Context photographCivil rights
Audrey Grevious
Organizing for change
Hear Lexington educator and civil-rights organizer Audrey Grevious recall demonstrations and lunch-counter sit-ins in the early 1960s.
Lexington, Kentucky · An archive of voices
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Lexington.
History has a voice.
Take a moment to hear it.
Meet the people who changed classrooms, city government, and everyday life. Begin with voices from Black Lexington and Fayette County.
Explore the recordings
The listening collection
Choose a voice.
Follow a story.
Short features offer a first encounter with the voices in UK’s oral-history collections. Open a recording, settle in, and listen here.
Start here · A five-minute listen
Small acts.
Lasting change.
Audrey Grevious remembers organizing for desegregation in downtown Lexington. Hear her voice in this feature drawn from a 1985 oral-history interview.
Context photograph: Calvert McCann / UK Special Collections, as credited by WUKY.
Choose a listening path
12 recordings
Context photograph
Recorded voiceEducation
Edythe J. Hayes
Leading through education
Meet a Lexington educator who became Fayette County Public Schools’ first Black deputy superintendent and the first Black woman appointed to UK’s Board of Trustees.
Recorded voiceEducation
George L. Logan
Inside an integrated classroom
Logan recalls racism he encountered as a Black student at the University of Kentucky in 1951, after the university’s desegregation.
Recorded voiceCivic leadership
Harry Sykes
A voice in city government
Listen to the story of Harry Sykes’s election as Lexington’s first Black council member in 1963, told through archival audio and historical context.
Douglass ParkNeighborhood life
James O. Jones
Remembering Douglass Park
James O. Jones recalls Douglass Park, established around 1916 as Lexington’s first park dedicated to African Americans, and the landscape of recreation under segregation.
Recorded voiceSports
Jim Green
Running through barriers
Hear Jim Green, UK’s first Black student-athlete to graduate, discuss choosing the university, facing racism in the Southeastern Conference, and helping integrate its track program.
Historical newspaperJournalism
Lexington’s newspapers
Whose stories made the news?
Explore segregation in Lexington’s newspapers and the gaps in coverage of Black community life and the civil-rights movement.
Recorded voiceHorse industry
Oscar Dishman Jr.
From the barn to the trainer’s stand
Oscar Dishman Jr. recalls his rise from grooming and exercise riding to training racehorses, and the racial barriers that shaped his career.
Civic leadership
P.G. Peeples
Passing the baton
Hear longtime Urban League of Lexington leader P.G. Peeples reflect on opportunity, community leadership, and the responsibility to prepare another generation.
Smoke & his orchestraMusic
Saunda Richardson & James O. Jones
Remembering “Smoke” Richardson
Two voices remember bandleader Saunders “Smoke” Richardson Jr.: East End resident James O. Jones and Richardson’s daughter Saunda. Their stories bring Lexington’s Black music community into focus.
March on FrankfortCivil rights
Sylvia Jones Harris, Sharyn Mitchell & Barbara Hudson
Remembering the March on Frankfort
Three women remember joining the 1964 March on Frankfort, including Sylvia Jones Harris’s journey from Lexington with Pleasant Green Baptist Church.
The Lyric TheatreNeighborhood life
Tom Tolliver
Bringing the Lyric back to life
East End activist and journalist Tom Tolliver recalls the Lyric’s revitalization, including how his early doubts gave way to support for its return.
No recordings match this combination. Choose another theme or select Reset to hear all voices.
These are edited WUKY radio features, not the complete archival interviews. Audio streams from WUKY’s public media host. Each listening room includes the source, image credit, and a written guide. Press Play when you are ready; nothing starts automatically.
Leadership & lasting opportunity · 1945–2026
P.G. Peeples.
Building a path forward.
Porter Geneal “P.G.” Peeples Sr. helped shape Lexington’s pursuit of economic and educational equity. Born in Lynch, Kentucky, he earned a UK education degree in 1968 and taught in Fayette County before leading the Urban League.
His work connected affordable housing, employment, education, and the next generation of community leaders.
A legacy of action
Leading the Urban League
Appointed executive director, Peeples went on to serve as president and CEO through 2026.
Opening doors to ownership
The League began its housing work by rehabilitating four Chestnut Street homes for first-time buyers.
Tracking opportunity
He helped establish the Fayette County Public Schools Equity Council and chaired it for eight years.
Building practical skills
His leadership supported workforce development and computer literacy, including a partnership with the Coach Tubby Smith Foundation.
Start with five minutes
Hear his voice.
WUKY’s “Passing the baton” brings together excerpts from his 1993 and 2013 interviews.
The full conversation · 2 hours, 25 minutes
Listen. Search. Follow along.
The February 2, 1993 interview opens here with the Nunn Center’s original audio player and searchable synchronized transcript. Search a topic or choose a timestamp to follow the conversation.
Interviewer: Terry L. Birdwhistell · Interview 1993oh054_ul030. The full transcript is provided by UK; the short feature has an editorial listening guide.
Explore the sources and his legacy
Urban League: Peeples’s life and achievements ↗
WUKY: Passing the baton ↗
Nunn Center: Original interview and transcript ↗
Keep exploring
More lives.
More ways to listen.
Beyond these first recordings, institutions preserve a much larger story. These collection references open in a new tab; the listening players above keep you here.
Everyday Black Lexington
UK’s Black People in Lexington project includes accounts from educators, builders, laundry workers, and civic leaders. Explore voices such as Harriet Haskins, Taft Oldham, and Mary Muir.
Explore UK’s collection guide ↗Black horsemen
The Chronicle of African Americans in the Horse Industry project documents jockeys, breeders, trainers, and grooms. It is a distinct project within UK’s wider equine oral-history work.
Find the equine projects at UK ↗Sweet Evening Breeze
The Henry Faulkner project lists a January 9, 1982 interview with Sweet Evening Breeze herself, recorded by Charles House. Faulkner Morgan Archive offers further LGBTQ+ history and photographs.
Explore the interview record ↗Visit Faulkner Morgan Archive ↗
Neighborhood memory
Lexington Public Library’s Kentucky Room preserves local photographs, publications, and community collections. Use its archive to investigate East End, Pralltown, Dunbar, and Fayette County neighborhoods.
Explore the Kentucky Room ↗Read the WPA narratives
The Library of Congress’s Kentucky volume preserves written accounts collected from formerly enslaved people. These are edited transcripts; they are not presented here as original sound recordings.
Read about Born in Slavery ↗Help the archive grow
Know a recorded story about a Lexington neighborhood, school, church, business, or farm? Share the narrator’s name, the recording’s date, and the archive or owner who holds it.
Contact the LyricCollection references are research starting points. Only recordings with verified playback sources appear in the listening collection. Listening guides are editorial summaries, not transcripts. Images remain credited to their original sources; original illustrations are decorative, not measured audio waveforms.
Civil rights · Lexington
Audrey Grevious
Organizing for change
Hear Lexington educator and civil-rights organizer Audrey Grevious recall demonstrations and lunch-counter sit-ins in the early 1960s.
Listening guide
A written introduction to the recording, not a verbatim transcript.
- The feature draws on a 1985 Nunn Center interview with Grevious.
- Listen for the relationship between everyday decisions and organized action against segregation.
- WUKY host Alan Lytle and the Nunn Center’s Doug Boyd introduce the archival voice and its context.
WUKY’s feature includes oral-history excerpts and presenter commentary. The Nunn Center preserves the original oral-history material. An interview’s memories reflect the speaker’s perspective.
Education · Lexington
Edythe J. Hayes
Leading through education
Meet a Lexington educator who became Fayette County Public Schools’ first Black deputy superintendent and the first Black woman appointed to UK’s Board of Trustees.
Listening guide
A written introduction to the recording, not a verbatim transcript.
- This edited feature introduces Hayes through an oral-history interview preserved by the Nunn Center.
- Her career connects leadership in Fayette County schools with service at the University of Kentucky.
- Consider what these institutional milestones meant for educational opportunity.
WUKY’s feature includes oral-history excerpts and presenter commentary. The Nunn Center preserves the original oral-history material. An interview’s memories reflect the speaker’s perspective.
Education · University of Kentucky
George L. Logan
Inside an integrated classroom
Logan recalls racism he encountered as a Black student at the University of Kentucky in 1951, after the university’s desegregation.
Listening guide
A written introduction to the recording, not a verbatim transcript.
- Logan was a Lincoln County native whose university experience gives this recording its Lexington connection.
- Listen for the difference between formal access to a university and the experience of belonging in a classroom.
- Alan Lytle and Doug Boyd place Logan’s testimony in the history of UK’s desegregation.
WUKY’s feature includes oral-history excerpts and presenter commentary. The Nunn Center preserves the original oral-history material. An interview’s memories reflect the speaker’s perspective.
Civic leadership · Lexington
Harry Sykes
A voice in city government
Listen to the story of Harry Sykes’s election as Lexington’s first Black council member in 1963, told through archival audio and historical context.
Listening guide
A written introduction to the recording, not a verbatim transcript.
- This feature introduces Sykes’s path from education and basketball to public service.
- The recording focuses on how he became the first African American elected to Lexington’s council.
- The full interview is preserved by the University of Kentucky’s Nunn Center.
WUKY’s feature includes oral-history excerpts and presenter commentary. The Nunn Center preserves the original oral-history material. An interview’s memories reflect the speaker’s perspective.
Neighborhood life · Douglass Park
James O. Jones
Remembering Douglass Park
James O. Jones recalls Douglass Park, established around 1916 as Lexington’s first park dedicated to African Americans, and the landscape of recreation under segregation.
Listening guide
A written introduction to the recording, not a verbatim transcript.
- WUKY identifies this excerpt as coming from an interview recorded in the 1990s.
- Jones served as a commissioner for Lexington’s African American Board of Parks.
- Listen for how a public park could become a place of community life within a segregated city.
WUKY’s feature includes oral-history excerpts and presenter commentary. The Nunn Center preserves the original oral-history material. An interview’s memories reflect the speaker’s perspective.
Sports · University of Kentucky
Jim Green
Running through barriers
Hear Jim Green, UK’s first Black student-athlete to graduate, discuss choosing the university, facing racism in the Southeastern Conference, and helping integrate its track program.
Listening guide
A written introduction to the recording, not a verbatim transcript.
- The edited feature draws from an oral-history interview preserved by the Nunn Center.
- Green’s memories connect athletic achievement with the experience of integration on campus.
- Listen for how he describes the legacy he hopes to leave to future generations.
WUKY’s feature includes oral-history excerpts and presenter commentary. The Nunn Center preserves the original oral-history material. An interview’s memories reflect the speaker’s perspective.
Journalism · Lexington
Lexington’s newspapers
Whose stories made the news?
Explore segregation in Lexington’s newspapers and the gaps in coverage of Black community life and the civil-rights movement.
Listening guide
A written introduction to the recording, not a verbatim transcript.
- The source page connects the feature to interviews with Andrew Eckdahl, Ovan E. Hatchett Jr., and Merlene Davis.
- Listen for how editorial decisions affected whose lives and concerns appeared in print.
- Use the linked interview records to continue exploring the history of local journalism.
WUKY’s feature includes oral-history excerpts and presenter commentary. The Nunn Center preserves the original oral-history material. An interview’s memories reflect the speaker’s perspective.
WUKY source and image credit ↗Andrew Eckdahl interview record ↗Ovan E. Hatchett Jr. interview record ↗Merlene Davis interview record ↗
Horse industry · Bluegrass
Oscar Dishman Jr.
From the barn to the trainer’s stand
Oscar Dishman Jr. recalls his rise from grooming and exercise riding to training racehorses, and the racial barriers that shaped his career.
Listening guide
A written introduction to the recording, not a verbatim transcript.
- The feature draws on a 1986 Nunn Center interview.
- Listen for the skill and ambition behind Dishman’s progression through barn work.
- His story connects Black achievement with the working life of Kentucky’s horse industry.
WUKY’s feature includes oral-history excerpts and presenter commentary. The Nunn Center preserves the original oral-history material. An interview’s memories reflect the speaker’s perspective.
Civic leadership · Lexington
P.G. Peeples
Passing the baton
Hear longtime Urban League of Lexington leader P.G. Peeples reflect on opportunity, community leadership, and the responsibility to prepare another generation.
Listening guide
A written introduction to the recording, not a verbatim transcript.
- WUKY combines excerpts from interviews recorded in 1993 and 2013.
- Listen for Peeples’s reflections on expectations, education, and leadership.
- Continue with the full February 2, 1993 interview and synchronized transcript in the archive’s original viewer.
WUKY’s feature includes oral-history excerpts and presenter commentary. The Nunn Center preserves the original oral-history material. An interview’s memories reflect the speaker’s perspective.
Music · East End
Saunda Richardson & James O. Jones
Remembering “Smoke” Richardson
Two voices remember bandleader Saunders “Smoke” Richardson Jr.: East End resident James O. Jones and Richardson’s daughter Saunda. Their stories bring Lexington’s Black music community into focus.
Listening guide
A written introduction to the recording, not a verbatim transcript.
- The feature combines excerpts from two interviews conducted in 1997.
- Jones recalls encountering the orchestra around Lexington; Saunda shares memories of her father and his nickname.
- These are recollections about Smoke Richardson, not a recording of Smoke himself.
WUKY’s feature includes oral-history excerpts and presenter commentary. The Nunn Center preserves the original oral-history material. An interview’s memories reflect the speaker’s perspective.
WUKY source and image credit ↗James O. Jones interview record at UK ↗Saunda Richardson interview record at UK ↗
Civil rights · Lexington & Kentucky
Sylvia Jones Harris, Sharyn Mitchell & Barbara Hudson
Remembering the March on Frankfort
Three women remember joining the 1964 March on Frankfort, including Sylvia Jones Harris’s journey from Lexington with Pleasant Green Baptist Church.
Listening guide
A written introduction to the recording, not a verbatim transcript.
- Sylvia Jones Harris remembers traveling on one of four buses organized through Pleasant Green Baptist Church.
- Sharyn Mitchell and Barbara Hudson share memories of participating as young people.
- Listen for the scale of the gathering and the personal meaning of marching for civil rights.
WUKY’s feature includes oral-history excerpts and presenter commentary. The Nunn Center preserves the original oral-history material. An interview’s memories reflect the speaker’s perspective.
WUKY source and image credit ↗Sylvia Jones Harris interview record ↗Sharyn Mitchell interview record ↗Barbara Hudson interview record ↗
Neighborhood life · East End
Tom Tolliver
Bringing the Lyric back to life
East End activist and journalist Tom Tolliver recalls the Lyric’s revitalization, including how his early doubts gave way to support for its return.
Listening guide
A written introduction to the recording, not a verbatim transcript.
- The feature draws on Tolliver’s 2015 Nunn Center interview.
- Listen for the changing relationship between the theatre and its East End neighbors.
- The Lyric reopened on October 28, 2010, after decades of closure.
WUKY’s feature includes oral-history excerpts and presenter commentary. The Nunn Center preserves the original oral-history material. An interview’s memories reflect the speaker’s perspective.