The city of Lexington, Kentucky, had a sizable number of enslaved people from its beginnings. In the 1790 census, there were 14,626 whites, 3,752 slaves, and 32 free persons. By 1860, there were 10,148 enslaved persons—45 percent of the city’s population. 

The history of African Americans in the city has often been overlooked while the history of the Confederacy was celebrated. A statue of John C. Breckinridge, former vice president of the United States and a Confederate secretary of war, was erected in 1887. A statue of Confederate Gen. John Hunt Morgan was unveiled in 1911.

Sometimes history was ignored as it was happening. The Lexington newspaper printed a front-page apology in 2004 for not covering the successful sit-ins and protests of the 1950s and 1960s.

That history is now being remembered and celebrated in a new walking tour featuring significant people, places and events in the fight for equality.