by Nahlah Abdur-Rahman
June 17, 2025
The path takes vacationers all through your entire state to be taught of its quite a few Black historic websites.
This Juneteenth, residents and guests of Kentucky can take a stroll down its new African American Heritage Path.
The path contains almost 50 major websites that element Black historic figures and monuments within the state’s historical past. The path will characteristic museums, historic church buildings, and extra, all integral to the Black tradition of Kentucky. The challenge was a joint endeavor between the Kentucky Division of Tourism and the state’s Heritage Council and Historic Society.
The path’s official launch passed off June 16 on the Muhammad Ali Heart. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear attended the ceremony, talking on the way it explores the state’s distinct place in Black historical past.
“The path is a bridge between training and exploration that elevates voices which have too usually been omitted of the broader historic narrative,” Governor Andy Beshear advised Journey + Leisure. “By positioning these culturally important websites as tourism locations, the path stimulates native economies, helps small companies, and creates job alternatives in communities whose tales need to be heard and celebrated.”
The path additionally consists of over 28 cities with markers all through the a number of areas, highlighting pivotal establishments of Black America. To start out, voyagers go to the Kentucky Heart for African American Heritage. The cultural hub hosts weekly occasions devoted to uplifting variety and Black historical past.
One other featured web site consists of the Downtown Civil Rights Path, situated in Louisville. It particulars the story of the state’s civil rights activists, whose unknown work proved essential to racial equality. Outdoors the city sector, the path options the SEEK museum in Russellville and the historic Lodge Metropolitan in Paducah.
The path additionally lists one of many state’s oldest HBCUs, the Simmons Faculty of Kentucky, on its must-see establishments. One other particular marker, the Portal 31 Coal Mine in Lynch, explores the historical past of Black coal miners within the area. For followers of the Kentucky Derby, the “Black Horsemen of the Kentucky Turf” exhibit on the Kentucky Horse Park additionally affords perception into the function of Black folks in Nineteenth-century Thoroughbred racing.
From the Western Waterlands to the Cave Lakes Corvettes, Kentucky stays residence to quite a few monuments that may delight historical past fans of all ranges. Now, the official roadmap of the state’s expansive Black legacy has begun.
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