Russellville is home to the SEEK Museum at Bibb House, a museum that chronicles, as the acronym reflects, Struggles for Emancipation and Equality in Kentucky. The Bibb House itself is an artifact of America’s history of slavery.

“Even though it’s a beautiful home, has interesting architecture, had some nice furnishings, those things are so minimal compared to the real story of what happened here,” says Gran Clark of Historic Russellville, Inc. “That was the story of enslavement and emancipation.”