Leveraging Local History as Service Work
Presentation Format
Individual Presentation
Intended Audience
All Audiences
Presentation Description
This 30-minute individual session will discuss how a University of Kentucky living learning dormitory community leveraged local history to inform themselves and elementary school children about a neighborhood’s legacy. The result, etched through personal reenactments of historical figures’ lives, has created interpersonal connections between the college kids and elementary students, which has resulted in elevated self-esteem for both groups of students.
What does it mean for a city to be dubbed the “Horse Capital of the World?” Most Lexington, Kentucky dwellers have a superficial understanding of the title, recognizing that the Bluegrass is dense with beautiful horse farms and horses. Freshman residents of the University of Kentucky’s living and learning program, LEXengaged, however, cultivated an understanding of the invisible populations that grew and have sustained the racing industry from the 19th century. This includes African American jockeys who won Kentucky Derbys at the race’s inception, but were forgotten after Jim Crow laws pushed African Americans out of the sport. Historical knowledge is not just acquired and stored, but students use history to reenact the lives of those forgotten black athletes and workers.
William Wells Brown Elementary School sits one mile from the University of Kentucky’s campus. In 2014, WWB earned the label of being the lowest performing elementary school in the state of Kentucky—this is in a poor state. It is an elementary school composed of minority children, 97% of whom qualify for free or reduced lunch. This neighborhood school was built in 2008 as part of a Hope VI project; it was built on the site of a former federal housing project. The William Wells Brown neighborhood, however, is historically rich as it included the first racetrack in central Kentucky. As such, world class 19th and early 20th century African American jockeys lived in that neighborhood, and are buried a couple of blocks from the school’s property.
History becomes urgent when it is used to cultivate a connection with the past and empower students’ pride and connection with their community. Our LEXengaged students teach and learn about the East End of Lexington and its rich equine legacy simultaneously. Through art projects and under the guidance of LEXengaged students, afterschool children at the elementary school portray their neighborhood. Elementary school students and college students jointly learn and enact historical characters through dramatic renderings. Students from the neighborhood learn that the historical legacy of which they are a part is also marked by achievement in the region’s premiere industry despite slavery and Jim Crow laws.
Work done at the elementary school and/or on campus does not happen in a vacuum, but instead is part of a larger effort being propelled by racing institutions, neighborhood organizations, nonprofits, academics, among others, all toiling to finally recognize people of color who made the thoroughbred racing industry what it is today and Lexington “the Horse Capital of the World.”
LEXengaged serves as an example of how history, service learning, and community-building intersect.
The participants in the presentation will be asked to share their own experiences of incorporating local history into service work.
Location
Room - 217
Start Date
4-15-2016 9:45 AM
End Date
4-15-2016 11:00 AM
Recommended Citation
Moosnick, Nora R. and Phillips, Lynn R., "Leveraging Local History as Service Work" (2016). Gulf South Summit on Service-Learning 2016. 72.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gss/2016/2016/72
Leveraging Local History as Service Work
Room - 217
This 30-minute individual session will discuss how a University of Kentucky living learning dormitory community leveraged local history to inform themselves and elementary school children about a neighborhood’s legacy. The result, etched through personal reenactments of historical figures’ lives, has created interpersonal connections between the college kids and elementary students, which has resulted in elevated self-esteem for both groups of students.
What does it mean for a city to be dubbed the “Horse Capital of the World?” Most Lexington, Kentucky dwellers have a superficial understanding of the title, recognizing that the Bluegrass is dense with beautiful horse farms and horses. Freshman residents of the University of Kentucky’s living and learning program, LEXengaged, however, cultivated an understanding of the invisible populations that grew and have sustained the racing industry from the 19th century. This includes African American jockeys who won Kentucky Derbys at the race’s inception, but were forgotten after Jim Crow laws pushed African Americans out of the sport. Historical knowledge is not just acquired and stored, but students use history to reenact the lives of those forgotten black athletes and workers.
William Wells Brown Elementary School sits one mile from the University of Kentucky’s campus. In 2014, WWB earned the label of being the lowest performing elementary school in the state of Kentucky—this is in a poor state. It is an elementary school composed of minority children, 97% of whom qualify for free or reduced lunch. This neighborhood school was built in 2008 as part of a Hope VI project; it was built on the site of a former federal housing project. The William Wells Brown neighborhood, however, is historically rich as it included the first racetrack in central Kentucky. As such, world class 19th and early 20th century African American jockeys lived in that neighborhood, and are buried a couple of blocks from the school’s property.
History becomes urgent when it is used to cultivate a connection with the past and empower students’ pride and connection with their community. Our LEXengaged students teach and learn about the East End of Lexington and its rich equine legacy simultaneously. Through art projects and under the guidance of LEXengaged students, afterschool children at the elementary school portray their neighborhood. Elementary school students and college students jointly learn and enact historical characters through dramatic renderings. Students from the neighborhood learn that the historical legacy of which they are a part is also marked by achievement in the region’s premiere industry despite slavery and Jim Crow laws.
Work done at the elementary school and/or on campus does not happen in a vacuum, but instead is part of a larger effort being propelled by racing institutions, neighborhood organizations, nonprofits, academics, among others, all toiling to finally recognize people of color who made the thoroughbred racing industry what it is today and Lexington “the Horse Capital of the World.”
LEXengaged serves as an example of how history, service learning, and community-building intersect.
The participants in the presentation will be asked to share their own experiences of incorporating local history into service work.
Program Abstract
This 30-minute individual session discusses how the University of Kentucky’s LEXengaged program uses history to inform elementary and college students about the rich history of a neighborhood that helped grow an industry and a brand for our state. The session delves into how teaching/learning history embraces service work, lifts underprivileged children, and provides a sense of community for a neighborhood that has witnessed tremendous change and lost its storied past.