This is a list of the first minority male lawyer(s) and judge(s) in Kentucky. It includes the year in which the men were admitted to practice law (in parentheses). Also included are men who achieved other distinctions such becoming the first in their state to graduate from law school or become a political figure.
The Carmel Indians are a group of Melungeons who lived in Magoffin County, Kentucky and moved to Highland County, Ohio. Dr. Edward Price observed that the most common surnames among the families were Gibson, Nichols and Perkins. His research found that the ancestors of the group were listed as free people of color on census records. Paternal line descendants of Bryson Gibson and Valentine Collins who participated in the Melungeon DNA Project belong to Haplogroup E-M2. The group were listed as free Black and Mulatto in Kentucky prior to the American Civil War.
NAACP in Kentucky is very active with branches all over the state, largest being in Louisville and Lexington. The Kentucky State Conference of NAACP continues today to fight against injustices and for the equality of all people.
Anna Simms Banks (1862–1923) was an American educator and political figure born in Brandenburg, Kentucky. On March 3, 1920, Anna became the first African-American female elected as a delegate at the 7th Congressional District Republican Convention in Kentucky, a time when women in Kentucky could vote for president but did not have full suffrage. Banks was appointed a member of the Rules Committee. She taught in Louisville and later died in Winchester, Kentucky.
Benjamin Franklin Shobe was an American civil rights attorney and jurist who advocated for the desegregation of public education and public facilities in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Blyew v. United States (1871), was a court case that originated in Lewis County, Kentucky, where the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the states right to forbid African Americans to testify against white people.
Sallie J. Seals White was Kentucky’s first African American female lawyer.
Goodlowtown is a historically African American section of Lexington, Kentucky. It was named for William Cassius Goodloe.
African-American neighborhoods in Lexington, Kentucky were established after the Civil War.
Charles W. Anderson Jr. was a lawyer, state legislator and civil rights leader in Kentucky. He served in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1935 until 1946.
Nettie George Speedy was an American journalist and golfer. She worked for the Chicago Defender and The Metropolitan post. Speedy was the first Black woman to play golf in Chicago and among the first to play anywhere in the United States. She founded the Chicago Women's Golf Club, and the first woman to sit on the trustee board of Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee.