Documenting Black history & industry in Estill County // Intercultural Microgrant Guest Blog
The following guest blog is from 2024 Intercultural Microgrant recipients Mariel Gardner & Jess Stevens, whose project documents the historic expulsions faced by Black workers in Estill County. They received funding through our partner The Monument Workshop at UK. Learn more about this project at kyrux.org/microgrants/2024.
Project Background
Estill County, Kentucky, was home to a number of booming industries during the late 1800’s and the early 1900’s. Located in the Appalachian mountains, it housed Red River Ironwork’s primary furnace and mining operation.
The L&N railroad founded the town of Ravenna and was a central port on the Eastern Kentucky line. These industries required more workers than were available locally. Unions were at an all time high, causing mass tension between companies and their white workers. Companies employed ”strike busters” to union bust. These strike busters were almost always Black workers. The tension between company and white workers led white workers to commit heinous acts of violence against Black workers. The Ku Klux Klan brutalized and drove out Black Estill countians.
What’s Next
This project does not stop here. Three community events are being planned to create conversation around Estill county’s violent history. Museum exhibits will be created and showcased at the Kentucky Steam Heritage Corporation and Estill County Historical Society museums. We have hope of placing historic markers at the sites researched, including a black graveyard on the L&N lots.
View their presentation for ASA below!
—Mariel Gardner & Jess Stevens
The Kentucky Intercultural Microgrant Program is a seed grant to support two or more individuals or organizations collaborating across distance, difference, or sector on projects that celebrate and connect Kentucky's people and places.
Launched with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Kentucky Foundation for Women, Kentucky Waterways Alliance, Fund for the Arts, the Monument Workshop at UK, the Josh May Memorial Fund, and individual donors, the 2024 Microgrant Program invests in a series of seed grants (awards from $250-2000) to support short-term projects that foster dialogue, connection, or collaboration among Kentuckians from disparate backgrounds, identities, or experiences. Projects that involve diverse partners and invite the public to participate are preferred.