thought we knew in terms of the order of the three.

But, you know, we're we're now four months away from the primary.

And we've been running this race longer than four months to get here without a whole lot of change.

So if you're not on top, you need to bring the top down and move up.

That's a nice way of saying go negative.

We're going to see some negative messaging.

We've seen it from Nate Morris about Leader Mitch McConnell.

I still say the difficulty with the negative strategy is you have to convince a lot of people who've been for McConnell in primaries for many years to vote against him, to vote against their own record.

If you by that school of thought lately, however, I think he's been on and been positive, which should help his being third now.

Maybe he can move up.

Andy Barr has a lot of cash on hand, raises money effectively and will make a strong race out of it.

As Trey and I were discussing, though, he's got Louisville to contend with.

He's not well known there.

It's a great big market and an expensive market.

The sooner he gets there, the more chance he has to catch up.

>> And recent polling shows that Daniel Cameron is the front runner by some substantial points.

20 points?

Do you believe that?

>> Yeah, I do by by that.

Now, Cameron was a Cameron affiliated poll that was released.

And it's consistent with the polling that we've seen.

We don't there's not as much independent polling anymore.

But these polling firms do put their names on their polls.

And so if it's a bad poll then that hurts their credibility.

So that poll showed Cameron at about 40, Barr at 25 and Morris about 13, which was consistent with, I think, the last rounds we saw maybe a month or two ago, the race, as Bob noted.

On the one hand, they've been campaigning for a while, but on the other hand, not as much like we're going to see the intensity shift.

If you think back to the beginning of this race, Morris would have been like zero, and Barr would have been lower because his his name, ID and brand ID would have been focused on central Kentucky and maybe eastern Kentucky.

So he Barr has gone up, Morris has gone up.

But what's striking to me is thinking, four months out, I feel like Morris needs to be needs to be in a better place than he is right now to to.

And I think the risk he runs is people might look at this race.

Some people like the president, who I think Morris is relying on for an endorsement, might look at this and say, I can't, I'm not going to go for that guy.

He's too far behind.

And so that's the risk that Morris has is he's got to get up quicker to get that that boost.

Barr there's the liberal angle.

There's also the Kenny increase turnout in central Kentucky where he is known and people like him here.

So maybe because that's where his volunteer base is, he can increase the turnout there and then the and then Cameron just keeps leading right.

And he struggles to raise money.

>> He came out with his first ad though a couple of weeks ago.

>> But he has won these races before and he starts out in the lead.

He's got the name recognition and people people like him.

You know, I can see us on election night on Tuesday in May saying, you know, at the end of the day, like this race is pretty simple.

Republican primary voters like Daniel Cameron.

So of course he was going to win.

And that's a real possibility.

And since we're airing this on Martin Luther King Day, the one thing I'd like to note a real possibility is that Black U.S.

Senate nominee from the Republican Party, Daniel Cameron, versus a black U.S.

Senate nominee from the Democratic Party, Charles Booker.

>> Right.

>> That would be I don't know if that's historic around the country.

It would certainly be historic in Kentucky and probably in the South.

>> Oh, absolutely.

Particularly, yeah.

So let's talk about the chances of a Charles Booker versus an Amy McGrath.

I mean, do you think it looks more favorable toward Charles Booker right now?

>> It could.

It's hard to gauge that exactly.

Of course Booker had the poll.

But as we get into this a little more we'll see how it shakes out.

One thing that may hurt turnout and just having been chief election officials, Trey and me, with all those unopposed candidates out there, the locals drive a lot of local participation because, you know, Renee, on the ballot, you want to show up for her.

You may still be figuring out a U.S.

Senate race, but we're going to have a bunch of people who don't really have a three year term now because they've got one on this one and two to come without being on the ballot.

Again, just one thing to watch.

>> Yeah.

And speaking of, because the candidate filing deadline was a week from when we recorded this program on on Friday the 16th.

And so we noticed that there was a lot of in the state legislative races.

There were a lot of uncontested races there.

Right?

The Democrats didn't quite pony up all the way, although they did better this cycle than they did in 2024.

What do you make of that?

>> Well, in some respects it's smart allocation of resources.

When you've got 80 Republicans, I think it's something like 40 mid 40s of those of those House seats are going to be Republican.

And a handful of Democrats as well don't get opponents.

There's some races you just can't win.

So there's not an active recruiting effort.

I also think that the governor, because he is focused on his presidential campaign, was did not go out on a recruiting effort, which is fine.

I don't mean that to be critical, but when you have a Democratic governor, that's one of the selling positions like, hey, go run, and if not, I'll take care of you or I'll help you out.

And the reality is those would be promises he can't make.

So but it's also just a reflection of, you know, the politics.

But we do have going back to turnout.

We do have primaries in loving in Lexington and in Louisville, Louisville with the new nonpartisan system.

So Craig Greenberg has got a primary now, like more like Lexington.

So it'll be interesting to see, you know, neither of their I don't think their opponents are big names, but they'll be on the ballot.

And then both Gordon and Gordon and Greenburg.

And so they'll be trying to get turnout, you know, in the two largest communities in the state.

>> Good point.

Yeah.

Anything else you should we should be looking out for.

So earlier this week I talked to Representative Ryan Dodson who is I think he says he and Ralph Alvarado, who's a former state senator, former commissioner of health for Tennessee, former lieutenant governor candidate.

That's his that's who he has to beat.

And he describes himself Ryan Dodson as the grassroots candidate and Ralph Alvarado as the elitist.

What do you make of that?

I'll start with you, Bob.

>> Thank you.

Well, Dodson is a making a point and making an impact, but Alvarado is extremely well known in the district from having been a senator and a very strong presence as a doctor, getting, you know, some people may think it's negative to go to Tennessee and be a major state official.

I would put that down as a positive.

It certainly speaks well of him and of Kentucky, but it's a different experience that he brings back to the race.

But those two are going to have a showdown all the way through.

Elitist.

Perhaps you could say he's a strong presence in the race because of his background and training and.

>> Or maybe who he's getting money from.

>> And his success in the legislature.

Alvarado all of us work very closely with Alvarado and with Dodson now as well.

It's one of the better races to watch for sure on Election Day.

>> Well, one of the things that Representative Dodson mentioned was the fact of the Covid vaccines that he was not he is not Dodson in favor of pushing Covid vaccines and that Ralph Alvarado is.

And of course, he has always been pro vaccination, I mean, being a physician.

So could that be the issue that really drives that contest?

>> Well, I think there's a couple of ways.

So one is how much of sort of the Covid fallout is still relevant in a Republican primary, is the place where it's going to be relevant.

And then the second place, the second thing of that is, is just more broadly the Maha and sort of the the growing number of of, let's face it, Republicans who who don't support vaccines.

So how much is that that's out there.

And then the second part of that is can he can he communicate that to the voters?

I mean, when somebody says I regret through his candidate, that usually is positive in the sense of it can be positive, because I've got all this grassroots, I have real voters who are volunteering are going to go out and tell their neighbors and all that to go get, come, go out and vote for me.

It's not just people writing checks.

People actually do the work.

That also sometimes means you don't have enough money to actually communicate to the voters through the kind of paid advertising, television, radio, mail, digital that you need.

And now sometimes the grassroots wins and it inspires a following.

Actually, we're talking about Booker.

I mean Booker almost knocked off McGrath in 2020 because of that grassroots energy.

And in fact, if that had been a more traditional race, not with as many votes by mail, Booker might have won that with more votes cast.

Near the end, when people found out he was more of a viable candidate.

So again, that will be interesting.

I mean, I think Alvarado is probably is probably the favorite, but Dodson, it is fair for him to say than describe himself that way.

And so it'd be interesting to watch.

I also find they're from the same place.

That's right.

They're both from Winchester and Clark.

>> County, pretty close.

>> To each other.

And there's also a, you know, there's a there's other candidates in the race, but there is a third candidate who's a businessman who, you know, a lot of times we see more politicians kind of beating each other up, and then a businessman outsider can come in and say, hey, look at me.

I created all these jobs, right?

And and so that could be if he's willing to spend some of his own money, he says he is.

That could be an interesting angle to the race.

Maybe.

Maybe he doesn't win.

But does he shape does he pull off voters who might otherwise go to, you know, one of the other two candidates?

Multi-candidate races are fun.

>> Yeah, we've got lots of them.

So lots to keep our eyes on between now and May 19th.

And you guys will be with us that night to bring the best primary coverage there is.

Okay.

Good to see you guys.

>> Thank you.

>> For more than a century, the western branch of the Louisville Free Public Library has provided books, information and a community space near downtown.

But as our Chip Polston reports in this Kentucky Life extra, the branch was also groundbreaking from the start for providing services to those who were often neglected.

>> Thanks much and it's good to be with you again.

Libraries are a vital part of our communities, making sure that everyone can obtain information, access books, and participate in free or low cost community activities.

But libraries have not always been accessible to everyone.

That's why the western branch of the Louisville Free Public Library System opened in 1905.

Located in downtown Louisville, Western was the first library in the nation to be staffed by and built to serve African Americans.

>> Western is Louisville's history.

Western is Kentucky's history, is the Ohio River valleys history.

But it is not a oh poor pitiful me story, though it's important to know the constraints that these people faced in building this library and the people who came to it.

But it is always first and foremost, a story of excellence.

Well, the Western Library was the first Carnegie branch that was designed to serve an African American community.

It was founded at about the time that the Free Library System of Louisville was created, in which the black community really staunchly advocated for some portion of Carnegie library funds be devoted to a library that would serve the black community.

The origins of the branch begin in the 1890s, and they begin with Albert Mazique.

Albert Mazique was probably one of the most prominent civil rights leaders in Louisville in the late 19th through the middle of the 20th century.

He was briefly principal of Central High School for three years in the 1890s, and when he was principal at Central High School, which is the one black high school for Louisville, he found that the library resources were wholly inadequate, so what he began doing was taking his students to Polytechnic Library.

And, you know, after a couple of visits, suddenly they were barred from the entrance to the library because of segregation.

They said, you cannot come here anymore, you know, no race mixing, so on and so forth.

And Mazique was outraged, so that when the Louisville Free Public Library system was developed in the early 20th century and there was clearly access to Carnegie library funds to build different branches, he immediately began petitioning for there to be a library that would serve African Americans.

The first librarian was Thomas Blue.

Thomas blue came to Louisville in the 1890s, and he first came here to direct the colored branch of the YMCA.

Blue was such a skilled administrator that when the opportunity came to create a Western branch, they instantly turned to blue.

Blue tried to make sure that its collections were not only comparable to all of the other branches that you would find, but he tried to make sure that there were a lot of reading material written by black authors and black publishers.

Nowhere else in the city would you have such a variety of books by, say, Booker T Washington, W.E.B.

Du Bois, James Weldon Johnson?

They could go to the shelves of the library and pick up books in which they could see themselves.

They could see their history accurately depicted.

They could find literary voices in which they could imagine themselves becoming literary voices and telling their own stories and telling their own histories.

In a city where segregation still dominated, and in a state where segregation still dominated, this was an area where people could kind of push back and kind of define themselves, define images of who they were.

I mean, that's why Westerns really, really important.

It was planting the seeds of thought and creativity and selfhood for generation of generation of black louisvillians.

>> This library was the hub of the community.

You didn't have anything else because it was so unique.

So they came from far and wide to come here to check out books, learn that knowledge, to take part in the programs and the things that they had.

It was just a significant part, because this is where you came to remove all those barriers to the access of everything.

Today, I tried to relate back to Reverend Blue as much as I possibly can, and keep the mission that he had all the way back then in the forefront of what I do programing.

So we do things that are very unique in the system, you know, that speak specifically to the community that we're serving.

Like we have some on parenting, black youth.

We've had a young black storytellers mini film festival, different things like that.

I mean, to me, that's the most important thing is to making sure that we're protecting the original legacy and then help it to grow by fostering the things that we do today to honor what they started doing all the way back then.

And that's serving the community to the best of our ability.

[MUSIC] >> Great stories like this one come your way on our show each Saturday night at 8:00 eastern, seven central, right here on KET.

As we continue to cherish this great Kentucky Life back to you.

>> Thank you so much, Chip, and thank you for joining us tonight on Kentucky Edition.

We hope to see you right back here again tomorrow night at 630 eastern, 530 central, where we inform, connect and with stories like chips we hope to inspire.

You can subscribe to our Kentucky Edition email newsletters and watch full episodes and clips online at Keturah.

Look for us on the social media channels Facebook X. Formerly known as Twitter and Instagram, to stay in the loop and send us a story idea by email to Public Affairs at Keturah.

Thanks for being with us.

I'm Renee Shaw and hope to see you right back here again tomorrow night.

Take good care.